December 23, 1996

In late October, the Fayetteville Observer-Times started reporting on pre-trial maneuvering in the case of Eric Jenott, a Fort Bragg, NC, paratrooper accused of hacking U.S. Army systems and furnishing passwords to a citizen of communist China. Much of the Jenott trial -- a court martial -- was characterized by long bouts of closed-court testimony, gossip, a suicide attempt by one of the prosecutors, argument over whether computer passwords were classified or not and electronic scribblings attributed to the Ft. Bragg hacker which indicated that when he was a teenager he had a standard if somewhat intense youthful resentment of authority -- aimed at the U.S. government in particular.

Witnesses came forward to testify that Jenott had made various statements about hacking feats on Department of Defense computers. Some of this testimony was furnished by a convicted two-bit thief obviously maneuvering to gain some leverage for his own legal battles. Other testimony on Jenott's interest in hacking into protected systems came from bits and pieces apparently culled from posts on an Army bulletin board system at Ft. Bragg.

At the finish, Jenott was found guilty only of compromising a military system and for that he was given three years in prison. He and his lawyer seemed satisfied with the outcome.

PRE-TRIAL MANEUVERING

In testimony at a hearing on October 23rd, Chief Warrant Officer Lorenzo Clemmons said Eric Jenott told him he could break into an Army communications system three months prior to the paratrooper's arrest on spying charges.

Clemmons said Jenott told him in March 1996 that the Army's Mobile Subscriber Equipment, carried by hummvee and the Army's equivalent of cellular telephones, computer and fax communications, "might not be as secure as we think . . . "

Jenott demonstrated the system's weakness to a supervisor who passed it along to a Major Jerry R. Moore. Moore subsequently met with Jenott to discuss the weaknesses he had uncovered. On October 23rd, Jenott's defense attempted to show that statements the paratrooper made to investigators during this session not be allowed as evidence since Moore did not advise Jenott of his rights.

Jenott's family has maintained only that he gave an _unclassified_ Internet access code to a friend from China. The Army insists Jenott gave secret computer passwords to a Chinese hacking accomplice, named "Mr. Liu." At the hearing, Jenott's lawyer, Tim Dunn, said "Mr. Liu" had left the country and could not be located.

According the Observer, the Jenott hearings are shrouded in secrecy. "During the hearing only a few minutes of testimony were open. The hearing was closed to reporters twice when court wasn't even in session," reads a boxed-out quote from the 24th October edition of the newspaper.

Security officers for the Army claimed some testimony and audiotapes presented at the hearing contain classified information.

During a period in which Jenott's lawyer questioned Moore over what he would do if he discovered a soldier had "hacked" into Army systems, Army prosecution objected, maintaining Dunn was getting into classified information. More testimony was subsequently conducted behind closed doors.

THE COURT MARTIAL BEGINS

Jenott's formal court martial on espionage charges at Fort Bragg, NC, began Monday, Dec. 9, 1996. If convicted, the potential sentence for the Ft. Bragg hacker -- life in prison -- was dire.

The Army, according to the Fayetteville Observer, had been trying to demonstrate Jenott was a criminal hacker trying to "gain favor" with the communist Chinese government by giving passwords on an Army system to a Chinese agent, known as "Mr. Liu." According to the paper, Jenott's family has insisted all along that he gave only an unclassified "Internet code" to Liu.

Jenott's defense team immediately tried to get "Mr. Liu," also identified as Quihang Liu, declared an essential witness. The idea behind this stratagem: Since Liu would not or could not return to the U.S. for Jenott's court martial, his absence would force the dismissal of the case against the soldier. Liu was a Chinese national who worked for a short time at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on a computer database and management system and was a friend of Jenott's. He is no longer in America.

However, according to the Observer, Liu was interrogated by the FBI before leaving the country.

During this investigation, Liu apparently "told federal agents that Jenott did not give him a classified computer password. Later, he said Jenott might have given him the password, then finally said he probably received [a] password from Jenott."

