As trite as this old saying may sound, it is painfully true. In the counterterrorism realm, leaks destroy counterterrorism cases and often allow terrorist suspects to escape and kill again. There have been several leaks of “sources and methods” by congressional sources over the past decade that have disclosed details of sensitive U.S. government programs designed to do things such as intercept al Qaeda satellite phone signals and track al Qaeda financing. A classified appendix to the report of the 2005 Robb-Silberman Commission on Intelligence Capabilities (which incidentally was leaked to the press) discussed several such leaks, noted the costs they impose on the American taxpayers and highlighted the damage they do to intelligence programs.

The fear that details of a sensitive program designed to assassinate al Qaeda operatives in foreign countries could be leaked was probably the reason for the Bush administration’s decision to withhold knowledge of the program from the U.S. Congress."

So, we should tell Congress what we're getting ready to do so that it can be and most likely will be leaked by political opponents of the Administration?  Now, we're going to haul people to testify before special committees and maybe appoint special prosecutors?  How unserious is the debate in Washington?  Apparently very unserious.

Note this interesting bit about how 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed escaped capture in 1996, 5 years before 9/11 thanks to a leak,

"A prime example of this occurred in 1996, when the United States asked the government of Qatar for assistance in capturing al Qaeda operational mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was living openly in Qatar and even working for the Qatari government as a project engineer. Mohammed was tipped off to American intentions by the Qatari authorities and fled to Pakistan. According to the 9/11 commission report, Mohammed was closely associated with Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalid al-Thani, who was then the Qatari minister of religious affairs. After fleeing Doha, Mohammed went on to plan several al Qaeda attacks against the United States, including the 9/11 operation."

Granted this was a leak apparently by a foreign government, but it is illustrative of the problem. 

If Congress is so upset, maybe its members should think long and hard about the next leak they give to the New York Times to embarass a political opponent.