US hackers crack al-Qaeda computers ... 
 
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:50:42 -0500 (CDT)

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2201175/white-house-leak-harms

... But security leak blows internet spying operation
 	Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 15 Oct 2007

Details  are  emerging of security leaks at the White House which have 
shut  down an internet spying operation that had successfully cracked 
al-Qaeda's computers.

Reports  suggest  that the latest video from Osama Bin Laden was found 
online before  its  release by the Search for International Terrorist 
Entities  Institute (Site Institute <http://www.siteinstitute.org/>), 
which had infiltrated al-Qaeda's intranet, known in intelligence circles 
as 'Obelisk'.

The Site Institute then passed the details on to contacts in the White 
House,  with a link to the new video on the Site Institute website and a 
transcript of the contents. Also included was a request to keep the 
information secret.

Government-registered  computers began downloading the video within 20 
minutes, and dozens of government computers went onto the website for 
copies over the next three hours.

By  that  afternoon  Fox  News  and  other  stations were broadcasting 
sections  of  the video,  including  screen  shots of the website and 
mentioning  the Site Institute's name. Within an hour of the publicity 
al-Qaeda's intranet was taken offline.

"Techniques  that  took  years  to  develop  are  now  ineffective and 
worthless,"  Rita Katz, Site's founder, told the Washington Post. "The US 
government was responsible for the leak of this document."

The  Site Institute was set up in the wake of the 11 September attacks and 
is  a not-for-profit organisation that is widely respected n the 
intelligence community.

The effects of the leak on its ability to monitor terrorists sites has 
severely  weakened attempts to find out more about potential terrorist 
operations.

Fran  Townsend,  assistant  to  the president for counterterrorism and 
homeland security, has promised an investigation.

"We will learn more as time goes on, but I understand that the link to the 
Site  was provided to the intelligence community, and the concern was 
that  that  link  is  the piece that was the thing that was made public," 
Townsend said in a press conference<http://www.washingtonpost.com/>.

"So, as I say, I mean, obviously, I'm not - we here at the White House are 
unable  to conduct  an  investigation,  and  I leave this to the Director 
of National Intelligence to ascertain the appropriate way of dealing with 
this and understanding what happened, so we can ensure it doesn't happen 
again."

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