Here is one more interesting aspect of this book.
As I said, the author thinks it is essential that we kill Bin Laden, and I certainly agree. He says this would have been far easier prior to October 2001. At that time we were tracking Bin Laden closely with a number of sources, such as monitoring his cell phone conversations, and talking to his agents that the CIA surreptitiously captured (meaning Bin Laden did not know we had them). Unfortunately, the fact that we were monitoring these conversations was published in the newspapers, along with the names of the people we captured. A few days later Bid Laden immediately stopped using cell phones, because he has many agents following our newspapers and mass media. His own web sites reported the news about the cell phones. About a dozen other top-secret facts about U.S. counterterrorism have been published in the newspapers and in books such as B. Woodward's "Bush At War." These include the methods and locations we use to recruit "moles," the fact that we employ armed surveillance drones, and various other details about our surveillance techniques. Betraying this kind of secret in time of war is high treason, punishable by death, but the author does not think there are any traitors in the government. He says the leaks come mainly from the White House and the FBI, and they are the result of bureaucratic infighting and people trying to take credit for tactical successes, such as assassinations. Most of the information has been published in the Washington Times and other right-wing media. In the case of the Woodward book, the secrets were discussed during staff and cabinet level meetings Woodward attended. The book was reviewed at the White House before publication, but no one thought to cut out the parts that would help Bin Laden. The author thinks the high officials leaking this information know little about intelligence and they have no idea how much harm they are causing.
- Jed
