A computer used by Osama bin Laden's agents in Afghanistan could be an intelligence bonanza pointing to future methods of attack and inside information about how al-Qaeda operates, former military officials and analysts said Monday.
A US intelligence official confirmed that a computer bought by The Wall Street Journal in Kabul apparently had been used by al-Qaeda. It contained memos of the terrorist group's chemical and biological weapons program, justifications for killing civilians and a propaganda video made from footage of people fleeing from the World Trade Center, the Journal reported.
Computers are increasingly replacing confidential memos as a prime target when looking for intelligence left behind by a routed enemy. The faster the enemy is destroyed, the juicier the information.
"It's like in the old days when you have safes, you'd have hand grenades laying around to take out the safe," said Marc Enger, former director of operations at the Air Intelligence Agency, the US Air Force's intelligence arm. "These guys were more intent on getting out than worrying about information left behind."
Enger said US forces retrieved valuable information from computers in Iraq and Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War as well as in the 1989 invasion of Panama.
"We got good data there," Enger said, citing evidence of financial transactions and drug trafficking. "It was in [Panamanian General Manuel] Noriega's personal underground command center. They found computers in there that had all kinds of stuff."
A looter in Kabul said he got the desktop computer after a US bombing raid in November that killed several senior officials of al-Qaeda, the Journal reported. The newspaper said it bought the machine from the looter for US$1,100.
The terrorist group functioned like a multinational corporation, with memos referring to al-Qaeda as "the company" and its leadership as "the general management," the newspaper said.
One memo referred to a "legal study" of the killing of civilians, in which the writer said he had found ways to keep "the enemy" from using the killing of "civilians, specifically women and children," to undermine the militants' cause, the Journal said.
A letter addressed to top al-Qaeda lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri said "hitting the Americans and Jews is a target of great value and has its rewards in this life and, God willing, the afterlife," the Journal said.
The author of the letter said that he had written to bin Laden separately.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued a sea alert for Typhoon Fung-wong (鳳凰) as it threatened vessels operating in waters off the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), the Bashi Channel and south of the Taiwan Strait. A land alert is expected to be announced some time between late last night and early this morning, the CWA said. As of press time last night, Taoyuan, as well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties had declared today a typhoon day, canceling work and classes. Except for a few select districts in Taipei and New Taipei City, all other areas and city
VIOLATION OF NORMS: China’s CCTV broadcast claimed that Beijing could use Interpol to issue arrest warrants, which the MAC slammed as an affront to order The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for attempts to intimidate Taiwanese through “transnational repression.” The council issued the remarks after state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) yesterday during a news broadcast aired a video targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋), threatening him with “cross-border repression” and saying: “Stop now, or you will be next,” in what Taipei officials said was an attempt to intimidate not only Shen, but also the broader Taiwanese public. The MAC in a statement condemned the threat, accusing Beijing of trying to instill fear and self-censorship among Taiwanese and
RSS