Further, "Liu told investigators that Jenott gave him at least two other computer passwords, including one that let him enter [a] University of Washington computer system."

John Jenott, the Ft. Bragg soldier's father, has provided a partial transcript of a conversation conducted in which his son said the passwords which the government contends were classified were, in fact, not classified. The passwords were published in training books given by GTE to soldiers for home study, said Jenott. In later testimony, this would be confirmed by the industry developers of the system that used the passwords.

US ARMY PROSECUTOR ATTEMPTS SUICIDE

At the beginning of the second week of December, the court martial of Eric Jenott took a strange turn when the military judge, Fred Arquilla, replaced the Army's lead prosecutor, Emmett Wells, because he had attempted to commit suicide.

Wells tried to kill himself by slashing one of his wrists with a razor early Sunday morning, December 8th, and was immediately taken to an army medical center, according to the Fayetteville Observer.

Moving swiftly, Arquilla appointed a new lead prosecutor, Tim Lucas, and postponed further court action for only a day and a half over objections from both sides. On Monday, December 9, Jenott also pleaded not guilty to all charges leveled at him.

Arquilla then denied a defense motion to have Quihang Liu named an essential witness. Liu had indicated he would not return to the United States for the trial. Arquilla also denied a request by Jenott's defense for a review copy of the information taken from 600 diskettes and two hard disks, formerly belonging to the Ft. Bragg soldier, and seized by the government during its investigation.

On Thursday, Army investigator James P. Samberg testified the Ft. Bragg hacker told him he was trying to "hurt the United States and help China" when he gave away a "secret" password.

As the proceedings at the court martial unfolded, Samberg read from Jenott's personal diary, a diary seized at the Ft. Bragg barracks in June.

From Jenott's diary -- dated sometime in 1991, according to Samberg:

"I just wish America, my own country, would be put to shame. America is disgusting. I'm getting more and more impatient to go to China."

Samberg also presented a poem, attributed to Jenott in 1993, entitled "Red Blood and Snow." "By the way, I've been a communist for about three years," was alleged to be the poem's closing line.

Jenott's defense counsel, Tim Dunn, attacked Samberg's credibility. According to the Observer, Samberg had acknowledged "falsifying a weapons qualification record."

Prosecutors then tried to build the case that Jenott was a communist Chinese defector-in-waiting by summoning one of Jenott's platoon members, Nicolas Salado. Salado had travelled with Jenott in February 1996 to visit Quihang Liu in Knoxville. Salado testified that he saw Jenott and Liu access Playboy's site on the Internet -- a known hotspot of communists -- and that Jenott spoke to Liu in Chinese.

Prosecutor Matthew Wilkov subsequently claimed Jenott burned his passport because he wanted to defect. The defense countered that Jenott merely wanted to be a tourist and had a strong interest in Chinese culture, having grown up with Chinese friends.

In keeping with the aura of secrecy that has surrounded the court martial, military judge Fred Arquilla closed the court to the public a number of times, supposedly due to the discussion of classified material, according to the Observer. At one point, a witness' name rank and unit were classified. The Observer reporter got it anyway and published the name of the classified soldier: "Alan Castle."

Willkov claimed that Jenott had also hacked systems run by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the secretary of the Army, the Department of Defense, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force -- installing password sniffers on them during the process.

On Friday, December 13, Fred Arquilla locked the public out of the court martial for all but three minutes. The rest of the day the case testimony was closed under a court order for military secrecy.

THE SO-CALLED CRIMINAL HACKER

By December 17th, the U.S. Army's prosecution of Eric Jenott, "the Ft. Bragg hacker," was in full swing. Much of the testimony continued to be aimed at proving Jenott to be a criminal hacker. However, one key witness turned out to be little more than a convicted thief attempting to curry favor for himself in return for helping to convict Jenott. Other testimony appeared to be standard circumstantial hacker hearsay attributed to the Ft. Bragg soldier. Very little of the court's unclassified proceedings convincingly portrayed Jenott as a potential spy for communist China.

