Operation CATCHERS MITT

* froomkin will be LiveOnline tomorrow. You can ask questions here:

* mark levey (via D):

"From April through July (2001) alarming threat reports were pouring in. (Richard) Clarke and the CSG were consumed with coordinating defensive reactions. In late June Clarke wrote Rice that the threat reporting had reached a crescendo.
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The Bush Administration cancelled or cut back Operation CATCHERS MITT, the highly classified ongoing CIA and FBI operation that tracked al-Qaeda operatives known to be inside the U.S. during the summer of 2001. This was done without notifying the existing counter-terrorism policy board in Washington, then headed by Richard Clarke, a Clinton holdover."

* yesterday starroute asked about Cliff May, emptywheel dropped by with an answer:

" 3 data points, though I'll have to come back tomorrow to say more.

First, May also wrote a story the week of the leak. Though he didn't get the leak.

Second, May is supposed to have been interviewed by the FBI (no doubt for his September claims), but Fitz didn't include him in the list of the 5 journalists who had received a leak. So either May was lying in his September column (my guess) or he was lying in his testimony.

Third, Waas has done a lot of reporting on the way that Republican operatives were involved in the leak in Fall 2003. I've always taken that to include May."

thnx eedub.