The Bergen Record
Bin Laden is said to have advantage in communications
Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile wanted for allegedly masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, has better communications technology than the United States, according to the director of the National Security Agency.
Gen. Mike Hayden, who heads the U.S. supersecret intelligence agency, said in a rare interview that Bin Laden was able to orchestrate almost simultaneous bombings without NSA detection because he has more resources.
"Osama bin Laden has at his disposal the wealth of a $3 trillion a year telecommunications industry that he can rely on," Hayden told CBS' "60 Minutes II" in an interview that will be broadcast Tuesday night. "That's why. He has better technology."
Hayden said his agency is "behind the curve in keeping up with the global telecommunications revolution."
Prosecutors have portrayed the 1998 blasts at U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as part of a worldwide plot by Bin Laden. Twelve Americans were among the 224 people killed. Four men are standing trial in New York in the plot.
Later in the interview, Hayden recounted how a telecommunications failure within the agency made Americans around the world more vulnerable to terrorists for three days in January 2000. All the agency's computers at headquarters had failed.
"NSA headquarters was brain-dead. We had some residual ability at our locations around the world, but I don't want to trivialize this. This was really bad," Hayden said.
Considered the eavesdropping branch of the intelligence community, the NSA gathers information through satellites, telephone intercepts, and other methods. Not much else is known about the NSA. Employees joke that the agency's initials stand for "No Such Agency."
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WASHINGTON
The money transfers, which began more than five years ago, have been used to finance several terrorist acts by bin Laden, including the attempted assassination in 1995 of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia, the officials said. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is expected to raise the issue with Prince Sultan, the Saudi defense minister, during his visit to Washington next week. Saudi Arabia, the main U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, has pledged to fight terrorism. According to a Saudi government audit acquired by U.S. intelligence, five of Saudi Arabia's top businessmen ordered the National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom's largest, to transfer personal funds, along with $ 3 million diverted from a Saudi pension fund, to New York and London banks. |
The money was deposited into the accounts of Islamic charities, including Islamic Relief and Blessed Relief, that serve as fronts for bin Laden. The businessmen, who are worth more than $ 5 billion, are paying bin Laden "protection money" to stave off attacks on their businesses in Saudi Arabia, intelligence officials said. Bin Laden, whose family runs the largest Saudi construction firm, has called for the overthrow of the Saudi government. The money transfers were discovered in April after the royal family ordered an audit of NCB and its founder and former chairman, Khalid bin Mahfouz, U.S. officials say. Mahfouz is now under "house arrest" at a military hospital in the Saudi city of Taif, intelligence officials said. His successor, Mohammad Hussein al-Amoudi, also heads the Capitol Trust Bank in New York and London, which U.S. and British officials are investigating for allegedly transferring money to bin Laden. Amoudi's Washington lawyer, Vernon Jordan, could not be reached for comment. Mahfouz's son, Abdul Rahman Mahfouz, is on the board of Blessed Relief in Sudan. Suspects in the Mubarak attack are linked to the charity. Bin Laden faces U.S. criminal charges for allegedly masterminding the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. Bin Laden, who is in Afghanistan, denies the charges. Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan declined to comment on the reports. |
Washington DC
The USA's National Security Agency (NSA) has announced plans to privatise up to $5 billion worth of its non-mission-related information technology (IT) operations. The move is aimed at improving the NSA's eavesdropping capabilities in the information age and to save money. NSA Director Air Force Lt Gen Michael Hayden approved the outsourcing plan, described as the largest federal government IT competition, after a 15-month feasibility study called Project Groundbreaker. Bids are due in for the project by year-end.