[promoted by BooMan. I was just starting to put this together when I realized Catnip has done a fine job already]
This is interesting.
Screaming front page headlines at Daily Kos “Did BushCo Tip off London Bombers?” and at AMERICAblog “Bush admin may be responsible for botching effort to thwart London bombing”…
The Daily Kos story is based on the AMERICAblog story about an ABC news piece that attempts to link Bushco to the London bombings after the administration basically outed an Al Quaeda mole which they then blamed Pakistan for last year.
Confused yet?
Let me try to clear it up a bit for you.
According to John at AMERICAblog:
Okay. So, John sees this news report, ties this into the story of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan and the wheels begin spinning thusly on AMERICAblog:
- The London bombers, per ABC, are connected to an Al Qaeda plot planned two years ago in Lahore, Pakistan.
- Pakistani authorities recovered the laptop of a captured Al Qaeda leader, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, on July 13, 2004. On that laptop, they found plans for a coordinated series of attacks on the London subway. According to an expert interviewed by ABC, “there is absolutely no doubt that Khan was part of a worldwide Al Qaeda operation, not just in the United States but also in Great Britain and throughout the west.”
Also important, but not reported by ABC this evening, after his arrest Khan started working for our side – sending emails to his other Al Qaeda buddies, working as our mole.
- ABC reports that names in Khan’s computer matched a suspected cell of Britain’s of Pakistani decent, many of who lived near the town of Luton, England. According to ABC, authorities thought they had stopped the subway plot with the arrest of more than a dozen people last year associated with Khan. Obviously, they hadn’t.
- Those arrests were the arrests that the Bush administration botched by announcing a heightened security alert the week of the Democratic Convention, and giving the press too much information about WHY they raised the alert, thus putting the media on the tale of, who else, but Mr. Khan.
Because the US let the cat out of the bag, the media got a hold of Khan’s name and published the fact that he had been captured – his Al Qaeda contacts thus found out their “buddy” was actually a mole, and they fled. Our sole source inside Al Qaeda was destroyed. As a result, the Brits had to have a high speed chase to catch some of Khan’s Al Qaeda associates as they fled, and, according to press reports, the Brits and Pakistanis both fear that some slipped away.
Again, these were guys involved with the plot to blow up the London subway last week. Some may have escaped because of Bush administration negligence involving a leak.
For more background, check out AMERICAblog. It’s much too long to post here.
Alright – wait a minute here. There are a whole lot of suppositions going on here that could actually fall into <gasp> conspiracy theory territory.
This, from the ABC news story:
The laptop computer of Naeem Noor Khan, a captured al Qaeda leader, contained plans for a coordinated series of attacks on the London subway system, as well as on financial buildings in both New York and Washington.
“There’s absolutely no doubt he was part of an al Qaeda operation aimed at not only the United States but Great Britain,” explained Alexis Debat, a former official in the French Defense Ministry who is now a senior terrorism consultant for ABC News.
At the time, authorities thought they had foiled the London subway plot by arresting more than a dozen young Britons of Pakistani descent last August in Luton, a city known for its ties to terrorism.
“For some time, the locus of terrorism in Britain has been around the Luton area and in some of the northern cities,” said Michael Clark, professor of defense at King’s College in London.
Security officials tell ABC News they have discovered links between the eldest of the London bombers, Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, and the original group in Luton. Officials also believe it was not a coincidence the subway bombers all met at the Luton train station last week.
“It is very likely this group was activated last year after the other group was arrested,” Debat said.
Okay. Anonymous sources. I can live with that. But, take a look at those last two paragraphs. This group apparently developed after the Khan outing. Does that mean that his outing was responsible for last week’s bombings or that, as our friendly lefty blogs are now screaming, perhaps Bushco was responsible for them?
Wait.a.minute.
As much as I’d maybe like to see some link since this is “leak week” in Washington DC, I don’t think these revelations justify those blog headlines at all. Really. This is a stretch, I’d say.
What do you think? I’m wide open to criticism here because I don’t know if I’m buying what they’re trying to sell me at this point. You analyze. You decide.
