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Echelon on overdrive
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
DATA POURING IN FASTER THAN NSA CAN DECIPHER IT By GREG SEIGLE
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. Echelon, a computerized interception program so powerful authorities do not officially acknowledge its existence, is gathering data so fast that investigators are drowning in new information as they attempt to sift through the past year's data, much of which now needs to be more closely scrutinized, sources say. The backlog of intercepted communiqu?s from the Middle East, Africa and even the United States is so massive that it's possible NSA agents already possess recorded communications between terrorists who planned the Sept. 11 kamikaze atrocities in New York and Washington - but haven't had time to decode them, sources said. "They spend too much time collecting information and not enough time deciphering and analyzing," said James Bamford, author of the only two books about the NSA - this year's "Body of Secrets" and 1982's "The Puzzle Palace." The far-reaching power of Echelon seemingly has not gone unnoticed by bin Laden. 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. But last year those calls abruptly ceased, presumably because bin Laden realized that the NSA was snooping on him - ending intercepts that could pinpoint his location and expose him to targeted air or ground strikes. "The guy has a lot of survival instincts," said Charles Duelfer, a former top U.N. investigator and now a terrorism scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/5334.htm
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. Echelon, a computerized interception program so powerful authorities do not officially acknowledge its existence, is gathering data so fast that investigators are drowning in new information as they attempt to sift through the past year's data, much of which now needs to be more closely scrutinized, sources say. The backlog of intercepted communiqu?s from the Middle East, Africa and even the United States is so massive that it's possible NSA agents already possess recorded communications between terrorists who planned the Sept. 11 kamikaze atrocities in New York and Washington - but haven't had time to decode them, sources said. "They spend too much time collecting information and not enough time deciphering and analyzing," said James Bamford, author of the only two books about the NSA - this year's "Body of Secrets" and 1982's "The Puzzle Palace." The far-reaching power of Echelon seemingly has not gone unnoticed by bin Laden. 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. But last year those calls abruptly ceased, presumably because bin Laden realized that the NSA was snooping on him - ending intercepts that could pinpoint his location and expose him to targeted air or ground strikes. "The guy has a lot of survival instincts," said Charles Duelfer, a former top U.N. investigator and now a terrorism scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/5334.htm