The Wrath about Khan

I really hate to say this, but it is clear from the NY Times article by Douglas Jehl and David Rohde which burned Khan that the blame for the leak belongs to a Pakistani intelligence official, who clearly has many faults but does not work for the Bush administration.

I hate to say this because blowing a sting operation would have been enough to move the Bush is toast meter from extra crispy to charred cinder.

Still the article is clear

The figure, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, was described by a Pakistani
intelligence official as [snip] A senior United States official would not
confirm or deny that Mr. Khan had been the Qaeda figure whose capture led to
the information [snip] Though Pakistan announced the arrest last week of a
Qaeda member, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted in connection with
the bombings of American embassies in East Africa in 1998, the American officials
suggested that he had not been the source of the new threat information. [snip]
An account provided by a Pakistani intelligence official made clear that the
crucial capture in recent weeks had been that of Mr. Khan, who is also known as
Abu Talha. The intelligence official provided information describing Mr. Khan as
having assisted in evaluating potential American and Western targets for
terrorist attacks, and as being representative of a "new Al Qaeda."
The Pakistani official described Mr. Khan as a fluent English speaker who had told
investigators that he had visited the United States, Britain, Germany and other
countries. Mr. Khan was one of thousands of Pakistani militants who trained in
Afghanistan under the Taliban in the 1990's, the Pakistani official said.
If indeed Mr. Khan was the man whose arrest led the C.I.A. to new evidence,
his role as a kind of clearinghouse of Qaeda communications, as described by the
Pakistani intelligence official, could have made him a vital source of
information. Since his arrest, Mr. Khan has described an elaborate communications system
that involves the use of high and low technology, the Pakistani official said.
American officials would say only that the evidence obtained by the
C.I.A. after the arrest of the Qaeda figure in Pakistan had provided a richer,
more credible source of intelligence than could have been provided by any single
individual. They declined to say whether the "documentary evidence" included
physical documents or might also include electronic information stored on
computers, like copies of e-mail communications. The Qaeda communications
system that Mr. Khan used and helped operate relied on Web sites and e-mail
addresses in Turkey, Nigeria and the northwestern tribal areas of Pakistan,
according to the information provided by a Pakistani intelligence official [the
same dork ? ed].
The official said Mr. Khan [snip] the Pakistani official said [snip]
Mr. Khan had told investigators [snip] Mr. Khan had told investigators [snip]
The Pakistani official said Mr. Khan [snip] Asked about the whereabouts of Osama
bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mr. Khan has told interrogators that even
the top Qaeda commanders do not know, the Pakistani intelligence official said.

I am not expert on NY Times unnamed source codes, but it seems that almost all of the damage was all done by one Pakistani intelligence official. The US sources should have asked Jehl and Rohde to keep the name Khan secret and shouldn't have said anything about a trove of documents which might have enabled al Qaeda to guess that Khan was involved, even without the name. Still the main story here seems to me that Pakistani intelligence is a very dubious ally in the war against terror, and we already knew that.

Now other (I assume) Pakistani intelligence officials are complaining to msnbc

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The al-Qaida suspect named by U.S. officials as the
source of information that led to this week’s terrorist alerts was working
undercover, Pakistani intelligence sources said Friday, putting an end to the
sting operation and forcing Pakistan to hide the man in a secret location.

and reuters

ISLAMABAD/LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. officials providing justification for
anti-terrorism alerts revealed details about a Pakistani secret agent, and
confirmed his name while he was working under cover in a sting operation,
Pakistani sources say

note "confirmed".

update: Juan Cole seems to be quoting an earlier version of the reuters story which includes an innacurate claim about the Jehl and Rohde article. This slip (I assume by Reuters) helps explain how the story got so hot so quick on the web.

Reuters alleges,

"The New York Times published a story on Monday saying
U.S. officials had disclosed that a man arrested secretly in Pakistan was the
source of the bulk of information leading to the security alerts. The
newspaper named him as Khan, although it did not say how it had learned
his name.

Billmon and Kevin Drum are on the story.

Now how about anonymity. I agree with many bloggers that anonymous sources who lie should be identified. I also think that Jehl and Rohde should identify the talkative Pakistani intelligence official so that he can be re-deployed to an occupation more suited to his abilities.