Snipers Sniping & Countering them

[SWJED]

29 October Reuters - U.S. Military Probes Sniper Threat in Baghdad by Paul Holmes.

The U.S. military has begun looking more closely at shooting attacks on troops in Iraq to establish whether they are carried out by snipers, according to a spokesman.

The change reflects concern over an insurgent video-CD that appears to show a series of shooting attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad by a purported sniper brigade from the Sunni militant Islamic Army.

The video, which Reuters has seen, was handed out in Sunni parts of western Baghdad last week as a "gift" to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. It shows 28 separate attacks, several of them involving precision shots to the head.

Narrated by a man described as the brigade "commander" and subtitled in English, it claims the marksmen use a training manual written by a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer.

"Ultimate Sniper," written in 1993 by Major John L. Plaster, is freely available through online bookstores. It was updated this year "for today's Global War on Terror," according to www.ultimatesniper.com, which calls it the bible of sniping...

[aktarian]

Makes sense. Urban terrain is perfect for snipers. They are small so they can hide, buildings give them lots of oportunities for positions....

It is right to learn, even from the enemy - Ovid

[Rob Thornton]

The IA have rolled up a few of these guys here. When you catch them they do not look like Tom Berringer. Some are pretty good, or at least claim to be. Most of their equipment is a modified SVD. The Iraqi Islamic Army is real, they are a learning enemy, and moderately tactically and technically proficient - they can improvise. There numbers are not as great as they imply either, but they can mass a reasonable ammount of guys. However, the IA are better equipped, receiving better traning, and in most cases they are better led; and they are gettng better all the time - at least from my perch. The AIF (Anti-Iraq Forces) are also fairly good at IO, but the results are far less then the claims, but like the sniper, even the myth has an influence. If the press would do a little analysis they might figure out that they'd been made an instrument of an AIF IO campaign, but the proper place for a horse is behind the cart isn't it?

[Bill Moore]

John Plaster is a true American hero who has walked his talk and then some. If you haven't read his book SOG, I highly recommend it simply for inspiration. The exploits of these men read like fiction, but they're not. I'm not arguing they were strategically important in the long run, that is open to debate. I have no doubt that John is seriously disappointed that the terrorists/ insurgents are using his book; however, if you looked at the number of books on Paladin press that could be, and are, used my terrorists, anarchists, etc., it is somewhat alarming. I don't think there is any feasible way to prevent this spread of technical and tactical knowledge, it is simply an aspect of our environment we have to be aware of. Our enemy will learn and improve over time, and he can learn from us through many different venues to include books like John's on sniping and assorted others, or unclassified military texts, various history books, various movies/documentaries, hot washes after fighting us, sharing experiences and TTP on the web, etc.....

I doubt there is an effective method to disrupt this type of learning, but there are methods for poisoning the well.

[selil]

.... if you looked at the number of books on Paladin press that could be, and are, used my terrorists, anarchists, etc., it is somewhat alarming. I don't think there is any feasible way to prevent this spread of technical and tactical knowledge, it is simply an aspect of our environment we have to be aware of. ...

There is nothing that effects the evolution and acquisition of knowledge more than the predator to prey relationship --- me

[Rob Thornton]

There was a study (I think RAND did it) on the exponential increase of knowledge. The gist was that becasuse of new knowledge sharing technologies and techniques, knowledge could be modified and exploited to make new information at exponential rates as never before. The study offered up an almost unfathomable estimate of how much knowledge had been added between the years of 2000 & 2005. Of course the internet as mentioned, has taken on a life of its own. It is the multi-billion headed hydra with outlets all over. The questions are how to use it to maximimum advantage, and how will the enemy attempt to use it to his? Max Boot did an interesting piece on the Information Revolution in Sunday's Early Bird.

[SWJED]

Here is a link to Max Boot's commentary Are We the Mongols of the Information Age? that appeared in yesterday's Los Angeles Times.

[Jedburgh]

There was a study (I think RAND did it) on the exponential increase of knowledge. The gist was that becasuse of new knowledge sharing technologies and techniques, knowledge could be modified and exploited to make new information at exponential rates as never before...

Not sure if this is the exact study that you're referring to, but the two-volume study, Aptitude for Destruction, from RAND published last year is definitely worth the read:

Organizational Learning in Terrorist Groups and Its Implications for Combating Terrorism

Case Studies of Organizational Learning in Five Terrorist Groups

(Note: The 5 case studies are of Aum Shinrikyo, Hezballah, Jema'ah Islamiyya, PIRA and ELF/ALF)