You posted: " We can assume that the FBI or CIA has operatives inside of AQ, but even if we didn't then what harm would it cause for AQ to start viewing everyone as a possible leak? They ought to be thinking that way anyway. "
They did ....... back before 9/11, OBL decided that the best thing for him to do was to decentralize his operations in case he got caught. That way, he can be tortured and the Al Qida cells in Manhattan, Chicago, Indianapolis, Richmond, Miami, Columbus, Dallas, Cleveland, Birmingham, St Louis, San Diego, and the other 200 American cities where Al Qida is located en masse will continue to function. They broke up a cell in Montpelier, Virginia for heavens sake. The only reason they caught them is that they were playing paintball (on the same field that I used to play on) and they were overheard talking about attacking American installations.
It just doesn't matter in the overall scheme whether we have penetrated a cell or two. It will not bring down the bulk of the operations.