Update [2005-7-15 0:31:52 by catnip]:
From the Belfast Telegraph:
I know I’m pretty tired and all but 1) why hasn’t the British press reported this? 2) why hasn’t Scotland Yard mentioned this? (have they?) and 3) ABC has a French terrorism expert? Geez – how librul can you get?? (just kidding – I’m French too – relax)…
Happy Bastile day!
Thanks, but I’m not quite that French since I live on this side of the pond. 🙂
I was being silly, sort of. I’m like an eighth French.. good diary, anxious to hear more about it.
RADAMISTO blog:
ROVE LEAK NOTHING NEW
These people will jeopardize our national security in a second if they think they can gain some political advantage. Consider the outing of our only mole in Al-Queda last summer:
Al Qaeda mole row reveals US intelligence disarray
By Jon Boyle, Reuters 08/10/04 11:32 ET
PARIS, Aug 10 (Reuters) – The unmasking of an al Qaeda mole after a U.S. security alert points to disarray within U.S. intelligence and could mean President George W. Bush is accused of playing politics with security, the top U.S. election issue.
Washington raised its security alert to high on August 1 and disclosed a man held in secret by Pakistan was the source of information that justified the alert.
U.S. officials next morning confirmed a media report naming the man as Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, a computer expert arrested secretly in July and used by Pakistan to track down al Qaeda militants in Britain and America.
Pakistani intelligence told Reuters that Khan was still working undercover when the U.S. security status was raised to orange and his name appeared in a U.S. newspaper. … etc., etc. … go to link above to read all.
Yes, I have linked to further background in my diary, but do you think these dots connect, Susan? I’m seeing a lot of bravos! for John but he makes some suppositions I’m uncomfortable supporting until I see further evidence.
The chain seems to be this:
Bushco> outs Kahn > Kahn was Al Quaeda w/ connections in the same area as the current London bomb suspects ergo, since Bushco outed Kahn, they’re responsible for this group of 4 or 5 guys – who may or may not be Al Quaeda and may or may not have been connected to the guys rounded up last year as a result of the leak? It’s just doesn’t seem that cut and dried to me.
you’ve got it right Catnip.
The only question is whether we could have used the double agent to penetrate this plot and stop it.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I see your point about what might have happened had Khan not been outed. That’s still quite a big “if/then” though. From what I’ve heard (and I may have missed some coverage), Scotland Yard seems to have made the point that these suspects flew very low under the radar and haven’t yet made any connection to Al Quaeda. They could have been connected. Who knows?
You know I’ve been cautious about this since day one because Bushco obviously wanted to tie this to scary ole Osama for political purposes and now I see some lefties scrambling to tie this to Al Quaeda as well in order to damage Bushco politically. Interesting.
I think we need more facts here.
BTW, what’s the buzz been about the fact that the bombs had timers yet they were used, apparently, by suicide bombers who wouldn’t really need timers? Maybe I watch too many spy movies, but wouldn’t sycnchronized watches have sufficed?
So, they are now using like people the CIA uses in other countries… not even knowing who they are working for necessarily?
(I swear I’m not trying to insinuate anything. That training in Afghanistan in the 80s musta been pretty good.)
it’s hard to put together all the pieces.
Here is one theory.
Some organization want to bomb London’s rail system for some reason. Could be al-Qaeda, could be Saddam’s cousin, could be Oliver North.
They recruit 4 radical muslims through their asset, a fiery Imam at some mosque, somewhere (perhaps, Leeds).
Another asset, a handler, arranges from them to meet up in another town, where they will receive their rucksacks, and instructions.
They are told that the bombs are set to explode at , say, 9:15 am. They are to drive to a certain train station, get on 3 different trains, leave their rucksacks on the train, and get off before they explode.
The other guy is to get on a bus and travel to the train station and leave his rucksack where it will be timed to explode as the first responders arrive.
However, the bombs are set to explode while the bombers are still on the train, and in transit on the bus. The bombers are set-up to die and therefore be useless as witnesses.
Meanwhile traces of explosives are put in the cars they used, and in one of their homes.
It’s sophisticated, but a standard practice for such an operation. Unlikely to be initiatied by home-grown terrorists, and quite possible that any competent intelligence agency, or possibly al-Qaeda, to pull off.
