Cell phone encryption allowed terrorist to plot Paris attacks

Washington Times:
The head of the CIA says American spies knew the Islamic State terror group was plotting an attack days before militants slaughtered 130 people in Paris last year.

CIA director John Brennan told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that the “system was blinking red” shortly before the terrorists launched a string of gun and bomb attacks in the French capital on Nov. 13.


He said the CIA was aware of the impending attacks, but was unable to intercept messages the terrorists were using to plot the massacre because of new cellphone-encryption technology.

“We knew the system was blinking red. We knew just in the days before that ISIL was trying to carry out something,” Mr. Brennan said, using an acronym for the Islamic State, The Daily Mail reported.

“But the individuals involved have been able to take advantage of newly available means of communication that are walled off from law enforcement officials,” he added.

A total of 130 people were killed in the Paris attacks, the worst terrorist attack in Europe since the Madrid bombings in 2004.
...
The "privacy" freaks have created a situation where mass murder can be plotted and executed without detection.  Before the iPhone and other devices had encryption built into them and encryption software was marketed the intelligence agencies had been effective at foiling such plots.

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