60 Israelis who had been detained in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorism investigation.

[Arben Nelku]

60 Israelis who had been detained in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorism
investigation.
Carl Cameron Investigates Part 2
Part 2 of 4  (Originally from Fox News)
BRIT HUME, HOST: Last time we reported on
the approximately 60 Israelis who had been detained in connection with the Sept.
11 terrorism investigation.  Carl Cameron reported that U.S. investigators
suspect that some of these Israelis were spying on Arabs in this country, and
may have turned up information on the planned terrorist attacks back in
September that was not passed on. 
Tonight, in the second of four reports on spying by
Israelis in the U.S., we learn about an Israeli-based private communications
company, for whom a half-dozen of those 60 detained suspects worked. American
investigators fear information generated by this firm may have fallen into the
wrong hands and had the effect of impeded the Sept. 11 terror inquiry. Here's
Carl Cameron's second report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT
(voice-over):  Fox News has learned that some American terrorist
investigators fear certain suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks may have managed to
stay ahead of them, by knowing who and when investigators are calling on the
telephone.  How?
By obtaining and analyzing data that's generated every time
someone in the U.S. makes a call. 
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What city and state, please?
CAMERON:  Here's how the system works. Most directory
assistance calls, and virtually all call records and billing in the U.S. are
done for the phone companies by Amdocs Ltd., an Israeli-based private
elecommunications company. 
Amdocs has contracts with the 25 biggest phone companies in
America, and more worldwide.  The White House and other secure government
phone lines are protected, but it is virtually impossible to make a call on
normal phones without generating an Amdocs record of it. 
In recent years, the FBI and other government agencies have
investigated Amdocs more than once.  The firm has repeatedly and adamantly
denied any security breaches or wrongdoing.  But sources tell Fox News that
in 1999, the super secret national security agency, headquartered in northern
Maryland, issued what's called a Top Secret sensitive compartmentalized
information report, TS/SCI, warning that records of calls in the United States
were getting into foreign hands – in Israel, in particular.
Investigators don't believe calls are being listened to,
but the data about who is calling whom and when is plenty valuable in itself. 
An internal Amdocs memo to senior company executives suggests just how Amdocs
generated call records could be used.  “Widespread data mining techniques
and algorithms.... combining both the properties of the customer  (e.g.,
credit rating) and properties of the specific ‘behavior
.’” Specific
behavior, such as who the customers are calling. 
The Amdocs memo says the system should be used to prevent
phone fraud.   But U.S. counterintelligence analysts say it could also
be used to spy through the phone system.  Fox News has learned that the
N.S.A has held numerous classified conferences to warn the F.B.I. and C.I.A. how
Amdocs records could be used.  At one NSA briefing, a diagram by the Argon
national lab was used to show that if the phone records are not secure, major
security breaches are possible. 
Another briefing document said, "It has become
increasingly apparent that systems and networks are vulnerable.
Such crimes
always involve unauthorized persons, or persons who exceed their
authorization...citing on exploitable vulnerabilities."
Those vulnerabilities are growing, because according to
another briefing, the U.S. relies too much on foreign companies like Amdocs for
high-tech equipment and software.  "Many factors have led to increased
dependence on code developed overseas.... We buy rather than train or develop
solutions."
U.S. intelligence does not believe the Israeli government
is involved in a misuse of information, and Amdocs insists that its data is
secure. What U.S. government officials are worried about, however, is the
possibility that Amdocs data could get into the wrong hands, particularly
organized crime.  And that would not be the first thing that such a thing
has happened.  Fox News has documents of a 1997 drug trafficking case in
Los Angeles, in which telephone information, the type that Amdocs collects, was
used to "completely compromise the communications of the FBI, the Secret
Service, the DEO and the LAPD."
We'll have that and a lot more in the days ahead – Brit.
HUME:  Carl, I want to take you back to your report
last night on those 60 Israelis who were detained in the anti-terror
investigation, and the suspicion that some investigators have that they may have
picked up information on the 9/11 attacks ahead of time and not passed it on. 
There was a report, you'll recall, that the Mossad, the
Israeli intelligence agency, did indeed send representatives to the U.S. to
warn, just before 9/11, that a major terrorist attack was imminent.  How
does that leave room for the lack of a warning?
CAMERON:  I remember the report, Brit. We did it first
internationally right here on your show on the 14th.  What investigators
are saying is that that warning from the Mossad was nonspecific and general, and
they believe that it may have had something to do with the desire to protect
what are called sources and methods in the intelligence community.  The
suspicion being, perhaps those sources and methods were taking place right here
in the United States.
The question came up in select intelligence committee on
Capitol Hill today.  They intend to look into what we reported last night,
and specifically that possibility – Brit.
HUME:  So in other words, the problem wasn't lack of a
warning, the problem was lack of useful details?
CAMERON:  Quantity of information. 
HUME:  All right, Carl, thank you very much.
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