On The Third Hand

Since September 11^th many old, and new technologies have been used to keep abreast of what the jihadist cut throats are planning. The Predator drone is an example. Originaly designed as an unmanned aerial reconnaissance and surveillance vehicle, it has evolved into something more. Central Intelligence Agency used a missile-armed Predator in November 2002 to strike a car carrying six suspected al-Qaida operatives, including one suspected of masterminding the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S Cole.

The controversial ECHELON program operated by the NSA is used to monitor communications on a global scale. As a side note, due to the loose lips of a couple of Congress creeps the hunt for Osama bin Laden became a tougher job after they were quoted in the press about ECHELON’s abilities. Shortly thereafter OBL and his cohorts ceased using cellphones.

Science and technology has made the current fight against the jihadists easier, safer for our troops and more productive. And “science” marches on as seen in this report from India.[Author disclaimer: Please don your foilhats before continueing. Thank You - ed]

Using powerful electromagnetic radio frequency energy to silence transmissions and a modification of the same to send blocked messages or another version that can watch communication with an automated algorithm are common. But what can you do when the terrorist is sending communication with real human messenger.

Human intelligence (HUMINT) is one answer. Placeing special forces on the ground has been successful in intercepting a few jihadist messengers attempting to get word out of, and into Iraq.

But these “scientists” are thinking “out of the box,” WAY OUT!

The scientists and engineers looked at the extraterrestrial technologies. According to some UFO researchers, the extraterrestrials are everywhere. They watch us and communicate with us all the time without our knowledge. The scientists started looking at the technologies that make physical objects invisible. These are very tiny unmanned modular objects that can move around in space using anti-gravity lift and electromagnetic flux as stealth. These are silent, propagate and navigate automatically and are invisible even at night under night vision infra red vehicles. They can travel with an adversary even below the ground. Once data is collected it can provide a clear map where the adversary is or their base camp is. They can self propagate and navigate back to their satellite bases in the terrestrial orbit or a suborbital space capsule.

Again the problem lies in materials engineering, propagation, and navigation and advanced next generation stealth. The answer to all these are available once the extraterrestrial UFOs are reverse engineered.

Why am I not surprised these “scientists” are unnamed and the report is published by the India Daily. If you recall they also published a report concerning the tsunami that detailed “some entity doing underground research with moving plates.” And “that some countries have research projects on creating artificial earthquakes.”

With the exception of a quick stopover in Delhi, India enroute to Bahrain I have not had the opportunity displeasure to puruse a dead tree copy of the India Daily. From these two examples of “journalism” I suspect they are on par with the National Inquirer in the States, but I could be wrong. In that case I do have a suggestion for the powers that be in the US intelligence community.

We are all aware Al Gore is famous for “inventing” the internet. He also gave a speech in NYC on global warming on one of the cities coldest days in history. (Not to mention a presidential bid that suffered an early arrest from the political blasé police) Given Al’s propensity to embrace “out of the box” thinking - and not so incidently having a closet full of tinfoil hats - I propose he be named to head a new NSA department to study reverse engineering of extraterrestrial technologies.

I’ll even chip in few bucks to finance his first foriegn trip in search of “unnamed scientists” and East Indian extraterrestrials.

Cross posted within the Cranial Cavity

US military denies conducting spy flights over Iran

If the military isn’t, I sincerely hope someone is!

U.S. Uses Drones to Probe Iran For Arms

The Bush administration has been flying surveillance drones over Iran for nearly a year to seek evidence of nuclear weapons programs and detect weaknesses in air defenses, according to three U.S. officials with detailed knowledge of the secret effort.

The small, pilotless planes, penetrating Iranian airspace from U.S. military facilities in Iraq, use radar, video, still photography and air filters designed to pick up traces of nuclear activity to gather information that is not accessible by satellites, the officials said. The aerial espionage is standard in military preparations for an eventual air attack and is also employed as a tool for intimidation.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States, concerned Iran is covertly developing nuclear arms, has no plans to attack “at this time.” (Geert Vanden Wijngaert – AP)

The Iranian government, using Swiss channels in the absence of diplomatic relations with Washington, formally protested the incursions as illegal, according to Iranian, European and U.S. officials, all speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

A U.S. official acknowledged that drones were being used but said the Iranian complaint focused on aircraft overflights by the Pentagon. The United States, the official said, replied with a denial that manned U.S. aircraft had crossed Iran’s borders. The drones were first spotted by dozens of Iranian civilians and set off a national newspaper frenzy in late December over whether the country was being visited by UFOs.

Actually, I recall reading about a minor frenzy right after the Bam earthquake, which I suspect was caused by the same (alleged by anonymous sources and Iranian government) drones. I hope this report is correct, since I think we would be very stupid not to be spying on the Iranian government’s activities, considering its attempted interference in Iraq, its support for terrorists and its undying hatred of the ‘Great Satan’ (Khomenei being the person that coined that term). But, as always, I wonder if it’s a leak or if it’s psyops.

Women’s magazine offers tips to terrorists

Al Qaeda has introduced an online women’s magazine with articles including dietary advice for suicide bombers and tips on how to “dominate the passions” before blowing yourself up, according to Italy’s SISDE secret service.

SISDE analysts disclosed the existence of Al Khansa, the unusual monthly Internet publication for female militants that is hosted by several Islamist Web sites, in the Italian spy service’s quarterly review Gnosis.

Excuse me? The BBC had a report on this magazine back in August of last year. A number of blogs commented on it (that’s a small sample). And Italy’s secret service is just now ‘disclosing it’? Amazing.

