The Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) Special Task Team that has been assigned to “fragment the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) into warring factions” and “neutralise” its president Ndaba Gaolathe, uses sophisticated state-of-the-art TETRA network systems designed by Motorola ÔÇô Sunday Standard investigations have revealed.
The DIS has beefed up its “black budget” ÔÇô a multi-million Pula cache to fund the covert programme codenamed “Operation Tholwana Borethe.”
With its avant-garde acquisitions, the spy agency can also share information on Gaolathe and the BMD without any interruption and set up instantaneous calls (in less than one second).
During voice calls, their communications are not interrupted even when moving to another network site and so-called “mission critical” networks can be built where all aspects are fail-safe/multiple-redundant.
A 12-page Special Access Programme (SAP) document, authored by the DIS Director of Special Task Team, Tsosoloso Mosinki for the DIS Director General Isaac Kgosi, maps out in detail how the spy agency strengthened its electronic warfare capability to ensure secure and efficient handling of classified information under Operation Tholwana-Borethe.
The DIS upgraded its “Communication and Information Systems (CIS)” to offer “operational support” for the covert weakening of Gaolathe and the BMD. The DIS also enhanced its logistic facilities “to refine our logistic support arrangements for the operation.”
When the report was written on June 28, 2016, Operation Tholwana Borethe was already in motion and the STT Director was briefing the DIS Director General on progress in moving on to the next phase of the operation, Phase 2B.
At the time of writing the “secret” document, a copy of which has been passed to the Sunday Standard, the TETRA network roll out for DIS had already covered installations of 90 base stations all across the Republic of Botswana. The base stations have been manufactured by Motorola ÔÇô namely 88 base stations and MTS2 and 2 base stations are MTS4. The total number of transmitters on base stations was 88x 2+2 x 4 = 184.
“The analyses of the coverage prediction show that there has to be at least 10 different frequency patterns for two transmitter base stations in order to avoid interference in Gaborone Area. BOCRA initially suggested the frequency band around 389/399 MHz and made reservations on 15 frequencies, starting with 389.5875/399.5875 and finishing with 289.9500/399.9500 MHz,” states Mosinki.
The DIS Director of Special Task Team proposed that BOCRA be told to add five more frequencies “to make the system interference-free and self-sufficient in regards to frequency assignments. The Communication and Information System (CIS) architecture will follow the higher to lower principle where any higher operative in the chain of command will be responsible for providing CIS at that level and links down to its subordinate level.
The mission system and the primary means of communication is the MTC 100 TETRA handheld computer capable of timely and efficient exchange of classified information (up to secret).
The report further suggests that the DIS had already set up black sites for Operation Tholwana-Borethe. In intelligence terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black project is conducted. The DIS Director of Special Task Team informed the spy boss that, “we have continued to develop and refine our logistic support arrangements for the operation in line with the activities conducted by the force and phase of the operation.
“This will provide improved logistic facilities and accommodation at these locations. The project is classified as a Special Access Program, which is a high state of enforced need-to-know, and only a minimum number of cleared employees are given access.”