I hope British intelligence is going on more than sighting those guys with knapsacks on their backs before they got on the trains as evidence of suicide bombings. This has already had huge ramifications in Briatin and Europe. As someone else, somewhere else put it – this all fits together a bit to neatly and too quickly. Will it start unraveling?
Oliver North? What have you been smoking? lol
you can trust me that Ollie has the wherewithal to pull off such an operation, but his track record is not so good. The bombers would have had Condi Rice and Dick Cheney’s phone numbers in their wallets.
Seriously, if there were really timers on the bombs, and the bombers died in the blasts, it makes it much more likely that they were patsies.
And once we establish they were patsies, anyone could have set them up. Including extracurricular westerners.
But also including ruthless jihadis, or even ex-Ba’athists.
“extracurricular westerners”
lol
How diplomatic of you. 🙂
the Iran-Contra affair really is the most instructive case study for understanding how off-the -books covert ops take place. The reason is, it’s the most thoroughly investigated and exposed of all operations.
And what you have is amazing.
You have the President, who has two meta-policies: get the hostages freed, and keep the Contras from collapsing while they work to undo the Boland amendment.
In Reagan’s mind, these two policies are worthy, but they are not linked.
Since they cannot expend money for the Contras, the CIA doesn’t want to run the operation. So, they set it up out of the NSC, and North takes control.
North sets up a group of ex-intelligence agents, who are not on any government payroll. They are self-financing through skimming off the sales of military equipment, and possibly drug sales.
They come up with the idea of selling TOW missiles to Iran in exchange of hostages, and then they mark up the price 400%. They keep millions for themselves, and the rest go to the Contras.
The only people that are really aware of all the details are North’s operatives, who don’t work for anyone but North, and are paid through graft and theft.
At his disposal he has cargo planes and pilots, guys in the arms depots, professional money launderers, corrupt Swiss bankers, Lebanese arms merchants, corrupt Panamanian bankers, Israeli intelligence officers, drug-smuggling guerillas, Iranian mullahs, the Vice-President, etc.
The thing is, Ollie North doesn’t need to be in office to have most of these assets in his rolodex. He can do almost all of this as a private citizen. Getting the TOW missiles is hard, but other than that…
So, when I talk about extracurricular, I mean that a lot of very sophisticated things can get done by ex-intelligence agents and their assets, without the knowledge or connivance of the government.
If the London bombers were set-up to die, then we have to consider all possibilities. Military grade explosives in the bombs, but low grade explosives in their homes and cars?
My point is not to imply that Oliver North is part of a conspiracy to bomb the tubes, but to use him as an example of how shady the ties are between intelligence agencies. And also to show that whoever set up this operation, made it intentionally hard to figure out who did it and why. Four punk kids did not build these bombs in their basement.
I actually pulled out Oliver North’s book last year and read it. It’s been sitting on my shelf for years.
Four punk kids did not build these bombs in their basement.
Why do we assume that this isn’t possible? McVeigh and his partner in crime cooked up their crimes without being a part of some large terrorist organization. Why is it that if Muslims are involved, the link to Al Quaeda is immediately proposed? I’m not pointing the finger at you. It’s just a general observation. I mean, really, if 4 or 5 guys got together and made plans to set off bombs in the London subway, how difficult a process was that? Realistically, we know that you can get bomb making info very easily – apparently – and that the ingredients aren’t that difficult to procure either. Maybe I’m just incredibly naive?
what I’ve been told about the bombs. As you know, they have arreasted a subject in Egypt, who may have had the technical know-how.
Four punk kids could build a bomb, just not too confident they could build bombs this sophisticated.
I don’t know much of anything about bomb sophistication. It’s just when you hear that kids can make pipe bombs at home without their parents knowng – it makes you wonder. I know these weren’t pipe bombs, via the media reports, but I don’t know much more than that.
well, I am not following the breaking news. But I heard them say, at first, that it was high grade military explosives. Now, they are changing that story. Punk kids can’t make high grade explosives.
Second, I heard they think the bombs used cell phones as detonators. That is no simple trick.
