The Consortium
The CIA's Electronic Cash Withdrawals
One of the stranger stories buzzing around the Internet holds
that some CIA vigilantes have been rolling down the Interstates
in a 16-wheeler trailer-truck with a powerful computer in the
back "dialing for dollars." The CIA men supposedly have used
the computer to hack into the overseas bank accounts of
criminals and move their dirty money into the U.S. Treasury. One
version even links this story to Vincent Foster's death by
claiming that the patriot hackers had emptied Foster's Swiss
bank account in the days before he drove despondently to Fort
Marcy Park.
While the chief sources for these tales are pretty unreliable
and have offered no supporting evidence for their claims,
current and past officials close to U.S. intelligences have told
The Consortium that the hacking techniques (sans 16-wheeler) are
theoretically sound. Indeed, the sources report that the CIA
and the National Security Agency already have used hacking as
part of authorized covert operations.
One official said U.S. intelligence hacked into one bank to
intercept a payoff from a drug cartel to a corrupt Latin
American politician. When the payoff didn't arrive and the
politician complained about the missing bribe, the cartel
reportedly killed its bookkeeper for suspected theft. When the
money disappeared a second time, the cartel shot the politician,
the U.S. official said. Clearly, the ability to delete
financial records gives the CIA a golden opportunity to disrupt
the operations of its adversaries.
The sensitivity of these operations appears to be a factor in
the intelligence community's opposition to the overseas sale of
sophisticated encrypting devices and its resistance to a civil
suit brought by a small computer firm, Inslaw. That firm
developed high-powered software which had multiple capabilities,
including some for spying. Over the years, Inslaw owner William
Hamilton has heard claims that his software was stolen by the
government and adapted for intelligence purposes, including the
penetration of foreign banks.
The Inslaw case, which has sputtered on and off for a decade, is
now in discovery, with Inslaw's lawyers seeking evidence that
the software was misappropriated.
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