One of the leading figures indicted in the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid used a simple trick that allowed him to communicate with his confederates on ordinary e- mail accounts but avoided government detection, according to the judge investigating the case.

Instead of sending the messages, the suspect, Hassan El Haski, saved them as drafts on accounts he shared with other radicals, according to papers issued by the judge, Juan del Olmo. They all knew the password and so they could access the accounts to read his comments and post replies, according to the judge.

This ruse meant that there was no digital trail that the authorities could easily trace, according to the judge and government. Had the messages been e- mailed, the government might have monitored them, as is common across Europe.

After years of government surveillance and “watching the watchers”, I have my doubts about whether or not this groupware stunt would work.



  1. AB CD says:

    They come up with something hard to trace because the press keeps revealing the method that are being used.

  2. Dan says:

    There are always ways around the watchers it is what makes these guys so dangerous.

  3. Mike Voice says:

    They come up with something hard to trace because the press keeps revealing the method that are being used.

    They come up with something hard to trace because they are smart, and they know that they are being hunted [and rightly so].

    Echelon has been running for years, and I don’t find it hard to believe that Carnivore [or something better] is running – in Secret, by Executive Order – so I would be suprised to learn that any terrorist doesn’t suspect all forms of communication are being monitored by the NSA – and act accordingly.

    And while this news may tip-off the terrorists, it also tips-off the parents who feel safe – because they monitor their childrens e-mail – that pedophiles may be using a similar method to communicate with their children.

    While that probably qualifies as a “straw man”, it is one of the things that bothers me about such tight secrecy. We don’t want to discuss an exploit that is discovered – so that the terrorists will keep using a compromised method of communication – but terrorists aren’t the only smart people who are trying to hide their tracks.

  4. rwilliams254 says:

    So the cowards in Spain did something original…big deal. We should all be appalled that the even bigger cowards in Spain, the voters, changed their votes at the last minuet because the terrorists won. After the attack the “loosing” opponent said that he’d pull troops out of the war on terrorism and the cowardly voters elected him into office.

  5. Zuke says:

    WTF. People seem to forget in 2002 when the military was using Osama bin Laden’s cell phone calls to help triangulate locations in Afghanistan. Once that story broke on the news, what happened? He stopped using the phone, the intel dried up, and they lost him & his crew in the mountains.

    Coincidence? Hmm, not rocket science.

  6. Mike Voice says:

    Again, these are not stupid people we are dealing with. By the time a tactic makes it into the press it is long compromised.

    Agreed.

    Anybody remember Dzhokhar Dudayev?? Anybody think terroists don’t remember the details, or they didn’t learn anything from what was used against him in 1996? Are we just hoping they aren’t considering what new technologies have been developed in the 10-years since then??

    From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzhokhar_Dudayev

    President Dudayev was killed on April 21 1996 by two laser-guided missiles when he was using a satellite phone, after his location was detected by a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, which intercepted his phone call. …[yada yada]…, it is known that Russian reconnaissance planes in the area have been monitoring satellite communications for quite some time, trying to match Dudayev’s voice signature to existing samples of his speech. It was a gross mistake on Dudayev’s part to use a satellite phone, especially with his experience as a Soviet Air Force general.

  7. Cowards are at least not stupid says:

    >
    >
    What do you think the war in Iraq is for? Do you still think this is to save the world from “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and all that other shit on “war on terrorism”? Wouldn’t their have been oil in Iraq nothing would have happened.
    Remember Vietnam? Remember Nixon? A both silent and silly majority voted for him.. He and his gang decided that the “Freedom of the World” is in danger and acted. They have cheated, burglared and killed. Ask one of those team idiots (McNamara) now. He regrets.The only survivor, I presume.
    But nobody is talking about the victims. They can regret to have lived at the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all they can do, if they can at all. They just interfered with “geostrategic considerations”. Bad luck, isn’t it?.
    And you? Having learnt nothing, still believing in your equally stupid government & press zombies, you dare to talk about “cowardice”?
    People like you should be obliged to wear warning signs when they leave home. They are definitly more dangerous than hot coffee at McDonalds.
    Wish you a nice war.

  8. AB CD says:

    I didn’t know Vietnam had oil.

    The Bin Laden satellite phone dried up in 1996 afgter it came out during the World Trade Center trial(which should never have happened).


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