Tonight, in the second of four reports on spying by
Israelis in the U.S., we learn about an Israeli-based
private communications company, for whom a half-dozen
of those 60 detained suspects worked. American investigators
fear information generated by this firm may have fallen into
the wrong hands and had the effect of impeded the
Sept. 11 terror inquiry. Here's Carl Cameron's second report.
Carl Cameron Investigates
Part 2 - Israel Is Spying In And
On The U.S.?
Thursday, December 13, 2001
Part 2 of 4
BRIT HUME, HOST: Last time we reported on
the approximately 60 Israelis who had been detained
in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorism investigation.
Carl Cameron reported that U.S. investigators suspect
that some of these Israelis were spying on Arabs in this
country, and may have turned up information on the
planned terrorist attacks back in September that was
not passed on.
Tonight, in the second of four reports on spying by Israelis
in the U.S., we learn about an Israeli-based private
communications company, for whom a half-dozen of
those 60 detained suspects worked. American investigators
fear information generated by this firm may have fallen
into the wrong hands and had the effect of impeded
the Sept. 11 terror inquiry.
Here's Carl Cameron's second report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT
(voice-over): Fox News has learned that some American
terrorist investigators fear certain suspects in the
Sept. 11 attacks may have managed to stay ahead
of them, by knowing who and when investigators are
calling on the telephone. How?
By obtaining and analyzing data that's generated every
time someone in the U.S. makes a call.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:
What city and state, please?
CAMERON: Here's how the system works. Most directory
assistance calls, and virtually all call records and billing in
the U.S. are done for the phone companies by Amdocs Ltd.,
an Israeli-based private elecommunications company.
Amdocs has contracts with the 25 biggest phone companies
in America, and more worldwide. The White House and
other secure government phone lines are protected, but
it is virtually impossible to make a call on normal phones
without generating an Amdocs record of it.
In recent years, the FBI and other government agencies have
investigated Amdocs more than once. The firm has repeatedly
and adamantly denied any security breaches or wrongdoing.
But sources tell Fox News that in 1999, the super secret
national security agency, headquartered in northern Maryland,
issued what's called a Top Secret sensitive compartmentalized
information report, TS/SCI, warning that records of calls in
the United States were getting into foreign hands –
in Israel, in particular.
Investigators don't believe calls are being listened to, but the
data about who is calling whom and when is plenty valuable
in itself. An internal Amdocs memo to senior company
executives suggests just how Amdocs generated call records
could be used. “Widespread data mining techniques and
algorithms.... combining both the properties of the customer
(e.g., credit rating) and properties of the specific ‘behavior….’”
Specific behavior, such as who the customers are calling.
The Amdocs memo says the system should be used to prevent
phone fraud. But U.S. counterintelligence analysts say it could
also be used to spy through the phone system. Fox News has
learned that the N.S.A has held numerous classified conferences
to warn the F.B.I. and C.I.A. how Amdocs records could be
used. At one NSA briefing, a diagram by the Argon national
lab was used to show that if the phone records are not secure,
major security breaches are possible.
Another briefing document said, "It has become increasingly
apparent that systems and networks are vulnerable.…Such
crimes always involve unauthorized persons, or persons who
exceed their authorization...citing on exploitable vulnerabilities."
Those vulnerabilities are growing, because according to another
briefing, the U.S. relies too much on foreign companies like
Amdocs for high-tech equipment and software. "Many
factors have led to increased dependence on code developed
overseas.... We buy rather than train or develop solutions."
U.S. intelligence does not believe the Israeli government is
involved in a misuse of information, and Amdocs insists
that its data is secure. What U.S. government officials are
worried about, however, is the possibility that Amdocs data
could get into the wrong hands, particularly organized crime.
And that would not be the first thing that such a thing has
happened. Fox News has documents of a 1997 drug trafficking
case in Los Angeles, in which telephone information, the type
that Amdocs collects, was used to "completely compromise the
communications of the FBI, the Secret Service, the DEO
and the LAPD."
We'll have that and a lot more in the days ahead – Brit.
HUME: Carl, I want to take you back to your report last
night on those 60 Israelis who were detained in the
anti-terror investigation, and the suspicion that some
investigators have that they may have picked up information
on the 9/11 attacks ahead of time and not passed it on.
There was a report, you'll recall, that the Mossad, the
Israeli intelligence agency, did indeed send representatives
to the U.S. to warn, just before 9/11, that a major terrorist
attack was imminent. How does that leave room for the
lack of a warning?
CAMERON: I remember the report, Brit. We did it first
internationally right here on your show on the 14th. What
investigators are saying is that that warning from the
Mossad was nonspecific and general, and they believe
that it may have had something to do with the desire to
protect what are called sources and methods in the
intelligence community. The suspicion being, perhaps
those sources and methods were taking place right
here in the United States.
The question came up in select intelligence committee on
Capitol Hill today. They intend to look into what we
reported last night, and specifically that possibility – Brit.
HUME: So in other words, the problem wasn't lack of
a warning, the problem was lack of useful details?
CAMERON: Quantity of information.
HUME: All right, Carl, thank you very much.
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