J.J. Green, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – The political relationship between the U.S. and Saudi governments often appears rocky and dysfunctional, but when it comes to intelligence matters, it’s a completely different story.
“There is a band of brothers” among countries around the world that face threats says Phillip Mudd, senior global adviser at Oxford Analytica.
“Cooperation is good with countries like Saudi Arabia because there is a behind-the-scenes network of security services motivated by threats,” says Mudd, the former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Counter Terrorism Center and a former top FBI national security official.
“On the surface when you look at the media or newspaper reports, over the course of the years, you see diplomatic flaps, whether they are in the Gulf, Southeast Asia or Europe. You see tensions over everything from currency controls to counter terrorism measures.”
But the intelligence services from both countries need help from each other.
“They don’t want to sit on information that could lead to a death in another country,” Mudd says.
An intelligence tip from Saudi Arabia is credited with helping U.S. and British authorities find and deactivate mail bombs al-Qaida want to send to the U.S. in October.
The tip, according to U.S. officials, reportedly came from an informant who had infiltrated al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is based in Yemen.
The bombs were discovered aboard cargo planes just hours before they would likely have exploded over the East Coast of the U.S. The packages had been shipped from Yemen.
It’s unclear what intelligence was shared about the shipments, but the way the packages were shipped may have been a clue. Experts say walk-in shippers in places, such as Yemen, are among signals that could tip off intelligence operatives because of stiff competition among freight forwarding companies.
“There are 4,200 air freight forwarders registered with the Transportation Security Administration,” says Brandon Fried, executive director of the Air forwarders Association.
“Granted, there are hundreds of thousands of shippers out there, but we’re in a very competitive business. People don’t just walk in off the street. They basically come in after they’ve been seen by a sales rep.”
New rules were put in place by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this week banning air cargo from Yemen and Somalia, but considering the possibility that terror organizations may have developed new ways to circumvent security measures, TSA is counting on its layered approach to detect them.
“We try to make sure that we are unpredictable and random to possible terrorists,” says TSA Administrator John Pistole.
That random, unpredictable security goes beyond packages coming in from overseas, and extends to people here in the U.S.
Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs) at airports are a part of the unpredictability.
“We’re observing for signs of stress, fear and deception. It’s plain and simple. It’s things that everybody exhibits. It could be anybody at any given moment and that’s what we’re looking for,” said a behavior detection officer with whom WTOP spoke in 2009.
A TSA official we spoke to who has since left the agency says the officers look for people’s reactions to BDOs.
“If you’re walking through a transit system, FAMs (Federal Air Marshals) and BDOs are watching you, and if you’re showing these signs of behavioral stress, deception or fear, we’re going to go and engage you.”
Outside of transit hubs many other threats are possible and authorities constantly monitor intelligence for signs of them.
“The most likely threat to the U.S. today would be an airplane blown up in the sky, or explosion in a building or an attack on the (National) Mall on a day of national celebration,” says former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.
A pragmatic Pistole says, “The question is where, when and how, and have we done everything humanly possible to prevent that from happening.”
He says exhaustive intelligence is one of the best ways to interdict the threats.
“I start off my day at TSA headquarters with an intelligence briefing which includes U.S and foreign intelligence,” says Pistole, cautiously adding, “We can’t be all things, all places, all people, all times.”
Pistole promises he is doing “everything humanly possible to prevent those things from happening.”
(Copyright 2010 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
