Fox News --Israeli spies and connection to 9/11--Part 3
Part 3: December 13, 2001
HUME: Last time we reported on an Israeli-based company called Amdocs that generates the computerized recordsand billing data for nearly every phone call made in America. As Carl Cameron reported,
U.S. investigators digging into the 9-11 terrorist attacks fear that suspects may have been tipped off to what they were doing by information leaking out of Amdocs.
In tonight's report, we learn that the concern about phone security extends to another company, founded in Israel,that provides the technology that the U.S. government uses for electronic eavesdropping. Here is Carl Cameron's third report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The company is Comverse Infosys, a subsidiary of an Israeli-run private telecommunications firm,with offices throughout the U.S. It provides wiretapping equipment for law enforcement. Here's how wiretapping works in the U.S.
Every time you make a call, it passes through the nation's elaborate network of switchers and routers run by the phone companies. Custom computers and software,made by companies like Comverse, are tied into that network to intercept, record and store the wiretapped calls, and at the same time transmit them to investigators.
The manufacturers have continuing access to the computers so they can service them and keep them free of glitches.
This process was authorized by the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA.
Senior government officials have now told Fox News that while CALEA made wiretapping easier, it has led to a system that is seriously vulnerable to compromise,and may have undermined the whole wiretapping system. Indeed, Fox News has learned that Attorney General John Ashcroftand FBI Director Robert Mueller were both warned October 18th in a hand-delivered letter from 15 local, state and federal law enforcement officials, who complained that -quote – "law enforcement's current electronic surveillance capabilities are less effective today than they were at the time CALEA was enacted."
Congress insists the equipment it installs is secure. But the complaint about this system is that the wiretap computer programs made by Comverse have, in effect,a back door through which wiretaps themselves can be intercepted by unauthorized parties. Adding to the suspicions is the fact that in Israel,
Comverse works closely with the Israeli government, and under special programs,gets reimbursed for up to 50 percent of its research and development costs by the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade.
But investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying through Comverse is considered career suicide.
And sources say that while various F.B.I. inquiries into Comverse have been conducted over the years,they've been halted before the actual equipment has ever been thoroughly tested for leaks.
A 1999 F.C.C. document indicates several government agencies expressed deep concernsthat too many unauthorized non-law enforcement personnel can access the wiretap system.
And the FBI's own nondescript office in Chantilly, Virginia that actually oversees the CALEA wiretapping program, is among the most agitated about the threat.
But there is a bitter turf war internally at F.B.I. It is the FBI's office in Quantico, Virginia, that has jurisdiction over awarding contracts and buying intercept equipment.
And for years, they've thrown much of the business to Comverse.
A handful of former U.S. law enforcement officials involved in awarding Comverse government contracts over the years now work for the company.
Numerous sources say some of those individuals were asked to leave government service under what knowledgeable sources call "troublesome circumstances"that remain under administrative review within the Justice Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And what troubles investigators most, particularly in New York, in the counterterrorism investigation of the World Trade Center attack, is that on a number of cases,suspects that they had sought to wiretap and surveil immediately changed their telecommunications processes.
They started acting much differently as soon as those supposedly secret wiretaps went into place – Brit.
HUME: Carl, is there any reason to suspect in this instance that the Israeli government is involved?
CAMERON: No, there's not.
But there are growing instincts in an awful lot of law enforcement officials in a variety of agencies who suspect that it had begun compiling evidence,and a highly classified investigation into that possibility – Brit.
HUME: All right, Carl. Thanks very much.
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Part 4: December 14, 2001
TONY SNOW: This week, senior correspondent Carl Cameron has reported on a longstanding government espionage investigation.
Federal officials this year have arrested or detained nearly 200 Israeli citizens suspected of belonging to a – quote – "organized intelligence-gathering operation."
The Bush administration has deported most of those arrested after September 11th, although some are in custody under the new anti-terrorism law.
Cameron also an investigation into the possibility that an Israeli firm generated billing data that could be used for intelligence purposeS,and describes concerns that the federal government's own wiretapping system may be vulnerable. Tonight, in part four of the series,we'll learn about the improbably roots of the probe: a drug case that went bad four years ago in L.A.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Los Angeles, 1997, a major local, state and federal drug investigating sours.
The suspects: Israeli organized crime with operations in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Canada, Israel and Egypt.
The allegations: cocaine and ecstasy trafficking, and sophisticated white collar credit card and computer fraud.
The problem: according to classified law enforcement documents obtained by Fox News, the bad guys had the cops' beepers, cell phones,even home phones under surveillance. Some who did get caught admitted to having hundreds of numbers and using them to avoid arrest.
Quote: "This compromised law enforcement communications between LAPD detectives and other assigned law enforcement officers working various aspects of the case.
The organization discovered communications between organized crime intelligence division detectives, the FBI and the Secret Service."
Shock spread from the DEA to the FBI in Washington, and then the CIA. An investigation of the problem, according to law enforcement documents, concluded – quote -"The organization has apparent extensive access to database systems to identify pertinent personal and biographical information."
When investigators tried to find out where the information might have come from, they looked at Amdocs, a publicly-traded firm based in Israel.
Amdocs generates billing data for virtually every call in America, and they do credit checks.
The company denies any leaks, but investigators still fear that the firm's data is getting into the wrong hands.
When investigators checked their own wiretapping system for leaks, they grew concerned about potential vulnerabilities in the computers that intercept,record and store the wiretapped calls. A main contractor is Comverse Infosys, which works closely with the Israeli government, and under a special grant program,is reimbursed for up to 50 percent of its research and development costs by Israel's Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Asked this week about another sprawling investigation and the detention of 60 Israeli since September 11, the Bush administration treated the questions like hot potatoes.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I would just refer you to the Department of Justice with that. I'm not familiar with the report.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm aware that some Israeli citizens have been detained.
With respect to why they're being detained and the other aspects of your question – whether it's because they're in intelligence services, or what they were doing -
I will defer to the Department of Justice and the FBI to answer that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMERON: Beyond the 60 apprehended or detained, and many deported since September 11,another group of 140 Israeli individuals have been arrested and detained in this year in what government documents describe as – quote -"an organized intelligence gathering operation," designed to – quote – "penetrate government facilities."
Most of those individuals said they had served in the Israeli military, which is compulsory there. But they also had, most of them, intelligence expertise,and either worked for Amdocs or other companies in Israel that specialize in wiretapping.
Earlier this week, the Israeli embassy in Washington denied any spying against or in the United States – Tony.
SNOW: Carl, we've heard the comments from Ari Fleischer and Colin Powell. What are officials saying behind the scenes?
CAMERON: Well, there's real pandemonium described at both the FBI, the DEA and the INS.
A lot of these problems have been well-known to some investigators, many of whom have contributed to the reporting on this story.
And what they say is happening is supervisors and management are now going back and collecting much of the information,because there's tremendous pressure from the top levels of all of those agencies to find out exactly what's going on.
At the DEA and the FBI already a variety of administration reviews are under way, in addition to the investigation of the phenomenon.
They want to find out how it is all this has come out, as well as be very careful because of the explosive nature and very political ramifications of the story itself – Tony.
SNOW: All right, Carl, thanks. The Hart Senate office building, which was contaminated by anthrax, is scheduled to undergo some cleaning after more traces were found there |