…Berger admits removing 40 to 50 top-secret documents from the archives, but claims it was an “honest mistake” made while he vetted documents for the 9/11 commission’s probe into the Twin Towers attacks.

An “honest mistake"? 40-50 documents? Excuse me. I could believe that of 1 or 2 documents. I might even stretch it to 10 or so, if they were on post-it-notes. But forty or more? I don’t think so.

Hat tip to Ace. He has more here.

Reporter Avoids Jail in Source Disclosure Case

A Rhode Island television reporter was sentenced to six months of house arrest on Thursday for refusing to reveal the identity of a source.

A federal judge convicted investigative journalist Jim Taricani last month of criminal contempt for not saying who gave him a surveillance videotape in a FBI corruption investigation. After the conviction, a defense lawyer came forward and identified himself as Taricani’s source.

My only question is, when does the defense lawyer get convicted of criminal contempt for refusing to reveal his or her source?

Tenet calls for Internet security

Former CIA Director George J. Tenet yesterday called for new security measures to guard against attacks on the United States that use the Internet, which he called “a potential Achilles’ heel.”

“I know that these actions will be controversial in this age when we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability,” he told an information-technology security conference in Washington, “but ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control.”

Note to Tenet: It’s the very lack of “governance and control” that is the Internet’s greatest defence. I hope Porter Goss has a better understanding of the concept. If he doesn’t, I’m quite willing to explain it to him, in detail. (And, yes, I do have contacts that could get me a hearing.)

Hat tip to Screaming Memes, the only site I know of that rivals Protein Wisdom for just-plain-weirdness.

(And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Jeff were involved in both.)

Porter Goss writes an internal memo to CIA staff and it immediately gets leaked to the press.

This has got to stop. The CIA is supposed to mess around with the politics in enemy countries, not it the US. Nor is this something that is a new problem. You might want to check out some of the quotes here.

The point is that CIA staff should be providing good intelligence to whatever administration is in office. They should not be providing intelligence to the press in order to influence the government for their own benefit.

It’s war: the CIA vs Bush

Fearing its boundless power and authority will be seriously eroded, the Central Intelligence Agency is mounting a not-so-covert operation - in the media against the Bush White House - for its very survival.

It is “an insurgency", in the words of a Wall Street Journal editorial, that the CIA is unlikely to win.

However, failure is not a result the beleaguered agency is unfamiliar with, given its inability to stop the September 11 attacks – even though it knew a number of the terrorist hijackers were in the US – and its infamous assertion that finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq would be a “slam dunk".

With Congress debating the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, which will certainly see the CIA’s powers curtailed and the agency re-made, the world’s most notorious spy organisation has become “dysfunctional” and a “rogue agency", influential Republican senator John McCain said yesterday.

Senator McCain echoed the anger within the White House over the CIA “old guard” trying to get John Kerry elected by leaking unflattering stories about the Bush administration during the final month of the presidential campaign.

With former Florida Republican and Bush political ally Porter Goss as new head of the CIA, the career spies have mounted a rear-guard action, which consists of leaking stories about the lowest morale at the agency since the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, and the danger of experienced operatives being forced out to settle political scores.

Kind of sad when you have to go all the way to an Australian news source before you find an article in the mainstream press that isn’t taking the CIA’s leaks as fact….

Btw, I scare-quoted “shakeup” in the title because I don’t think Goss is “shaking up” the CIA. I think he’s kicking butt and taking names. And it’s about time.

Tonecluster is linking, and quoting, a report at Drudge (I won’t link Drudge, I hate sites that use popups, even if I don’t see them) that Porter Goss is shaking up the CIA big-time!

Exactly why I hoped he’d be appointed. If anyone can straighten them out, he can. Go, Goss!

Those pesky terrorists

Whether he intended it or not, John Kerry’s much commented upon statement — that terrorism should be reduced to a nuisance like prostitution or gambling — has engaged the central issue of this presidential campaign. His statement was neither an accident nor as easily dismissed as many people have asserted. Rather, it reflects the institutional policy of the CIA, and is at the heart of the almost open warfare between the Bush White House and the CIA.

To give Mr. Kerry his due, let me quote his entire statement: “We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance. As a former law-enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”

Since the rise of modern terrorism in the 1960s and 1970s, the CIA has viewed terrorism as essentially a permanent fever to be managed. Sometimes it spikes, sometimes it subsides. It should not be moralized into a fight to the death, as with Hitler’s Germany. This view was well expressed by the CIA’s Paul Pillar, currently on the CIA’s National Intelligence Council and the author of the recent pessimistic National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq that was leaked to the New York Times last month.

So Kerry is taking the CIA (and State Dept.) postition? That’s pretty interesting stuff.

I made the comment yesterday, regarding the school warnings, that no-one seemed to be mentioning the information from Iraq that a man had downloaded school crisis plans. Robin left a link in the comments there this morning, to a ABC News report that does mention the Iraqi. (Thanks, Robin!)

Here’s the part that hits a bit close to home (emphasis mine).

School officials in Fort Myers, Fla.; Salem, Ore.; Gray, Ga.; Birch Run, Mich.; two towns in New Jersey; and two towns in California have been told to increase security in light of the discovery.

Fort Myers, Fl is “Lee County” schools. The nearest Ft Myers school is about 10 minutes from where I live. Also, if I’m not mistaken, any crisis plans would be for the whole county, including Cape Coral, where I live. If I were a teacher here, I’d be demanding permission to pack a gun at school (or be carrying one secretly).