Early leak of bin Laden video slams doors on intel gathering

I think this is interesting. WaPo

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.

Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.

The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.

A small number of private intelligence companies compete with SITE in scouring terrorists' networks for information and messages, and some have questioned the company's motives and methods, including the claim that its access to al-Qaeda's network was unique. One competitor, Ben Venzke, founder of IntelCenter, said he questions SITE's decision -- as described by Katz -- to offer the video to White House policymakers rather than quietly share it with intelligence analysts.

I'll go along with that - intelligence analysts don't make things political. It takes our so-called 'policy makers' to do that, and it's instantaneous in this administration.

It seems to me that whoever leaked this prematurely had some kind of ax to grind, whether it was a competing private intel-gathering firm (the notion of which raises questions as to is this the best method of getting the goods on al Qaeda and warning us) who wanted to knock the oppo out of the box, or some ____________ (fill in your choice of government intel-gathering agencies) agent for much the same reasons.

This time, I'm not going to blame the White House. They like privatization. They like collusion better than competition, but that's in the quest for profit and power, which may not apply directly in this instance.

At any rate, this leak sabotaged one intel source when we actually need all we can get. I wonder if we'll hear any more about it.