DATA POURING IN FASTER THAN NSA CAN DECIPHER IT

New York Post ^ | 9/30/01 | GREG SEIGLE

[kattracks]

September 30, 2001 -- An overload of information from America's most secret computer program and the challenge of detecting encrypted online messages could be hampering the National Security Agency's efforts to locate terrorist Osama bin Laden.

The NSA's super-secret spy gizmo Echelon is spewing forth so much information, analysts can't keep pace with the growing mountains of clues that may lead to bin Laden's hidden lair, intelligence experts say.

[crypt2k]

Messages can be encrypted and then tucked away in digital and audio images and are next to impossible to detect.

The Bin Laden network can now communicate with impunity.

Terrorists have become the lowest snakes in a dense, dark electronic jungle.

[Fulbright]

So much data, so little coordination and connection of the dots.

I was thinking today of the holocaust sites and the $350 billion spent yearly on defense and intelligence vs. the $500,000 budget for the terror operations.

Real security would seem to be a matter of individual responsibility.

[Timesink]

boastful NSA officials used to replay recorded satellite telephone conversations between the master terrorist and his mother in his native Saudi Arabia.

I thought the Bin Laden family had DISOWNED Osama. If this is true, what's he doing on the phone to Mom? More importantly, how much of the Bin Laden fortune is Mom funneling to Osama's buddies?

[Fulbright]

Only a fool would discount importance of brotherhood and family when examining this clan.

[fordlight]

But last year those calls abruptly ceased, presumably because bin Laden realized that the NSA was snooping on him

Have you noticed reporters are no longer mentioning how Binsky found out?

He read it in a NEWSPAPER REPORT!

All the latest descriptions I've seen try to make it sound like we don't even know why he stopped using the phone.

I WANT TO KNOW THE REPORTER'S NAME!!

The name should be known and repeated and repeated.

No more of this false, fraudulent and misleading "presumably" stuff!!

(REPORTER: Well, I'll be darned! Bin Laden Down doesn't use the phone anymore! I wonder why!? Maybe he just up and figured it out on his own! I better not say anything about my stupid colleague, maybe they won't say anything about me. Professional Courtesy, and all.)

[denydenydeny]

The story of the NSA playing Osama's phone messages comes from James Bamford's book Body of Secrets, which was published in April 2001; most reviews of the book mentioned the Bin Laden detail.

[dr_who]

hmmm! Why are these college students from the same dorm ordering pizzas with THE SAME TOPPINGS?

[Spook86]

Overload has always been a problem in the Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) business. That's why NSA and its globals "partners" have to use key words and supercomputers to sort through the reams of material collected each day. Unless the material is collected by an airborne platform, or a ground-based post with specific target responsibilities, most conversations and other collected voice signals don't cross an analyst's work station unless they've been flagged by some sort of screening program. Of course, the fact that we lack enough linguists that speak "Pushto" (local Afghan dialect) only adds to the problem....

[codder too]

New York Times today,Sun 9/30/01 pg B3. Article on bin Laden family states that bin Laden was portrayed as a "loner in a large family. His mother, a Syrian, was set apart from other wives and the whisper of scandal that surrounded her may have deeply affected Osama bin Laden"

Wonder how many of the other 52 siblings "phoned" Mom(s)? Anyone know what the scandal was about?

[goodnesswins]

With 52 siblings....whoa....can you imagine the family squabbles, and keeping track of them.....??? Guess he decided to focus on terrorism instead of family.

[Nick Danger]

analysts can't keep pace with the growing mountains of clues

[clamboat]

I WANT TO KNOW THE REPORTER'S NAME!!
The name should be known and repeated and repeated.

The reporter has nothing to do with it. The reporter is not cleared for any level of secret information. No, I'm sorry to be the one to point this out to you but it is bastards in the NSA, yes our own government, who are so hungry for recognition that they will play a top-secret recording just to get their rocks off on how omniscient they are. When the reporter publishes what has been leaked they are no more at fault than I am.

[Common Tator]

Messages can be encrypted and then tucked away in digital and audio images and are next to impossible to detect

You are correct. There is no way to prevent secure communications over the internet outside of total destruction of the internet.

For a while some may use the open net or mildly encoded stuff for dis-information. Soon we will learn that if we can tell it is a message, it is fake.

[Common Tator]

Until recently, Echelon had such a firm tap on bin Laden that during briefings for visiting dignitaries, boastful NSA officials used to replay recorded satellite telephone conversations between the master terrorist and his mother in his native Saudi Arabia.

BULL DOUBLE YOU EYE SH*T! If Clinton had known how to get bin Laden, he would not have settled for two camel butts and an Aspirin factory.

[NittanyLion]

it is bastards in the NSA, yes our own government, who are so hungry for recognition that they will play a top-secret recording just to get their rocks off on how omniscient they are.

Exactly.

[thunderdome]

Yeah..we could all have our screensavers participating in a SETI@home type of project to decipher Echelon data...

...great graphic ND!