In which the Bush administration displays contempt for intelligence (in both senses of the word)

[catsidhe]

You have a secret back door into the private communications of the most feared and hated terrorist organisation in the world. Do you:

1. Keep this discovery top secret, not letting anyone at all know, in case you lose the chance to discover something really big on the way, possibly letting suicide bombings through so as to not poison the well,
2. Keep this discovery secret, but pass selected intelligence on to other organisations, warning them of planned upcoming bombings and other such incidents and doing ongoing good with the information, or
3. Immediately tell Fox News, thus utterly screwing the pooch and locking that door forever, in return for ten seconds of good PR?

Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.



(via Bob Harris.)