Exactly what happened next is unclear. But within minutes of Katz's e-mail to the White House, government-registered computers began downloading the video from SITE's server, according to a log of file transfers. The records show dozens of downloads over the next three hours from computers with addresses registered to defense and intelligence agencies.

By midafternoon, several television news networks reported obtaining copies of the transcript. A copy posted around 3 p.m. on Fox News's Web site referred to SITE and included page markers identical to those used by the group. "This confirms that the U.S. government was responsible for the leak of this document," Katz wrote in an e-mail to Leiter at 5 p.m.

I'm seeing this as most damning out of this. Yes, SITE may have wanted to be able to point at this as a coup for getting funding, The fact that it was leaked so quickly, and who it was leaked to does indicate this one came from the top.

Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets