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US Bombs ISIS Command Center After Terrorist Posts Selfie Online
HughPickens.com writes: Brian Everstine writes at Air Force Times that U.S. intelligence officers were able to locate and bomb an Islamic State command center based on a photo and comments in social media. "The [airmen are] combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command," said Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command. "And in some social media, open forum, bragging about command and control capabilities for Da'esh, ISIL, And these guys go 'ah, we got an in.' So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three JDAMS take that entire building out. Through social media. It was a post on social media. Bombs on target in 22 hours."
Carlisle was careful to not go into great detail about the how the information was gathered and what additional effort went into targeting those bombs. It's easy to imagine that in addition to the information gleaned from the initial post that the Air Force used satellite and drone reconnaissance data. It's also possible that U.S. intelligence could have actively engaged with the original poster in order to draw out information. Attackers and researchers have shown time and time again that simply asking a target for information—either by posing as a trusted individual or using carefully created phishing attacks—works even better than fancy information-stealing digital attacks.
Carlisle was careful to not go into great detail about the how the information was gathered and what additional effort went into targeting those bombs. It's easy to imagine that in addition to the information gleaned from the initial post that the Air Force used satellite and drone reconnaissance data. It's also possible that U.S. intelligence could have actively engaged with the original poster in order to draw out information. Attackers and researchers have shown time and time again that simply asking a target for information—either by posing as a trusted individual or using carefully created phishing attacks—works even better than fancy information-stealing digital attacks.
Geotags
Anybody using a selfie-stick should be bombed into oblivion.
Well done US military, in cleaning up that particular corner of the gene pool.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Has anyone else considered the potential implications of "terrorist posts geostamped selfie, gets bombed"?
I predict we'll see "swatting" taken to a whole new level.
Would this qualify for a Darwin Award?
Here I am standing in front of our TERRORIST HEADQUARTERS on a great sunny day! My fav pic this week hope u like it!
I hope they spent at least a few of those 22 hours verifying that the place they were going to bomb was in fact the TERRORIST HEADQUARTERS.
I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be a school, hospital, or frozen yogurt shop.
No, they just stand outside things they want to blow up and rather than actually having to do all the hard work just take a selfie with gps coordinated in the exif and post if to facebook with "ISIS new headquarters" at the description/title/whatever.
"Sock it to me?!?!!?"
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
Assuming the story is true. It could be a good cover story for some other type of intelligence gathering. Plus if you can get Daesh to stop using social media, it could be a good thing.
what if isis.. just takes selfie's around iraq mil sites and then uploads them or schools etc etc
What's the intelligence agencies objective in releasing this story to the press? That's what needs to be examined. Is it meant as a message to ISIS "We got you and we'll get you again because your people are stupid"? Or was it meant to convey to us, the American People: "This is what our metadata surveillance can accomplish if you'd just let us use it"?
was the General bragging about it. If he hadn't blabbed then they could get others with this technique in the future, at least for a while. An opportunity lost.
You should also stop using Slashdot for posting reasons to stop using Facebook and other "social" media, because that makes you a suspect - fuck... now i am a suspect also, because i advised you stop using Slashdot for posting reasons to stop using Facebook and other "social" media, because that makes you a suspect!
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
Yes, allowing ourselves to remain dependent on a resource that we do not have regional control over is a very dangerous proposal
In the US we should be working diligently to reduce our long-term dependence on oil, something that we have neglected to do for the past 40 years when the first OPEC embargo demonstrated how we rely on an unstable region
Nuclear should have been the answer with electric vehicles following soon behind
Instead we let our fears of radioactive materials scare us into the arms of the fossil-fuels companies only to face the costs of additional wars and global warming as a result, while they dance away with their profits
Aluminum and 'rare earths' are two that we should be keeping our eyes on for long term strategies
Oh, yeah and water, but those warm-hearted Canadians would never hold that over our heads... would they?
