The Most Generous Soul

Tonightin the second of four reports on spying by Israelis in the U.S.we learn about an Israeli-based private communications companyfor 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.

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CARL CAMERONFOX 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 themby 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 stateplease?

CAMERON: Here’s how the system works. Most directory assistance callsand 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 Americaand more worldwide. The White House and other secure government phone lines are protectedbut it is virtually impossible to make a call on normal phones without generating an Amdocs record of it.

In recent yearsthe 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 1999the super secret national security agencyheadquartered in northern Marylandissued what’s called a Top Secret sensitive compartmentalized information reportTS/SCIwarning that records of calls in the United States were getting into foreign hands – in Israelin particular.

Investigators don’t believe calls are being listened tobut 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 behaviorsuch 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 briefinga diagram by the Argon national lab was used to show that if the phone records are not securemajor security breaches are possible.

Another briefing document said”It has become increasingly apparent that systems and networks are vulnerable.Such crimes always involve unauthorized personsor persons who exceed their authorization…citing on exploitable vulnerabilities.”

Those vulnerabilities are growingbecause according to another briefingthe 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 informationand Amdocs insists that its data is secure. What U.S. government officials are worried abouthoweveris the possibility that Amdocs data could get into the wrong handsparticularly 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 Angelesin which telephone informationthe type that Amdocs collectswas used to “completely compromise the communications of the FBIthe Secret Servicethe DEO and the LAPD.”

We’ll have that and a lot more in the days ahead – Brit.

HUME: CarlI want to take you back to your report last night on those 60 Israelis who were detained in the anti-terror investigationand 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 reportyou’ll recallthat the Mossadthe Israeli intelligence agencydid indeed send representatives to the U.S. to warnjust before 9/11that a major terrorist attack was imminent. How does that leave room for the lack of a warning?

CAMERON: I remember the reportBrit. 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 generaland 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 beingperhaps 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 nightand specifically that possibility – Brit.

HUME: So in other wordsthe problem wasn’t lack of a warningthe problem was lack of useful details?

CAMERON: Quantity of information.

HUME: All rightCarlthank you very much.

Source: foxnews.com