March 18, 2004 - We weren’t supposed to see it. It was highly classified. Only the CIA and Pentagon had copies. Then suddenly it appeared on the nation’s television screens, broadcast by NBC, CNN coupled with a well orchestrated chorus of “Clinton’s missed chance to get Bin Laden.” Today the CIA is investigating how this top secret resource was leaked to the media.

The tape was allegedly taken by a CIA unmanned and unarmed surveillance aircraft flying over the Al Qaeda base at Tarnak Farm in Afghanistan sometime in the fall of 2000. It shows a tall white robed figure surrounded by shorter men and the speculation is that it is Osama Bin Laden. Just when it was taken was not leaked along with the top secret tape.

The interesting question is not who leaked the tape. I’m sure that the CIA will be as able to answer that question as easily as it has been able to discover who it was that told Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. The interesting question is, why was it leaked and why was it leaked now?

It is not a coincidence that the 911 Commission is about to open up public hearings and interview the President. Almost immediately after 911 the Bush Administration faced criticism that it had failed to act on the warnings passed on by the Clinton Administration. Almost immediately after taking office the Bush Administration halted the experimental arming of the Predators with hellfire missiles, an innovation that the CIA proved in November 2002 when it took out one of the Al Qaeda chieftains who had participated in the Cole attack leaving only a blot in the Yemeni sand.

Nor is it a coincidence that the Bush campaign is in the midst of a concerted attack upon the Democrats national security credentials while pumping the Texas Jet Jockey as a wartime leader. Early in the aftermath of 911 the word was out that Bin Laden had been observed by the CIA drones on several occasions. Early in the aftermath the word came out that the Bush Administration had pulled the drones out of Afghanistan and halted the program to arm them. The tape confirms the fact that Bin Laden had been spotted and photographed.

Now the tape is leaked showing the world a capacity that has been kept under a security blanket. Now the tape is accompanied with a “See, it is all Clinton’s fault” message. That is the first anniversary of the war in Iraq is no coincidence either. While the Bush Administration is trying to take credit for the success of the military machine that the Clinton Administration constructed, it is also trying to shift the burden for its failure to make us safer to Bill Clinton.

We will probably not learn who leaked the tape. We can figure out why.