In a report in the Washington Post, relayed here by CBS news, the antiterrorism nonprofit SITE Institute calls foul on the Bush administration for completely destroying one of our intelligence channels in a fit of self-serving leaking.
SITE Institute, one of many private companies that troll extremist Web content and use secret methods to find unreleased material and release it early, against the wishes of the militants creating it, was the first to obtain an Osama bin Laden video last month.
According to the report, Rita Katz, who runs SITE, told The Post she turned the video over to the White House on the condition that it not be made public until the material was released on line by al Qaeda's own media wing.
Katz told The Post that by the afternoon of Sept. 7, the day she turned the video over to White House officials, it had been leaked and was appearing on myriad news Web sites and television networks around the world.
SITE claims the White House leak - the source of which had not been confirmed, according to the report - tipped al Qaeda off to the glitch that had been exploited for years by the company, rendering the practice useless for future intelligence gathering.
"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," Katz told The Post.
This would not be the first time Bush and Cheney have destroyed an American intelligence resource for personal gain. Then, as now, it's good to recall the words of Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
It must be comforting for al Qaeda, having a security hole sealed.