Raymond Chen, a former Marine, testified Jenott gave "the [Internet] address for the secretary of defense computer system" to him "before Jenott joined the Army." Chen accessed the system using this information, he said.

According to Chen, Jenott confided that he had been hacking into Navy, Air Force and other DoD computers since 1994. He claimed that Jenott had admitted to deleting information from a Navy system.

Chen, who is also in legal trouble from this case and a convicted thief stemming from a 1991 break-in at the University of Washington in which he stole a computer, claimed he has been granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony in the Jenott case. Chen was convicted of burglary and possession of stolen property in December 1992. His sentence was 60 days in jail and 30 days of community service.

Chen testified that he had negotiated immunity with Army prosecutor Emmett Wells. According to the Fayetteville Observer, Chen said in court "Wells said if I can get Jenott convicted of espionage, he will get me out of my trouble in Washington state."

Wells was quickly removed from the case when he attempted to commit suicide by slashing a wrist a few days earlier.

Army prosecutor Matthew Wilkov had Chen say "he understood that Wells was an Army prosecutor and had no direct control over the charges in Washington." However, Wilkov added "he had agreed to write a letter saying Chen had cooperated in an Army case."

Testimony continued from Army employees who worked the Fort Bragg bulletin board system. Janet Warden said she had been monitoring posts by Jenott and undisclosed others on the board. The postings were about computer hacking, she said, and included references to S-MILS, a military acronym for secure military sites.

Warden said she had been instructed to observe Jenott's conversations on the system.

Logs from the Ft. Bragg BBS indicated Jenott sent "several" electronic messages to Qihang Liu at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Liu did not reply.

Another military intelligence investigator, Ronald E. Davis, said that he interviewed Jenott and that "I learned he passed the password . . ."

Davis was asked twice by prosecution what he learned from Jenott. The second time he said he "learned [Jenott] committed espionage." Jenott's lawyer, Tim Dunn, immediately objected and Fred Arquilla sustained it.

The court was then closed again for the purposes of secrecy during the rest of Davis' presentation and testimony from John F. Deasy, a soldier from the Land Information Warfare Activity at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

When the court was re-opened, Deasy said he had been asked to look "over a file about someone from Fort Bragg hacking into [a] University British Columbia computer." Deasy also said he was told the security of a "switching station" on the Army's Mobile Subscriber Network was breached. The running subtext was that Jenott was responsible for breaking the security of the military system.

Ray Chen testified again, claiming he had learned in a chat group with Jenott's brother, Lance, and unnamed others that Jenott had "hacked" into a University of British Columbia computer.

Other prosecution witnesses said they had followed Jenott's discussions on the Ft. Bragg BBS on the use of passwords of "professors and students" to hack into computers and the utilization of laptops and payphones to avoid being traced.

IZZIT SECRET?

While the U.S. Army contended Eric Jenott gave a secret password for a secure cellular telephone network to Quihang Liu, the system's builder did not consider the password verboten until more than a full month after the Ft. Bragg hacker was charged with espionage.

GTE developed the system and an employee, Steven Sullivan, testified at Jenott's court martial in another closed session, December 18th.

The prosecution's Matthew Willkov maintained the password was classified. "If classified information is carried on the system, the password is secret" he said, according to the Fayetteville Observer.

Jenott's defense disagreed.

Judge Fred Arquilla said the password is classified, but only in the context of determining whether the court should be in closed session during testimony. He informed the jury that closing the court should not bear on its decision as to whether or not the password in contention was or is actually classified.

Clear?

Anyway, much later FBI agent Steven McFall -- who said he was suffering from a case of food poisoning -- testified that federal agents had seized an Army jacket and uniform with Jenott's name on it from the apartment of Quihang Liu.

SUICIDE? OR NOT? IN COURT GOSSIP RULES

Jenott's counsel, Tim Dunn, said on Friday that he had checked out a tip "that a former prosecutor [Emmett Wells] in the case tried to kill himself because he was being pressured to alter documents."

