Posted on 06/27/2002 5:54:35 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
The FBI is eyeing unidentified experts who are tracing American computer systems from sites overseas, with the possible intention of mounting terrorist attacks, according to a Washington Post report.
And a Defense Department report sees "multiple casings of sites,” the paper reported in Thursday’s editions.
Many of the computer traces – which seem to be seeking information on American power and telephone grids, and other infrastructures - are routed through Saudi Arabia, according to the report. Experts said the surveillance does not necessarily suggest a cyber-attack, but that it could mean that far-away assailants are simply trying to get information via computer in order to stage a conventional attack.
The Post said the information has “led some government experts to conclude that terrorists are at the threshold of using the Internet as a direct instrument of bloodshed.”
Law enforcement and national security officials said information turned up on al Qaeda computers seized in January by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. A computer taken from an al Qaeda office contained models of a dam, for example. The models were made with structural architecture and engineering software that enabled the user to simulate various catastrophic failure scenarios. Bush administration officials declined to say whether they had identified a specific dam as a possible target.
The newspaper also said some al Qaeda prisoners have told interrogators about intentions, in general terms, to use those tools.
The intelligence community hasn't reached a consensus on the seriousness of the threat. But a top counter terrorism official says it's “a question of when, not if.”
Or they could just watch the Discovery channel.
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