The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest

Vol: 35 Issue: 11 - Wednesday, August 11, 2004

The Leak
by Jack Kinsella

According to information obtained following the arrest of al-Qaeda
computer whiz Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, al-Qaeda is planning to kick off a
new round of major attacks against the United States, beginning with the
assassination of a high-ranking US official like a Senator or Congressman.

Khan's arrest was one of those lucky breaks that nobody ever expects.  A
cell phone that was to trigger an explosion on a busy road in Karachi
failed to detonate the bomb.

The phone, connected to 18 pounds of explosives, led Pakistani police in
the crowded port city to the bombmaker's house. There, police expected to
find a local ''jihadi group" plotting violence against Pakistan, a police
officer said.

Instead, police found Musaad Aruchi, believed to be the nephew of a top al
Qaeda operative, who helped unravel the most comprehensive discovery of a
terrorist plot against the United States since the attacks of Sept. 11,
2001.

Aruchi's arrest -- reportedly carried out with CIA assistance -- led
Pakistani investigators and their US counterparts to al Qaeda computer
operative Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, who led police to Ahmed Khalfan
Ghailani, who in turn led to Abu Musa al-Hindi, arrested last week in
London, as well as to evidence of Al Qaeda's surveillance of the New York
Stock Exchange, a New York Citigroup building, and in Washington, D.C.,
the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

A senior intelligence official told Time, "This is looking more like the
real deal every day." A US law-enforcement official told the magazine that
a recent Pakistani intelligence report made available to senior US
intelligence and security officials offers details of alleged Al Qaeda
plans to use speedboats and divers for attacks in New York harbor before
the November 2004 elections. U.S. intelligence officials said they think
that several al Qaeda terrorists already in the United States are part of
the plot, although their identities and locations are not known.

"The goal of the next attack is twofold: to damage the U.S. economy and to
undermine the U.S. election," the official told the Washington Times. "The
view of al Qaeda is 'anybody but Bush.' "

When the Department of Homeland Security first issued the terror alert,
the Democrats and their media partners began a whispering campaign to the
effect that the terror alert was issued for political reasons.

The argument resonated with that segment of America who continues to
chant, eyes glazed over, 'George Bush is not my president' and before you
could say, "then who IS your president?" EVERYBODY was repeating the
newest mantra, "political purposes" to describe the administration's
prosecution of the war on terror.

Stung by the criticism, the administration leaked the news of Khan's
arrest and revealed the source of the information, hoping to convince the
public that the terror alert was on the level.  The administration feared
the Left's mantra would result in a complacent public being blindsided by
a new attack.

Assessment:

Back during the Second World War, the Japanese sent some 9,000 bomblets,
suspended by balloons, floating toward the continental United States.
Indeed, one of these balloon bombs killed a woman and her five children on
the West Coast, giving them the dubious distinction of being the only
American civilians to be killed on American soil by enemy action during
the war.

The United States government censored the news to prevent information
about the Japanese bomblet attack from either panicking the American
public or alerting the Japanese that the balloon bombs had any impact in
the US.

Nobody knew anything about it until after the war, even though one of the
Japanese bomblets made it as far east as Detroit.  By the way, we WON that
war.

In THIS war, intelligence is our principal defensive weapon. Because we
fight a nameless, stateless, faceless enemy, the only way we can defend
ourselves is to find them before they are successful in their next attack.

The Democrat's charge that the terror alert was politically motivated
resulted in the administration leaking the intelligence the prompted it.
Now comes, as Paul Harvey says, the rest of the story.

When Kahn was arrested, he agreed to co-operate with Pakistani officials,
even agreeing to continue communicating in code with al-Qaeda operatives
by e-mail. The resulting sting operation enabled British authorities to
round up more than a dozen terrorist suspects in Britain last week.

But once it was made public that Kahn had been arrested and his computer
compromised, Kahn became useless to the intelligence war.  The
intelligence leaked 'on background' whet reporter's appetites, and by the
middle of the week, the only al-Qaeda operatives who didn't know they had
been compromised were hiding in caves in Afghanistan where they couldn't
get a current copy of TIME Magazine or the New York Times.

What that means is this:  One of the greatest coups of the three year war
on terror was compromised, thanks to the partisan politics that was
responsible for the leak.  Whether the blame falls on the Democrats for
trying to use the war on terror to get themselves elected, or whether it
falls on the GOP for leaking the information to keep from being defeated
is irrelevant.

What IS relevant is that partisan politics is responsible.

British and Pakistani intelligence agencies were reportedly furious with
the leak, which forced United Kingdom police to hurriedly round up 13
al-Qaeda suspects who are alleged to have been in email communication with
Khan.

Five others who were sought by MI5 (UK security service) reportedly
escaped capture, and there is some question that the British had gathered
enough evidence to persuade a judge to keep the 13 detainees in custody,
according to published reports.

"The outing of Khan, probably the most important asset the US has ever had
inside al-Qaeda, is a huge disaster and a setback to attempts to finish
off the top leadership of al-Qaeda," said Juan Cole, a Middle East
specialist at the University of Michigan, whose website, "Informed
Comment," is widely read in Washington.

I can't argue with that assessment.  But it shows how destructive
partisanship is, and proves the point I've been making about partisanship
trumping patriotism on both sides.

The Democrats have been using the war as a political tool since it began,
mainly by accusing the Republicans of using the war as a political tool,
forcing the GOP to prove they are not.  The cost to the country has been
enormous -- and neither side is blameless.

The threat is real, and now that al-Qaeda knows they've been compromised,
the only thing we can be sure of is that the targets have been changed.

The White House is forced to fight a two-front war, something that is
historically a recipe for defeat on both fronts.  On one front, the White
House is fighting an intelligence war against a lethal enemy. On the other
front, it is fighting a partisan war with the Democrats who are using the
war to ambush the White House.

Every successful ambush against the White House weakens our national
war-making effectiveness.

"He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind," Proverbs 11:29
tells us.

"And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided
against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided
against itself shall not stand:" (Matthew 12:25)

"The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to
anger sinneth against his own soul." (Proverbs 20:2)

These verses make plain the consequences of the rabid partisanship that
now divides America.  As we've observed in the past, the Bible outlines
four great spheres of global power in the last days; Gog-Magog, the Kings
of the South (Muslim North Africa), the Kings of the East, and the revived
Roman Empire of the antichrist.

Nowhere is there mention of a fifth, overarching global superpower in the
last days.

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a
house divided against a house falleth." (Luke 11:17)