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AMERICA: AFTERMATH OF TERROR

By Chris Cobbs, Sentinel Staff Writer

September 15, 2001

TECHNOLOGY MAKES TERRORISTS' JOB EASIER CELL PHONES, E-MAIL, WEB SITES AND HIGH-TECH GADGETS NO DOUBT AIDED THE ATTACKERS.

Personal technology played a helpful role after this week's terrorist attacks as thousands of people relied on e-mail and cell phones to contact loved ones when telephone lineswere jammed. But the same technology that makes our lives easier can make terrorists' jobs easier, too. And that fact, technology and security experts say, will come into play as the United States and terrorists match wits in what President Bush calls "the first war of the 21st century.''

Although investigators are still piecing together how the missions were planned and carried out, the terrorists would have had easy access to devices available to the average person with a little extra cash. "For $800 to $1,500, they could have purchased devices for secure phone conversations,'' said retired Army Col. David Hunt, founder of DAR Inc., an international security consulting firm. "They could have easily rented cars equipped with global positioning satellite devices to give the exact coordinates for buildings and the spots where pilots would execute turns to line up for their attack.'' And, like computer gamers, they could have played Microsoft's Flight Simulator, which depicts the interior of jet cabins with exacting details, Hunt said. Microsoft announced Friday that it would remove depictions of the World Trade Center in the next version of the game, due out this fall.

In plotting their strategy, terrorists apparently were limited to small groups, or cells, in order to protect their identities if any were caught, said Larry Taulbee, a political scientist and terrorism expert at Emory University in Atlanta. "Communicating over the Internet made it possible for these cells to stay in touch and coordinate their plans and movements,'' he said.

Dennis P. Farley, president of a New Jersey consulting firm specializing in crisis management, pointed out that the terrorists could have used encryption software, which encodes Internet messages so others can't read them. It is software "that anybody can buy in a computer store,'' he said. "Technology also gives them access to information on making bombs or poison gas,'' Farley said. "They can get that on the Web without having to go in a library and check out a book, which might allow them to be spotted.'' Terrorists hiding on U.S. soil also can set up free, anonymous e-mail accounts that conceal their identity, yet allow them to remain in contact without risk of exposure, he said.

As the United States launches what may be an extended campaign against terrorists, it has some powerful high-tech weapons it can employ. There are satellites that can eavesdrop on a phone call anywhere in the world. Officials also can use computer viruses against terrorists' PCs, employ facial-recognition technology to help spot terrorists on the move in public areas, and even electronically transfer money from terrorists' bank accounts. But technology has evolved faster than U.S. spying capabilities, said Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The U.S. intelligence community needs new rules and resources to adjust. For instance, he said, instead of easily intercepting phone calls from enemies using telephones, spies must gain physical access to computers in foreign lands -- a much riskier proposition.

"It is an unfortunate but constitutional impingement on our freedom to have law enforcement listen to our phone conversations," Graham said. "Now the question is these new forms of communication that are not over the air." Graham said wire taps need to be updated. Court orders to eavesdrop against foreign agents only last 90 days. Graham wants to extend that to a year. And current law requires a separate court order for each cell phone a suspect might use, which causes headaches when terrorists can switch phones every few days. Graham said the United States had fought the dissemination of high-technology encryption but lost the battle when other countries put devices on the market. "The genie is out of the bottle on encryption," he said.

If nothing else, the week's events made clear again the nature of technology, which is neither good nor bad by itself, but becomes either depending on how it's employed, said Randall G. Rogan, associate professor of communications and an expert in crisis communication and terrorism at Wake Forest University. "In World War II, scientists engaged in the Manhattan Project on atomic energy were hopeful it would be used for the benefit of humankind,'' he said. "In today's world, we similarly wish for technology to be put to good uses and not employed for dastardly purposes. This is the clearly double-edged nature of advancing technology.''