At 06:34 PM 6/24/99 -0400, David Lesher wrote:
>NPR's ATC has a story at the end of their first segment; i.e. 4:25
>Eastern. I missed most of it but it was about some aspect of
>Osama bin Laden's group being arrested. Mention was made of
>encrypted files, and the inference that they were cracked.
Yup.
The RealAudio files for that ATC session is at:
<http://programs.npr.org/npr2/PrgDisp.cfm?PrgDate=06/24/1999&PrgID=2>
Sue Lackey, correspondent for Jane's Intelligence Review, told NPR's
All Things Considered (ATC) a fascinating tale of a breakthrough in efforts
to stymie Moslem fundamentalist terrorists -- apparently though the seizure
last fall in Yemen of several PCs or laptops with encrypted files from a
group of ten (apparently British) Moslem KLA supporters from London who
were arrested by the Yemeni Army.
Ms. Lackey spun a wild tale in which -- whatever the ambigous role
of the KLA in NATO's venture into Kosovo, and the gristly fate of so many
Kosovo Albanians the KLA fought to protect -- never left her hesitant about
who to label a terrorist and what to label a terrorist network.
Last December, 10 y0ung Moslems from Britain, visiting Yemen, were
arrested by Yemeni authorities at various parts of Yemen. It was later
determined, from videotapes in their possession, that the ten had been at
KLA training camps in Kosovo or Albania.
Their mentor, a Moslem cleric in London, reportedly asked a group of
Yemini Moslem militants to do what they could to free his followers.
Four days after the ten Brits were arrested, another group of 16
Westerner tourists were kidnapped by that group, a small Yemini faction that
called itself the Islamic Army. The 16 were apparently taken hostage in an
attempt to force the Yemeni Army to free the ten KLA men from Britain.
Yemeni troops -- in the harsh and innocent judgement of the NPR/ATC
host -- subsequently "botched" a rescue effort, and four of the 16 Western
hostages were killed.
In the aftermath of the rescue, with the assistance of the FBI, the
CIA, and Scotland Yard, the Yemeni authorities took a second look at all the
material they had picked up as they arrested the ten young men from London.
Among the loot, a satellite phone, two computers, the videotapes and other
records, and "very very sophisticated forgery equipment."
The two computers were found to have several "extremely
sophisticated encrypted files," which -- according to Ms. Lackey -- are now
believed to contain the "family jewels" of a "major international terrorist
network."
This Moslem Fundamentalist group, she said, may obtain part of its
financing from Osama bin Laden, part from other sources (perhaps including
the Saudis.) Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia, but of a Yemini
family, and fully a third of his followers are reportedly Yemini.
Declared Ms. Lackey of Janes: "Preliminary indications are that
included in these encrypted files are the financial, operational, and
logistic details -- essentially all the operational details of major
international terrorist networks." (That was networks, plural.)
Whether the Yeminis and the Western LEAs had already obtained access
to the contents of the encrypted files was left unclear, although it was
implied.
If so, it seems likely that we (or at least selected judges and
legislators) will hear a lot about the incident in future debates over
Wassenaar and crypto export controls.
The Yemenis, who have been engaged for years in a bitter civil
conflict with Fundamentalist militants, don't suffer under the restrictions
of the US Bill of Rights or some equivalent. Since it seems likely that
some of the ten KLA men from Britain knew or had keys to access the
encrypted files, and they are in Yemini custody, I think it rash to presume
that a mega-computer effort to decypher the files was necessary. I presume
the Yemini military authorities just asked.
And asked. And asked. And asked.
Suerte,
_Vin
--------
"Cryptography is like literacy in the Dark Ages. Infinitely potent,
for good and ill... yet basically an intellectual construct, an idea,
which by its nature will resist efforts to restrict it to bureaucrats
and others who deem only themselves worthy of such Privilege."
_A Thinking Man's Creed for Crypto _vbm
* Vin McLellan + The Privacy Guild + <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *
53 Nichols St., Chelsea, MA 02150 USA <617> 884-5548
