Hacked traffic cameras and US intelligence: How a plot to kill Iran’s supreme leader came together
CNN
The US and Israel worked together for weeks to plan the strike that killed Iran’s leader
The traffic cameras on the streets of Tehran provided a real-time view of the targets.
Hacked years ago, the cameras allowed Israel to map the city in detail, establish patterns of movement, and build an intricate complex picture of what was happening inside an enemy capital, according to an Israeli official.
The cameras were only one part of a much more complex system, some of whose details were first reported by The Financial Times, that allowed Israel to build one what one Israeli source familiar with the matter called an AI-powered “target production machine” capable of processing massive amounts of data.
In went visual intelligence, human intelligence, signals intelligence, intercepted communications, satellite imagery and more. Out came a pinpoint location in the form of a 14-digit grid coordinate. The sheer quantity of information required powerful computers to process, sort, and analyze the data to draw out what Israel wanted: targets.
