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Echelon Used to Capture Terrorist

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the lets-be-rational-people dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Echelon was used to track and capture Khalid Sheikh Mohammed." Ahh, bitter sweet victories. The article kind of explains what Echelon is, and pretty much says that those disposable phones really don't have much security at all.

11 of 497 comments (clear)

  1. Can find you even if your mobile is turned off by pubjames · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Did you know that they can track the location of a mobile phone even if it is turned off, as long as there is some charge left in the battery?

    I just read "Killing Pablo", about the hunt for Pablo Escobar, which says that Pablo stopped using his mobile phone because he knew it could be tracked. The book mentions how it was possible to turn it on at night when Pablo was asleep, so it's location could be tracked.

    So if you find your mobile suddenly turning itself on in the middle of the night, it's time to get paranoid...

  2. Umm.. Why pay? by Alcohol+Fueled · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "They were tracking him for some time," an unnamed intelligence official told the American news magazine US News and World Report. "He would shift; they would follow."

    To me, if they were tracking him, that tells that they knew where he was. So, why didn't they just use the tracking from Echelon to capture Mohammed, instead of paying out 27 million to someone else also?



    To quote Bill Maher:

    Khalid Sheikh Sheikh Sheikh, Sheikh Sheikh Sheikh, Sheikh Mohammed!

    --
    Ah am not a crook! (\(-__-)/)
  3. As it was intended by Shadow2097 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    While its still a fair target to use for Big Brother type arguments, hopefully this event will score a few points for proponents of 21st century electronic surveilance.

    This guy is a fair and legitimate target for electronic surveilance. He's a know leader of a network of individuals who are dedicated to causing harm to untold millions of people whose biggest crime is living in a country whose ideals he disagrees with. If Echelon is used fairly and honestly in these types of situations, then I will not complain one bit about the extraordinary secrecy of its network.

    -Shadow

    1. Re:As it was intended by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 5, Interesting
      If Echelon is used fairly and honestly in these types of situations, then I will not complain one bit about the extraordinary secrecy of its network.

      I think the main problem people have with Echelon is that the European Commision investigation into it concluded the US was using it for corporate/economic sabotage, for instance shortly after an executive of some big aerospace company talked about a bid they were making on a phone, a large american firm who was also making a bid changed their numbers to be slightly less than what the european one was bidding.

      So, the worry is that when there aren't any terrorists to catch, it will be and has been used for other things.

  4. Re:So, is Echelon good now? by rearl · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are some tools with no reasonable purpose besides evil.

    While this instance proves that Echelon can be used for good, who insures that?

  5. Job searchers take note... by Wino · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The rival magazine Newsweek quoted a Middle Eastern intelligence source as saying that an unidentified al-Qaida member "turned over and made a deal with the United States", taking the $25m reward offered and extracting a supplementary $2m in order to relocate with his family to the United Kingdom. A US law enforcement source confirmed that the payment had been made, the magazine said.

    $25M and a legal visa... terrorism seems to pay well.

  6. UK Royal family... by pubjames · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Something I've always wondered...

    Quite a few years ago, there was a spate of embarrassing phone calls by members of the Royal family that found there way into the press. The phone calls were "acidentally" overhead and taped by amateur radio enthusiasts. There was reported evidence that the phone calls had actually been played repeatedly near the homes of these amateur radio enthusiasts - presumably as a way of leaking the calls without it being traceable back to the leakers.

    What has never been explained (or at least I've never come across any explanation in the mainstream press) is who did or might have done this, and why.

    In a similar vein, it was never explained how Colin Powell had a transcript of Bin Laden's last taped message, before the al-Jazeera station even had the tape. To me that means either:

    1) It was a fabrication or
    2) They know where Bin Laden is.

    1. Re:UK Royal family... by prentiz · · Score: 4, Interesting
      It is important to note that in the case of the UK royals they were using old analogue phones which you could overhear on a scanner (remember doing so when i was a kid!).

      I think a more plausible explanation is that the hams in question knew what they were looking for and went out to find it.

      Equally communications interception (possibly between intermediaries) is a more plausible explanation as to how the US got the Bin Ladin tape.

  7. Great, more Anonymous Sources by Highwayman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If they "had been tracking him for some time", I wonder why they waiting so long to do anything. I suspect that the human intelligence had more to do with it than the alleged use of Echelon. The last person I would believe is some anonymous, talking-head Echelon apologist. I think there is some FUD involved. Exactly how do you provide oversight over a project like Echelon? I think that the system is probably used more to spy on people whose whereabouts are known than to track down some people in some sort of Hollywood "Bourne Identity" drama. If Echelon was designed to be a lost-and-found device that actually found Mohammed, I think you would hear a lot more chest-thumping from the intelligence community. The rest of the article is the real story. The NSA/CIA/EIEIO paid off some guy who sold his boss down the river.

  8. Do you value more your privacy than your life? by malraid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It seems that a lot of people are saying that it's good that the terrorist was caught, but that the goverment should be able to spy like that on us? Shouldn't the government be able to spy on terrorists? If you have dealings with a terrorist (either on purpose or by mistake) you can get caught by a LOT of other means, and then you'll have a bunch of things to explain.

    Some weeks ago, the store that my parents own was robbed. They put a gun to my father and mother. They even put a gun to my 4 year old sister. Luckily no one was hurt. They also stole my father's cell phone, and even answered when we called. Do you think that I would be happy to be "tracked" by my phone's location, just so those assholes could have been caught? I sure will.

    --
    please excuse my apathy
  9. Re:So, is Echelon good now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, you see, the idea behind Eschelon is to circumvent the Constitution's protections by having foreign governments monitor US citizens and report back to the US Government (And in return the US government does the same for them).