Fox's Gibson falsely claimed NY Times wiretapping story "may have tipped off Al Qaeda"
SUMMARY: Fox News' John Gibson falsely claimed that the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times report that revealed warrantless domestic wiretaps approved by the Bush administration "probably did do damage to national security because it may have tipped off Al Qaeda that we could listen to their cell-phone calls to people inside this country." In fact, media reports indicate that Al Qaeda was aware that the United States was monitoring its cell-phone calls well before the disclosure of the warrantless wiretapping program.
On the April 21 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, host John Gibson falsely claimed that the December 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning report by New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau that revealed warrantless domestic wiretaps approved by the Bush administration "probably did do damage to national security because it may have tipped off Al Qaeda that we could listen to their cell-phone calls to people inside this country." Contrary to the suggestions of Gibson and others, the new information revealed by the Times was not that the United States spies on terrorist suspects but, rather, that the Bush administration has undertaken such surveillance without obtaining warrants from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In fact, Gibson has no reason to believe Al Qaeda was not already "tipped off" to U.S. efforts to monitor its phone conversations; Al Qaeda was already taking precautions to avoid surveillance of its cell-phone conversations years before Risen and Lichtblau reported on the surveillance program, notably through the use of untraceable disposable cell phones.
As the Times revealed on December 16, 2005, President Bush issued a secret presidential order shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop on phone and email communications that originate from or are received within the United States and to do so without the court approval normally required under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.
According to media reports, Al Qaeda was taking precautions pertaining to its cell-phone use for years prior to the Times article. For example, ABC News reported on January 12, in a story about bulk purchases of disposable cell phones in the United States, that Al Qaeda used disposable cell phones in its March 2004 bombings in Spain:
The phones -- which do not require purchasers to sign a contract or have a credit card -- have many legitimate uses, and are popular with people who have bad credit or for use as emergency phones tucked away in glove compartments or tackle boxes. But since they can be difficult or impossible to track, law enforcement officials say the phones are widely used by criminal gangs and terrorists.
[...]
Law enforcement officials say the phones were used to detonate the bombs terrorists used in the Madrid train attacks in March 2004.
"The application of prepaid phones for nefarious reasons, is really widespread. For example, the terrorists in Madrid used prepaid phones to detonate the bombs in the subway trains that killed more than 200 people," said Roger Entner, a communications consultant.
Further, an October 17, 2002, USA Today article indicated Al Qaeda's awareness of the issue and its implementation of countermeasures against NSA eavesdropping. USA Today stated: "The NSA faces new obstacles in penetrating al-Qaeda because the terror group has learned how to evade U.S. interception technology -- chiefly by using disposable cell phones or by avoiding phones altogether and substituting human messengers and face-to-face meetings to convey orders."
Additionally, Media Matters noted that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden reportedly stopped using his satellite phone within days of the August 20, 1998, attack on Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Also, Media Matters noted during the February 12 broadcast of ABC News' This Week, with host George Stephanopoulos, Washington Post columnist George F. Will dismissed as "peculiar" the claim that enemies of the United States were tipped off by the NSA program's disclosure:
WILL: I want to go back to the NSA thing. The administration says talking about this tips off the enemy. Now, the idea that our enemies think that the most technologically sophisticated nation in the world isn't using all its advantages to eavesdrop on them is peculiar. In 1978, we passed FISA. That alerted them, if any alerting was needed, that we were indeed listening in, passing the Patriot Act alerted them to what we were going to do and were going to not do. What I do not understand in this whole bizarre week we just had, George, our arguing about the NSA surveillance, the administration saying desperately important to pass the Patriot Act.
From the April 21 edition of The Big Story with John Gibson:
GIBSON: What is really going on here is a secret war by the CIA types against President Bush and his policies. This is the group inside the CIA -- think Valerie Plame, now -- who think their opinions and analysis of the world should trump whatever it is the president thinks.
If the president goes against their opinion -- let's say, and goes to war -- they call The New York Times and start leaking embarrassing stuff. It is a war against Bush waged by Americans. It's wrong; it's illegal; and people are going to start going to jail. That's good.
Next up, whoever was leaking to James Risen of The New York Times. His story about the secret NSA wiretapping program probably did do damage to national security because it may have tipped off Al Qaeda that we could listen to their cell-phone calls to people inside this country.
Now that the "secret prisons" leaker is out of the way, the counter-leaking team over at the CIA can concentrate on Risen's leaker. With any luck, we'll soon hear the sound of the jailhouse door slamming again.
Because I'm sooooo sure Al Qaeda just now realized their cell phones were being monitored. Earth shattering news, Gibson, just earth shattering...
It was a well known fact that our govt was spying on international calls and domestic calls. The only thing the public didn't know is that the domestic calls were not being reported to the secret FISA courts. Cons like to think that terrorists had no idea that could be spied on before the revelation and that the requirement to get warrants stops the NSA from any spying.
The terrorists knowing that the govt is not getting warrants does not help them one bit.
...not to mention, it is THE AMERICAN PEOPLE who really had no idea WE were being spied upon... right? Shouldn't that be a major point?
