The Failure of U.S. Intelligence and the Road
Ahead for America
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/9/13/215052.shtml
Softwar website http://www.softwar.net
Charles R. Smith
Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001
Osama bin Laden is an American creation. He
worked for the CIA as a freedom
fighter during the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan. Bin Laden is well trained in
the arts of secure communications, unconventional
warfare, and he even knows how
to fire the U.S.-made Stinger missile; all gratis
the Central Intelligence
Agency.
If anyone had a lead on bin Laden it should have
been the CIA. The CIA has
extensive contacts inside Afghanistan and
Pakistan. Yet, the CIA missed his
attack on the USS Cole.
The CIA relies on the NSA and its great ring of
American listening satellites.
The NSA missed the Pakistan nuclear tests and did
not intercept bin Laden until
after the events of Sept. 11.
Where Is the NSA?
The super-secret National Security Agency has
grown deaf over the years but not
due to advancement of Internet technology. As
former NSA Director Adm. McConnell
noted, the NSA is overwhelmed by the absolute
volume of messages. If you
intercept a hundred million messages a day, which
do you try to read?
Attempts to blame the Internet and not being able
to read bin Laden's e-mail are
lame excuses for wasting billions on ineffective
equipment and software.
Satellites are great at tracking military targets
but are useless against a
terrorist cell that uses hand written notes
carried by trusted couriers.
Why are the directors of the CIA and NSA still in
place? Why has CIA head George
Tenet not tendered his resignation like Adm.
Kimmel after Pearl Harbor?
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh has much
responsibility to bear for not
detecting and preventing this act. Freeh and his
boss at the Department of
Justice, Janet Reno, turned the federal law
enforcement system into an
international joke. The spectacular failures of
the FBI under Freeh's
directorship are too numerous to mention except
one.
Freeh placed his trusted associate Robert Hanssen
into his last position with
the FBI as counter-intelligence director in New
York City. The same Robert
Hannsen later confessed to being a Russian spy.
If anyone is not qualified to
comment on what to do after September 11 - it is
Louis Freeh.
Where is the FAA?
The FAA should have stopped the attack at the
airports. Yet, the FAA is also
known as the "tombstone" agency for good reason.
It is not designed as a law
enforcement agency, but it has the security
responsibility for airports. Again,
the warnings were there. FAA and GAO
investigators have been able to easily
penetrate secure areas inside U.S. airports and
critical air control facilities.
"In assessing the adequacy of computer security
at the FAA earlier this year we
found significant weaknesses that compromise the
integrity of FAA's air traffic
control operations," states a 1998 GAO testimony.
"This review resulted in a number of findings too
sensitive to discuss in
today's open hearing; accordingly, my statement
will refer only to findings and
recommendations contained in the unclassified
version of our limited official
use report. We can tell you openly, though, that
we found evidence of air
traffic control systems that had been penetrated,
and critical ATC data had been
compromised."
The Air Force has horrible communications with
the FAA. The very first role of
the U.S. Air Force is to control American
airspace. The USAF failed. A city air
and missile defense system is clearly necessary.
U.S. air defense has suffered
decades of neglect. Our cities and critical
industries are vulnerable to air and
missile attack.
The Air Force must keep an active strip alert
aircraft ready to intercept
incoming attacks. This will require more pilots,
more planes and more training.
Fighter pilots must have the standing authority
to shoot down a hijacked
airliner if necessary.
We must also institute area defense of critical
targets. We saw Patriot missiles
outside of Tel Aviv. We now see an Aegis missile
warship sitting just off the
waters of New York. U.S. Air Force, Navy and
Marine jet fighters are flying
constant patrols in and around the shores of
America. Perhaps it is time for a
Patriot battery or two in metropolitan areas and
at critical sites.
The restarting of the sky marshal program is
clearly needed, but that is simply
not enough. The next attack will come in an
unexpected location. The training to
be passive hostages is over. The actions of a
brave few in the sky over
Pennsylvania may have saved thousands on the
ground and it now serves as an
example. We must fight back.
It is not time to sit idle and let the thugs take
over but band together to
fight for our very lives. Anyone, anywhere can
thwart an act of future terror
sometimes only with a single word to authorities
ahead of time. Be aware.
Bin Laden has an extensive network of friends and
associates from various
nationalities spanning the globe. His operatives
are well trained to blend into
the population and look ordinary. The urge to
vent on obvious minorities will
serve only to distract energy that should instead
be focused on the real enemy.
Know we are under attack. There are professional
foreign soldiers working on
American soil trying to kill you. In a 1999
interview, GRU Col. Stanislav Lunev
told me of trained soldiers from various nations
that work and live here in
America. These professionals are armed with
stored caches of weapons and bombs.
They are here waiting for a day of future
activation and combat on U.S. soil.
Col. Lunev also noted that Russia and China had
even prepositioned nuclear,
chemical and biological weapons on American soil
with the intent of destroying
our nation. Immediately after that interview,
arms caches were found in Europe.
Former President Bill Clinton and most of America
have ignored the information.
The Next One
In short, Sept. 11 was bad but the next one will
be worse. In 1999, I wrote that
a single business jet armed with a suitcase bomb
could fly to ground zero with
satellite navigation accuracy and a GPS
autopilot. Such an unmanned flight in
the crowded skies of Washington D.C. would go
unnoticed until the final fatal
second.
The surprise nuclear attack could kill the entire
U.S. leadership in a one fatal
stroke. U.S. military leaders in the Pentagon,
the White House, Congress, the
Supreme Court, and nearly a million American
citizens will die in a single
flash.
The price of freedom is too often measured in
blood. We, the people of the
United States, are the targets of World War III.
Missiles are aimed at our
cities and professional soldiers are on our soil
trying to kill our leaders and
us.
Nations harbor terrorists; nations provide
support, homes, bases, money and
cooperation. Afghanistan, Sudan, Libya, Syria,
Iran, Iraq and North Korea
provide training bases for suicide terrorists.
These terrorists serve as
free-lance mercenaries and often assume this role
directly as unconventional
forces working for the host military.
Nations also suffer the consequences of war. In
this war all targets are
strategic. When we go on the offensive we should
be prepared to use all the
weapons in the U.S. inventory. There must not be
any quarter given. The only way
to deal with a Kamikaze is to kill him before he
kills you. We must send them to
hell.
