Leaked Documents Detail Al-Qaeda's Efforts To Fight Back Against Drones

An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post reports, 'Al-Qaeda's leadership has assigned cells of engineers to find ways to shoot down, jam or remotely hijack U.S. drones ... In July 2010, a U.S. spy agency intercepted electronic communications indicating that senior al-Qaeda leaders had distributed a "strategy guide" to operatives around the world advising them how "to anticipate and defeat" unmanned aircraft. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reported that al-Qaeda was sponsoring simultaneous research projects to develop jammers to interfere with GPS signals and infrared tags that drone operators rely on to pinpoint missile targets. Other projects in the works included the development of observation balloons and small radio-controlled aircraft, or hobby planes, which insurgents apparently saw as having potential for monitoring the flight patterns of U.S. drones... Al-Qaeda has a long history of attracting trained engineers ... Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, holds a mechanical-engineering degree ... In 2010, the CIA noted in a secret report that al-Qaeda was placing special emphasis on the recruitment of technicians and that "the skills most in demand" included expertise in drones and missile technology.'"

Comments

Re:FACTUAL REPORTING

[cold fjord]

Damn! This US intelligence is SO GOOD it kills "Al Qaeda" guys THREE TIMES!

So you're saying intelligence can be wrong? Fascinating. Based on my prior reading on Slashdot I understood that it couldn't be actually wrong, but simply used to lie the US into wars. You seem to be giving credence to the report that Saddam had his government lie and behave as if it was still in possession of chemical weapons to fool Iran but got more than he bargained for with a war involving the US.

You might be the most insightful when you don't intend to be.

If there are intelligence problems as you acknowledge, I wonder how much better the US would be if it were to stop intelligence surveillance of terrorists completely as some people have been suggesting. I think I've seen that picture before.