Times Square -- how appropriate

With the news that the FBI was searching for the courier who brought funds to Shahzad, the New York fizzle bomber, it seemed particularly poignant that the bomb was set in Times Square, so named since it is the home of the New York Times. In 2007, the Times ran a story disclosing that the USA was following money transfers around the world as a means of keeping tabs on terrorist groups and their funding mechanisms. The Times disclosed this secret program which had been effective in uncovering a number of terrorists receiving funds and resulting in their apprehension. Aside from embarrassing the Bush Administration, there was little reason to disclose a secret program of this sort. Indeed, the Times made the disclosure despite a specific request from the government that it not do so.

Of course, the terrorists read the New York Times. (Indeed, I bet they agree with much of what gets said on the editorial page.) That is why the terrorists used a courier to bring money to Shahzad rather than the wire transfers that they had used previously. Had the Times never disclosed the program monitoring money transfers, Shahzad might have popped up on the radar before he struck rather than after.