] Khan had been secretly apprehended by ISI in mid-July and
] persuaded to become a double agent. He was actively
] helping investigators penetrate further into Al Qaeda
] cells and activities via computer, and was still
] cooperating when the "senior Bush administration"
] figure told New York Times's Douglas Jehl about him. ISI
] told Reuters, "He sent encoded e-mails and received
] encoded replies. He's a great hacker and even the US
] agents said he was a computer whiz -- He was cooperating
] with interrogators on Sunday and Monday and sent e-mails
] on both days. This proves that the Bush administration
] just blew the cover of one of the most important assets
] inside Al Qaeda that the US has ever had.
]
] Prof. Juan Cole of the University of Michigan's
] analysis is more daring, "The announcement of Khan's
] name forced the British to arrest 12 members of an
] al-Qaeda cell prematurely, before they had finished
] gathering the necessary evidence against them via Khan.
] Apparently they feared that the cell members would
] scatter as soon as they saw that Khan had been
] compromised. (They would have known he was a double
] agent, since they got emails from him Sunday and Monday!)
] One of the 12 has already had to be released for lack of
] evidence, a further fallout of the Bush SNAFU (situation
] normal all fouled up). It would be interesting to know if
] other cell members managed to flee. Why in the world
] would Bush administration officials out a double agent
] working for Pakistan and the US against Al-Qaeda? In a
] way, the motivation does not matter. If the Reuters story
] is true, this slip is a major screw-up that casts the
] gravest doubts on the competency of the administration to
] fight a war on terror. Either the motive was political
] calculation, or it was sheer stupidity. They don't
] deserve to be in power either way."