The investigation into last Friday’s coordinated terrorist attacks has quickly turned up evidence that members of the Islamic State (ISIS) communicated with the attackers from Syria using encrypted communications, according to French officials.
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said in an interview on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday, “I think what we’re going to learn is that these guys are communicating via these encrypted apps, this commercial encryption which is very difficult or nearly impossible for governments to break, and the producers of which don’t produce the keys necessary for law enforcement to read the encrypted messages.”
The use of encrypted communications by ISIS has prompted various former intelligence officials and media analysts to blame NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden for tipping off terrorist organizations to intelligence agencies’ surveillance capabilities and for their “going dark” with their communications. Former CIA Director James Woolsey said in multiple interviews that former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden “has blood on his hands,” and the changes made by the Obama administration to surveillance as a result of the Snowden leaks and the changes that terrorists made in communicating with each other based on the leaks had led directly to the inability of the intelligence community in the US and in France to stop the Paris attacks from happening.
