On December 16, The New York Times announced to the world that President Bush had “secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.”

President Bush called the disclosure of the surveillance program “shameful:”

Bush, earlier in his news conference Monday, defended the program as important in being able to stop future attacks and suggested it was harmed by being publicly known.

“My personal opinion is, it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. That fact that we’re discussing this program is helping the enemy,” Bush said.

He said that in the 1990s the United States was monitoring a phone used by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. When that information was leaked and reported, bin Laden changed phone systems.

Well it looks like somebody has been tipped off by the Times and is changing phone systems again, because ABC News is reporting (hat tip: Drudge Report):

Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones by individuals from the Middle East and Pakistan, ABC News has learned.

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. [Emphasis mine.]

So it would appear that terrorists read the Times.

The FBI is closely monitoring the potentially dangerous development, which came to light following recent large-quantity purchases in California and Texas, officials confirmed.

In one New Year’s Eve transaction at a Target store in Hemet, Calif., 150 disposable tracfones were purchased. Suspicious store employees notified police, who called in the FBI, law enforcement sources said.

In an earlier incident, at a Wal-mart store in Midland, Texas, on December 18, six individuals attempted to buy about 60 of the phones until store clerks became suspicious and notified the police. A Wal-mart spokesperson confirmed the incident. [Emphasis mine.]

Notice the dates? Within days of the Times publishing their exposé, the surge in tracfone purchases began!

Russell Tice, a former NSA employee until he was dismissed because of “psychological concerns,” admitted in an interview with ABC News that he was a source for the Times article. During the interview he also let slip this insight into the Bush Administration’s attitude toward pursuing Al Qaeda:

The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to get them…

Evidently the New York Times doesn’t think Al Qaeda is that great a threat because they published the eavedropping story even though President Bush asked them not to. They ignored him and disregarded all other considerations in their desire to wound the Administration.

Now that terrorists appear to be buying traceless phones as a result of that article, it’ll be even harder to protect the United States, so tell me, how is President Bush supposed to fight the Global War on Terror when our news media is the enemy’s best weapon?

[Update 1.13 8:35 AM EST] This story reminded me of something and I just remembered what it was:

Back during World War II, U.S. Congressman Andrew Jackson May (Democrat, of course), a member of the House Military Affairs Committee, visited the Pacific theater where he received many intelligence and operational briefings. “On his return, May held a press conference and stated that American submarines had a high survivability because Japanese depth charges were fused to explode at too shallow a depth.”

That he would blab this information was bad enough, but the papers published it!

“Soon enemy depth charges were rearmed to explode at a more effective depth of 250 feet. Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, commander of the U.S. submarine fleet in the Pacific, later estimated that May’s revelation cost the navy as many as ten submarines and 800 crewmen” – From Senseless Secrets by LtCol (ret) Michael Lee Lanning. (Source: World War II in the Pacific)

[Update 1.14 9:33 PM EST] Michelle Malkin has a long list of links of other sites besides mine that reported on this story. She also has a link to the Midland Police Department police report of the incident that ABC News has posted, which states that members of the group attempting to buy cell phones were “linked to suspected terrorist cells stationed within the Metroplex.”

[Update 1.14 11:33 PM EST] According to a KLTV 7 story, the FBI says no link has been found between terrorists and people who tried to buy a large number of prepaid cell phones from a Midland, Texas Wal-Mart store, even though the Midland Police thought there was one when they filled out the police report:

Upon the arrival of special agents, and as a result of subsequent interviews, it was discovered that members of the group were linked to suspected terrorist cells stationed within the Metroplex. In addition, special agents reported that similar incidents centering on the large-scale purchases of “TracPhones” had been reported throughout the nation – identifying individuals of middle-eastern descent as the purchasers.

Also ABC 7 reports the FBI are saying the customer who tried to purchase 150 cell phones in Hemet, Calif., appears to be a legitimate cell phone dealer, but the investigation is ongoing.

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