Cyber surveillance

[BLUEHAWK]

I found this article (highly recommended) quite reassuring.

The NEW YORKER MAGAZINE
July 25, 2005 issue
"The Terrorism Beat: How is NYPD defending the city?"
By: William Finnegan
pp 58 - 71

Here is a small quote from it, vis a vis online discussion and chat sites (from page 64):

"Sometimes it's not what they're saying, it's what they're not saying. You see patterns, like news items from two months before that suddenly start recirculating."

Sometimes, Reza said, "You'll see an offer of a video-clip download. It might be a beheading, or training materials, or proof that someone actually did something." ...

The cybercops told me that each of them belonged to more than thirty separate e-mail groups or chat rooms.

"It can take a long time to work your way up the ladder," Maged said. "At first, it might be just some guy in Texas talking with some guy from Saudi, anti-government [crap]. But other people are listening, and if they see you coming back every day, and you seem serious, they might invite you somewhere else."

"Ninety-seven per cent of the juicy stuff is done PM - personal message," Reza said. "Not in chat rooms. But it takes a lot of time - months, maybe years - to get that kind of trust."

I asked the cybercops how they communicated with other security services.

"We tell the Commissioner," Reza said, indicating Cohen. "He tells the C.I.A."

"Or I call Kelly, depending on what it is," Cohen said. "And he takes our calls."

Interesting, eh?