I think these comments by former CIA intelligence analyst Larry Johnson on last night’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann pretty well sum up the news that the Bush administration blew a high level al Qaeda sting operation in order to pat themselves on the back:
I mean, look, at least we can say the White House is consistent. I mean you know–last year, White House officials leaked the name of a clandestine operative at the CIA, Valerie Plame. This year, they take out an al Qaeda mole who’s helping us and leak his name so other al Qaeda guys escape. I mean, you know, how many boneheads do we need over at the White House before they figure this out? Shut up. Stop talking about this stuff.
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[H]ere we have the guy who is sort of communication central that we’re into, he’s able to both send them messages which allows us to locate these individuals. That’s one of the reason we’ve had this flurry of arrests over the last several weeks, and to take that opportunity and squander it, is�it’s�frankly it’s criminal in my view.
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Look, I say this as someone who voted for Bush. I do not understand how Republicans sit back and say nothing when a Republican White House is divulging the names of clandestine assets. That is unbelievable to me and there’s no excuse for it.
Actually, this would have been unbelievable three years ago. But, unfortunately, by now we have grown accustomed to this kind of incompetence.