Wherever You Go, There You Are
My first thoughts are
1. Secondary story to cover a primary tool being used, which they do not want to expose. Kinda like 'giving carrots to pilots' was a cover for development of radar
2. Striking fear into an enemy, which prevents them from using a primary recruiting tool
3. Wanting to trumpet successes while programs are facing restrictive laws in Congress, the Courts and public opinion
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Thanks to fracking we are now one of the leading producers of oil and natural gas. We are pumping it out so fast we're running out of places to store it. Obama has the luxury of not putting boots on the ground in the Middle East because we no longer need their oil.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Morons are a problem for all. Russia — whose attitude towards accusations of being involved in Ukraine is "Our soldiers aren't there, but they will prevail" — is repeatedly embarrassed by the same kind of morons among her servicemen posting selfies and other photographs picturing them with well-recognizable landmarks and monuments inside Ukraine in the background.
Sigh, if only Ukraine had anywhere near the punch of America's air-force...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Does ISIS have its own version of the Pentagon? Is this a building with eagles on it with a big ISIS flag waving over it? Do they have to worry about cutbacks and base closures?
My impression of ISIS is a crowd-sourced and funded guerilla organization. Said "ISIS Command Center" was probably Seldom Bin Leyd's garage where he kept his beater Toyota pickup with the stack of 20+ year old RPGs in the bed. Seldom Bin Leyd naturally was spouting off online during his WOW session (erm, "training") about his "command center", and essentially got swatted with a few JDAMs.
I think we just happened to catch one of the stupid ones. The competent guys in ISIS probably are glad this guy got wasted.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
a fun and cool thing to kill people in other countries. It's just something the U.S. gov does, and in the midst of getting used to this, the innocent people who are also getting killed by U.S. guns and bombs are conveniently forgotten, and no-one is ever held accountable.
Good: More and faster.
Bad: Mouthing off about how we did it, so ISIS won't make the same mistake again.
I imagine this could become a useful tool for them to take out their competors. Just take selfies at any target they want destroyed, and BOOM.
One refers to a people, the other refers to a place. Immigrants to the West from the middle east don't kill each other very often based on their ancestor's tribal conflicts.
Children who are raised inside all that BS and never make it out... well.. a few of them will eventually act on it. And.. it doesn't take many to ruin a neighborhood.
Don't forget, we were still stuck in tribal animosity in the west just a few decades ago. It's not completely settled, euro-tribalism is still pretty volatile. And with the upcoming election, the American tribalism could flare up violently as well.
They should have at least "liked" the picture before bombing the building.
caught up in tribal conflicts that have been going on for a couple of millennia; long before Islam
Almost. The current war are by 2 factions of muslims battling with each other right now. It is not solely for wealth but more for spiritual right of one faction over another*. Fortunately for the West, these internal battles has been going on for about 1400 years. So those tribal conflicts you speak of were settled long before Islam. That is Persia vs the rest of the world, later, Byzantine (Eastern Roman Empire) vs barbarian hordes etc.
Iran is old Persia that followed the teachings of Zoaroster, the Zoarostrian church was driven out by the muslims. The people of Iran are not arabic but Indian in origin. They are however muslim presently and are relatively stable. Turkey is muslim, but they have a secular government by choice and is stable. Saudi Arabia is run by a monarchy and is stable.
So the reason for why ISIS is going on about a Caliphate across geopolitical boundaries is for religion. They want to change the borders. That's why it's a mess. USA coalition tends to deal with political nations and not sweeping across border movements. ISIS's goal is unlikely as pretty much everyone is moving to secular forms of government. When it's all over, they will have 2 choices. Turn into a North Korea or elect ministers to deal with the rest of the world.
* Roman Catholic vs Lutheran for example.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
I see no reason to believe the Air Force is telling the truth about this.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
"More and faster."
Yes! Kill all those selfie-ing motherfuckers, everywhere!
One refers to a people, the other refers to a place. Immigrants to the West from the middle east don't kill each other very often based on their ancestor's tribal conflicts.
The original posting in this thread was rather badly put, but some interesting ideas have come up in the context of replies in the aftermath of that posting.
"Honor Violence"/"Honor Killings": thousands of women and young girls in the U.S. each year.
The immigrants tend to bring their culture with them, and since we've gone from the "melting pot" mentality to the "multicultural" mentality, with its enclaves, things have only gotten worse over recent years:
http://www.theahafoundation.or...
But, you know, feel free to believe it's an effect of radicalizing radiation that comes from a particular region, and that once people are removed from the region, it magically stops.
