I have no information on who Robert Koontz is or whether he has been an NSA instructor, or whether this is a brilliant parody, but here's an excerpt from his website: http://www.bringmenews.com/Messages/National_Security/Alerts/Alert_003.htm Interpretation: The yellow mask-like character symbolizes biological attack. Message represents signal to attack on previously specified date, possibly in the latter part of October, maybe in the Halloween time period. Yep, he's talking about that infamous Bert-and-Osama photo: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02635.html -Declan ----- Forwarded message from auto301094at_private ----- From: auto301094at_private Subject: Expert Warns Coded Pictures Indicate Al Qaeda Planning Major Biological Attack To: cypherpunksat_private Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:40:21 -0700 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- http://ebird.dtic.mil/Oct2001/s20011018expertwarns.htm DefenseWatch (SFTT.org) October 17, 2001 Expert Warns Al Qaeda Planning Major Biological Attack By Ed Offley It is becoming clearer by the day that a month after the Sept. 11 aircraft hijackings, a biological warfare attack is being launched against the United States by as-yet unknown terrorists. The discovery of anthrax in letters mailed to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, NBC and ABC, following an initial exposure at American Media International in Florida, betrays a cunning and carefully organized intent-- particularly with the discovery that the anthrax mailed to Daschles office has been found to be "weapons grade" material that could indeed kill hundreds if not thousands of people if released in a significant airborne plume. Is this new phase terrorism merely a crude and ineffective ploy, or the harbinger of even more serious danger to the nation? Nuclear physicist Robert Koontz, who has researched and tracked the al Qaeda terrorist network for several years, is warning that he has discovered evidence on the Internet that Osama bin Laden may be planning a much larger biological warfare campaign-- using more than one form of germ agent-- and is using "coded" illustrations to signal and direct additional sleeper agents purportedly already armed with biological weapons. Dr. Koontz has posted the coded paintings and other evidence at the following website: http://www.bringmenews.com/Messages/National_Security/Alerts/Alert_003.htm Dr. Koontz revealed this disturbing information in an interview with DefenseWatch, on Tuesday after what he described as a frustrating inability to persuade federal officials to take the information seriously. The interview transcript is reproduced in full below. Interview with Dr. Robert Koontz DefenseWatch: How did you first become aware of the art? Let me begin by saying that I was following cyber-tracks of Ahmed Alghamdi, one of the lesser known terrorists aboard flight No. 175 that crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. In doing this detective work, I came across Alghamdis name posted on a fan club that was started by a Bahraini pilot. So, I found the name Ahmed Alghamdi, I found an e-mail address for Alghamdi, and I found the names and web sites of numerous other people, many of whom had names of Middle Eastern origin. But that in itself was not surprising given that the web site is a fan club for a Middle Eastern singer. Nevertheless, my initial (intuitive) reaction was that I might have come across an al Qaeda communications node, and I now know that to be at least partly true. Having decided that I might have come across an al Qaeda communications node, I began looking at the web sites of all those who had posted their URLs on the fan club web site. After carefully looking at a few of the posted web sites, I noted that a man by the name of Muzaffar Wandawi identified himself as an Iraqi living in Amsterdam. The fact that he stated that he is an Iraqi drew my immediate attention, for it is well known that there is possible Iraqi involvement in the terrorist attack of Sept. 11. But that was not taken to be anything more than circumstantial. DefenseWatch: Please describe how you became suspicious that the images themselves might be the messages/instructions. When examining this mans art, I found it to be disturbing, but I did not at first think that it was suspicious--until I came upon the picture labeled "Downfall." In that picture, Wandawi clearly showed two towers burning, and there appeared to be a picture of the smoking Pentagon just to the right of that image. Then there was a man riding on what appeared to be an Arabian horse, and the man appeared to be dressed like a pilot, without his jacket on. The haircut of the rider of the horse was also in the manner of a pilot. The painting was dated 1988, which seemed to be rather early. But I have since concluded that the painting might have been done in 1998. In all events, I grew very suspicious of what I saw, for it is essentially impossible for someone to create such a constellation of images of a terrorist event in the future-- without having intimate knowledge of the attack plans. Then I set about filtering the data and came across an image of the White House that was buried under some mild clouding. Next, with the filtering, I could see that the burning tower actually represented a large building that was burning in almost exactly the way that the