- He who lies most, lies worst. President Bush is contending
that a government leak about Osama Bin Laden using his satellite phone
in 1998 resulted in the Al Qaeda leader avoiding the phone or "going
dark," to use an National Security Agency (NSA) term. That, Bush maintains,
resulted in an intelligence failure.
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- Once again, Bush is just plain lying (along with being
misinformed). It was no secret that Bin Laden stopped using his satellite
phone in 1996 after Chechen President Dzhokar Dudayev was killed by a Russian
air-to-ground missile as he was talking on his satellite phone. In that
case, Dudayev erred by keeping his conversation longer than two minutes,
ample time for a joint Russian-US operation to pinpoint his location using
an overhead U.S. communications intelligence satellite. The editor reported
and spoke in detail on that operation in 1996 ("DID NSA HELP
RUSSIA TARGET DUDAYEV?"
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- by Wayne Madsen, Covert Action Quarterly, Summer 1997.
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- Strong evidence suggests that the US, in violation of
its ban on assassination, used the world's most sophisticated satellite
technology to help Russia target the Chechen leader, and boost both Yeltsin's
and Clinton's election chances.)and was once berated by a senior Pentagon
officer for referring to the public news reports concerning it in an address
to a seminar in Tyson's Corner, Virginia. Also, from Wayne Madsen, "Report
Alleges US Role in Angola Arms-for-Oil Scandal," CorpWatch, May 17,
2002:
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- "Jardo Muekalia, who headed UNITA's Washington office
until it was forced to close in 1997, says that that the military forces
that ultimately succeeded in assassinating [Jonas] Savimbi were supported
by commercial satellite imagery and other intelligence support provided
by Houston-based Brown & Root, Cheney's old outfit. Both the State
Department and Pentagon vehemently deny any US government role in the killing
of Savimbi.
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- But the US frequently uses such intelligence wizardry
to help track down troublesome leaders. In 1996, according to US and British
intelligence sources, the NSA may have passed on location data to the Russians
on the location of Chechen President Dzhokar Dudayev (he was struck by
an air-to-surface missile while talking on his satellite phone). In 1999,
the New York Times reported that Turkey captured Kurdish Workers' Party
leader Abdallah Ocalan after his cell phone location data was tracked by
U.S., British, and Israeli intelligence agents."
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- From Network World, "The Terrorist Network,"
by Sharon Gaudin, Nov. 26, 01:
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- "Chechen leader Dzokhar Dudayev knew he needed to
limit the time he spent using the satellite phone given to him by his Islamic
allies in Turkey. It was the spring of 1996, and the survivor of two Russian
assassination attempts was wary of Russia's ability to home in on his communication
signal - and his location.
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- But on the evening of April 21, Dudayev, baited by Russian
President Boris Yeltsin's offer of peace talks, called an adviser in Moscow
to discuss the impending negotiations.
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- This time, Dudayev stayed on the phone too long.
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- American spy satellites, trained on Iraq and Kuwait,
were quickly turned north to the Caucasus mountains and Chechnya, according
to a former communications specialist with the U.S. National Security Agency
(NSA). The satellites pinpointed the Chechen leader's location to within
meters of his satellite phone signal, and the coordinates were sent to
a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jet.
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- Dudayev was killed by two laser-guided air-to-surface
missiles while still holding the phone that gave him away.
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- This deadly lesson, which the U.S. has never officially
confirmed, was not lost on Osama bin Laden, a purported Chechen ally who
fed money and weapons to their fight against the Russians. That lesson
was complete when bin Laden subsequently received word that U.S. spy satellites,
perhaps the very same that located Dudayev, had eavesdropped on his own
satellite phone conversations. And members of the NSA played the tapes
for visitors.
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- 'Bin Laden knows what has happened and he's a smart man,'
says Wayne Madsen, a security consultant and former communications specialist
with the U.S. Navy and the NSA. 'He's learned his lesson... and he knows
technology is a double-edged sword so he's using it carefully.'
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- Today bin Laden is believed to school his soldiers in
high-tech tools of communication. E-mail, online dead drops, satellite
phones, cell phones, encryption and digital camouflage called stenography
(see story, next page) are all tools of Al Qaeda, bin Laden's terrorist
network. Those high-tech tools enable members of Al Qaeda to communicate
with terrorist cells (or groups) hidden around the world.
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- But bin Laden himself uses none of it.
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- Instead, he has fallen back on ancient methods of communication,
denying the U.S. and its allies the chance to track electronic footprints,
satellite signals or even the radiation emissions from cellular phones.
A grid of trusted human couriers, foot soldiers melding in with civilians,
crisscross Afghanistan and flow into neighboring
countries carrying written and whispered messages that are then electronically
shot around the world."
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- Bush is actually trying to stop the flood of leaks from
NSA and other intelligence agencies by disgruntled analysts and other professionals
by making noise about "leaks." Its a desperate move on Bush's
part. It was Bush who alienated the US Intelligence Community and now Bush
will pay the political price for his arrogance and demoralization of the
"INT" agencies: Sigint, Humint, Imint, and Elint.
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- Bin Laden ceased using his sat phone in 1996 after Dudayev's
sat phone frequency and location was homed in on by a Russian missile
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- http://waynemadsenreport.com/
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