http://www.drudgereport.com/insight.htm
INSIGHT MAGAZINE
5/5/00
**EXCLUSIVE**
FBI Probes Espionage at Clinton White House
A foreign spy service appears to have penetrated secret
communications in the Clinton administration, which has
discounted security and intelligence threats.
By J. Michael Waller and Paul M. Rodriguez
The FBI is probing an explosive foreign-espionage operation that
could dwarf the other spy scandals plaguing the U.S. government.
Insight has learned that FBI counterintelligence is tracking a
daring operation to spy on high-level U.S. officials by hacking
into supposedly secure telephone networks. The espionage was
facilitated, federal officials say, by lax telephone-security
procedures at the White House, State Department and other
high-level government offices and by a Justice Department
unwillingness to seek an indictment against a suspect.
The espionage operation may have serious ramifications because
the FBI has identified Israel as the culprit. It risks
undermining U.S. public support for the Jewish state at a time
Israel is seeking billions of tax dollars for the return of land
to Syria. It certainly will add to perceptions that the
Clinton-Gore administration is not serious about national
security. Most important, it could further erode international
confidence in the ability of the United States to keep secrets
and effectively lead as the world�s only superpower.
More than two dozen U.S. intelligence, counterintelligence,
law-enforcement and other officials have told Insight that the
FBI believes Israel has intercepted telephone and modem
communications on some of the most sensitive lines of the U.S.
government on an ongoing basis. The worst penetrations are
believed to be in the State Department. But others say the
supposedly secure telephone systems in the White House, Defense
Department and Justice Department may have been compromised as
well.
The problem for FBI agents in the famed Division 5, however,
isn�t just what they have uncovered, which is substantial, but
what they don�t yet know, according to Insight�s sources
interviewed during a year-long investigation by the magazine. Of
special concern is how to confirm and deal with the potentially
sweeping espionage penetration of key U.S. government
telecommunications systems allowing foreign eavesdropping on
calls to and from the White House, the National Security Council,
or NSC, the Pentagon and the State Department.
The directors of the FBI and the CIA have been kept informed of
the ongoing counterintelligence operation, as have the president
and top officials at the departments of Defense, State and
Justice and the NSC. A �heads up� has been given to the House and
Senate Intelligence Committees, but no government official would
speak for the record.
�It�s a huge security nightmare,� says a senior U.S. official
familiar with the super-secret counterintelligence operation.
�The implications are severe,� confirms a second with direct
knowledge. �We�re not even sure we know the extent of it,� says a
third high-ranking intelligence official. �All I can tell you is
that we think we know how it was done,� this third intelligence
executive tells Insight. �That alone is serious enough, but it�s
the unknown that has such deep consequences.
A senior government official who would go no further than to
admit awareness of the FBI probe, says: �It is a politically
sensitive matter. I can�t comment on it beyond telling you that
anything involving Israel on this particular matter is
off-limits. It�s that hot.
It is very hot indeed. For nearly a year, FBI agents had been
tracking an Israeli businessman working for a local phone
company. The man�s wife is alleged to be a Mossad officer under
diplomatic cover at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Mossad �
the Israeli intelligence service � is known to station
husband-and-wife teams abroad, but it was not known whether the
husband is a full-fledged officer, an agent or something else.
When federal agents made a search of his work area they found a
list of the FBI�s most sensitive telephone numbers, including the
Bureau�s �black� lines used for wiretapping. Some of the listed
numbers were lines that FBI counterintelligence used to keep
track of the suspected Israeli spy operation. The hunted were
tracking the hunters.
�It was a shock,� says an intelligence professional familiar with
the FBI phone list. �It called into question the entire
operation. We had been compromised. But for how long?
This discovery by Division 5 should have come as no surprise,
given what its agents had been tracking for many months. But the
FBI discovered enough information to make it believe that,
somehow, the highest levels of the State Department were
compromised, as well as the White House and the NSC. According to
Insight�s sources with direct knowledge, other secure government
telephone systems and/or phones to which government officials
called also appear to have been compromised.
The tip-off about these operations � the pursuit of which
sometimes has led the FBI on some wild-goose chases � appears to
have come from the CIA, says an Insight source. A local phone
manager had become suspicious in late 1996 or early 1997 about
activities by a subcontractor working on phone-billing software
and hardware designs for the CIA.
The subcontractor was employed by an Israeli-based company and
cleared for such work. But suspicious behavior raised red flags.
After a fairly quick review, the CIA handed the problem to the
FBI for follow-up. This was not the first time the FBI had been
asked to investigate such matters and, though it was politically
explosive because it involved Israel, Division 5 ran with the
ball. �This is always a sensitive issue for the Bureau,� says a
former U.S. intelligence officer. �When it has anything to do
with Israel, it�s something you just never want to poke your nose
into. But this one had too much potential to ignore because it
involved a potential systemwide penetration.
