DEBKAfile, a Web site founded in 2000 by Shamis and his wife, Diane Shalem, deals with security issues and is run out of Jerusalem. Security sources have sometimes questioned its credibility, saying some of its stories are conspiratorial and over-exaggerated.
DEBKAfile refused to reveal the source of the dirty bomb report, but in response to a query from The Jerusalem Post as to whether the recent "chatter" constituted a genuine threat, an editor at DEBKAfile said that "DEBKAfile has been exposing al-Qaida's activities for eight years."
"We have our sources, and [you can see] that the NYPD acted on our report," the editor said.
Well, yeah, they did. And now they know what many bloggers (and, apparently, "security sources") have known for quite some time now. To add to the mess, don't you just love the AP/JPost headline on this one?
Israeli web site sparks terror alert
The NY Times was much more kind.
The police learned of the threat report from Debka.com, a Jerusalem-based counterterrorism news site that reported a surge in worrisome electronic chatter on Al Qaeda sites Thursday. The messages, according to Debka.com, detailed planned attacks against New York, Los Angeles and Miami using trucks carrying radioactive bombs.
Paul J. Browne, the city’s chief police spokesman, said the department began tightening security on Friday evening around bridge and tunnels in Lower Manhattan as a precaution, while checking with intelligence agencies to determine if there was any veracity to the threat. Trucks and sport utility vehicles were stopped and searched in Lower Manhattan, and extra radiological sensors were sent out in police cars, helicopters and boats.
The deployment had been scaled back by midday yesterday after the department determined that no other agency could confirm the threat, Mr. Browne said.
“When intelligence agencies found this was uncorroborated, we backed down,†he said.
Credibility? What's that?