It’s easier to make a huge fertilizer bomb like McVeigh than it is to make a small bomb that is activated by a cell phone call.
congrats, Booman, I think you have hit the nail right on.
Ollie North has had a hand in more than just Iran-Contra..
Not that I’m pointing the finger at him for this mind you.
Pax
you bet,, you got that one right on.
….and I remember him saying at the hearing that OBl seems to be a threat to him and his family……remember???? Remember him saying this?
.
missed my diary?
~~~
I think it’s to early to know. We need to know what evidence the British have linking the two together.
What we do know is – We finally got an ‘in’ with Al Queada and the bush admin blew his cover. Also, Pakistan wasn’t very happy with the leak:
Makes you feel all safe and snug like a bug in a rug, doesn’t it?
Depends what country the rugs in:)
That’s what they do best…out people and blow their cover and then leak it. Incompetant is too kind.
…but, but then if you want to explore this we must remember that the Saudies are very rich and can buy anything and anyone they want too. I still contend that they are still funding OBL. They know where he is….
Catnip, I didn’t post that to advocate what he was saying but because I thought it might be helpful / relevant for you. I haven’t studied this enough to know, but I admire what you’re doing and am so pleased that BooMan is encouraging and participating in this investigation.
I know! I thought maybe you were indicating that I’d missed some background stuff – there’s so much to this story. No problemo. 🙂
This may all turn out to fit together – who knows? But, I sure was surprised to see this basically going unchallenged on other blogs based on the small amount of reporting/evidence thus far. You know me – ever the critic. It took me a few minutes to wrap my head around this but, even as tired as I was, I was able to see some holes here that other, more awake people in the blogoshphere ought to have noticed, afaic. (Maybe these vitamins are helping…).
I think it shows – if nothing else – Bush and Ridge and company’s ineptness in making the US (and the world) safer. There is no proof of causal relationship, but the mere fact that Ridge screwed up an active intelligence operation by linking the terror warning during the DNC to the found laptop shows where their interests lie. Not that it surprises anyone here, but they obviously lie with partisan politics and NOT with national or international security.
Inept? I agree hands down and that story should have received more coverage last year but no one was really paying attention. They (the public) may pay more mind to it this time around but it may get lost again in this somewhat tenuous connection that is now brewing.
Ignatius/WaPo 17 Aug ’04:
So where did the leak originate? National security adviser Condoleezza Rice initially seemed to agree with a statement by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Khan’s name had been disclosed on background in Washington. “On background,” she said, noting that the challenge was “giving enough information to the public so that they know that you’re dealing with a specific, credible, different kind of threat” without harming intelligence operations. A National Security Council spokesman said later that Rice had misspoken in appearing to confirm that the leak came from U.S. officials. So it remains unclear who outed Khan.
Lights are on, nobody’s home.
Lights are on, nobody’s home.
No doubt! lol
What jumps out at me is this: The planned London subway incident was thought to have been thwarted but subsequently took place. The laptop also contained plans for an incident in New York’s financial district which I would assume the authorities consider to be thwarted. Might it still be on track? Am I am alarmist? Given the incompetence of this administration, they’ll likely come up with some catchy name (operation stop-terrorist) and consider it to be a done deal.
Sheesh. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Like we don’t already have enough to wonder about with this administration??
Operation We Screwed Up Last Time But We’ll Git Em This Time
Important stuff. I don’t know what to say, all I could do is speculate. I guess we’ll have to wait and hear more about the leak.
For the record… Khan was “outed” by a NYT piece from August 2, 2004 written by David Rohde and Douglas Jehl.
Check out this paragraph:
Blitzer says it was Rice but the NYT piece quotes no less than 3 unnamed senior officials. Looks to me like people were getting sick of the fake terror alerts and so Rice and whomever else decided to drop a few names to “prove” their cred, so to speak.
If you want to see something bitterly ironic, check out Raimondo‘s article from a week later… sigh…
Pax
Raimondo is often very entertaining and enlightening – and boy, does he know how to use links to sources. 🙂
As is so often the case with this administration, one is faced with the question: is it incompetence, or is it treason?
