(Update): Terrorists and use of hidden messages
Duncan Campbell   
02.11.2001 

Following publication of this article, 
Link(active as of 10/27/06):http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/11004/1.html



Telepolis was contacted by Stephen Whitelaw of Iomart, the Scottish
internet company which claimed to have been asked by US intelligence
to track steganographic communications on the internet used by Osama
bin Laden. He admitted that the press stories were wrong.

It was "not true" that US intelligence had called in Iomart to help
them in tracking Al Qaeda communications, Mr Whitelaw said on
Wednesday. He admitted that he and his company had "not discovered any
[hidden] messages" on the internet sent by Osama bin Laden. "The
company has nothing to do with it. Its all misquotes. Its got out of
hand".

Mr Whitelaw said that he was "still analysing" images which had
previously been recorded, as a "personal interest", but without
results so far. He did not know anything about bin Laden's use of the
internet other than what he had read in newspapers.

Other directors of Iomart had been dismayed by the publicity outburst.
They were interested in "making sales of Net Intelligence the
product", Mr Whitelaw explained, but "they don't want any more
publicity to do with this."