How bin Laden emailed without being detected by US

By MATT APUZZO and ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press – 39 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Despite having no Internet access in his hideout, Osama bin Laden was a prolific email writer who built a painstaking system that kept him one step ahead of the U.S. government's best eavesdroppers.

His methods, described in new detail to The Associated Press by a counterterrorism official and a second person briefed on the U.S. investigation, served him well for years and frustrated Western efforts to trace him through cyberspace. The arrangement allowed bin Laden to stay in touch worldwide without leaving any digital fingerprints behind.

The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence analysis.

Bin Laden's system was built on discipline and trust. But it also left behind an extensive archive of email exchanges for the U.S. to scour. The trove of electronic records pulled out of his compound after he was killed last week is revealing thousands of messages and potentially hundreds of email addresses, the AP has learned.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ap_on_re_us/us_bin_laden

:rofl:

:spray:

Nobody pays attention to AOL mail. Probably even the NSA sends it to their spam folder. From my experience, all AOL mail begins with FWD: :rofl:

:P

Wow! There is something that no one expected!

"It was a slow, toilsome process. And it was so meticulous that even veteran intelligence officials have marveled at bin Laden's ability to maintain it for so long."


This system sounds about as complex as somebody's grandfather, who doesn't know shit about the internet, typing his messages into word and giving to his grandson to send to his mall walking buddies.

:rofl:

Maybe we'll even find out if Pakistan knew his where a bouts.

"The Justice Department is already coming off a year in which it significantly increased the number of national security letters, which allow the FBI to quickly demand information from companies and others without asking a judge to formally issue a subpoena."

Well I'll be damned.