buildings burned at the World Trade Center. At this time I was convinced that the artist was an Iraqi intelligence agent or an agent of al Qaeda. Later, I discovered more images that were clearly targeting information of a specific nature. I have not published those yet; an expert in this type of cryptography is working on the problem at this very time. DefenseWatch: One of the illustrations shows Osama bin Laden next to a cartoon character from Sesame Street. What significance does that image have? The Sesame Street character that has appeared in a huge poster with Osama bin Laden is significant in that it is yellow and has a mask-like quality. And one can be certain that it was not placed on that huge poster by accident, as some people have stupidly suggested. It is a signal. Since it is my assertion that the al Qaeda group is using yellow as a symbol in association with biological weapons, which it has done elsewhere, I conclude that the yellow Sesame Street character in the poster represents a signal that relates to biological weapons. And, as one can clearly see, we are under a biological attack at this very moment. But it is my opinion that the biological attack that is happening now is "baby stuff." DefenseWatch: What federal authorities or agencies have you attempted to contact to warn of the potential threat from the art? Please describe the reaction or lack of reaction to date. Do other private experts share your assessment or is there disagreement? I have attempted to communicate to the FBI on two occasions, sending e-mail to four of their offices. There has been no reply, even though I am warning that al Qaeda is planning an apocalyptic germ warfare attack. I am waiting to hear from other experts. DefenseWatch: How widespread is public awareness of this? I have principally limited this information to Col. David Hackworth and certain other trusted individuals. But I am beginning to release information to members of the news media, by virtue of the fact that I feel that the FBI is not going to take this seriously. It took them seven days to understand that we are under an anthrax attack. And about 8,000 FBI computers are more than eight years old. Not every FBI office can even surf the Web. They are in the Dark Ages. Regarding the certainty of the information, I can say with 100 percent certainty that Muzaffar Wandawi had prior knowledge of the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, and I can say with 100 percent certainty that he is intimately involved with other planned acts of terrorism against the United States. These include a planned attack on one of the most vital communications centers that America has; an attack on the Main Building of the National Security Agency [at Fort Meade, Md.]--inside of which is situated a communications center that handles everything from presidential orders relating to use of nuclear weapons to some CIA and State Department traffic. It appears that perhaps 12 private planes would attack the NSA main building when a certain signal is given. I know what that signal is, and I know what conditions of defense alert we will be in when the signal is given. Let me conclude by saying that the evidence I have posted at my web site indicates that al Qaeda in association with Iraqi intelligence plans a biological attack that they hope will kill millions. I assume that this will occur with the use of exotic diseases, such as Ebola, but also smallpox and everything one could possibly find in a Russian bacteriological warfare laboratory. The information that I have indicates that the Russian mafia has sold these kind of bacteriological materials to bin Laden. So, just as there was a group of 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, I assert that there is a group of maybe 20 germ warfare agents who will release the aforementioned types of diseases in the very near future, hoping to create epidemics that will kill millions. That is what the encrypted images at Wandawis web site suggest to me. I urge that people go to the web page where I have placed this evidence and examine the materials for themselves. The URL is: http://www.bringmenews.com/Messages/National_Security/Alerts/Alert_003.htm People would also be well advised to visit my national security message board that now has about 350 important postings. You can get to the message board through the following URL: http://www.BringMeNews.com/ Robert Koontz is an experimental nuclear physicist who earned his Ph.D. in 1980 at the University of Maryland. His specialties are experimental nuclear physics and high-energy physics, but he is also an expert in certain areas of electronics, computer systems, software development and matters relating to electronic intelligence gathering. Koontz has been a Staff Scientist at the Department of Energys Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, a Professor of Physics at the University of South Dakota, and formerly was an instructor at the National Security Agency.He lives in Pennsylvania. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: Hush 2.0 wl8EARECAB8FAjvPMD4YHGF1dG8zMDEwOTRAaHVzaG1haWwuY29tAAoJEKadvsVlUK4P L1AAnii1BHJp90MEFifqydwuoJ5XDq+5AJsGyUK7XEj8VAdSEsXgpz2xrDFJCg== =R2b7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----- End forwarded message ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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