George Carlin weighed in on such issues, "I don't believe anything the government tells me." https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
This is a really cute story about why they blew up some building in another country. Oh, and it's a completely unverifiable story, too. It's kind of like when Clinton blew up that pharmaceutical factory. There was never really any evidence it was producing chemical weapons. But it was a good story to tell. It sounds better than "we caused ten of thousands of Sudanese to die, in a terrorist retaliation for the embassy bombings." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
I realize that you would not want to bring these ISIS folks home to meet your mother, but I do feel that we should still observe some formalities. Like perhaps a formal declaration of war from Congress? A budget with funding would be really nice.
The way formal declarations of war work is that you have to declare against nation-states.
This is why "the war on " is so stupid, apart from the fact that you can never declare victory, because you can't establish victory conditions. Take "the war on poverty": OK, poverty surrenders. What are your terms and plans for the conquered lands of poverty going forward?
ISIS is a difficult problem in the same way: despite being regionally located, they are not a politically recognized nation-state, nor are they likely to be in the future, and they are not done with their attempts to conquer territory, so you really can't establish fixed borders inside which you should bomb, and so on.
The ISIS military actions must therefor most resemble what we have already done in Afghanistan, Iraq, and so forth: they are in fact "police actions", as loathe as we are to use that terminology due to the police action that we are now calling, retroactively, "The Vietnam War" (without having had a formal declaration of war there, either).
The nation-state is a fairly recent invention. How were wars declared previously? Here is a nice example:
"Declaration of War
Barbary Pirates, February 6, 1802
An Act for the Protection of the Commerce and Seamen of the United States, Against the Tripolitan Cruisers.
WHEREAS the regency of Tripoli, on the coast of Barbary, has commenced a predatory warfare against the United States:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, that it shall be lawful fully to equip, officer, man, and employ such of the armed vessels of the United States as may be judged requisite by the President of the United States, for protecting effectually the commerce and seamen thereof on the Atlantic ocean, the Mediterranean and adjoining seas.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to instruct the commanders of the respective public vessels aforesaid, to subdue, seize and make prize of all vessels, goods and effects, belonging to the Bey of Tripoli, or to his subjects, and to bring or send the same into port, to be proceeded against, and distributed according to law; and also to cause to be done all such other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war will justify, and may, in his opinion, require.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That on the application of the owners of private armed vessels of the United States, the President of the United States may grant to them special commissions, in the form which he shall direct, under the seal of the United States; and such private armed vessels, when so commissioned, shall have the like authority for subduing, seizing, taking, and bringing into port, any Tripolitan vessel, goods or effects, as the before-mentioned public armed vessels may by law have; and shall therein be subject to the instructions which may be given by the President of the United States for the regulation of their conduct; and their commissions shall be revocable at his pleasure. Provided, that before any commission shall be granted, as aforesaid, the owner or owners of the vessel for which the same may be requested, and the commander thereof, for the time being, shall give bond to the United States, with at least two responsible sureties, not interested in such vessel, in the penal sum of seven thousand dollars; or, if such vessel be provided with more than one hundred and fifty men, in the penal sum of fourteen thousand dollars, with condition for observing the treaties and laws of the United States, and the instructions which may be given, as aforesaid; and also, for satisfying all damages and injuries which shall be done, contrary to the tenor thereof, by such commissioned vessel; and for delivering up the commission, when revoked by the President of the United States.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That any Tripolitan vessel, goods or effects, which shall be so captured and brought into port by any private armed vessel of the United States, duly commissioned, as aforesaid, may be adjudged good prize, and thereupon shall accrue to the owners and officers, and men of the capturing vessel, and shall be distributed according to the agreement which shall have been made between them, or, in failure of such agreement, according to the discretion of the court having cognizance of the capture.
SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the seamen may be engaged to serve in the navy of the United States for a period not exceeding two years; but the President may discharge the same sooner, if in his judgment, their services may be dispensed with.
APPROVED, February 6, 1802.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Please, explain, how the above is different from "Sandniggers aren't capable of Democracy."
Thank you.
IMO, the only difference is your substitution of "tribal" with the term "Sandniggers". (strange that you capitalized the S)
The GP's comment has merit, yours only proves your ignorance.
