Let’s stipulate that the CIA’s discovery a fortnight ago of yet another underwear-bomber plot, this one originating with al Qaeda in Yemen and aimed at an American airliner, was a splendid feat of intel tradecraft.
Stipulate, too, that it gets us one step closer to nailing Ibrihim al-Asiri, the terrorist behind the earlier Christmas Day underwear-bomber plot in Detroit in 2009, as well as the bombs hidden inside laser printers stashed aboard cargo planes in 2010.
And let’s agree that foiling the operation by means of a double agent inside al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s operational structure potentially saved many lives.
But here’s a rude question: Why do we even know about this?
One of the unsung stories in the War on Terror is the active cooperation of Arab and other Muslim officers working in-country: Saudi intelligence officers, Iraqi cops and local Afghani chiefs. The FBI in particular has done a splendid job of recruiting, training and partnering with locals on the ground, developing invaluable sources and operational assistance.
Their identities — their very existences — are generally kept secret, not only for their own protection, but for the continuing effectiveness of counterterrorism ops. You generally don’t let the bad guys know you’ve penetrated their inner sanctums. Moles stay underground for a reason.
Yet here was John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser, showing up on national TV to take a very public victory lap. “I think people getting on a plane today should feel confident that their intelligence services are working day in and day out to stop these types of IEDs from getting anywhere near a plane,” he said.
Thanks for sharing. Of course, if Brennan and the CIA had quietly broken up the plot, rolled up the network (two of the plotters in Yemen were killed in a drone attack on Sunday; the announcement of the plot was made the next day) and kept their mouths shut, the public wouldn’t be worrying about those IEDs, because they wouldn’t have realized the threat remained.
So why blab? Why endanger an asset like the brave Saudi double agent who penetrated al Qaeda, helped track the other plotters and came away with the bomb itself?
No matter how closely guarded his identity is, he is very likely a dead man walking.
A charitable explanation is that by leaking some details, our government is trying to convince al Qaeda’s command structure that it’s no longer secure, which will inhibit further operations until they purge and regroup. Making an enemy believe his cells are crawling with spies is a good way to neutralize him.
But there are other motives in play — both for the CIA and its political masters.
With the economy in shambles, the president and his team have been floating a national-security campaign, based largely around the Navy SEALs’ killing of Osama bin Laden a year ago in Pakistan and the ongoing drone attacks on terrorist leaders. Last week, Obama flew all the way to Kabul to pat himself on the back for bin Laden’s death.
Reminding the citizenry that the CIA is on guard feeds this narrative.
That’s a campaign the agency is only too happy to oblige, for Langley is among the leakiest ships in the intelligence community. Sources in its National Clandestine Service (formerly the Directorate of Operations), routinely feed favored reporters tidbits of inside info to make themselves look good or bolster the CIA’s status in the Washington turf wars.
Yes, even post-9/11, the agency remains locked in battle with rival intelligence services, including the FBI and Pentagon entities such as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency — many of whom regard the CIA as a bunch of showboating hot dogs who are not above callously “burning” a foreign agent and then laughing about it.
But the politicization of intelligence is no laughing matter. Obama did the right thing in moving Democratic functionary Leon Panetta over to Defense and replacing him at CIA with Gen. David Petraeus, who’s both apolitical and the soul of discretion — you can bet Petraeus didn’t authorize the leak.
But even the man who led the turning of the tide in Iraq can only do so much to clean up the swamps of Washington and Langley.
The House Homeland Security Committee promises a major investigation of this leak. With al-Asiri still apparently on the loose, premature crowing may yet have severe blowback.
The old adage, “Loose lips sink ships” still applies, and that goes double for airships.