by Barry Becker
“What are the chances of detection?” Ericksen asked.
“It’s virtually impossible.” The NSA engineer kept a straight face. “We’ve covertly inputted your palm vein template and matching live- biometrics verification algorithm signature recessed into the bowels of the CPU. They reside on all four laptop computers, and we regis- tered them as the ‘real systems administrator.’ Your agent, Ziad, will enroll Abdullah, Beltermann, and himself before he departs from Portland. He needs to provide you with each of their biometrics ID on USB flash drives. You’ll send them to Ft. Meade. When he enrolls Khalid, you’ll make arrangements for the USB flash drive to be sent to my attention at Ft. Meade.”
“At what point does my biometrics template and matching ‘real- live’ authentication ID buried within Echelon II, enable NSA to inter- cept their email communications?” he asked.
“Good question. Here’s a typical scenario, Abdullah inserts his USB flash drive into the port, performs the biometrics log-on program in a city in the USA. It confirms his ID, and Khalid does the same process from Switzerland or Saudi Arabia. Then Khalid inputs his sensitive email message and clicks SEND. His message is encrypted with the same key as Abdullah’s key. Both of their laptop computers will immediately recognize each other by their symmet- rical keys. Within nanoseconds, their encrypted emails and computer IP addresses and other tags will be routed to our referenced master protocol – your biometrics ID, which resides within our Global Infor- mation Grid – using Echelon II. Once there, our Vortex Interceptor locks on and decrypts their communication.”
“Why do you need my biometrics ID?” “Extra insurance.”
“I’m impressed. If this works we should all be congratulated,” said
Ericksen.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Ericksen, it’s a slam dunk!”
“How long will it take you to decrypt their communications from Arabic into English?” he asked.
“I believe our fastest super computers can reach five petaflops per second, that’s five quadrillion floating point operations per second. My best guess – probably crack it within five minutes. With Echelon II, we can handle approximately five hundred exabytes of global Internet traffic this year. To put it in perspective, Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, once estimated back in 2003 that the total of all human knowledge created from the dawn of man to 2003 totaled five exabytes.”
“Nothing like an American Trojan horse,” Ericksen said, and took a swig of water.
“What type of countermeasures might they use during the tests?” he asked.
“Typical equipment…digital multimeter, picket RF field detector, spectrum analyzer, or any other professional gear. Nothing to worry about.” The engineer coughed. “Do you have a soft drink?”
“Yes.” He nodded, went to the refrigerator, and pulled out a Coke. “I’ll be back with the pre-paid cellphones in a minute.”
Ericksen went back to his office to retrieve Ziad’s fifteen pre-paid cellphones. He returned to the conference room and gave the engi- neer the phones. He watched as the NSA man began configuring each cellphone’s SIM card with NSA’s intercept software algorithm routines. Each cellphone, when activated by one of the cell carriers, generated its location area identity, authentication key with the IMSI from the SIM card, and a local cellphone number. When the engi- neer completed his task, he walked back to Ericksen’s office and gave Ziad the fifteen cellphones, who placed them into his backpack.
In the evening, he called an order of pizza from Bellagio Pizzeria and an order of Chinese food from Wong’s, both in Wilsonville Town Center. After dinner, Ziad got back into Ericksen’s rented SUV for the drive to his motel. During the trip, Ericksen wanted some answers on the Saudi’s role with Al-Qaeda in Iraq. “How does it feel to kill inno- cent Americans?”
Ziad felt uneasy and appeared in a trance. “I never lost focus on my mission: To infiltrate Al-Qaeda and later the Red Sea Brother- hood. I built and planted many IEDs. Killing Americans and NATO soldiers enhanced my credibility with Al-Qaeda. It didn’t take long before my actions started to numb my senses. I became one of them.” “I hate you for what you did, but I hope you can help us stop
these attacks and cripple this terrorist organization.”