According to the Fayetteville Observer, Dunn said he had also talked to Wells and the rumor proved unsubstantiated.

"He said it was not true, it was fascinating, but he had to go," Dunn said. Wells is currently being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after a mystifying attempt at killing himself by slashing a wrist.

The Observer also reported the defense's effort to have some evidence declared inadmissible because the government has kept sloppy records on it. Judge Fred Arquilla denied Dunn's request but said he could introduce evidence pointing out the government's sloppiness.

Kevin Nauer testified on computer data apparently seized from Jenott's hard disks or diskettes. It included words purported to be written by the Ft. Bragg hacker.

According to Knauer and reported by the Observer, a poem credited to Jenott said "At least I'll have a tiny part in bringing this nation to its knees."

According to prosecution testimony, Jenott is also claimed to have said he had "wiped out hundreds of computers at the Defense Information Systems Agency."

Throughout most of the Jenott case, it has been impossible to distinguish whether much of the testimony is based on anything more substantive than weird hacker bragging, notes from the underground, hearsay or crazy gossip.

JENOTT TAKES THE STAND

According to the Fayetteville Observer, Eric Jenott took the stand in the last day of testimony of his court martial.

One of the charges leveled by the government against Jenott -- larceny -- was dropped because "a computer password" was judged "intangible."

In his defense, Jenott said he was neither trying to hurt his country or help China. He added he was "ashamed" about things he had written in his diary that had seemed to cast him in the light of a communist sympathizer.

Jenott testified that he had never believed in communism.

As a teenager, Jenott said "he had a negative opinion of Americans . . . I thought Americans lived a soft lifestyle."

Continuing, he said he "was fascinated with China when he was younger, but lost interest in the country after visiting it twice." Jenott said he had burned his passport on a trip to China in 1993 "because [he] thought it would keep him from being deported," according to the Observer. Later, the paper reported Jenott claimed he became homesick on the trip and told the U.S. consulate that his passport had been stolen.

There was discussion of Jenott's attempted sale of another American passport in China in 1994. Jenott said a childhood pal, Tim Edgley, had given him the passport for sale when informed that it would be worth some money in China.

The plan went awry when Jenott tried to sell the passport to a Chinese police officer.

Going back to his childhood, Jenott described his life in a divorced family and life with friends like Edgely, with whom he learned about computer hacking.

Edgley, who also testified, agreed with Jenott's testimony.

The defense produced two of Jenott's Army peers as character witnesses, too. Both praised Jenott, one saying he would have liked to have an entire squad composed of soldiers like him.

JENOTT CLEARED OF ESPIONAGE, GETS THREE YEARS AND BIG CHICKEN DINNER

In the end an Army jury did not buy the prosecution's contention that Eric Jenott had been a spy for China when he allegedly gave a secret-or-perhaps-not-secret password to Quihang Liu.

Late Sunday, December 22, Eric Jenott was found not guilty of espionage against the United States. He was, however, convicted on three lesser computer crimes involving the damage of government property -- specifically, the meddling with the switching system of a U.S. Army communications network, according to reports in the Fayetteville Observer.

Jenott was sentenced to three years in prison and a big chicken dinner, or "bad conduct" discharge.

The jury of eight -- split evenly between officers and non-coms -- considered the Jenott case for four and one-half hours before returning its decision.

Jenott's counsel, Tim Dunn, appeared convinced justice was served. The Observer reported him saying: "For us, it was clearly a victory."

Jenott was remorseful, saying, "I understand I've got to be punished for what I did, but I hope that whatever punishment I get I'll have the opportunity to serve my country again."

Judge Fred Arquilla told the Jenott jury "that in order to find Jenott guilty of espionage, they would have to find that Jenott intended or had a reasonable belief that the information would be used to injure the United States or provide an advantage for a foreign nation."

Phillip Loranger, division chief for information systems security at the Pentagon, said $5 million had been spent to improve the security of the computer system that Jenott had demonstrated he could break into.

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