On PBS tonight, NOVA is presenting “The Spy Factory,” based on James Bamford’s excellent book, The Shadow Factory.
PBS says the NOVA program:
chronicles the NSA’s role in eavesdropping both before and after 9/11. Drawing on dozens of interviews with agency insiders and probing publicly available sources as well as transcripts of terrorist trials and an FBI chronology of the terrorists’ movements, NOVA assembles a detailed picture of events leading up to the 9/11 attacks.
The program sheds light on the vital data known inside the NSA but only partly relayed to other agencies. The trove of information the NSA had access to in advance included Osama bin Laden’s now-disconnected direct satellite phone, which the NSA tapped starting in 1996. Exclusive footage shows the three-story house in Yemen that served as Al Qaeda’s communications and logistics headquarters. The NSA was listening in on phone communications to and from the house for years prior to the 9/11 attack.
Three times the size of the CIA and far more secret, the NSA is comprised of top linguists, mathematicians, and technologists trained to decipher all kinds of communications—epitomizing the hidden world of high-tech, 21st-century surveillance. To show how this eavesdropping operates, NOVA follows the trail of just one typical e-mail sent from Asia to the U.S. Streaming as pulses of light into a fiber-optic cable, it travels across the Pacific Ocean, coming ashore in California, and finally reaching an AT&T facility in San Francisco, where the cable is split and the data sent to a secret NSA monitoring room on the floor below. This enables the NSA to intercept not only most Asian e-mail messages but also the entire U.S. internal Internet traffic.
Thus, since 9/11, the agency has turned its giant ear inward to monitor the communications of ordinary Americans, many of whom are on the government’s secret watch list, now more than half-a-million names long.
But how effective is this monumental monitoring effort in countering security threats? The NSA is faced with an enormous and ever-expanding archive of phone calls and e-mail messages. Many experts in data mining and analysis are skeptical about the value of collecting so much information without the ability to understand it, as it may lead to critical clues being lost in the static.
Among those interviewed on “The Spy Factory” are former NSA, CIA, and FBI analysts and officials, many speaking publicly for the first time. Among these is Mark Rossini, the senior FBI agent in the CIA’s Osama bin Laden tracking unit. For the first time, Rossini tells how intelligence agency turf wars prevented him from notifying his FBI superiors that Al Qaeda terrorists were heading for the U.S. with valid visas in early 2000.
Surprisingly, the 9/11 Commission never looked closely into the NSA’s role in the broad intelligence breakdown behind the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. If they had, they would have understood the full extent to which the agency had major pieces of the puzzle but never put them together or disclosed their entire body of knowledge to the CIA and FBI. Traditionally, the NSA didn’t share its raw data with those other agencies, an institutionalized reluctance that played a critical role in the failure to stop the 9/11 plotters.
In what Bamford calls “one of the largest ironies in the history of American intelligence,” he notes that weeks before the attacks, the terrorists were staying in a hotel near NSA headquarters in Maryland, almost within sight of the office of then-NSA Director Michael Hayden. Hayden, who was later appointed director of the CIA by President Bush, was never held accountable for his agency’s failure, and after 9/11 he spearheaded the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping activities in the name of making the nation safe from terrorists.
Addressing the question, Are we any safer now than we were before?, Bamford says, “We should have been safe the way it was. NSA had all the information that it needed to stop the 9/11 hijackers. It had laws that allowed it to track the hijackers.” Bamford adds that those same laws also protected the privacy of ordinary Americans in ways that have since vanished.
The show will be repeated throughout the week on most PBS stations. Check your local listings. The show will also be available on the PBS website later this month.
bamford’s version of the truth ought to do nicely for public consumption… at least for the time being.
as justin says…
but doc aumann and the boys and girls in the computerized think tanks will need a much closer approximation of the truth if they’re gonna get anything but garbage out of their crays, arent they?
so maybe we’re creeping up on a third tenet of psychohistorian behavior here: lie your ass off, always.
we can see from aumann’s game theories why it’s so important to control the flow of information…
israel, the israeli americans, exxon and their fellow travelers knew about peak oil and global warming long before 9/11, and they had to respond to peak oil and global warming before peak oil and global warming became obvious.