“I hated myself for what I did, and whether I lived or died, my mission was to help defeat Khalid Al-Bustani and his Red Sea Brotherhood.”
They pulled up to the motel and Ziad got out of the vehicle. “I’ll call your cell tomorrow and let you know the address of the Lincoln City rental.”
As soon as Ziad entered his room, he noticed a flashing red message light on his bedside telephone stand. He picked it up and dialed the room of Juan Garcia, the alias of Abdullah Al-Suhaimy. They connected and spoke in Arabic. Abdullah explained how he had arrived in Nogales, Arizona through a tunnel from Mexico with the help of one of the drug cartel members. He told Ziad a Saudi student who studied at one of the local universities would pick them up tomorrow at twelve-noon and drive to a motel near the rental. “The Saudi student knows nothing except that we’re two busi- nessmen from the Kingdom mixing business with pleasure, and will be staying on the Oregon coast for a few days of relaxation.”
Caldwell and Ericksen went into the great room and watched CNN news, and later, a segment of the Food Network with Emeril Lagasse. Caldwell asked to see his master bedroom. The few times he had company, other than his relatives or very close friends, he had refused to have anyone see his bedroom. “Why do you want to see my bedroom?”
“I am just curious,” she said. “Is that an unusual request?”
She followed him into his bedroom, noticed the Scandinavian- designed furniture and some seascape paintings. Then she saw the
wedding photo of Ericksen and his wife. “She was beautiful. What was her name?”
“Karen.” He looked at Caldwell and extended his hand, and escorted her out of his bedroom.
She looked at him for several seconds. “Thanks for everything.”
On the next day, Ericksen and Caldwell took off early for the drive to Lincoln City. She drove the rented Cadillac SUV and he followed in his Chevy Silverado. He placed two surfboards in the back of his pick-up. On the backseat were laptop computers and duffel bags.
Two hours later they arrived at the Inn at Spanish Head, regis- tered for two rooms, and brought up their luggage and laptop computers. After changing into their wetsuits, they drove to the beach. The waves were now about six to seven feet high.
They both paddled out three-hundred-yards, turned around, and began paddling toward shore. Ericksen and Caldwell matched the speed of the waves when the wave caught them, got up, did floaters, and rode the wave almost to the beach before falling off. They continued for another two hours of surfing before calling it quits.
In the evening, Ericksen and Caldwell were dining out at a seafood restaurant when his smartphone rang. “Hello.”
“Z speaking. Please arrive at the house on Sunday at one o’clock. We’ll have lunch for you. The house sits up on a hill overlooking the ocean. It is on the right side of the 3600 block of Coast Drive. Look for a tall oak private driveway sign with a bear painted on it. It will be at the bottom of the entrance leading up to the house. There is a large Oregon Duck flag hoisted alongside the front door of the house.”
Caldwell took out her smartphone and called her FBI contact in Portland with an approximate address, and told them she would get the exact address in the morning. Once the task force had the address, they would implement plans for surveillance and eaves- dropping.
On July 18, Caldwell returned the rented Cadillac SUV and departed from Portland to Washington DC. Monday morning the 20th, she briefed Director Sullivan and Deputy Director Norstad on Operation Avenging Eagles. Later in the evening, she took a direct flight from Dulles to Geneva.
45
eltermann arrived Saturday afternoon at Portland International Airport on a flight from Houston. He reserved a Lincoln Towncar from Viskin Limo Service to drive him to
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Lincoln City where he booked a room at the Chinook Winds Casino.
At 10 am Sunday morning, he called a taxi to pick him up and drive him to the executive rental home. When the driver arrived at the vacation rental, he carried two pieces of luggage to the front door, received a big tip, and drove away. Beltermann punched in the code on the lockbox outside the residence, retrieved the key, and opened the door. Five minutes later he took out several pieces of security detection equipment and conducted a security sweep of the entire house. The house consisted of five bedrooms, dining room off the kitchen, three bathrooms, laundry room, two-car garage, living room off the dining room with sweeping views of the ocean, and a large sitting area off the master bedroom on the third floor. He finally finished at one o’clock.
