Even The Times Gets It

The capture of al-Qaeda operative Khan is paying off in dramatic ways. This however is troubling:

As part of the inquiry, Navy officials examined the record of a sailor aboard the Benfold, a destroyer that was part of the Constellation battle group. Officials said they had found an e-mail message from the sailor - who has since left the service - that was sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

I recall transiting the Straits of Hormuz in 1991. We were very close to the Iranian coastline and the Iranians sent gunboats out to harass us. I was manning a .50 caliber machine gun and was tracking the boats. It's a hairy area for naval vessels due to the chokepoint effect of Oman and Iran coming close together.

Update: More on the sailor accused of aiding the jihadi's:

The sailor, who left the Navy several years ago after a four-year enlistment, has been identified, but military and law enforcement officials would not comment on whether he has been located, detained, questioned or charged. ...
The e-mail messages extolled the bombing of the destroyer Cole in October 2000 and the actions of Muslim fighters in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya, according to the affidavit documents.
A return message from Ahmad’s computer account “praised the enlistee’s comments and encouraged the enlistee to ‘keep up with the dawah (an Arabic term for missionary work) and the psychological warefare (sic),’” the documents stated.
The sailor, in another e-mail, discussed an on-board briefing about protecting the ship from terrorist attacks like the Cole bombing, according to the documents. In that attack, an explosives-laden boat was brought alongside the destroyer while it was anchored in Aden, Yemen, and blown up. The explosion killed 17 sailors, including one from San Diego.
The same floppy disk contained a separate file describing the composition of the Constellation battle group, the ships’ planned movements and a drawing of the group’s formation for the transit of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage between the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, court documents said.

That is truly some scary stuff. The military has to clamp down on communications from ship to shore. Some will scream censorship but broadcating ship movements, especially in the Persian Gulf area can not be condoned.