…all of which accounts for the AEI/CERA/exxon efforts to deny the existence of global warming and peak oil.
it’s just too damn bad that aumann is being hoisted with his own game theory petard, as the actions of AEI/CERA/PNAC/exxon/israel are showing an awareness of peak oil and global warming, and thus motive to stage 9/11.
bamford’s version of the truth ought to do nicely for public consumption… at least for the time being.
as justin says…
but doc aumann and the boys and girls in the computerized think tanks will need a much closer approximation of the truth if they’re gonna get anything but garbage out of their crays, arent they?
so maybe we’re creeping up on a third tenet of government by psychohistory here: lie your ass off, always.
sound like anybody you’re familiar with?
we can see from aumann’s game theories why it’s so important to control the flow of information…
israel, the israeli americans, exxon and their fellow travelers knew about peak oil and global warming long before 9/11, and they had to respond to peak oil and global warming before peak oil and global warming became obvious.
…all of which accounts for the AEI/CERA/exxon efforts to deny the existence of global warming and peak oil.
it’s just too damn bad that aumann is being hoisted with his own game theory petard, as the actions of AEI/CERA/PNAC/exxon/israel are revealing an awareness of peak oil and global warming, which were their motives to stage 9/11.
so assuming you’ve tipped your hand… assuming you’ve revealed that you have knowledge of something that is obviously a motive for a crime you’ve committed, you have to keep lying and lying and lying, in hopes of convincing people your motive doesnt exist, in hopes of convincing people you’re innocent.
but in the meantime, you’re plugging the most likely approximation of truth into your computers, and that “most likely approximation of truth” bears no resemblance to the chickenfeed you put out for public consumption.
…and if you committed the crime you’re trying to deny, you have an advantage when it comes to accurately programming the crays, dont you?
Ahem…If they had picked up the “hijackers” in Maryland before 9/11, then Bush/Cheney would not have had their cover story/fall guys…
But seconds after the planes hit the wtc the edentities and all information about the suposed highjackers became known to CNN.It seems Cameras were waiting to film from every angel.Contrast that with US aurways plane where there were not many fotages ogit .
The program fell short .It didn’t ask many hard hitting questions that should have been asked.
“Hard-hitting” questions of public officials, from a PBS (a.k.a. Public Television/state-controlled) program? Surely you jest.
Few days before 9/11, the NSA system crashed!?
‘The Spy Factory’ was pretty good fare. A wee nudge sparse in the meat but, the Nova airing left America with an excellent prospectus that 9/11 was an inside job.
Bamford have it right, although he could only insinuate it. On the months prior to 9/11 I had developed a retirement routine: Every day when the weather was pleasant I would begin my walk from Battery Park city up the westside esplanade. On the day (Monday) prior to the attack I stood watching one of the old piers being re-erected as a recreational pier, right about the end of Christopher street. At that time–which would have been mid-afternoon–a huge prop-driven plane (I am an airforce veteran and recognized it as a c-130, although it bore no markings whatsoever, and was bristling with antennae, one unusal one sticking out from the underside back) came down the river. I had seen that plane several times before making reckless maneuvers, so apparently had the elderly gentleman standing beside me observing the pier erection, as he suggested it was probably a corps-of-engineer plane surveying the river. On this occassion the plane was flying about 500-800 about the Hudson river, then it gently banked towards the towers, and just as effortlessly banked away and headed in the direction of Staten island. Since the (towers) incident I have often spoken with residents and workers of the area, and they all recalled the plane. Five years later I decided to undertake a little recreation project, and walked along the westside inquiring of persons who work in the area whether they recalled any such plane. Not only did most remember but they had all come to the conclusion the plane was in someway involved with 9/11.
There are two heliports on the river–one at about 28 street and the other vertical to the Wall street vicinity. Under a guise I inquired of their attendants whether they were aware of the plane, and they not only confirmed it existence but also explained how they would clear the helicopters from landing/taking off when the plane was on it way down. I would suggest to Mr. Bamford if he is serious about getting to the bottom of this 9/11 mystery he might want to do some interviews of these persons.
Given the seriousness of the times this might be dangerous even to publicly reveal this, but I am comfortable with my decision–nobody lives forever. John Kurius
All points that should be investigated but, hey, we are just “conspiracy nuts”. Two things about 9-11 have always bothered me. Where were the intercept military jets? When Payne Stewart’s private plane veered off course in the late ’90’s, two military jets were on Stewart’s plane within 15 minutes. Those jets stayed with that private plane until it crashed in a field in, I believe, Nebraska. That is standard operating procedure for any plane going off course. It happened 67 times in 2001, prior to 9-11. The simple question: where were the military jets in the heaviest air travel corridor in America, when FOUR commercial airliners went missing? The second problem is at the Pentagon. I was watching CNN when Jamie McIntyre came on. He was standing in front of the smoking building and said, paraphrasing, that whatever hit the Pentagon it was NOT an airplane. He said the second story had not collapsed until 20 minutes after it had been hit. He reiterated that whatever it was, IT WAS NOT AN AIRPLANE. Several calls to CNN for a clarification have gone unanswered. McIntyre recently left CNN. Until those two questions are answered, I will believe nothing about that day.
