How the terror trail went unseen. Investigations into how the terror attackers managed to evade detection are producing the unusual situation that statements from the FBI have become more trustworthy than those in the press.
In two successive briefings, senior FBI officials have stated that the agency has as yet found no evidence that the hijackers who attacked America used electronic encryption methods to communicate on the internet. But this has not prevented politicians and journalists repeating lurid rumours that the coded orders for the attack were secretly hidden inside pornographic web images, or from making claiming that the hijacks could have been prevented if only western governments had been given the power to prevent internet users from using secret codes.
The latest evidence from the FBI suggests that the hijackers easily hid under the noses of the American government, not by using advanced technology but by being as American as apple pie.
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“Events have vindicated our position”, adds Ian Miller, a computer security specialist and one of the experts whom Mr Straw has accused of being “naïve”. The attacks, he said, worked because they had “none of the hallmarks of clandestine activity the intelligence agencies normally look for. They did nothing suspicious – until they did something abominable”. [Privacy Digest]