Clinton exported NSA-ducking phone, high-tech encryption devices to Syria
Posted on 06/02/2006 2:52:42 PM PDT by MarshallDillon
DAY OF INFAMY 2001 U.S. equipped terror sponsors
WASHINGTON -- The dozen or so Islamic terrorists who pulled off the plot to strike at America's nerve centers in New York and Washington spent at least five years researching, planning and coordinating the surprise attacks, U.S. security officials say. And they did it completely in secret, using the world's most sophisticated telecommunications equipment, some secured by advanced encryption technology that most armies don't have.
Where did they get such state-of-the-art, military-related gear?
First, you have to appreciate the high degree of communications activity their mission required at each stage.
In researching their targets, the terrorists picked visible ones relatively easy to spot and hit at high air speeds, yet ones that would produce big casualties and provide symbolic blows to American morale. They had to pick airports close by, with weak security. They had to find jets with enough heft and wingspan – and fuel inside those wings – to cause major damage, yet not so large that they required extra crew.
Also, the Boeing 757s (narrow body) and 767s (wide body) they hijacked have similar cockpits and the same Federal Aviation Administration type rating, obviating additional cockpit training.
They also apparently studied passenger traffic patterns of airlines in order to pick flights with relatively few people aboard. All four flights had light passenger loads. The Boeing jets have passenger capacities ranging between 165 seats and 207 seats, yet American Flight 11 carried just 81 passengers; American Flight 77, only 58; United Flight 175, 56; and United Flight 93, a skeletal 38. Fewer passengers, fewer heroes to worry about.
And they were careful to book early flights to avoid tarmac delays, which would have scuttled their closely synchronized missions. All the doomed flights were the first out of the gates that morning, meaning there was no chance for in-bound flights to hold up their take-offs.
More key, the terrorists needed to select transcontinental flights with big fuel loads to turn the planes into giant petro-bombs. All four flights were bound for California. They also had to know flight patterns, and how to blind air-traffic controllers to the hijackings by turning off the planes' transponders, which send such warning signals, among other aviation information.
In planning the attack, they had to fashion weapons that they could sneak past airport security. Transportation Department officials think that they may have hedged their bets and even planted security people on the inside at Logan and Dulles airports, so that guards would look the other way when they came through metal detectors at the terminals.
The kamikaze pilots also had to log many hours on computer flight simulators with high-level graphics capability, to practice hitting their targets at full throttle. A Continental Airlines captain, who's flown both 757s and 767s, told WorldNetDaily he thinks they may have even added the World Trade Center and Pentagon to the simulator's visual database.
"At the airspeed of those strikes, which hit their targets dead on, the hand-eye coordination demands would be too high for casual flying skill -- with, or without, an autopilot engaged," he said.
They had to practice, moreover, navigating the jets to abruptly change their course, by as much as 180 degrees in some cases, after take-off. Flying them at low altitudes was also something they had to work on.
Synchronized terrorists
Finally, in executing their murderous missions, the 12 or so terrorists had to coordinate their activities, flawlessly, within a roughly two-hour stretch. And, for the most part, they did. They all got to the airport on time, they all got through security, they all boarded their flights, they all hijacked their flights and, with the exception of one group, they all hit their targets.
Pulling off such a complex plot would have generated an inordinate volume of communications -- whether by radio, cell phone, land line, fax or modem -- among the terrorists, among their Middle-Eastern sponsors and among commercial contacts here and abroad.
But somehow eavesdroppers at the super-secret National Security Agency -- with their billion-dollar satellite "birds" and other surveillance technology -- were deaf, dumb and blind to the wicked plot.
"The real issue in this tragedy is how the hell were these people able to plan and coordinate such a strike over a period of months without the NSA intercepting their signals?" demanded Peter M. Leitner, a senior strategic trade adviser at the Defense Department.
Leitner, who reviews commercial license applications for exports of some of the most sophisticated military-related technology, thinks he knows the answer.
"The technology that would allow these terrorists to mask their communications was given away, hand over fist, by the Clinton administration," he said in an interview with WorldNetDaily.
Leitner says the previous administration rubber-stamped the shipment of top-end military-related telecommunications equipment to Syria, which is on the FBI's list of sensitive countries that pose a threat to U.S. security.
