Posted on 05/21/2006 5:40:38 AM PDT by Laverne
I just read an article that quoted "unnamed" existing sources in the NSA. I REALLY hope that isn't true. The article went into GREAT detail on how they used the phone records and what types of patterns they were looking for. I hope the NSA leaks are false, but if not, I just read a novel way in a history book of dealing with the traitors.
Hang them until they dance, pull them down still alive, cut their entrails out, burn the entrails as they watch, then cut off their heads. (around 1690 - New York City) However, the penalty for the two I read about was reduced from the prescribed sentence. They were hung until they danced, then cut down, then went directly to the head chopping.
Got a link?
Seriously though. While intelligence sources and methods need protection, some, even most, of what those methods are is pretty darned obvious to anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together. This would be especially true of such "traffic analysis". It's a very old technique. At one time the only ID they had for the various "nodes" in the network (akin to a telephone number or MAC address on your PC) was the "fist" or operating style of the operator of the telegraph key used in sending out the Morse code. The actual information would be encrypted and might or might not be able to be "read".
Well, that starts with a hanging. Then after strangling for a while, they cut you down, revive you, cut open your gut, and "draw" out your intestines, which are burned on a brazier while still attached. Assuming you are still alive, that is fixed by "quartering" you, or cutting your body into four pieces for public display.
As G.I. Joe would say, "Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!"
I read it in the Seattle Times a few days ago. I'm pretty sure it was two guys still in NSA they said were their sources. (It was probably an AP story or some such).
It talked about the type of call patterns (and explained them in detail) that they observed by going back and looking at the records pre-9/11. I suppose it is fairly basic - but still seemed to me to be giving WAY to much information. (Maybe I just need a few more brain cells to rub together!)
But - didn't bin Laden quit using a SAT phone once it was reported that that is how we had tracked him down to somewhere?
So we can't discuss the new military death ray here at all? :O
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