DN! Bush Admin Relied on Conman to Determine Terror Alert Level
3Bush Admin Relied on Conman to Determine Terror Alert Level
A new report in Playboy has revealed the Bush administration raised the terror alert level to high in 2003 after a self-proclaimed scientist from Nevada convinced the CIA that the TV network Al Jazeera was transmitting secret messages to al-Qaeda sleepers. The alleged codebreaker, Dennis Montgomery, claimed that secret bar codes were hidden in Al Jazeeras broadcast that told terrorists the terms of their next mission, laying out the latitudes and longitudes of targets, sometimes even flight numbers and dates. Montgomery also claimed he had developed technology to decrypt this code. Convinced that Montgomery had cracked an important code, the Bush administration relied on the conman for years for information used to determine when to increase the terror alert level. Montgomerys intelligence found its way to the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, Special Forces Command, the Navy, the Air Force, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and even to Vice President Dick Cheneys office. Eventually a branch of the French intelligence services helped convince the Americans that Montgomerys claims were all faked.