(WMR) -- On
April 26, 2010, WMR reported: �Multiple U.S. intelligence sources have reported
to WMR that a super-classified network with only some 70 terminals in select
U.S. government locations handled the parallel command-and-control activities
that permitted the 9/11 terrorist attacks to be successful.
�The �above top secret� network bears the acronym �PDAS.�
WMR has not yet discovered what the acronym stands for, however, the
system is limited to only a few hundred people with Sensitive
Compartmented Information (SCI) Special Access Program (SAP) need-to-know
access, in addition to the President and Vice President.�
WMR has confirmed from multiple sources that PDAS is the
Planning and Decision Aid System (PDAS) that is used to support the operational
capabilities to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon and Combatant Commanders
(COCOMs). The PDAS system is used to network Special Technical Operations (STO)
elements located within the Joint Staff, COCOMs (with a significant presence
within the US Central Command), military service information operations
organizations, and the intelligence agencies (including the CIA, National
Security Agency, and Defense Intelligence Agency).
The Department of Defense officially defines PDAS as �the
Planning and Decision Aid System (PDAS) is an automated information system
protected program under Secretary of Defense (SecDef). PDAS supports the
planning and execution of Integrated Joint Special Technical Operations
(IJSTO).�
WMR has been informed that IJSTO operations have also been
used to target foreign leaders for assassination, including Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic (unsuccessful) and Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and
Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira (successful aerial assassination in
1994). One of the chief promoters of PDAS and Special Technical Operations
during the Clinton administration was Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley
Clark.
Access to the PDAS network is usually accompanied with
access to other intelligence systems, including the Secret Internet
Protocol Router Network (SIPRnet) and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence
Communications System (JWICS), as well as the Non-classified Internet
Protocol Router Network (NIPRnet).
PDAS has, since 9/11, been extended to Canada, Australia,
and the United Kingdom.
PDAS special technical and information operations
training for users is conducted at the 704th Military Intelligence Brigade
at Fort Meade, Maryland. The unit, according to its website, conducts �Signals
Intelligence and Network Warfare� on behalf of Army, Joint Command, and
National requirements.
PDAS was developed from a prototype system developed by
Hughes for NSA�s Joint Special Studies Group (JSSG) in 1983 that
eventually linked military commands and intelligence agencies to STOs
responsible for, among other signals intelligence (SIGINT) activities, hacking
into Soviet government and military communications networks and key nodes. One
such program that tapped into Soviet submarine communication cables, but was
compromised by a Soviet spy inside the NSA, was code-named IVY BELLS.
PDAS supposedly saw its funding yanked after the fall of the
Soviet Union. However, based on information recently received by WMR, PDAS
continued to function with a new mission: coordinating covert U.S. special
technical operations against governments and individuals in the Balkans,
Rwanda, and then, on September 11, 2001, the United States itself.
Previously
published in the Wayne
Madsen Report.
Copyright � 2010 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne
Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and
nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report
(subscription required).