Yeah, I remember NM Governor Bill Richardson on TV saying it was OBL and USA Today had this big front page photo spread ready to go right after the event happened. The news coverage on 9-11 looked more like a new product launch by Coke or Pepsi in the way it was choreographed. To use the analogy, it sure looked like someone gave someone else the “answers to the test questions before the exam”. And what about those Israeli art students celebrating in Jersey City with a birds-eye view at Liberty State Park. Oh sure, they just happened to be there by chance, and then after they were arrested, they were mysteriously whisked out of the country. Nothing to see here everyone, move along now.
The Nova program was a one-hour commercial, full of misinformation and disinformation.
Among other things, it never exposed the foreign power identities of NSA contractors with full access to the intercepts, although Bamford covered the subject in detail in his latest book.
Awful!
Let me understand this…
Mark Rossini did not want to inform his supervisors of the terrorists who were in the US, because he would lose his job, thus leaving the FBI as a hero.
Instead he lost his job for passing secret information on an active criminal investigation to his girlfriend, Linda Fiorentino, who then gave the documents to her former flame, convict Anthony Pellicano’s defense team. Ultimately, Rossini was arrested and pled guilty, thus leaving the FBI in disgrace.
The best and the brightest? Dude is an idiot, give me a break!!!!
As long as our country has foreign policies of interfering in the internal affairs of other nations; has policies colluding in coups to replace or murder foreign leaders we should expect this will result in unpleasant consequences. Had the American people acknowledged what caused us to be attacked on 9-11 perhaps we could have avoided all this tragic aftermath as we see us now living in constant fear that more attacks will surely occur. Of course they will as that is the sad reality when any nation embarks on stupid policies such as those we have been following for decades. The Spanish people realized this lesson soon after two trains were bombed in Madrid and their voters evicted their government’s leaders who were allied in George W. Bush’s misadventure in Iraq. Americans have yet to learn this, unfortunately. Steve, World War 2
Comment by Steve…
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yup. if netanyahu thought 9/11 was “very good”, then a suitcase nuke going off in a couple of your favorite american cities would be terrific, wouldnt it?
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…which must explain why cheney is warning us of new attacks…
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…and maybe explains why chertoff has a “gut feeling” about more attacks.
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because it’s gonna take another attack —bigger and better, new and improved— to mobilize americans to support the faltering neocon project, isnt it?
so then who would have a motive to stage another attack?
Comment by Steve…
yup. if netanyahu thought 9/11 was “very good”, then a suitcase nuke going off in a couple of your favorite american cities would be terrific, wouldnt it?
…which must explain why cheney is warning us of new attacks…
…and maybe explains why chertoff has a “gut feeling” about more attacks.
because it’s gonna take another attack —bigger and better, new and improved— to mobilize americans to support the faltering neocon project, isnt it?
so then who would have a motive to stage another attack?
“If America were infected with terrorists, we would not need the government to tell us. We would know it from events. As there are no events, the US government substitutes warnings in order to keep alive the fear that causes the public to accept pointless wars, the infringement of civil liberty, national ID cards, and inconveniences and harassments when they fly.
The most obvious indication that there are no terrorist cells is that not a single neocon has been assassinated.
I do not approve of assassinations, and am ashamed of my country’s government for engaging in political assassination. The US and Israel have set a very bad example for al Qaeda to follow.
The US deals with al Qaeda and Taliban by assassinating their leaders, and Israel deals with Hamas by assassinating its leaders. It is reasonable to assume that al Qaeda would deal with the instigators and leaders of America’s wars in the Middle East in the same way.
Today every al Qaeda member is aware of the complicity of neoconservatives in the death and devastation inflicted on Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Gaza. Moreover, neocons are highly visible and are soft targets compared to Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. Neocons have been identified in the media for years, and as everyone knows, multiple listings of their names are available online. ”
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02042009.html
Let’s put it together, people—wayward planes were intercepted 67 times in 2001, and NORAD appropriately scrambled jets each and every time, EXCEPT on 9/11, when suddenly 3-4 related hijacked planes could NOT be intercepted? ‘Art students’ not only seem to know what’s up, but are parked to get an optimal view of WTC as it goes down? The NSA is monitoring Osama’s conversations for five years prior to 9/11, but didn’t see 9/11 coming, nor know of the hijackers in the nearby hotel? Yet the “OBL did it” backgrounders were all ready to go to the media from the afternoon of 9/11 onward?
