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US leak severs al-Qaeda link
09/10/2007 10:03 - (SA)
Washington - A private intelligence firm that obtained an unreleased video of al-Qaeda terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden accused the White House of a leak that gave away the company's methods, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Unnamed US officials did not deny the allegations but said the leak had not affected US intelligence agencies' own monitoring of al-Qaeda, the newspaper reported.
The SITE Intelligence Group obtained the bin Laden video prior to its release last month by an al-Qaeda-linked organisation.
The company, which monitors terrorist groups online and sells paid subscriptions for its information to businesses and US and foreign government agencies, offered a free copy of the video to the White House on September 7. Within 20 minutes, US intelligence agencies were downloading the video, and a few hours later, it was being aired by news broadcasters around the world, the Post reported.
"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," Rita Katz, head of SITE, told the newspaper.
The leak alerted al-Qaeda sources to their own security breach, and the techniques used by SITE were quickly made useless, the firm claims. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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