An update on the story of that leaked bin Laden video that led to the "Al Qaeda intranet shutdown". An increasingly weird tale, blending terrorism, national security, and show biz: release dates, sneak previews, unauthorized downloads. All of it raises troubling questions about the mostly invisible world of competing private intelligence services. Snip from Washington Post story:
Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser,
expressed concern about the leak in a news conference, saying the government
needs the cooperation of private individuals and companies in stopping
terrorist groups.SITE is one of several small, commercial intelligence firms that specialize
in intercepting al-Qaeda's internet communications, often by clandestine
means. SITE founder Rita Katz told The Post that her company covertly
obtained an early copy of a bin Laden video message in early September, then
shared the video with senior administration officials on Sept. 7 on the
condition that it not be distributed or made public before its official
release.Soon afterward, the video was downloaded by dozens of computers registered
to government agencies. Within hours, SITE's copy of the video was leaked to
television news networks and broadcast worldwide.SITE provides copies of videos and other al-Qaeda material to subscribers,
which include intelligence agencies, private companies and news
organizations. SITE has acknowledged alerting clients that it had obtained
the bin Laden video and would release it when safe to do so. During this
period, SITE also negotiated with at least two television networks that were
interested in obtaining the video once cleared for release, but it reached
no deal before the video was leaked.
Link, and related item, and another. (via Ned Sublette)
Previously: Al-Qaeda "Intranet" goes dark after US leak
