F.B.I. Chief Criticizes Times on Qaeda Source

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/16/us/fbi-chief-criticizes-times-on-qaeda-source.html

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WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, sharply criticized The New York Times on Thursday for anonymously quoting a member of a terrorist group in an article about the deadly attacks last week in France.

The article, which ran on the front page on Thursday, quoted a member of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who addressed the timing of the attacks. The Qaeda member said that although the operations were executed by one man who had ties to the Qaeda group and another who had ties to the Islamic State, the coordination was a result of their friendship — not of common planning between the groups.

“Your decision to grant anonymity to a spokesperson for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula so he could clarify the role of his group in assassinating innocents, including a wounded police officer, and distinguish it from the assassination of other innocents in Paris in the name of another group of terrorists, is both mystifying and disgusting,” Mr. Comey said in a letter to The Times.

He added: “I fear you have lost your way and urge you to reconsider allowing your newspaper to be used by those who have murdered so many and work every day to murder more.”

The article did not say why The Times did not name the individual, who communicates with news organizations through a mobile messaging application.

Michael Slackman, the international managing editor for The New York Times, defended the decision to use anonymity.

“The individual quoted anonymously has for several weeks provided accurate insight and information into the thinking and actions of AQAP,” Mr. Slackman said. “The material was generally central to the news, in one case noting that Al Qaeda and the Islamic State had not jointly planned the attacks in Paris.”