Describing the current an past state of affairs isn't the same thing as taking a position on what those populations are capable of. It's really just stating the current state of affairs. I personally think that they're just as capable of democracy as anybody else, but I don't really take issue with the GP's description.
The fact is, democracy is hard. We seem to make the mistake of assuming that freedom and democracy are the natural state of things and if we just bang on something with a stick hard enough, it will settle into that natural state. In reality, democracy usually requires the guy with the most guns to say, "I could be a dictator, enjoy absolute power, and take vengeance on all of the other populations who ever did me and mine wrong, but I won't. You guys go ahead and decide who will run things and I'll go with it." That's not an easy outcome. It takes a pretty difficult alignment of circumstances to get it started. Tribal war over whose turn it is to hold the whip is the natural state of things, and we're naive to think otherwise.
An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
I think we should bomb anybody who takes a "selfie".
And we should torture the person who came up with that word.
Uh, no.
The person wasn't the target, the building was. If the individual was bragging he was at a military / terrorist C&C location, then the building and everyone else in it were legitimate targets. If the moron was there then it was just gravy.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
We did try and rebuild their country. Try rebuilding their country when their own government is bound and determined to maintain the sectarian divide between Sunnis and Shiites. Try and rebuild things while the insurgents are shooting at you and setting off IEDs right and left.
Yeah, we fucked up because we had no plan when we kicked out Saddam, but let's not pretend that it's because we didn't try and rebuild things. Even getting a few oil people rich doesn't preclude us from rebuilding things. There is plenty of money to go around, it's just being sucked up by the incompetent Iraqi government and insurgents preventing anything like peace from happening.
So... A member of ISIS took a selfie, and Uncle Sam... PHOTOMBED him!
FT MF W!
The truth is that the terrorists are recruiting online, so the military wanted to stop that. Also, they paid off someone's mistress for this, but didn't want to break her cover, so they made up a story about social media, giving a cover to the mistress and killing two birds with one stone.
Nobody has denied that is the case, so I can only assume it's true.
Learn to love Alaska
IANAL but to my understanding a Congressional Declaration of War* can only be made on nation-states. As such, a formal declaration of war on ISIS would mean we recognize them as a legitimate government, something ISIS with its caliphate mentality craves very much.
*An actual war, not rhetorical wars such as "war or drugs"
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein
I was under the impression we had huge problems getting humint because of the way their organizational structure and vetting goes.
That was Al Qaeda, which was small and tight. ISIS is big, and loose. This makes them much stronger, and able to hold and defend territory, but it also makes them easier to penetrate.
racist
I'm a cultural imperialist. I really don't *care* what race the person is who is following Islam.
And no, I'm not apologetic about it, because I don't see it as a bad thing.
While there may be some good in a culture that practices female genital mutilation, gives 100 lashes -- followed by stoning to death -- women for having been raped (zina), assigns the death penalty for people who convert from Islam to another religion (apostasy), cuts off hands and/or feet for theft (a hudud crime in sharia), believe in "an eye for an eye" (Qisas) or a bribe (Diyya) in the event of property damage, injury, or murder... I'm of the opinion that the bad outweighs the good.
And yes, I believe women should be allowed to learn to read.
Heck, the Sunni's can't even *agree* on all aspect of Sharia -- there are four major schools: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali, and a bunch of minor ones) -- and just try to get them to agree with the Shia -- major branch is Jafari, but also a lot of minor ones.
Getting rid of most of this crap is just good sense.
P.S.: I'm pretty sure I'm more knowledgeable on this topic than you are, with your one word response ad hominem attack on me to try to damage the credibility of what I said in my previous posting.
P.P.S.: In case you do not know Latin, which you probably don't, that means "to the person", and it's a logical fallacy, so your attack is pretty meaningless, even if I just proved you're an idiot who can't tell a racist from a cultural imperialist.
You miss the point; earthquakes were virtually unheard of in Oklahoma until fracking.
You miss the point: they weren't "unheard of" because they didn't happen (check the USGS historical records); they were "unheard of" because they largely went unremarked and unreported, because the numbers were not "scary large" enough to be newsworthy on a slow day, and because they didn't have a controversial issue, like fracking, to hang them on as an advocacy/controversy tactic.