Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan
Encyclopedia
Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan (Urdu
: محمد نعيم نور خان, born 1979) is an alleged Al-Qaeda
operative and computer expert. Arrested in Pakistan
on July 13, 2004, files found on his laptop contained details of a terrorist plot to attack U.S. financial buildings
and locations in the UK
, including Heathrow airport.
Khan's arrest was attributed to leads arising from the arrest of Musaad Aruchi
a month earlier.
Following his arrest, Khan agreed to cooperate with investigators, and continued to communicate with Al-Qaeda as part of a sting operation
.
Following the publication of Khan's name, British authorities moved quickly to arrest 13 members of the British terrorist cell with which Khan had been communicating (the so-called Luton
cell). Evidence gathering may not have yet been completed and other plotters may have escaped due to the need to make the arrests quickly.
On July 14, 2005, ABC News
revealed that Mohammad Sidique Khan
, one of the suspected perpetrators of the 7 July London bombings, had been in contact with members of the Luton cell that was broken up.
Khan is an alumnus of NED University
and Adamjee Science College in Karachi
.
Human Rights Watch
lists Khan as one of detainees in CIA custody, though he was released on August 20, 2007, without charge.
Conversely, on August 8, 2004 on CNN
's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
told Wolf Blitzer
that Khan's name had been revealed "on background" (an expression with no fixed meaning in journalism
, but which is often understood to mean that the information may not be published, or at least that the source may not be revealed); afterwards, however, when the transcript of the background briefing revealed that Khan had not in fact been identified by name, Rice's office retracted the statement. Sean McCormack
, a National Security Council
spokesman, stated "She was in the middle of making a point and [Blitzer] interrupted her, and she reflexively repeated 'on background,' but she was not confirming it and went on to complete her thought."
Precisely who leaked Khan's name, and why, was controversial. Critics of the Bush administration
accused them of damaging national security
by the deliberate "outing
" of an undercover operative for political reasons, i.e. in order to bolster claims of terrorist threats in August 2004 and win support in the upcoming election. This view was supported by anonymous Pakistani sources; according to Reuters
,
Writing for Salon.com
, however, Husain Haqqani
countered this view, reporting that
Dawn
reported on August 14, 2004 that the Pakistani government had "lodged a protest with the US government for leaking the name of Mr. Khan to the media as he was said to be actively cooperating with Pakistani intelligence agencies to help catch Al Qaeda operatives."
Most analysts agreed that, regardless of who had leaked Khan's identity, the leak had been premature and had compromised the success of the intelligence operation. Following the publication of Khan's name, British
authorities moved quickly to arrest 13 members of the British terrorist cell with which Khan had been communicating (the so-called Luton
cell). By the evening of August 9, two of the suspects had been released from custody, and the interviews of two others had been called off. An additional five suspects were reported as having escaped the British raids.
Some of those who still maintained that the Bush administration had leaked Khan's name went on to link the incident to the leak of Valerie Plame
's name as denoting a pattern of compromising intelligence operatives for political gain. Aside from individuals, blog
s, and online petitions, these included other sources, such as The Village Voice
, The Advocate Weekly Newspapers
, Scoop
, and The Democratic Policy Committee.
reported that Khan had been released due to lack of evidence.
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
: محمد نعيم نور خان, born 1979) is an alleged Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
operative and computer expert. Arrested in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
on July 13, 2004, files found on his laptop contained details of a terrorist plot to attack U.S. financial buildings
2004 Financial buildings plot
The 2004 financial buildings plot was a plan led by Dhiren Barot to attack a number of targets in the U.S. and the United Kingdom which is believed to have been approved by al-Qaeda....
and locations in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, including Heathrow airport.
Khan's arrest was attributed to leads arising from the arrest of Musaad Aruchi
Musaad Aruchi
Musaad Aruchi was a Pakistani courier who worked in connection with al Qaeda, before his capture in April 2004. Some of his files, secured when he was captured, led to the capture of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was later released without charge....
a month earlier.
Following his arrest, Khan agreed to cooperate with investigators, and continued to communicate with Al-Qaeda as part of a sting operation
Sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...
.
Following the publication of Khan's name, British authorities moved quickly to arrest 13 members of the British terrorist cell with which Khan had been communicating (the so-called Luton
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
cell). Evidence gathering may not have yet been completed and other plotters may have escaped due to the need to make the arrests quickly.
On July 14, 2005, ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
revealed that Mohammad Sidique Khan
Mohammad Sidique Khan
Mohammad Sidique Khan was the oldest of the four homegrown suicide bombers and believed to be the leader responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings, in which bombs were detonated on three London Underground trains and one bus in central London suicide attacks, killing 52 people excluding the...
, one of the suspected perpetrators of the 7 July London bombings, had been in contact with members of the Luton cell that was broken up.
Khan is an alumnus of NED University
NED University of Engineering and Technology
The Nadirshaw Eduljee Dinshaw University of Engineering and Technology is a public university in Karachi, Pakistan. It was founded in 1922 as an engineering college, making it the oldest school in Pakistan for educating graduate engineers....
and Adamjee Science College in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
lists Khan as one of detainees in CIA custody, though he was released on August 20, 2007, without charge.
