Electronic Jihad (merged thread)

[BILL]

There is zero need for a specific "OSINT analysis" discipline; as I stated before, it falls easily within the skillset of the traditional intelligence analyst.

I agree with you that the traditional intelligence analyst has the skill set, but I haven't see the toolkit, and think I have seen evidence they don't have the toolkit. What is new and needed, is an "Information Trooper" al Qaeda and even the Taliban have seen the Internet as a new Theater of operations, and USA is starting to recognize it. We are not winning the war for the Hearts and Minds, nobody can stop USA militarily but the war for hearts and minds is something different.. The Terrorist have around 4,000 web sites now, and put out video of an atack winth in 15 min in some cases. On the internet anything posted enough times over a long enough period of time will be believed as the truth.. USA is loosing an Info/Media war with a man hiding in a cave. The most advanced and savvy MEDIA AND technological country in the world. The decision ot leave up or take down a terrorist site among the civilian irregulars now has some clarity. For a Military/Intelligence to take down a terrorist server they need an approval from Bush, there are still no rules for engagement. On the hacking/bot side USA has about a 3 to 5 year lead over the Islamic hackers. We need to be exploiting that lead. USA's soft war, is almost non-existent. Or your cover is almost perfect. Soft wars are cheaper and have much less blowback. I welcome you observations and any info you can safely share. Bill

[Cannoneer No. 4]

The decision ot leave up or take down a terrorist site among the civilian irregulars now has some clarity. For a Military/Intelligence to take down a terrorist server they need an approval from Bush, there are still no rules for engagement.

Command and control of civilian irregular computer network operators is almost an oxymoron. In meat space the ODA commander doesn't command the G Chief. He figures out ways to persuade the G Chief that following the advisor's advice was the G Chief's idea. There ARE G Chiefs in cyber space . Are there Regular digital outreach team LNO's with enough rapport and cred to get a productive jihadi site left up?

[Surferbeetle]

All,

Figuring out 'the lay of the land' in any country has been greatly facilitated by the rise of the internet: google, google earth, news/general podcasts, etc. ESRI products and custom software like falconview are helping to rapidly visually translate portions of this knowledge into something usable. Database creation, management, synchronization and useage give some pretty amazing products.

There are a variety of G-Chief's ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Business_Network and http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5969516.html ) who are successfully using this technology and others on a large scale and there are obvious economic benefits to doing things remotely and with a computer assist.

Technology does not replace the well trained man on the ground however, and I would argue that time in country for decision makers helps to contextualize the information gathered/provided and makes for far better decisions.

Steve