Seasoned counterintelligence veterans are not surprised. �The
Israelis conduct intelligence as if they are at war. That�s
something we have to realize,� says David Major, a retired FBI
supervisory special agent and former director of
counterintelligence at the NSC. While the U.S. approach to
intelligence is much more relaxed, says Major, the very existence
of Israel is threatened and it regards itself as is in a
permanent state of war. �There are a lot less handcuffs on
intelligence for a nation that sees itself at war,� Major
observes, but �that doesn�t excuse it from our perspective.
For years, U.S. intelligence chiefs have worried about moles
burrowed into their agencies, but detecting them was fruitless.
The activities of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard were uncovered by
accident, but there remains puzzlement to this day as to how he
was able to ascertain which documents to search, how he did so on
so many occasions without detection, or how he ever obtained the
security clearances that opened the doors to such secrets. In
all, it is suspected, Pollard turned over to his Israeli handlers
about 500,000 documents, including photographs, names and
locations of overseas agents. �The damage was incredible,� a
current U.S. intelligence officer tells Insight. �We�re still
recovering from it.
Also there has been concern for years that a mole was operating
in the NSC and, while not necessarily supplying highly secret
materials to foreign agents, has been turning over precious
details on meetings and policy briefings that are being used to
track or otherwise monitor government activities. The current
hush-hush probe by the FBI, and what its agents believe to be a
serious but amorphous security breach involving telephone and
modem lines that are being monitored by Israeli agents, has even
more serious ramifications. �It has been an eye opener,� says one
high-ranking U.S. government official, shaking his head in horror
as to the potential level and scope of penetration.
As for how this may have been done technologically, the FBI
believes it has uncovered a means using telephone-company
equipment at remote sites to track calls placed to or received
from high-ranking government officials, possibly including the
president himself, according to Insight�s top-level sources. One
of the methods suspected is use of a private company that
provides record-keeping software and support services for major
telephone utilities in the United States.
A local telephone company director of security Roger Kochman
tells Insight, �I don�t know anything about it, which would be
highly unusual. I am not familiar with anything in that area.
U.S. officials believe that an Israeli penetration of that
telephone utility in the Washington area was coordinated with a
penetration of agents using another telephone support-services
company to target select telephone lines. Suspected penetration
includes lines and systems at the White House and NSC, where it
is believed that about four specific phones were monitored �
either directly or through remote sites that may involve numbers
dialed from the complex.
�[The FBI] uncovered what appears to be a sophisticated means to
listen in on conversations from remote telephone sites with
capabilities of providing real-time audio feeds directly to Tel
Aviv,� says a U.S. official familiar with the FBI investigation.
Details of how this could have been pulled off are highly
guarded. However, a high-level U.S. intelligence source tells
Insight: �The access had to be done in such a way as to evade our
countermeasures � That�s what�s most disconcerting.
Another senior U.S. intelligence source adds: �How long this has
been going on is something we don�t know. How many phones or
telephone systems we don�t know either, but the best guess is
that it�s no more than 24 at a time � as far as we can tell.
And has President Clinton been briefed? �Yes, he has. After all,
he�s had meetings with his Israeli counterparts,� says a senior
U.S. official with direct knowledge. Whether the president or his
national-security aides, including NSC chief Sandy Berger, have
shared or communicated U.S. suspicions and alarm is unclear, as
is the matter of any Israeli response. �This is the first I�ve
heard of it,� White House National Security Council spokesman
Dave Stockwell tells Insight. �That doesn�t mean it doesn�t exist
or that someone else doesn�t know.�
Despite elaborate precautions by the U.S. agencies involved, say
Insight�s sources, this alleged Israeli intelligence coup came
down to the weakest link in the security chain: the human
element. The technical key appears to be software designs for
telephone billing records and support equipment required for
interfacing with local telephone company hardware installed in
some federal agencies. The FBI has deduced that it was this
sophisticated computer-related equipment and software could
provide real-time audio feeds. In fact, according to Insight�s
sources, the FBI believes that at least one secure T-1 line
routed to Tel Aviv has been used in the suspected espionage.
The potential loss of U.S. secrets is incalculable. So is the
possibility that senior U.S. officials could be blackmailed for
indiscreet telephone talk. Many officials do not like to bother
with using secure, encrypted phones and have classified
discussions on open lines.
Which brings the story back to some obvious questions involving
the indiscreet telephone conversations of the president himself.
Were they tapped, and, if so did they involve national-security
issues or just matters of the flesh? Monica Lewinsky told Kenneth
Starr, as recounted in his report to Congress, that Lewinsky and
Clinton devised cover stories should their trysts be uncovered
and/or their phone-sex capers be overheard.
