According to the article:

THE FBI’S ARREST of London-based arms dealer Hemant Lakhani, 68, at a hotel room near Newark Liberty International Airport this week was supposed to be only an interim step in what officials hoped would be a far more meaningful long-term operation, law-enforcement sources said. The bureau’s plan was to quickly flip Lakhani, a British citizen of Indian extraction, and then use him as an undercover informant who could lead agents to real-life Osama bin Laden operatives seeking sophisticated weapons.

But those plans went awry late Tuesday afternoon when the Feds learned that the BBC was about to broadcast a sensational report on Lakhani’s arrest by one of its star correspondents, Tom Mangold. The BBC story, based on an apparent leak from a law-enforcement source, had some key details wrong. For one thing, it falsely claimed that the arms dealer’s attempted sale of a shoulder-fired SA-18 missile and launder was part of a plot by terrorists to shoot down Air Force One—a target that never actually came up in the discussions.

So, it sounds like this guy is a relatively small fish who was going to be used as bait for the really big fish until someone leaked the story. I hope they find the person who leaked the story and slowly castrate him with a dull, dirty, rusty butter knife. Too bad most news organizations lack the character or knowledge of when hold back "news" stories when a hot tidbit drops in their lap. The people do have a right to know, but they don't always need to know everything right now.