Full Black - Brad Thor [109]
“In fact, there’s an infamous story about an impending miners’ strike in South Africa back in the apartheid days. PROMIS helped track down the instigators, all of whom then ‘disappeared.’ The strike never took place.
“It is easily one of the most incredible and most incredibly dangerous pieces of software ever constructed. At least it was.
“When the Finns discovered the trapdoors in PROMIS, they realized they needed their own system, not one provided by a foreign government with potentially ulterior motives. That’s when they started working on TIP and took the process to an entirely new level.
“They kept all the features of PROMIS and then, via true artificial intelligence, went supernova by giving it a fully functioning brain. TIP not only can think, it can anticipate. The U.S. is going crazy trying to catch up. That’s one of the reasons NSA has partnered with Google. And if you think TIP is scary, wait’ll you see what Google is building with all they’re learning about human behavior from the millions of Google search queries logged on their system every day.”
Harvath didn’t doubt it. And while he appreciated any edge he could get in the fight against America’s enemies, the damage programs like PROMIS and TIP could wreak in the wrong hands was obvious. “There’s really no such thing as privacy anymore, is there?” he said.
“Not in the United States,” replied Nicholas. “At some point, remind me to explain the Narus technology to you and the electronic driftnet the NSA has strung out across cyberspace. Suffice it to say that every single email, text message, fax, and phone conversation is being recorded and stored. The problem for the NSA is sifting all that data for what they want. It’s like trying to drink from a fire hose. It’s one of the big reasons the terrorists are going low-tech. As the Chinese recognized when assembling their unrestricted warfare plans, the U.S. is overdependent on technology. Outwit that technology and you can flummox the world’s sole superpower.
“That’s what the Finns have done with TIP. The system is so amazing, it has been able to double back on America.”
“How many U.S. intelligence agencies has it compromised?” asked Harvath.
“We don’t know yet,” said Carlton, “but we’ve alerted the appropriate people on our end.”
“Was our group penetrated?”
“Not that we can tell,” said Nicholas. “They seemed more interested in the FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA, and other, more high-profile places.”
“How long have you had access to TIP?”
“Not long enough.”
“Okay, so what’s the connection with this guy Shafik in Albuquerque?” asked Harvath, changing gears. “You ran his name through TIP and you came up with the Egypt Air flight manifest. He arrived in the U.S. with another Egyptian named Mohammed Fahad Nazif. Nazif is the subject of an FBI investigation, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Why is the FBI interested in Nazif?”
Nicholas clicked his mouse and zoomed in on the map. “Three weeks ago, Mohammed Fahad Nazif blew himself up while rigging the support columns of a downtown Chicago office building with military-grade explosives.”
“What?” replied Harvath.
“The building is known as 100 North Riverside Plaza. We believe it was selected as another transportation target because it was built suspended over the Amtrak train tracks.”
“So at least one of the dot colors represents transportation?”
“That’s what we now think.”
“How come we didn’t hear about this?” asked Harvath.
“The FBI used local media to put out a cover story about a gas rupture and a minor explosion,” said Nicholas. “It happened in the business district late on a Sunday evening. No one, other