Blame Libya Abduction on White House Leaks

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was kidnapped briefly today in retaliation for consenting to the commando raid that captured Abu Anas al-Libi. How did they know he'd done this? "Simple: The Obama administration told them," writes Marc Thiessen at the Washington Post. Under fire from Congress and Zeidan's own government, Obama officials leaked word of Libya's acquiescence. "In other words, the Obama administration exposed the Libyan government’s cooperation in a top-secret covert action in order to bolster the president against domestic political criticism."

What's more, officials had hoped to keep al-Libi's capture itself secret, but that too found its way into the media. "This is simply devastating," Thiessen writes. It might otherwise have taken al-Qaeda a while to notice al-Libi's disappearance. But now, it will rapidly move to purge email accounts, dump phone numbers, and otherwise render useless al-Libi's knowledge. "Even when this administration gets something right, it can't seem to get it right," because, in Robert Gates' words, "they can't seem to 'shut the f*** up." Click for the full column. (More Ali Zeidan stories.)