Forwarded From: Erik Parker <netmask@303.org>
Clinton To Use hackers Against Yugoslav leader
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
President Clinton has approved a top-secret plan to destabilize Yugoslav
leader Slobodan Milosevic, using computer hackers to attack his foreign
bank accounts and a sabotage campaign to erode his public support,
Newsweek magazine reported Sunday.
The magazine, in its May 23 edition, quoted sources as saying Clinton
issued an intelligence "finding" allowing the Central Intelligence Agency
to find "ways to get at Milosevic."
The finding would permit the CIA to train ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo
in the art of sabotage, including such tricks as cutting telephone lines,
fouling gasoline reserves and pilfering food supplies, the magazine said.
The CIA also was instructed to wage a cyberwar against Milosevic, using
computer hackers to tap into the Yugoslav president's foreign bank
accounts, the magazine said.
Newsweek said other NATO allies were not to be told about the secret war.
The Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees were
briefed on the decision, Newsweek said. Some lawmakers criticized the
finding, questioning the legality and wisdom of launching a risky covert
action, the magazine said.
"If they pull it off, it will be great," Newsweek quoted one government
cyberwar expert as saying. "If they screw it up, they are going to be in a
world of trouble."
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, told the television program
"Fox News Sunday" he thought a cyberspace war against the Yugoslav leader
was "totally acceptable."
"I wouldn't be surprised if we were using it here as part of an effort to
bring the war in Kosovo home to the people, the civilians in Belgrade, so
that they pressure Milosevic to break and make an agreement with NATO," he
said.
-o-
Subscribe: mail majordomo@repsec.com with "subscribe isn".
Today's ISN Sponsor: OSAll [www.aviary-mag.com]
Received on Fri May 28 15:35:16 1999