[ISN] U.S. e-mail attack targets key Iraqis

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Sat Jan 11 2003 - 00:37:58 PST

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    Forwarded from: William Knowles <wkat_private>
    
    http://europe.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/01/11/sproject.irq.email/
    
    CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr
    Saturday, January 11, 2003 Posted: 0751 GMT
    
    WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies 
    have begun a surreptitious e-mail campaign inside Iraq, CNN has 
    learned, in an effort to get some Iraqis to defy President Saddam 
    Hussein. 
    
    A senior military official tells CNN thousands of e-mail messages have 
    been sent out since Thursday. 
    
    The official says "this is just the beginning of a psychological 
    warfare campaign" to convince the Iraqi leadership they cannot win a 
    war against the United States and its allies. 
    
    The message includes instructions to the e-mail recipients to contact 
    the United Nations in Iraq if they want to defect. 
    
    Senior military sources told CNN this was the first time the military 
    had engaged in this type of "information warfare campaign." 
    
    Sources say the program was developed by the military and intelligence 
    agencies in recent weeks. 
    
    The disguised e-mails, being sent to key Iraqi leaders, urge them to 
    give up, to dissent and to defect. If they do not, the messages warn, 
    the United States will go to war against them. 
    
    The U.S. military and intelligence officials were apparently hoping 
    that the Iraqis do not realize where the e-mails are coming from. 
    
    One official tells CNN the Pentagon wanted "to preserve this 
    capability as long as possible," but once the e-mail campaign was 
    discovered it would be acknowledged publicly. 
    
    The official also says the United States acknowledges that Iraq may 
    have already shut off some Internet gateways to prevent the e-mails 
    from getting through. 
    
    He said these same types of messages will now be sent by radio 
    broadcast in the days ahead from U.S. airborne and ground platforms. 
    
    CNN learned about the operation Friday afternoon, and was initially 
    asked not to report on it by senior Bush administration officials. 
    Those officials later decided the information could be released. 
    
    
     
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