Still Spiking the Football

From The Guardian in Britain:

Detailed leaks of operational information about the foiled underwear bomb plot are causing growing anger in the US intelligence community, with former agents blaming the Obama administration for undermining national security and compromising the British services, MI6 and MI5.
The Guardian has learned from Saudi sources that the agent was not a Saudi national as was widely reported, but a Yemeni. He was born in Saudi Arabia, in the port city of Jeddah, and then studied and worked in the UK, where he acquired a British passport.

Mike Scheur, the former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, said the leaking about the nuts and bolts of British involvement was despicable and would make a repeat of the operation difficult. "MI6 should be as angry as hell. This is something that the prime minister should raise with the president, if he has the balls. This is really tragic," Scheur said.

Yet, as Professor Jacobson observed, this fits a larger pattern:

Whether it was naming Navy SEAL Team 6 as the group which killed bin Laden, or releasing details of how that mission was accomplished, leaking information which presents Obama in a good light is part of the political strategy.

You can’t properly spike a football without showing it to the crowd.