Specifically, she said that on March 29, 1997, she and Clinton
were huddled in the Oval Office suite engaging in a sexual act.
It was not the first time. But, according to Lewinsky as revealed
under oath to the investigators for the Office of Independent
Counsel, it was unusual because of what the president told her.
�He suspected that a foreign embassy was tapping his telephones,
and he proposed cover stories,� the Starr report says. �If ever
questioned, she should say that the two of them were just
friends. If anyone ever asked about their phone sex, she should
say that they knew their calls were being monitored all along,
and the phone sex was just a put on.�
In his own testimony before a federal grand jury, Clinton denied
the incident. But later � much later � he admitted to improper
behavior and was impeached but not convicted. U.S. District Court
Judge Susan Webber Wright found him to have obstructed justice.
Curiously, Starr never informed Congress whether the Lewinsky
tale was true. For that matter, according to Insight�s sources,
Starr never bothered to find out from appropriate agencies, such
as the FBI or the CIA, whether the monitoring by a foreign
government of the president�s conversations with Lewinsky
occurred.
Insight has learned that House and Senate investigators did ask
questions about these matters and in late 1998 were told directly
by the FBI and the CIA (among others) that there was no truth to
the Lewinsky claim of foreign tapping of White House phones.
Moreover, Congress was told there was no investigation of any
kind involving any foreign embassy or foreign government
espionage in such areas.
But that was not true. In fact, the FBI and other U.S. agencies,
including the Pentagon, had been working furiously and
painstakingly for well over a year on just such a secret probe,
and fears were rampant of the damage that could ensue if the
American public found out that even the remotest possibility
existed that the president�s phone conversations could be
monitored and the president subject to foreign blackmail. To the
FBI agents involved, that chance seemed less and less remote.
The FBI has become increasingly frustrated by both the pace of
its investigation and its failure to gain Justice Department
cooperation to seek an indictment of at least one individual
suspected of involvement in the alleged Israeli telephone
intercepts. National security is being invoked to cover an
espionage outrage. But, as a high law-enforcement source says,
�To bring this to trial would require we reveal our methods of
operation, and we can�t do that at this point � the FBI has not
made the case strong enough.� Moreover, says a senior U.S. policy
official with knowledge of the case: �This is a hugely political
issue, not just a law-enforcement matter.�
�You�ve Got the Crown Jewels�
If spies wanted to penetrate the White House, a facility widely
considered the most secure in the world, how might it be done?
For that matter, how might any agency or department of government
be penetrated by spies?
�Actually, it�s pretty easy if you know what you�re doing,� says
a retired U.S. intelligence expert who has helped (along with
other government sources) to guide Insight through the many and
often complicated pathways of government security and
counterespionage.
Access to designs, databases, �blueprints,� memos, telephone
numbers, lists of personnel and passwords all can be obtained.
And from surprising sources. Several years ago this magazine was
able to review from a remote site information on the supposedly
secret and inaccessible White House Office Data Base, or WHODB
(see �More Personal Secrets on File @ the White House,� July 15,
1996).
Despite the spending of additional millions to beef up security
when the White House installed a modern $30 million computerized
telephone system a few years ago, communications security remains
a big problem. Whatever the level of sophistication employed,
there are soft underbellies that raise significant
national-security problems. And potential for espionage, such as
electronic intercepting of phone calls, is very great.
Calls to or from the White House dealing with classified
information are supposed to be handled on secure lines, but it
doesn�t always happen. Sometimes, according to Insight�s sources,
despite the existence of special phones at the White House and
elsewhere to handle such calls, some don�t use them or only one
side of the call does. An Insight editor recently was allowed for
demonstration purposes to overhear a conversation placed over an
unsecured line involving a �classified� topic.
Carelessness always has been a problem, but former and current
FBI special agents say that under the Clinton administration the
disregard for security has been epidemic. Many officials simply
don�t like the bother of communicating on secure phones.
In another instance, Insight was provided access to virtually
every telephone number within the White House, including those
used by outside agencies with employees in the complex, and even
the types of computers used and who uses them. Just by way of
illustration, this information allowed direct access to
communications instruments located in the Oval Office, the
residence, bathrooms and grounds.
With such information, according to security and intelligence
experts, a hacker or spy could target individual telephone lines
and write software codes enabling the conversations to be
forwarded in real-time for remote recording and transcribing. The
White House complex contains approximately 5,800 voice, fax and
modem lines.
�Having a phone number in and of itself will not necessarily gain
you access for monitoring purposes,� Insight was told by a senior
intelligence official with regular contact at the White House.
�The systems are designed to electronically mask routes and
generate secure connections.� That said, coupling a known phone
number to routing sequences and trunk lines would pose a security
risk, this official says.
