FLASHBACK (Nov. 2001): Secret phone system operated by an al-Qaeda cell out of Denver

Scripps Howard News Service via Corpus Christi Caller-Times ^ | Nov. 12, 2001 | Lou Kilzer

[FairOpinion]

The 800 number was used to thwart Saudi attempts to intercept calls by the group to Britain.

DENVER - One of Osama bin Laden's key al-Qaeda cells used a phone system in Denver for secret communications between Saudi Arabia and Britain in the 1990s, according to a bin Laden confidant based in London.

The system, using an MCI 800 number, was established to thwart Saudi attempts to intercept messages, said Mohammed al-Massari.

It incorporated toll-free lines established for U.S. servicemen during the Gulf War, al-Massari said. The calls were placed from Saudi Arabia and then transferred from Denver to Britain.

His estranged wife, former Denver resident Lujain al-Iman, who also lives in London, confirmed his account. And Denver's FBI office said it is aware of the al-Qaeda connection to Denver, but would not elaborate.

Al-Iman, 35, said she set up the Denver-based telephone system at her husband's request in 1994. She said she does not know how long the London al-Qaeda cell - the Advice and Reformation Committee - used the phone account.

Some of those involved with the telephone setup are still in the Denver area, al-Iman said, although she declined to provide names.

[FairOpinion]

And people wonder why we need to intercept and monitor phone calls....

Recommend going to the link and reading the article, more interesting and disturbing info.

[FairOpinion]

PING

[edpc]

The 1-800-GO-JIHAD number should have been a tip-off.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for posting this article.

[FairOpinion]

I was looking for some info about Bin Laden's satellite phone and how he stopped using it after 1998, when either the media or some Congressman revealed that we were listening to it, and came across this article -- I didn't remember seeing it at the time. While it's from 2001, it's a timely illustration of the importance of being able to monitor terrorist and suspicious phone calls. YOu can see they were being very clever even back then and I am sure they are even more clandestine now.

Telling them what we are doing makes them switch to alternative means, which we may not know about.

That's why "sources and methods" are classified Top Secret.

But the media cares nothing about our security, in fact they are cheerfully trying to undermine it.

[FairOpinion]

Congressional Intelligence Leaks

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/13/202146.shtml


"Senator Richard Shelby leaked that we were tapping Osama bin Laden's satellite phone. Bin Laden immediately stopped using it,"

[Wilhelm Tell]

Telling them what we are doing makes them switch to alternative means, which we may not know about.

The leftists and the mainstream media want us to tell everything -- who is being spied on and why (all the better to aid terrorist suspects), the exact date of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, and no doubt they would prefer that the terrorists be given details of our troop movements in advance just to keep everything "fair." On the other hand, any curiosity as to what the terrorists are up to is bad because that would violate the terrorists' "right to privacy."