U.S. Scurries To Shore Up Spying On Russia -- Wall Street Journal
In Crimea, Russia May Have Gotten a Jump on West by Evading U.S. Eavesdropping
U.S. military satellites spied Russian troops amassing within striking distance of Crimea last month. But intelligence analysts were surprised because they hadn't intercepted any telltale communications where Russian leaders, military commanders or soldiers discussed plans to invade.
America's vaunted global surveillance is a vital tool for U.S. intelligence services, especially as an early-warning system and as a way to corroborate other evidence. In Crimea, though, U.S. intelligence officials are concluding that Russian planners might have gotten a jump on the West by evading U.S. eavesdropping. (Follow the latest developments on the crisis in Ukraine.)
"Even though there was a warning, we didn't have the information to be able to say exactly what was going to happen," a senior U.S. official says.
Read more ....
My Comment: To say that the U.S. intelligence community has failed completely on assessing the crisis in Ukraine .... and Russia's reaction to it .... is an understatement. As one of this blog's readers commented a few weeks ago .... it appears that the U.S. intelligence community is more focused on spying on us than on spying on Russia/Ukraine/etc.. But not being able to intercept Russian government to military communications is a worrisome development .... it appears that the Russians have the means to mask their communications from U.S. eavesdroppers. If the case .... how can the U.S. know what the Russians will do next.
2 comments:
Actually with the US's over reliance on elint and imagery it could be easy. Mostly pre-planned with code words as execution orders and couriers for changing circumstances.
Yes James .... I thought the same thing. The best way to circumvent sophisticated eavesdroppers is to usually employ the simplest of communications.
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