Over the past twelve hours, the FBI discovered which homes near
the rental were vacant as well as the owners’ identification. They convinced the owner of the property next door to allow them to use his home and told him they would compensate him for lost rental
revenue. They told the owner to come up with a plausible excuse to the renters from California and to compensate them for the inconve- nience. The owner agreed to cover their expenses and put the tourists up at the Inn at Spanish Head. The FBI concurred to cover the owner’s rental fee. The FBI technicians passed the house in a van and moved into the rental property.
Two FBI men were seated in the bedroom on the third-floor with a view of the dining room window on the second-floor. They set up their laser beam technology, enabling them to lift the sounds from the house next door as it bounced off the windows. The sound waves would be captured by their light sensitive receiver and process the vibrations, and translate them into sound. Both agents were profi- cient in Arabic.
Ericksen arrived and parked his pickup truck along the fence. Affixed to his Chevy Silverado were stickers for the Sierra Club and the Oregon State Beavers.
He knocked on the door, and Beltermann answered and greeted him. He carried a large box from the backseat of the vehicle and brought it into the house. He carried the box up to the second floor and placed it on the dining room floor next to the long table. Ziad introduced Ericksen to Abdullah.
Ericksen opened the large box and removed four laptop comput- ers. Beltermann set up the test equipment and began testing each of the laptop computers. He removed its core components and exam- ined them. He also ran an instrument device connected to a spectrum analyzer and glanced at the display screen. A few minutes later he said, “All your laptops passed my test.”
He looked directly into Ericksen’s eyes. “How good is your encryp- tion software program?”
“Our encryption consists of over one billion codes and uses a 256- bit classified encryption standard developed by our government with input from EyeD4 Systems.”
“If hackers attempt to break into your system, how secure are the templates?” Beltermann asked.
“The templates are encrypted in software and reside on one USB flash drive. When the USB drive is inserted into the USB port, the
biometrics matching recognition software prompts the user to do a live palm vein optical scan log-on.” He continued to explain the process to him.
Beltermann looked at Ziad and Abdullah. “Mr. Ericksen, please give us a sound understanding of your EyeD4 Comm System’s full operational capabilities and levels of security so we can all under- stand it in depth.”
“Okay.” Over the next fifteen minutes, Ericksen demonstrated the system, the encryption, answers to false acceptance and false rejec- tion rates, and the uniqueness of everyone’s palm subcutaneous vein patterns.
Beltermann stood and moved closer to Ericksen. “While a person is engaged in the operation, what is to stop someone from hacking into the system?” Abdullah stepped closer to the table.
“Good question,” Ericksen said. “We have built-in MILSPEC fire- walls, robust intrusion and detection software, and high-level communication encryption. It is virtually impossible for a hacker to penetrate our communications.”
“When the user ends their program, where does the live biomet- rics signature reside?” “The templates are immediately backed up to the USB flash drive along with the encrypted files. You just put them back into your pocket or in a safe.”
“Wait a minute. What if a terrorist organization or government with supercomputers attempted to penetrate the firewall?”
“Built into the firewall are powerful sensors which can calibrate the strength of an attack. If the intrusion attempt were executed by a very high degree of talent, the system would shut down.”
“Excellent.” Beltermann appeared to be pleased with the answers to his questions. “Wait, who made this customized laptop computer?” “Even I don’t know the manufacturer by name except I know it is made in the USA.” The doorbell rang. Abdullah answered it. The local pizza delivery person arrived at the door with two large mush- room, onion, and cheese pizzas. Abdullah brought them up to the
second floor. Everyone began eating pizza.