Identity leaked
On August 2, 2004, the New York Times published Khan's name, stating that "An account provided by a Pakistani intelligence official made clear that the crucial capture in recent weeks had been that of Mr. Khan."Conversely, on August 8, 2004 on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer was a Sunday talk show hosted by Wolf Blitzer on CNN and broadcast around the world by CNN International. The show's slogan was The last word in Sunday talk and comments made on the show were often featured in the following Monday's news headlines.The show, launched...
, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
told Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Isaac Blitzer is an American journalist who has been a CNN reporter since 1990. Blitzer is currently the host of the newscast The Situation Room and was the host of the Sunday talk show Late Edition until it was discontinued on January 11, 2009...
that Khan's name had been revealed "on background" (an expression with no fixed meaning in journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, but which is often understood to mean that the information may not be published, or at least that the source may not be revealed); afterwards, however, when the transcript of the background briefing revealed that Khan had not in fact been identified by name, Rice's office retracted the statement. Sean McCormack
Sean McCormack
Sean McCormack is a former United States Assistant Secretary of State. He was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Department Spokesman on June 2, 2005, and served until January 20, 2009.-Early career:...
, a National Security Council
United States National Security Council
The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...
spokesman, stated "She was in the middle of making a point and [Blitzer] interrupted her, and she reflexively repeated 'on background,' but she was not confirming it and went on to complete her thought."
Precisely who leaked Khan's name, and why, was controversial. Critics of the Bush administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
accused them of damaging national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
by the deliberate "outing
Outing
Outing is the act of disclosing a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person's true sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. Outing gives rise to issues of privacy, choice, hypocrisy, and harm in addition to sparking debate on what constitutes common good in efforts...
" of an undercover operative for political reasons, i.e. in order to bolster claims of terrorist threats in August 2004 and win support in the upcoming election. This view was supported by anonymous Pakistani sources; according to Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
,
- U.S. officials providing justification for anti-terrorism alerts revealed details about a Pakistani secret agent, and confirmed his name while he was working under cover in a sting operation, Pakistani sources said on Friday. A Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was arrested in Lahore secretly last month, had been actively cooperating with intelligence agents to help catch al Qaeda operatives when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers.
Writing for Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, however, Husain Haqqani
Husain Haqqani
Husain Haqqani or Hussain Haqqani is the former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States, appointed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani in April 2008 and was resigned on November 22, 2011...
countered this view, reporting that
- "in fact, U.S. officials did not leak Khan's name. The first leak of Khan's name, according to well-informed, reliable sources in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity, came from Pakistani officials in IslamabadIslamabadIslamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
— who perhaps were motivated by eagerness to show off their success in arresting al-Qaida figures or, more ominously, by a desire to sabotageSabotageSabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
the penetration of al-Qaida that Khan's arrest had made possible. A second Pakistani leak to Reuters, blaming the Americans as the source of the leak, served to absolve the Pakistanis of any responsibility in breaking up new al-Qaida cells — an important move domestically."
Dawn
Dawn (newspaper)
Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper. One of the country's two largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, the evening paper The Star and...
reported on August 14, 2004 that the Pakistani government had "lodged a protest with the US government for leaking the name of Mr. Khan to the media as he was said to be actively cooperating with Pakistani intelligence agencies to help catch Al Qaeda operatives."
Most analysts agreed that, regardless of who had leaked Khan's identity, the leak had been premature and had compromised the success of the intelligence operation. Following the publication of Khan's name, British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
authorities moved quickly to arrest 13 members of the British terrorist cell with which Khan had been communicating (the so-called Luton
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
cell). By the evening of August 9, two of the suspects had been released from custody, and the interviews of two others had been called off. An additional five suspects were reported as having escaped the British raids.
Some of those who still maintained that the Bush administration had leaked Khan's name went on to link the incident to the leak of Valerie Plame
Valerie Plame
Valerie Elise Plame Wilson , known as Valerie Plame, Valerie E. Wilson, and Valerie Plame Wilson, is a former United States CIA Operations Officer and the author of a memoir detailing her career and the events leading up to her resignation from the CIA.-Early life :Valerie Elise Plame was born on...
's name as denoting a pattern of compromising intelligence operatives for political gain. Aside from individuals, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, and online petitions, these included other sources, such as The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, The Advocate Weekly Newspapers
Advocate Weekly Newspapers
The Advocate Weekly Newspapers are four free weekly alternative newspapers in central Connecticut and western Massachusetts, published by New Mass. Media Inc., a subsidiary of the Chicago-based Tribune Company....
, Scoop
Scoop (news website)
Scoop.co.nz is a New Zealand internet news site with a readership of 25,000 unique visitors a day, delivering 2,000,000 pages of information per month....
, and The Democratic Policy Committee.
Released due to lack of evidence
On 21 August 2007 BBC NewsBBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
reported that Khan had been released due to lack of evidence.