Don't tell anyone, but that al Qaeda mole op had zero to do with the Obama administration
By Andrew Malcolm
Here's a disturbing update to last week's amazing story about the U.S. mole who infiltrated al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and thwarted an airliner attack with a more sophisticated underwear bomb.
Someone in Washington whose boss stood to gain from an election year story about alert intelligence operatives successfully protecting American voters at great personal risk leaked the heroic story to the Associated Press. The AP held the story until Obama administration sources said the CIA operative was safe.
But, it turns out, the mole was not a CIA operative. The Obama administration had nothing to do with the operation and, in fact, didn't even know about it until recently. Somehow such details got lost in all the excited espionage news coverage about the bomb that didn't go off.
The sting was, in reality, an operation by Britain's MI6 intelligence service (see photo below of its unassuming headquarters tucked away in an obscure corner of London). It used a Yemeni native with dual British and Saudi citizenship with the cooperation of Saudi Arabia's intelligence service.
And the folks overseas who actually conceived and executed the risky work are none too happy about their loose-lipped American cousins trying to bolster someone's domestic political standing by leaking the story prematurely, destroying the agent's cover and future usefulness. And possibly betraying that agent's contacts within Yemen.
Do you think this kind of victory lap-itis might come up in the presidential campaign?
We raised questions at the time right here ( http://news.investors.com/article/610796/201205090808/al-qaeda-airliner-bomb-plot-thwarted-by-a-double-agent.htm?Ntt=terrorism ) about the wisdom of outing the operative and operation so hastily, especially by a president who feigns disinterest in military victory laps. Congressional and administration officials have announced separate leak investigations that will produce nothing.
Without the excited U.S. news coverage, the agent, who reportedly did escape safely once word was flashed about the impending AP leak story, could have still been providing further intelligence on the location of al Qaeda leaders in Yemen, which resulted in only one successful drone strike before word got out, resulting in the explosive demise of senior leader Fahd al-Quso.
According to Britain's Guardian, CIA professionals are furious at Obama administration officials for leaking the information for obvious political gain.
The newspaper reported: "Mike Scheur, the former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, said the leaking about the nuts and bolts of British involvement was despicable and would make a repeat of the operation difficult. 'MI6 should be as angry as hell. This is something that the prime minister should raise with the president.'"
Shashank Joshi, a British researcher, wrote in the Telegraph: "These unthinking leaks are reckless and irresponsible acts of posturing that could have far-reaching implications for counterterrorism operations in the future."
Who did what is a particularly sensitive issue in this case since Britain's security and intelligence agencies like MI5 and MI6 are banned from assigning agents to activities deliberately designed to kill someone. The agent's main assignment in this case was reportedly to locate al Qaeda's bomb makers and facilities.
By contrast, viewing al Qaeda as enemy combatants, the Obama administration last month loosened controls on the CIA regarding the circumstances and people it could target in Yemen for deadly drone attacks, as we reported here.
Of course, if the operation had failed, unidentified sources in D.C. could have blamed Obama's predecessor.
The PJ Tatler has an impressive array of links here ( http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/05/14/bombshell-al-qaeda-infiltrator-was-working-for-brits-not-cia-cover-blown-for-election-year-politics/ ) on this and related stories.
http://news.investors.com/article/611449/201205150812/underwear-bomber-mole-was-not-a-cia-agent.htm?p=full
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