Twenty minutes later, Ziad enrolled Beltermann on his new laptop computer and proceeded to enroll Abdullah on his new laptop
computer. Ziad functioned as the systems administrator, but unbe- known to him, Ericksen’s biometrics template and authenticated ID also served as a systems administrator and was layered deep within the bowls of NSA’s Echelon II grid along with his biometrics ID signature buried within each of their encrypted USB flash drives.
Abdullah slapped Ziad’s back. “Wolfgang and I are going to shoot some billiards downstairs in the garage; do you want to join us?”
He looked at both men and said, “No, I need to remove your templates from your laptops and place them on your USB flash drives.”
They turned and went downstairs. Ziad immediately backed up the template files to both their USB flash drives and made two addi- tional copies each, one for Khalid and one for Ericksen.
Ziad went downstairs and gave each man his USB flash drive. “Don’t lose this.” He turned and looked at Ericksen. “Do you want to go for a walk along the beach?”
“Sure.” When they were well out of sight of both Beltermann and Abdullah, he reached into his pocket and gave Ericksen a copy of each of their flash drives.
He turned to Ziad. “Who is Wolfgang Beltermann?”
“He served as a Stasi intelligence operative in Dresden, East Germany. He is an expert on IT security and is a major terrorist oper- ative for Khalid.”
“Once you enroll Al-Bustani’s templates into his computer at his Swiss home, load them on a USB flash drive, and also get impressions of his fingerprints. Seal all of them into a package and contact Cald- well in Geneva. She’ll advise you where to make the dead drop.”
“I have a good excuse to go to Geneva. There is an Arabian breeder near the city.” “Good. What cities are they planning to hit?”
“Las Vegas and Houston. They have kept the actual targets in strict confidence. Only Khalid, Beltermann, Faisal and Abdullah know them.”
I’ll bet Sullivan received the targeted cities from Saudi intel and kept it on a need-to-know basis, Ericksen thought.
He studied Ziad’s facial expressions. “I’ll need Abdullah and Beltermann’s fingerprints. Can you get them for me?”
“I’ll leave their water glasses in a bag in the trash.” “How will I know who they belong to?”
“I’ll mark the letter B on one and A on the other,” Ziad said.
The temperature reached into the high seventies with blue skies. Ziad stopped and looked out at the ocean. “You probably don’t think much of me, do you?”
“My mission isn’t to pass judgment on you, but of course I hate what you did.”
“When you work for years in the shadows with the scum of the earth and are tasked to infiltrate Al-Qaeda, it is difficult at times to separate reality from fiction. All you know is to survive, provide your country with actionable intelligence to prevent attacks, and destroy the enemy.”
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sp; “You’ve been dealt a tough hand, but now you have a chance of saving thousands of American lives.”
They jogged back to the house and walked on the deck where Abdullah stood.
“When can I expect my money?”
“The second installment will be in your Swiss account tomorrow.” Ericksen nodded. “Fine.”
“Khalid would like you to join him as his special guest in Gstaad on August 28 for a few days of leisure. He has another opportunity he would like to discuss with you.”
“Please tell him thank you. I’ll make the necessary travel arrange- ments soon.”
Four hours later Ericksen went downstairs, opened the front door, and noticed a black plastic bag next to the empty pizza cartons. He picked the bag up and placed it in the back of his Chevy Silverado and drove back to the hotel.
The next morning, Ziad passed out seven pre-paid cellphones each to Abdullah and Beltermann. “You’ll be using these pre-paid phones over the course of the mission. All communications will be in English,” Ziad said in Arabic.
“When will Khalid issue the instructions?” Abdullah asked.
“All I can tell you is Wolfgang’s codename is Watchmaker, and yours is Black Stallion.”
Ziad got into a taxi for the drive to the Portland International Airport.
That afternoon a town car from McDonald Custom Limo Service arrived to pick up the two terrorist leaders. Beltermann had the driver load up the luggage and place it in the trunk. He looked at the driver. “Tell your dispatch people our destination is The Marriott by the river. Would you like to make an extra three hundred dollars?”