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# The Global Intelligence Files

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

## Re: [CT] Shahzad used online webcams and live shots to plan Times Square bombing

Released on 2012-08-12 08:00 GMT

Email-ID | 1945332
Date | 2010-10-06 17:38:03
From | ryan.abbey@stratfor.com
To | burton@stratfor.com, ct@stratfor.com
List-Name | ct@stratfor.com

Yes, I agree with that, but the defensive mechanisms (guards, delta
barriers, time shift, make/model of PTZ's) he/she mentioned are geared
more for hardened targets (not that places like the Times Square doesn't
have PTZ's and police walking the beat) not soft targets like Times
Square, hotels, mass transit systems, etc.
The failure of Shahzad, as he/she pointed out, was not that he did not do
his surveillance homework - it was that his device did not work properly
(if I remember right, he set the wrong time on the bomb).
Having said that - nothing can compete with seeing the target for
oneself. However, individuals with good bomb-making skills could use the
Internet for surveillance on a soft target without having set foot there.
The plan has less chances of coming off than having actually eyes on the
target, but these Internet views of targets allows terrorists to do a
great deal of their homework from their apartment, hotel room, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Fred Burton" <burton@stratfor.com>
To: "Ryan Abbey" <ryan.abbey@stratfor.com>, "CT AOR" <ct@stratfor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 6, 2010 11:20:46 AM
Subject: Re: [CT] Shahzad used online webcams and live shots to plan Times
Square bombing
Former CIA TrapWire response (PLS DO NOT FORWARD) regarding
counter-measures to mitigate the threat:
We get asked this question quite often. Yes, terror groups do make use
of webcams, Google Earth and the Internet when doing their prep. (Bin
Laden has even made mention of this himself). So, Shahzad's comments are
hardly a revelation in the intel community. That said, I can assure you
no successful terror attack has ever been planned based solely on the
Internet. Google can't tell me how many guards are at a facility; how
long a delta-barrier stays up; what time shift change occurs; what
make/model of PTZs are installed around your building; etc. etc. I have
to have eyes-on-target to fully understand your vulnerabilities. I guess
one could make the argument that relying solely on "virtual
reconnaissance" gives you the results Shahzad had -- failure. (He
probably should have spent more time on bomb-making webpages rather than
webcams).
Mumbai is a perfect case in point. The 10 attackers (all peasant farmers
coerced -- and in at least two cases, sold by their families -- into
participating) never set foot in Mumbai prior to the operation. Instead,
they were taken to a safehouse in Pakistan and walked through a series
of videos, still shots and maps of the planned attack routes and
targets. The surveillance cell worked more than two years in collecting
this data, and was able to present such a thorough video montage, that
the attackers had the entire ingress memorized before they ever got
there. This was done with handheld video cameras and probing ops around
the targets -- not the internet.
Ryan Abbey wrote:
>
> This could really mess with police using countersurveillance to try
> and nab terrorists. If future terrorists do take Shahzad's example
> and use online Google Street view, webcams, live shots, etc. that
> means less time that they will actually have to be on the ground doing
> surveillance of the target and even less opportunities for law
> enforcement to nab them.
>
>
>
>
>
> Times Square bomb plotter sentenced to life in prison
>
> Link:
>
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/05/new.york.terror.plot/index.html?section=cnn_latest
>
>
>
> Excerpt:
>
> "According to the memo, Shahzad *used webcams *accessible on the
> internet "as part of his effort to maximize the deadly effect of his
> bomb."
>
> The memo says Shahzad *found webcams online and studied the real-time
> video feeds of different areas in Times Square to determine when and
> where he could inflict the most damage.*
>
> Prosecutors said Shahzad "wanted to select the busiest time for
> pedestrian traffic in Times Square because pedestrians walking on the
> streets would be easier to kill and to injure than people driving in
> cars." "
>
>
>
> --
> Ryan Abbey
> Tactical Intern
> Stratfor
> ryan.abbey@stratfor.com
>
--
Ryan Abbey
Tactical Intern
Stratfor
ryan.abbey@stratfor.com