--"I'm sooooo sure Al Qaeda just now realized their cell phones were being monitored. "--
Oh dear. NOW it's going to take YEARS to find bin Laden.
Wait a minute... it already HAS taken years. But maybe that's 'cuz our Dear Leader said he "really doesn't spend that much time thinking about (bin Laden)". Or because when we had Osama in our sights, Bush chose to divert our resources to Iraq.
Think of the day when a news journalist, on TV or Radio, or in print, would be held to a standard of verifiability.
The view, listener, or reader would know by reading the item to be diligent of content and the agenda that may be discussed. The idea that a journalist would outright lie, or fabricate events, and supposed factual evidence to ones argument, would more often be laughed out of the room.
This network, and commentator should be in the category of shear fantasy, yet they're taken literally, seriously, and never held accountable.
He would wish swift justice for leaks of Republican crimes not for the criminals, but for the leakers. He never made issue to our civil rights being violated by those whom are sworn to preserve, and protect the same. He would have no issue with their using our nation’s intelligence community as a political smear tool at the cost of thousands of American lives.
Fair and Balanced. These are the folks that called the Bush presumed victory in November 2000, whom drummed up the noise in the recount that saw the Supreme Court decide our election. They are in bed with the devil, and darn the disguises of the saints, proclaim their own virtues, and openly behave as scoundrels.
We are passive, and say nothing? Or we have no forum of a comparable effect in which to have a message delivered. How did that happen? What do we do about it?
Answer: See the title of the message.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
---"It is a war against Bush waged by Americans. "---
It's a courageous war BY Americans to get the truth out TO Americans that love their country and what it stands for. It's unfortunate that it takes a war to do it, but when you have the most secretive administration in the history of our country, and its propaganda arm called Fox News, that's how it's going to be.
I feel sorry for dead-enders like Gibson. He's either misinformed, just plain dumb, in love with George W., or protstituting himself on behalf of Fox and the administration. Or all of the above. Gibson is a sorry, sad excuse for a so-called "journalist".
Yeah, sure John, Al Qaeda had no idea that their communications were being monitored. I am sure the Mob had no idea the FBI ever listened to their phone calls as well.
Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Earth is flat.
Gibson: "What is really going on here is a secret war by the CIA types against President Bush and his policies. This is the group inside the CIA -- think Valerie Plame, now -- who think their opinions and analysis of the world should trump whatever it is the president thinks."
So there's a 'group inside the CIA' plotting against the president. Any evidence of this, Mr. Gibson? Maybe, just maybe this purported 'group inside the CIA' thinks this way because the president and his crime family have been wrong on just about everything.
Gibson: "If the president goes against their opinion -- let's say, and goes to war -- they call The New York Times and start leaking embarrassing stuff."
But what about when the president goes against their INTEL? The CIA protocol is to call the New York Times when the president ignores intel? Again, where's the evidence, Mr. Gibson?
Gibson: "It is a war against Bush waged by Americans. "
WRONG. It's a war waged by Bush against Americans who demand that the truth be told.
The implication that members of al Qaida are too dumb to realize their phone calls are being monitored is part of a larger mentality among the conservatives that all Muslims and all Arabs are stupid. It's the same mentality that allows a mouth-breather like Bill O'Reilly to refer to the Iraqis as "prehistoric." It's the same mentality that prevented President Rumsfeld from anticipating an insurgency in Iraq. The reason we haven't caught Osama bin Laden is simple: he's smarter than our so-called "leaders." God help us!
For twenty years (0r more), our movies and popular culture having to do with international intelligence, detective stories, the FBI, or any other "international thriller", has featured sophisticated surveillance techniques. Several movies had laser readers which could focus on a window pane and pick up the sound vibrations. Cell phone triangulation and traces are standard fare.
Anyone using a cell phone IN THE WORLD that did not know they could be tapped or traced ... well, frankly, they are too stupid to pose a danger to anyone but themselves.
So, Gibson, THEY KNEW.
If only Gibson were equally concerned about covert information the enemy DID NOT know -- that Valarie Plame was a WMD expert CIA Op posing as an "energy consultant" in foreign locations. Now, THAT information was of great value to our enemies, and placed operations AND agents in mortal danger. But Gibson is not concerned about this. Why? Because the outing was done by his beloved Republican White House.
That's the Rightwing way: Fret about things that make no difference at all (presidential BJ?), and DO NOT worry about things that cause America great harm and danger ... as long as these actions are perpetrated by the NeoCons.
Who is ANTI-American? Gibson and the GOP, that's who.
Of all the right-wing pundits on Fox, John Gibson is by far the most humorous of them all to me. From his ludicrous appearance to his utter lack of critical thinking or common sense, John Gibson best represents the puppet of his right wing masters. Gibson's thoughts on all things come straight from his sheltered worldview where the President is always right and anyone who questions the direction in which our country is going is a troublemaker. In Gibson's world, Al-Qaeda is sophisticated enough to read the New York Times, but is blissfully unaware that their cell phone calls may be monitored by the NSA. Just keep reading your cue cards and get your grandson to program your DVD player John, I'll just keep laughing and shaking my head.