Posted on 06/26/2002 3:56:37 PM PDT by Timesink
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:41 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Unsettling signs of al Qaeda's aims and skills in cyberspace have led some government experts to conclude that terrorists are at the threshhold of using the Internet as a direct instrument of bloodshed. The new threat bears little resemblance to familiar financial disruptions by hackers responsible for viruses and worms. It comes instead at the meeting points between computers and the physical structures they control.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Most of the guys I work with are blissfully asleep at the wheel. Most laugh and make fun of anyone who speaks about the possible demise of our way of life.
It could happen that hams will be needed again. Especially those who read code.
I would hope that any really critical control networks were never connected to "the internet" in the first place! Sheesh. Would they actually put something like the control valves to a nuke plant or a dam on outside access where hackers could snoop in the first place? Not likely IMHO.
g
Think again. Most of the terrorists in the Al-Quaida leadership structure are from very wealthy, highly educated Saudi families. Mohammad Atta's father is a prominent surgeon. If you read the profiles of the 19 hijackers, many were from wealthy Saudi families.
An even scarier idea is the number of muslim "students" being taught in our Universities. These students are going from the college campuses straight into OUR hi-tech, pharmaceutical, government, bio-tech, and financial institutions to work. To think that they have not already infiltrated every level of our financial structure is pure folly. INS has not placed any checks and balances into the student visa's and we have paid, and will pay the price.
There is a significant prision population that has converted to the muslim religion. They are being trained to utilize computers and other hi-tech equipment, as a way to help them find work when they are released. We also have major corporations, including financial corporations using the educated prison population as cheap labor to process sensitive customer information.
Even the most recent attack we thwarted, an attack on ships near Gibralter, was a repeat of the Cole attack scenario. I'm still not convinced that these losers who are attacking us are the brightest bulbs.
D
My concern had been that just as after 9/11 many groups and individuals who had supported Jihad withdrew their support out of disgust- so did the opposite happen- young people and groups who might otherwise not have supported bin Laden would've suddenly seen him as having an effective strategy and a just cause. I find it plausible that many young Muslims who have hacker/advanced computer skills who had been planning to have a nice career in the industry might have gone off and donated their services to "The Foundation" and its cause. Think about all those Muslims in Germany in the universities who might have been radicalized by the events and got on a plane bound for Pakistan and other points of call in the Islamic world- just as we know that many in Britain and America went to Pakistan to try to physically fight the coalition.
I think al Qaeda probably had no shortage of volunteers after 9/11 who just might have the skills to pull something like this off. These messages recently, allegedly from al Qaeda, that state "We will attack them where they do not expect it" certainly raise a few questions. They could've just been blowing hot air but I've been puzzling on that particular wording ever since. Where would be the perfect target that we least expect?
They aren't!
I hope that it is as easy as you fear, because I don't have the slightest doubt that we're trying to put our folks into al-Qaida right now. No doubt whatsoever.
I can't think of a better way to defeat them than to infiltrate them.
Infiltrating has been the sticky point so far hasn't it? Hard for Joe Blow from Kansas to pass himself off as a Muslim dedicated to the jihad.
I sincerely hope that the Defense Language Institute is chock full of students learning Arabic right now (as well as Parsi or whatever else it is they speak). Had the chance to go to the DLI when I enlisted (after getting a good score on the DLAB test). Drill Seargent said I'd probably be learning Arabic (this was just before the Gulf War) and that dissuaded me from pursuing that particular avenue of training. I wish I had now, maybe I could be of some use.
I hope the CIA is on this thing. Surely, there has to be some hardball type Muslim out there that would be willing to take a lot of cash to crack the al Qaeda nut. I hope they find him because, as you say, a mole would be their undoing.
The problem with that is that morally, you don't want to commit an act of terrorism.
That's why they require you to do it, of course. They don't want Joe 6-Pack the ethical American CIA agent to infiltrate them, so they put the 'initiation' in to deter him by using his conscience against him.
So, if you grant the guy a pass to commit the required act, in hopes of a successful infiltration and averting much greater attacks in the future, the fact remains that your man committed an act of terror.
While this is an understandable neccesity under the circumstances, be prepared to be beaten with that fact once the information sees the light of day through a freedom of information release or from a lawyer or congressleaker privy to the information. Expect to see the antiwar, antiCIA, anti this or that folks use that one act against you, without regard to the big picture. Maybe they will associate an infiltrator's neccessary actions with big oil, the bilderbergers, or the Mickey Mouse Club. They will do so in vain at first, but over time people will come to be outraged at the smaller act, and ignore the terrible acts that were prevented because you had access to insider info.
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