Don't blame Intelligence or Security Agencies.....

Thu Sep 13 15:38:34 UTC 2001

I cannot begin to express how happy I am that the terrorists did not elect
to carry-on a briefcase full of Anthrax or Botulinum Toxin.  This would have
easily magnified the effects of the disaster exponentially.

Thought for the day:
Botulinum Toxin is a bio-chemical weapon so powerful that 1 pound (properly
distributed) would easily obliterate the eastern Seaboard.  Manufacturing
this "Mega-Weapon" is only slightly more complex than making liquor.

-eh

-----Original Message-----
From: Ariel Biener [mailto:ariel at fireball.tau.ac.il]
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 5:59 AM
To: clarke
Cc: nanog at merit.edu
Subject: Re: Don't blame Intelligence or Security Agencies.....

On Thu, 13 Sep 2001, clarke wrote:

> The intelligence agencies in the United States are the best in the world.

This is actually not true. In order for anyone to get world class
explosives, they would need to be well connected and to have access to
explosives, that is, someone will have to supply them. Among these network
of terrorists, some of them deal with supplying explosives, some with
aquiring them, some with planning, some with other financial aspects. Like
any other military (or large organization), they have a few departments.
Most of the people are rather sane, and work in a more or less normal
manner to do their "job". The ones carrying out the missions are the vast
minority of such an organization.

Intelligence gathering should and must be at the preliminary stage, by
infiltrating such organizations, in any possible way. An operation of the
size the US witnessed involved many people, at all levels of the
organization. If the organization was well covered by the CIA/???, then
the information would have reached them long time before the actual hit.

This is what intelligence is all about.

--Ariel

> 
> Get your shit straight!
> 
> ~ Clarke ~
> 

--
Ariel Biener
e-mail: ariel at post.tau.ac.il
PGP(6.5.8) public key http://www.tau.ac.il/~ariel/pgp.html