Senate Democrat chastises Bush on al Qaeda speech (security risk)

[ProSense]

Unfu kingbelievable!

Senate Democrat chastises Bush on al Qaeda speech

24 Feb 2006 00:29:41 GMT

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's disclosure of detailed intelligence about a thwarted al Qaeda plot to attack Los Angeles could prove damaging for U.S. national security, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee said in a letter released on Thursday.

In a Feb. 17 letter to U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte, Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia echoed a warning from CIA Director Porter Goss that revelations about intelligence successes or failures against al Qaeda can aid America's militant enemies.

"Why then did the president and the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism describe in great detail the information about this plot contained in a highly classified October 2004 CIA document?" Rockefeller wrote.

White House officials were not immediately available for comment.

more...

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23526384.htm

Impeach Now!

[rodeodance]

1. hey, if change a few words this would read like Bush criticism of NYTimes

and their NSA story.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. "White House officials were not immediately available for comment."

That's so unlike them.

[rodeodance]

3. Rockefeller also included Townsend, and cheney in his letter (others also)

Frances Townsend, Bush's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, also disclosed intelligence details about the plot. Rockefeller said Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials have disclosed sensitive information for political purposes on a range of issues from prewar Iraq to National Security Agency eavesdropping. The disclosures have all been potentially damaging to U.S. interests, Rockefeller said.

At the same time, the administration has sought to blame lower-level officials for damage caused by unauthorized leaks. "Given the administration's continuing abuse of intelligence information for political purposes, its criticism of leaks is extraordinarily hypocritical," Rockefeller wrote. "The president and other senior members must set an example for others to follow," he added.

[ProSense]

4. Rockefeller's letter

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/rockefeller.pdf

[ProSense]

5. Bush will continue to brag about his prowess on fighting terrorism. n/t

[ProSense]

6. Feb. 10 article: Bush details terror plot

from the February 10, 2006 edition

Bush details terror plot

Defending counterterrorism, the president told of a thwarted attack on L.A.
By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - Bush to US: It's still a dangerous world out there, but we're making progress in rounding up the bad guys.

In essence, that may be the message that President Bush and other administration officials are trying to convey this week as they defend White House actions in the war in terror.

Headlines about possibly illegal eavesdropping activity authorized by the president, plus more bombings in Iraq and revelations about the slow pace of Iraqi reconstruction, have put the Bush team on the defensive this week. In revealing details about an alleged Al Qaeda plot to fly an airliner into a Los Angeles skyscraper, plus insisting that terrorists are weakened and on the run, Bush may be attempting to counter bad news.

Snip...

In a speech Thursday at the National Guard Memorial Building in Washington, President Bush said that the US and its allies had thwarted a plot to use shoe bombs to blow open the cockpit door of an airliner, hijack it, and fly it into the tallest building on the US West coast.

Snip...

Mr. Mohammed's co-conspirator in this plot was Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, thought to be the operations chief of Southeast Asia's largest Al Qaeda-related group, Jemaah Islamiyah. Hambali's job was to recruit Asian hijackers, who were likely to attract less attention from law enforcement authorities than Arabs. He recruited four operatives for the cell, whose leader was personally trained by Mohammed in shoebombing, according to a Department of Homeland Security briefing given after the president's speech. The operatives met with Osama bin Laden before going back to Asia.

more...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0210/p02s01-uspo.html