Add to that detailed knowledge of computer codes used to move
call traffic and your hacker or spy is in a very strong position.
�That�s why we have so many redundancies and security devices on
the systems � so we can tell if someone is trying to hack in,�
says a current security official at the White House.
Shown a sampling of the hoard of data collected over just a few
months of digging, the security official�s face went flush: �How
the hell did you get that! This is what we are supposed to guard
against. This is not supposed to be public.�
Indeed. Nor should the telephone numbers or locations of remote
sites or trunk lines or other sundry telecommunications be
accessible. What�s surprising is that most of this specialized
information reviewed by Insight is unclassified in its separate
pieces. When you put it together, the solved puzzle is considered
a national-security secret. And for very good reason.
Consider the following: Insight not only was provided secure
current phone numbers to the most sensitive lines in the world,
but it discovered a remote telephone site in the Washington area
which plugs into the White House telecommunications system. Given
national-security concerns, Insight has been asked not to divulge
any telephone number, location of high-security equipment, or
similar data not directly necessary for this news story.
Concerning the remote telecommunications site, Insight discovered
not only its location and access telephone numbers but other
information, including the existence of a secret �back door� to
the computer system that had been left open for upward of two
years without anyone knowing about the security lapse. This back
door, common to large computer systems, is used for a variety of
services, including those involving technicians, supervisors,
contractors and security officers to run diagnostic checks, make
repairs and review system operations.
�This is more than just a technical blunder,� says a well-placed
source with detailed knowledge of White House security issues.
�This is a very serious security failure with unimaginable
consequences. Anyone could have accessed that [back door] and
gotten into the entire White House phone system and obtained
numbers and passwords that we never could track,� the source
said, echoing yet another source familiar with the issue.
Although it is not the responsibility of the Secret Service to
manage equipment systems, the agency does provide substantial
security controls over telecommunications and support service
into or out of the White House. In fact, the Secret Service
maintains its own electronic devices on the phone system to help
protect against penetration. �That�s what is so troubling about
this,� says a security expert with ties to the White House.
�There are redundant systems to catch such errors and this was
not caught. It�s quite troubling.� It�s not supposed to happen.�
Insight asked a senior federal law-enforcement official with
knowledge of the suspected Israeli spying case about the open
electronic door. �I didn�t know about this incident. It certainly
is something we should have known given the scope of what�s at
stake,� the official says.
Then Insight raised the matter of obtaining phone numbers,
routing systems, equipment sites, passwords and other data on the
telecommunications systems used by the White House: How hard
would it be for a foreign intelligence service to get this
information? �Obviously not as hard as we thought,� a senior
government official said. �Now you understand what we�re facing
and why we are so concerned.�
That�s one reason, Insight is told, the White House phone system
is designed to mask all outgoing calls to prevent outsiders from
tracing back into the system to set up taps. However, knowing the
numbers called frequently by the White House, foreign agents
could set up listening devices on those lines to capture incoming
or outgoing calls. Another way of doing it, according to security
experts, is to get inside the White House system. And, though
it�s considered impossible, that�s what they said about getting
the phone numbers that the president uses in his office and
residence. Like trash, information is everywhere � and often is
overlooked when trying to tidy up a mess.
� PMR and JMW
�So What, It�s Only Israel!�
There is a tendency in and out of government to minimize the
impact of Israeli espionage against the United States because
Israel is a friendly country. That overlooks the gravity of the
espionage threat, says David Major, former director of
counterintelligence programs at the National Security Council.
�This �don�t worry about allied spying, it�s okay� attitude is
harmful,� he warns. �The U.S. should expect that the rest of the
world is bent on rooting out its national-security secrets and
the secrets that could subject its leaders to blackmail.�
Minimizing or excusing �friendly spying,� he argues, only
discourages vigilance and encourages more attacks on U.S.
national security. �I�m not outraged by nations that find it in
their interests to collect intelligence but by our unwillingness
to seriously pursue counterintelligence.�
Major, now dean of the private Center for Counterintelligence and
Security Studies, asks: �What price should Israel pay for this?
My predictions are that there will be no impact whatsoever. Do we
put our heads in the sand or do we take it as a wake-up call?�
Others observe that Israel has passed stolen U.S. secrets to
America�s adversaries. The government of Yitzhak Shamir
reportedly provided the Soviet Union with valuable U.S. documents
stolen by Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. �It�s the security
equivalent of herpes,� says a former U.S. antiterrorism official
now at a pro-Israel think tank who requested anonymity. �Who gets
it [beyond Israel] nobody knows.... Once we let it happen, the
word gets out that �you can get away with this.��
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths,
misdirections
and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and
minor
effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said,
CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
<A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
