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Open-Government Technique Used on Iraqi Documents
stalebread writes "MSNBC has an article looking at an internet-based 'many hands make light work' approach to data sifting. From the article: 'The federal government is making public a huge trove of documents seized during the invasion of Iraq, posting them on the Internet in a step that is at once a nod to the Web's power and an admission that U.S. intelligence resources are overloaded. Web surfers have begun posting translations and comments, digging through the documents with gusto.'"
Most of this money goes towards convulted technology systems. The same systems that slashbots like you will bally hoo and get wood over. Sadly, money is NOT spent on real world intelligence collection like translators and target language speaking HUMINT officers. The attrition style warfare, that the military-industrial complex follows at a strategic level, leads to an over-reliance on technology and buckets of money that are thrown at problems rather than really studying the enemy and deciding how to work out the problems.
Further, if these Iraqi documents are so vital, I would expect the American government to keep them under wraps. I would not want the enemy to know that we have them in the event that those documents tell us what the enemy's next move is.
The documents are nearly 3-5 years old. Operationally speaking they are useless. They will not tell us their next move because it was pre-insurgency. They will however tell us what the zeitgeist was at the time before invasion.
The real story behind this story is that the American government is doing one of two things: (1) psy-ops (i.e. psychological warfare) against the enemy or (2) political games to improve support for the Iraqi war effort.
Any proof? Or are you playing psy-ops and political games with FUD-loving moderators of /. who mod tin foil hat wearers like yourself?
Washington may be publicizing these documents in an effort to hint (to the fascists) that (1) these documents are just the tip of the iceberg and (2) there are additional documents (in our possession) that indicate where the fascists are hiding and what their next moves are.
As stated above the documents are pre-insurgency. It won't say shit. Secondly, if you had read the fucking article, you'd notice that these documents just skim the surface of what they have and ready to release. So thanks for stating the obvious.
Further, Washington knows that on, say, page 15 (of the documents), there is a tidbit or blatant statement asserting that Saddam Hussein had planned to create weapons of mass destruction all along. Washington hopes that the bloggers will find page 15 and will start hollering about how right we were to invade Iraq. In short, the bloggers are mindless automatons, and Washington has just skillfully manipulated public opinion.
No shit sherlock. Of course Saddad planned to create WMD's some time ago and was found to have none during the war. One document is not going to be a right-wing holy grail of goodness.
This is one of the most over-the-top idiotic statements on /. I've read in a while.
This story simply does not add up.
Don't release the documents and Bush gets blamed for hiding the truth. Release the documents and Bush gets blamed for manipulating the truth.
Further, Washington knows that on, say, page 15 (of the documents), there is a tidbit or blatant statement asserting that Saddam Hussein had planned to create weapons of mass destruction all along.
Well DUH! We KNOW he used them in Gulf War I, and we KNOW he used them on the Kurds. We had a UN resolution demanding Saddam prove he got rid of them, but he never did. Only an idiot would think he didn't have them. Saddam is like the nutbag that gets shot by the police because he pretended he had a gun and refused to drop it.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!