British Security Services have been chastising the FBI, claiming that the Bureau’s leaks to the media have hampered their investigations into the recent plot to bomb several transatlantic flights.
Anti-terror police in Britain have made an angry request to their US counterparts asking them to stop leaking details of this month’s suspected bomb plot over fears that it could jeopardise the chances of a successful prosecution and hamper the gathering of evidence.
The British security services, MI5 and MI6, are understood to be dismayed that a number of sensitive details surrounding the alleged plot – including an FBI estimate that as many as 50 people were involved – were leaked to the media.
FBI sources confirmed to The Observer that the bureau had been ordered to stop briefing at the request of the British authorities. ‘The shutters have come down,’ a bureau source said. ‘We have been told not to discuss the case any more.’
Personally, I find most complaints about leaks to the media to be silly. By and large, I think that society is better off the more we know about what the government is up to. That said, I would never countenance any leak of, say, battle plans or our current troop positions. In the same way, I think that the FBI leaking details about a particular investigation is just as dangerous to American (and British) lives as leaking battlefield information. The British were right to complain, and I’m glad that the Bureau has stopped. The only shame is that they did it to begin with.
