When Criminals and Terrorists Communicate In Real Time

theodp writes "CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen notes that the assault on the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi by armed gunmen 'was the first major terrorist attack in history in which the group that mounted the operation used Twitter to announce to the world it was responsible. The group then quickly tweeted what its rationale was for the attack and also gave operational details of the assault — all in real time.' During the massacre, a Twitter account purportedly used by the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab tweeted, 'Like it or loathe it! our mujahideen confirmed all executions were point blank range!' The group also wrote, '#Westgate: a 14-hour standoff relayed in 1400 rounds of bullets and 140 characters of vengeance and still ongoing. Good morning Kenya!' So, what's in store for our brave new world of Social Media? 'The next logical step,' fears Bergen, 'will be for terrorists to cover their deadly operations using their own real-time live video feeds linked to sites such as Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. If that happens, terrorist attacks will become a form of theater in which terrorists not only get to write the play but also act as the primary producers of the coverage of the event.'"

Comments

Re:But does it change anything?

[AHuxley]

Yes the 1960-70's gave the world the a few agents provocateurs and false flag terrorist attacks to up the publicity for more protective governments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_of_tension

Re:choosing sides

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Terrorism? Give me a break. This is the same kind of 'Terrorism" that is featured in the movie "Brazil", and that Orwell exposed with "Emmanuel Goldstein", in "1984". It's the kind of "terrorism" funded by your American tax-dollar.

Look. This is a fake "terror" incident, run by the black-ops folks in the US and Israel, just like 7/7 and Mumbai. Lets look at the ringleaders. Why are they ALWAYS English-speaking, with a long history of being directed by the CIA or a south-Asian proxy, before going "Rogue"? David Headly? Samantha Lewthwaite? We are not really that stupid, are we?

And just WHY was "award-winning, crisis photographer" Tyler Hicks in the Westgate mall, the EXACT moment that shit went down? That guy gets conveniently located with alarming frequency. How come the people "trying to prevent" these occurrences don't just up their chances, and follow him around?

There are fingerprints all over this stuff. But we will never be able to see them if we wear the blinders and bullshit from CNN/NPR/Fox channels for dissemination of official propaganda.