"Syria is a terrorist-supporting nation," he said. "They provide infrastructure to bastards like [Osama] bin Laden. They provide backup and support and communications abilities to these terrorist cells."
So what kind of gear has Syria -- and likely bin Laden, by way of Syria -- gotten from America?
Spread-spectrum radios
"We're giving them spread-spectrum radios, which are almost impossible to break into. We're giving them fiber optics. We're giving them a high level of encryption. We're giving them computer networks that can't be tapped," Leitner said.
Spread-spectrum radios, originally designed for military use only, change their frequency constantly.
"Bin Laden's cells aren't having any trouble communicating anymore," Leitner said.
Bin Laden, the world's No. 1 terrorist and the Pentagon's chief suspect in Tuesday's attacks, is known to use portable satellite telephones, advanced encryption cell phones and other encrypted telephony equipment, as well as secure computer networks -- all compliments of U.S. technology, Leitner says.
"If people are worried about how these people were able to coordinate and communicate something like this -- which had to be pretty extensively coordinated -- without it being intercepted, it's because of the crap we've been selling these people," he said.
"How can you penetrate their networks when you can't even eavesdrop on their conversations?" he said.
"You can't stop them when they're coming right at your building," he said. "But, damn it, you should be able to stop them months in advance by breaking up their networks."
Leitner posits that the NSA wasn't able to detect the Islamic terrorists' plot because of the "high quality of the communications gear that they've been acquiring over the last couple of years, thanks to the Clinton administration's decontrols on advanced telecommunications equipment."
Terrorists' secured telecom gear "makes it infinitely more difficult to get even early warning signs" about their activities, he said.
Tuesday's attacks took the entire U.S. government, including the intelligence community, by surprise.
"We had no specific warning of the U.S. attacks," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., ranking minority member of the Intelligence Committee.
Complete surprise
The Pentagon issued an alert of "Threat Con Alpha" the day before the attack, which meant that no threats were on the horizon. The same alert was issued the morning of the attack.
"We got no word of anything," Leitner said.
"We weren't warned of anything," another Pentagon official told WorldNetDaily.
Asked Tuesday if he had any inkling of the plot, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dodged the question: "We don't discuss intelligence matters."
Three weeks ago, some overseas papers quoted bin Laden saying that a major strike against the U.S. was coming soon. But there were no specifics. And bin Laden reportedly sent an e-mail to unknown government sources three days ago warning holy hell would break out. But again, he didn't say how, when or where.
Still, it's baffling that the U.S. intelligence community didn't pick up, early on, any specifics of the complex and long-planned plot through electronic intercepts and signals intelligence.
But it's actually not that baffling, Leitner asserts, against the backdrop of loose government controls on dual-use telecom exports.
"I've testified to Congress that it will take serious numbers of body bags before we wake up to the need to tighten dual-use export controls," he said. "Unfortunately, we've got them now."
"This is so tragic and yet so preventable," he said. "Now we're going to have to knock out their [terrorist] camps, just like we had to bomb the Iraqis several times now to try to take out the fiber-optics network that the Chinese are installing in Iraq's air-defense systems."
"Yet, it was the Clinton administration that gave the Chinese the technology to give to Iraq," he noted.
The Bush administration apparently hasn't woken up, either.
Wake-up call
In June, Leitner was asked by the Commerce Department to OK a new round of exports of dual-use telecom equipment to Syria. He denied the request, and was asked to reconsider. He denied it again, arguing in a letter to Karen Vogel, the Commerce export licensing officer who requested the approval, that:
"Doing so vastly upgrades the C3 and C41 systems of the Syrian military and Intelligence Services. My concerns are also obviously compounded by the fact that Syria is one of the foremost state sponsors of terrorism."
Leitner continued: "Since an 'upgraded telecom infrastructure' will also greatly facilitate Syrian planning, coordination, secrecy and execution of terrorist acts, as well as direct military communications, I see absolutely no basis for any position other than a denial."
Vogel argued in an earlier letter that her request came on the heels of eight previous approvals of licenses for similar exports to Syria.
