Hi Ted,

Quote Originally Posted by Jedburgh View Post
Destruction is the goal we strive for with such networks, and damn difficult to reach, unless you catch'em early and eliminate the movement at the fetal stage. The methods that Marc refers to are difficult to plan and implement effectively against an organization with any roots at all. On the rare occasions when such tactics have been effective (i.e. Kenya, the Philippines) it has been in a relatively narrow sense, and only resulted in the type of temp disruption that I mentioned in an earlier post. When that temp disruption is exploited in a structured manner to dig deeper into the threat structure, and the opportunity is seized for aggressive follow-up, then it can lead to network destruction, but not as a stand-alone approach.
Too true on how difficult they are to implement! Temporary disruption, i.e. "noise operations" is usually about the best you can hope to achieve in any established network. The only case I am aware of where the "toxic noise" approach actually worked, it took several hundred years - no something that is "salable" to the general public at the moment .

Quote Originally Posted by Jedburgh View Post
Again, I'm referring only to the types of organizations I mentioned above, not to emerging, immature entities that can be easily (in a comparative sense) destroyed by the methods Marc stated. On the other, repressive governments have often used such methods with great success against dissident networks. The study of dissident networks in Eastern Europe during the Cold War period offers a lot of valuable lessons on clan comms and security measures evolved by the various groups to mitigate against this sort of threat to their underground existence.
The Canadian government used on of the sneakiest forms of this type of attack on emerging radical networks that I have ever seen - they funded them. Sounds insane, but the RCMP managed to sidetrack over 100 potentially "revolutionary" groups by the simple expedient of early infiltration and financial support. The leadership structure was subtly manipulated - financially rewarded for pursuing rhetoric rather than action, and punished (financially) when direct action leading to social harm took place.