I wonder why that leak was never investigated. Scrap that. In their rush to proclaim themselves the Superhero Terrorist Fighters of the World (coming soon to a cartoon channel near you), they just couldn’t help themselves. They had to brag that they caught such a big fish.
Seriously though, considering that it did breach Britain’s national security, any rational person would assume some heads would roll. But, the neocons don’t live in Rational World(tm).
That al-Libi story was a gem too, wasn’t it? As if we don’t have enough insanity from this administration on any one day to shake our heads at, dredging up the archives makes us look like those bobble-headed dogs in the backs of cars.
Time Magazine wrote up quite a scary terrorism story when this whole Khan affair happened, detailing Ridge’s orange kool-aid like alert.
A Swedish airline has just opened a ‘direct’ link between Luton and Lahore (June 2005). 350 odd pounds takes you from Luton to a small airport near Stockholm, and thence on one of the ‘trunk routes’ direct to Lahore, Pakistan.
At least one of the London suicide bombers attended a radical Islamic school in Lahore. Khan, the older, apparent leader of the small group of bombers was a teacher.
It is fairly common that UK Pakistani teenagers are taken out of UK schools by their parents for a couple of terms and sent to Islamic schools (Madrasas) in Pakistan or other Islamic countries. They are sent to learn about their origins, language, and to be given some ‘discipline’
For most of these kids, having grown up in the West, these schools are a shock, but most happily and eagerly return home. A very few are apparently so disturbed by the experience that it completely changes their thinking.
theories about Bush’s level of complicity in the London bombings.
That’s a fair critique and that’s why I alluded to a “conspiracy theory” in my diary because – really – until we know more facts, that’s all it is. I won’t comment about the front pager involved because I don’t want to crosspost such commentary to dKos since I don’t post there anymore (as per Boo’s rules), but I do think the front page article certainly begged the question…
only apply, as I understand them, to diaries – not to comments.
Okay. Well beter safe than sorry anyway, so I’ll just zip my lips. Regardless of who frontpaged the story there, the irony still applies. 😉
The Ghost of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan
The Bush administration issued a heightened security alert just as the Democratic National Convention was ending. Many at the time suspected that this announcement was an unsubtle attempt to play to the general public’s perception of Bush as better at fighting terrorists than the Democrats. USA Today wrote:
– Howard Dean
Our illustrious Senator LIEberman of course defend the Bush administration
“I don’t think anybody who has any fairness or is in their right mind would think the president or the secretary of homeland security would raise an alert level and scare people for political reasons,” Lieberman said. “That’s outrageous.”
And what did our nominee have to say?
Ohhh…. such leadership…
Once again the truth comes out…
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or “high” risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.
His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation’s homeland security apparatus.
Ridge said he wanted to “debunk the myth” that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002.
“More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it,” Ridge told reporters. “Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don’t necessarily put the country on (alert). … There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, ‘For that?
Damn that Dean…
I don’t really have my eyes open yet, and no coffee surging through the veins; but on booting up and taking a quick look around, I spied a yahoo headline saying “London bombers upset about Iraq war” and today’s piece in the NY Times. Both may be relevant here.
oops, I said no coffee yet…the Paul Krugman piece in the NY Times.
My motto should be “don’t blog if you haven’t been drinking…coffee”.
As I read this latest version of issues with Bushco both here and elsewhere, it takes me back once again to the overarching question that keeps surfacing for me. Depending on how you answer the question, you can count yourself in the “tin-foil hat” crowd or the “just the facts” crowd. And the question is….. Are the Bushco crowd bungling idiots or the most malisciously planned tyrants we have seen in our history? I can’t make up my mind on this one, but the irony is that for the safety of the planet, I have to hope that they are idiots.
Depending on how you answer the question, you can count yourself in the “tin-foil hat” crowd or the “just the facts” crowd.
Very true. This administration has blurred the line between conspiracy theories and the truth. It used to be that you could kind of, at least tell the difference…
to actually look at who is in the amiinstration, we can see why and also the psycopathic thought process they are all in 100% ot the time. I would like to be a fly on the wall at the PDB and see what really does go on there. It would be all tooooo reveling IMO