Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, alleged Al-Qaida computer expert. Arrested on July 13, 2004, files found on his laptop contained details of a terrorist plot against various U.S. financial buildings and United Kingdom locations, including Heathrow Airport. It is suspected that his information or cooperation was used in numerous other arrests which quickly followed his.

Following his arrest, Khan was "turned" and continued to communicate with Al-Qaida in a sting operation. However, United States officials attempting to justify terror alerts issued on August 1, 2004, may have destroyed this operation by revealing Khan's name to news media. On the August 8 2004 edition of CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice admitted that Khan's name had been disclosed to the media "on background" -- a media expression referring to government information permissible to publish on the condition that the official revealing the information not be named.

Following the release of Khan's name, British authorities had no choice but to arrest 13 members of the England terrorist cell with which Khan was communicating, despite possibly not having sufficient evidence to convict. By the evening of August 9, two of the suspects had been released for lack of evidence, and another two were no longer being questioned under suspicion of terrorism.

An additional five suspects were able to escape entirely before the British raids.

For a period, Khan appeared to have been the second secret operative outed by the Presidential administration of George W. Bush, the first being Valerie Plame. An article in the online magazine Slate has reported secondhand that the United States leaked the name intentionally in order to "roll up" known al-Qaida networks before they could disrupt the 2004 elections and to worry al-Qaida that other cells may have been compromised by foreign intelligence.

On August 17, the New York Times claimed responsibility for publicizing Khan's name on the 2nd, but cited "Pakistani intelligence sources". Based on this story, it appears that the United States government is not primarily to blame for the Khan leak.