9/11 was an inside job, face it. Over the past few years, post-TSA airport security has been consistently failing to detect dummy bombs being snuck past screeners, whenever tests of the system have been done. If that’s the case, what’s to have stopped 19-20 more ‘hijackers’ since then from splitting up into 4 new teams, each trying to get real bombs onboard at 4 different airports simultaneously, and being at least partially successful? Nothing. So why haven’t they done so?
Nothing has happenned because there are no real independent terrorists cells, and there was no such cell operating on 9/11. There were false flag operators working under the full knowledge and coordination of the intelligence agencies. Until now, only one domestic op was needed to give us the expanded militarism and omni-surveillance we have experienced ever since, along with the emotionalism that has made rational progress in promoting principled non-interventionism all but impossible.
Rhetoric about blowback is met with ‘bounceback’—the argument just bounces off most people emotionally invested in the guiding conceptual framework of “but those towelheads attacked us, so we have to attack back.” That emotional force field must be first brought down before real progress can happen. If it remains standing as the foundation of our foreign policy perspective until the next false flag, that next staged event will sustain yet a new wave of militarism. It is for this reason that exposing the false flag of 9/11 must continue, beginning with the launching of a new independent inquiry.
People should check into which foreign companies were in charge of security at the airports from which the airplanes were highjacked.
Addressing the question, Are we any safer now than we were before?
***GROAN!!!****
It really irks me to no end to think that people who should have known better from day one can STILL naively believe that the WoT has anything remotely to do with America’s “safety.” It is by now well beyond obvious even to the most comatose of mental retards that 9/11 was an inside job, a staged crisis concocted by our shadow rulers for the purpose of initiating the slow imposition of fascist martial law. That anyone still seriously links the State’s police actions with public safety is the ultimate demonstration of idiocy.
As for Bamford, I’ve never trusted the man’s motives and believe that he has a deeply vested interest in perpetuating the totalitarian Spy State. After all, he’s earned his livelihood from it (beginning with The Puzzle Palace) for nearly the last three decades. If the Establishment’s organs were to be reined in and the rule of law restored, Bamford would have to start earning an honest living.
So to Bamford I say: Stop beating around the bush and start calling NSA what it really is – Amerika’s NKVD/Ministry of Truth, nothing else.
I just had a crazy thought. Maybe if we stopped immigration into this country, especially from the Islamic World, these things wouldn’t happen.
What you say is not untrue. Personally the Bush strategy of “invading the world/inviting the world” was disastrous and ludicrous. All 19 of the 9/11 attackers were visa-overstayers, basically illegal aliens in the country unlawfully. It is crazy that America has troops stationed all over the world while its vulnerable porous border with Mexico is blatantly exposed. We have more troops and money invested protecting South Korea’s borders then our own. Very wrong. I would favour a complete moratorium on all immigration for at least a generation, perhaps two, perhaps for good. We already have well over 300 million people. How many more do we need? And why? America has been hit with a virtual tsunami of people since the immigration act of 1965 which lifted the previous 41 year-old moratorium brought in in 1924. A lot of time is needed to digest and absorb the people currently here and increase English-language proficiency. The prospect of permanent, large, foreign language enclaves is very worrying, with current trends. Environmental problems like sprawl, traffic and water shortages (think southern California) are also affected by an ever-growing population. It’s really a shame this is all a “taboo” topic.
“I just had a crazy thought. Maybe if we stopped immigration into this country, especially from the Islamic World, these things wouldn’t happen”.
It would have happened,the power that be wanted it to happen.Why continue to accepet the official story about 9/11 from the same entities that lied about Iraq?!
It seemed to me that the program provided cover for the “reforms” of the intelligence community which have occurred in the past 7+ years – to the detriment of privacy and personal liberty. It seemed to be saying, “If these reforms had been in place prior to 9/11, maybe that tragedy could have been prevented.”
I am still amazed that a passport of a “hijacking terrorist” was plucked from the inferno and carried by a patriotic angel to the outstretched hands of an FBI agent waiting on the ground below.
mircles happen!