"There's still a lot of things inside the government involving national security that have just got to be changed," Leitner said.
Another senior Pentagon official who specializes in counterterrorism says his own faith in the U.S. intelligence community has been shattered.
"This full-court press by terrorists blows the hell out of the line that we've been hearing for years from the intelligence community that if they try anything big, we'll know about it and warn you. Anything bigger than a couple of people, don't worry, we'll know about it," he said. "Well, I guess they didn't."
When will America and the President wake up .... if at all?
Berger stonewalled the Energy Department about Chinese spying in Los Alamos for three years.
People talk about how we have not been hit again yet. The reason we have not been hit is that they have chosen not to hit us yet. It's likely that the islamic rascals along with the Mexican and South American gangs have already smuggled a number of MANPADS in to the US. How hard could that be with the border wide open?
9/11 should have been anough to secure the country but apparently it's going to take something even more frightening before people wake up. I pray that does not happen.
Clinton exported NSA-ducking phone, high-tech encryption devices to Syria
"just like we had to bomb the Iraqis several times now to try to take out the fiber-optics network that the Chinese are installing in Iraq's air-defense systems."
"Yet, it was the Clinton administration that gave the Chinese the technology to give to Iraq," he noted."
? I'm confused. We've bombed Iraqi defense systems?
No telling. I am an importer, and have had some of my items -from Russia- inspected. Most have not. I think there has long since been a hostile takeover of the U.S. Government -from within. DHS is a mirror image of the Soviet Interior Ministry, and no wonder since the USGOVT hired Yevgeny Primakov and Marcus Wolf as consultants. see http://www.infowars.com/resources.html
bttt
Do you feel safer now?
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/spy_wolf_hired_homeland_security.htm
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/kgb_chief_home_at_homeland_security.htm
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan05/Whitney0121.htm
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/12/302870.html
ping for later
September 12, 2001 | Paul Sperry
Bump for later-important thread!
OOhhh...Thanks. I'm usually a bit more observant. But it's Friday. :~ )
Major Bump...
Your boy Bubba...
Because this smelling mess can be laid at Clintons feet.
Bump!
If the next move is nukes in ten cities, the U.S. will never be the nation it once was.
I wish the government would wake up, but it's like they're sleep walking.
ping
do I really have to say it???
I wish the government would wake up, but it's like they're sleep walking.
Clinton did that and gave missile guidance technology to China so they could nuke us everywhere in the USA.
Just great, someone keep an eye on where this guy is on 6/6/06.
Clinton is an over-educated, over-rationaizing fool who doesn't know how to recognize an enemy when he sees one. And that goes for his wife, too.
If this is true, we can chalk this up to Clinton's 'legacy.' He's done more damage to America than any other President that I can recall. I pray that President Bush listens and learns!
A recent prophetic word was given that at least 7 cities are in danger of a nuke attack. I can't recall all of them, but NYC, Washington, San Francisco and Chicago in the US were among them. Also a city in Canada. I think it may have been Montreal but am not 100 percent sure. Oh, also Cincinnati. If you live in any of these cities, please caution people to BE AWARE and WATCHFUL.
You hit the nail on the head.
Dammit.
That goes for pretty much all Liberals. They think Republicans are the enemy. Fools all.
More likely sold them to Syria. Then you have China and their financial 'donations' and the donations he received from Saudi Arabia. He was a very busy boy. His presidency only served to make him rich.
Sounds like some more SUPER AWFUL TREASON by Billdo, to me.
What a piece of human refuse.
Let us hope you are right. I remain unconvinced. With what I can see taking place, I'm very skeptical they've gotten the message and done all they could.
People do need to be aware as much as possible these days.
I wonder if any of this is peripherally-related to Berger stuffing documents into his crotch.
We sure do. Even in small town USA!
Spread Spectrum radios are impossible to intercept or monitor. I guess NSA should just close up shop.
Clinton was a real helpful guy, alright. (BARF)
Skimming the article, I didn’t notice any evidence that the 9/11 terrorist used spread-spectrum anything. No mention of who else made and exported spread-spectrum radios before we decontrolled them. Unless I missed something, this is typical factually misleading WND drama.
I don't see how this article could have been written the day after the attack.
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