Will get fooled again

A couple of weeks ago we noted the strange fact of American media outlets having better access to details of the London bombings investigation than British outlets did. It happened again on Wednesday, with ABC News getting pictures of the unexploded bombs from "Attack 1." But in a sign of confusion, ABC news and the security forces seem to disagree on where the bombs were found, and the latter don't seem too pleased that the former got such access in the first place -- consistent with standard police desire not to have the bad guys knowing everything they know about them:

[Times of London] The pictures were leaked to ABC News in America by US law enforcement sources. The items shown were left by the July 7 bombers in a car at Luton railway station.

According to ABC’s report, 16 bombs were found in the boot of a hire car that had been rented by Shehzad Tanweer, 22, who killed himself and six passengers when he set off his bomb on a train near Aldgate station. The American report contradicts information provided by Scotland Yard. They dismissed the idea that a cache of bombs had been found in the Luton car park.

Let's focus on the fact of the leak itself for a second:

Scotland Yard is known to be concerned that the images have emerged in the media but the leak is an almost inevitable result of the international cooperation required in such an inquiry.

OK, but they are presumably sharing this information with many other intelligence services as well, but it only leaked from the US. Most of our readers will know that Dubya's administration is currently beset by an unexpectedly persistent investigation into the leaking of a covert CIA operative's name to the media as part of a spin operation against her husband, Joseph Wilson. The latest defense is that this national security breach was a one-time only response, a counter-leak in Christopher Hitchens' pathetic phrasing, to combat a recalcitrant CIA.

There is no such excuse here. It appears to be simply an ingrained habit of the Bush national security system to leak like a sieve. The only thing we can't pin down is the motive for such carelessness.