Friday, July 07, 2006
FBI: Tunnel-plot leak hurt our investigation
As a regular PATH commuter from Hoboken to my office in Midtown Manhattan, I took special interest in today's news that the FBI has stymied a plot to blow the PATH and its tunnel up in an attempt to flood downtown. Good work!
But I also took great interest in the FBI's acknowledgement that a leak to the press was the reason that this investigation was unveiled today, after three arrests, rather than in a few months after the FBI was sure it had all the plotters:
Republican Congressman Peter King of New York, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, added, "It would have been better if this had not been disclosed."
Loose lips sink the PATH. One day the leakers and the newspapers that print their stories are going to cost people their lives. I'm sure that story won't be on the front page, above the fold.
And, as a special f**k you to the New York Times and others that feel the need to print terrorism leaks, I hope the FBI caught these guys through NSA wiretaps, phone call patterns and bank account inquiries.
But I also took great interest in the FBI's acknowledgement that a leak to the press was the reason that this investigation was unveiled today, after three arrests, rather than in a few months after the FBI was sure it had all the plotters:
[FBI Agent] Mershon also blasted the leaking of the ongoing investigation by an unidentified official, and the publishing of a report on Friday by the New York Daily News. Officials later said that the Daily News report was inaccurate.
The person who leaked the investigation is "clearly someone who doesn't understand the fragility of international relations," Mershon said.
"The release makes the investigation more difficult for us; it has greatly complicated what otherwise would be a very smooth relationship, a very smooth partnership, with a number of overseas allied agencies," Mershon added.
Republican Congressman Peter King of New York, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, added, "It would have been better if this had not been disclosed."
Loose lips sink the PATH. One day the leakers and the newspapers that print their stories are going to cost people their lives. I'm sure that story won't be on the front page, above the fold.
And, as a special f**k you to the New York Times and others that feel the need to print terrorism leaks, I hope the FBI caught these guys through NSA wiretaps, phone call patterns and bank account inquiries.
