How bin Laden emailed without being detected by US

[HTSS_TR]

Slow but undetected for so long.

"Holed up in his walled compound in northeast Pakistan with no phone or Internet capabilities, bin Laden would type a message on his computer without an Internet connection, then save it using a thumb-sized flash drive. He then passed the flash drive to a trusted courier, who would head for a distant Internet cafe.

At that location, the courier would plug the memory drive into a computer, copy bin Laden's message into an email and send it. Reversing the process, the courier would copy any incoming email to the flash drive and return to the compound, where bin Laden would read his messages offline.

It was a slow, toilsome process. And it was so meticulous that even veteran intelligence officials have marveled at bin Laden's ability to maintain it for so long. The U.S. always suspected bin Laden was communicating through couriers but did not anticipate the breadth of his communications as revealed by the materials he left behind.

Navy SEALs hauled away roughly 100 flash memory drives after they killed bin Laden, and officials said they appear to archive the back-and-forth communication between bin Laden and his associates around the world."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_re_us/us_bin_laden

 

[spasm3]

Why in the world is this info being released? If they know we are aware of how they communicate they will change it!!!! Is this done to give advance warning ???? Why would the US tip their had with what they had? It does not make sense to me.

 

[JHZR2]

That is only common sense. Nothing revolutionary in terms of insight from those statements.

 

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
That is only common sense. Nothing revolutionary in terms of insight from those statements.

The only troubling thing about it is that "security experts" thought it was revolutionary.

 

[simple_gifts]

sandal net.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
Why in the world is this info being released? If they know we are aware of how they communicate they will change it!!!! Is this done to give advance warning ???? Why would the US tip their had with what they had? It does not make sense to me.


Because it is a race against time and if we can't read through everything and capture them in time it is probably better to release warning to the world that they are busted and better not take the plunge.

 

[3311]

I can't imagine they were legitimately surprised if they are at all "experts". They knew he had couriers for God's sake. Did they honestly think they would sneak the message out and then strap it to a pigeon once he got down the block?
These "experts" must be the same ones that were amazed that the SEALs would build replica houses to practice in.

 

[Bluestream]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
The only troubling thing about it is that "security experts" thought it was revolutionary.

What I don't get is why wouldn't they trace his emails back to the Internet cafe??

 

[Spyder7]

Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Originally Posted By: Tempest
The only troubling thing about it is that "security experts" thought it was revolutionary.

What I don't get is why wouldn't they trace his emails back to the Internet cafe??


That may be how they eventually found him.

-Spyder

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
That is only common sense. Nothing revolutionary in terms of insight from those statements.

The only troubling thing about it is that "security experts" thought it was revolutionary.


doubt it

 

[spasm3]

I would have said we got bin ladin and in the haste to remove him , nothing else of substance was obtained!!

 

[SteveSRT8]

Navy SEALs hauled away roughly 100 flash memory drives after they killed bin Laden, and officials said they appear to archive the back-and-forth communication between bin Laden and his associates around the world."

It is more intelligence than can be digested in years! A HUGE haul.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
Why in the world is this info being released?


It suits the purpose of the whole last couple of weeks...why else ?

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: Shannow

It suits the purpose of the whole last couple of weeks...why else ?

Probably true. But if it makes a couple terrorists squirm, so be it.

 

[rjundi]

Sounds like a success story I heard about from the late 1990's with the navy.

They were using Microsoft Exchange(Outlook email) between Naval ships. They actually would burn the image of the emails to be delivered onto CD-ROM and helicopter it to the next ship. Microsoft Exchange did very poorly over poor bandwidth connections the navy had had due to excessive size.

They swapped out to Lotus Notes which thrived in low bandwidth and was more secure by design and stopped the insanity of helicopters. Mail sometimes would be days old due to weather and distance to other ships.

 

[Samilcar]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
I would have said we got bin ladin and in the haste to remove him , nothing else of substance was obtained!!


Who in the world would believe that? I'm glad OBL is no longer in the picture, but the treasure trove of info recovered during this raid far exceeds the value of Osama's demise. There are mid-level AQ operatives who are sweating bullets right about now, and with good reason.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
sandal net.


I had a joke about camels but now it just seems silly.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
That is only common sense. Nothing revolutionary in terms of insight from those statements.

The only troubling thing about it is that "security experts" thought it was revolutionary.

Yeah, seriously. This isn't rocket science. It's like you using your school computer to exchange emails. The same trail is still there. If you find out who's using the computer and where he goes after he's done using it, that's it.

And if the authorities couldn't pick up on the content of these emails this way, then they wouldn't be able to pick up the content of these emails even if Bin Laden was sending them out if his home either.