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Preparing Countermeasures For Terror Attacks Using Drones (remotecontrolproject.org)

An anonymous reader writes: You can add terrorist-controlled drones to the list of dangers we need to be prepared for, says the Oxford Research Group. Its new report contains information about over 200 current and upcoming unmanned aerial, ground and marine systems, and evaluates their capabilities for delivering payloads (e.g. explosive devices), imaging capabilities (e.g. for reconnaissance purposes), and their general capabilities. Even though the report notes that commercial drones have a limited flight time, range of movement, and payload capacity, and that their operators still have to be relatively close to a potential target, the researchers are particularly worried about the possibility of drones being used as remotely controlled explosive devices. They say, "The technology of remote-control warfare is impossible to control; the ultimate defence is to address the root drivers of the threat in the first place."

62 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Better Idea.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Stop destabilising foreign nations and victimising populations and there won't be any terrorism (except the false flag variety, which is almost all of it anyway....so stop doing that too....)

    1. Re:Better Idea.. by camperdave · · Score: 2

      Do you know how many Muslims were in the Irish Republican Army? or how many the IRA targetted?

      Not a single one.

      You don't have to be Muslim to be a terrorist, and you don't have to be a terrorist if you're Muslim. All you have to do is be a bully to someone else's coward.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    2. Re:Better Idea.. by truck_soccer · · Score: 1

      Here. watch this unverified youtube video that someone made in windows dvd maker with pictures from cnn.

    3. Re:Better Idea.. by Ranbot · · Score: 1

      This is a red herring because international terrorism is not the root issue here. Drones are a very affordable technology that could be used by any whack-job with a desire to cause damage and pain, regardless of motives.

    4. Re:Better Idea.. by camperdave · · Score: 2

      Um... No. The parent post said there would be no terrorism if there were no Muslims. The IRA is just one of many counter-examples.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  2. Summary of report by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    The report notes that drones work for shit in rainy and windy weather. In other words, our best defense is to amp up the global warming until hurricanes are near us at all times.

    1. Re:Summary of report by tgeek · · Score: 1

      I misread the heading . . . I seriously thought it meant we were planning to use drones as our countermeasures for terror attacks . . .

    2. Re:Summary of report by dsmatthews9379 · · Score: 1

      True, since the rise of the global warming meme we have had far less trouble from these things, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    3. Re:Summary of report by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The report notes that drones work for shit in rainy and windy weather.

      Actually, they're not that bad. Because of their very nature, they are actually resistant to that sort of thing in a way that "normal" R/C aircraft aren't. Auto-leveling flight has been sneaking into R/C airplanes for a while, but it's typical for "drones". A 10dof sensor board will run you $10, a GPS with a nice big antenna is $10, and if you give plenty of altitude then there's little to run into. Brushless motors don't go straight to hell when water goes through them like the old brushed ones did. People report making many flights in the rain without any trouble with the bearings. A relatively heavy fixed wing or most any decent-sized multirotor can operate in some fairly significant weather without too much trouble.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Summary of report by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 1

      That's a power consideration.

      But power is not a problem : people have been making pulse-jet powered UAVs for at least a decade. (no, the video is not a UAV, but the only UAV video I could find had no audio and the best thing about pulse jet videos is the audio).

      You can make a pulse jet out of bent steel tubing. And because they're powerful, they can be heavy. Because they can run on liquid fuel, they can have endurance. They worked well enough in WWII - their main drawback was their guidance system was shit. Well, now you can buy a powerful computer designed to be integrated into other systems for $4.

      Try fending off a swarm of multiple nap-of-earth flying 200MPH heavy payload cruise missiles powered by a pulse jet and a raspberry pi, launched from pickup trucks on a desert highway.

    5. Re:Summary of report by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 2

      Muffed up the video link :

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... - Pulse jet UAV from 2006

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... - 200MPH Radio controlled pulse jet plane

  3. Anti Drones by VAXcat · · Score: 1

    TIme for some enterprising quadcopter company to get a multimillion dollar contract to design and build "drone interceptors".

    --
    There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
    1. Re: Anti Drones by WarJolt · · Score: 1

      I'm thinking lasers. The carbon fiber frames will burn up quick.

  4. Root Causes Important, but You have Crime & Cr by Koreantoast · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For those who are trying to hand wave the issue with a broader "well, we shouldn't do things that make people angry *tsk* *tsk*", while addressing the root drivers will help mitigate the numbers of potential incidents, in a world where people have differing opinions, you'll always have a few folks who disagree strongly enough that they may just try to do something like deliver a dangerous payload via unmanned platform. Very least, you're going to have criminal elements that are going to try and exploit this technology for recon or more direct support in committing crimes, maybe even violent support. Therefore, you're going to need this technology to some degree whether through jamming or even outright shooting it out of the sky.

  5. Easy solution by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

    Shotguns are still standard issue for most police patrol cars, right? Just fill em up with birdshot instead of buckshot and problem solved. It would be like skeet shooting, but instead of shooting at a clay pigeon it would be like shooting one of those explosive targets that had been catapulted into the sky.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    1. Re:Easy solution by ScentCone · · Score: 2

      I routinely fly my multi-rotor camera platforms up over 300'. Good luck with bird shot at that distance!

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  6. the smaller drones work well inside by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    you know: a sports arena, school, etc.

    1. Re:the smaller drones work well inside by chispito · · Score: 1

      you know: a sports arena, school, etc.

      If you can already sneak your explosives inside a building, why do you need a drone? Just drop it and leave. Or stay, if that's your persuasion.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    2. Re:the smaller drones work well inside by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      you know: a sports arena

      I am actually wondering when entities like the NFL and NCAA will start using camera-equipped drones to film football games. They already have cameras mounted on rope and pulley systems for most aerial shots, but a drone would allow for much more interesting (and more available) filming angles. They've already started putting cameras in the end zone pylons, so the technology to get live broadcast quality cameras down to a size small enough for drones (and drone reliability up) can't be more than a few years away.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    3. Re:the smaller drones work well inside by RoccamOccam · · Score: 1

      I was recently at a game covered by ESPN where they used a drone. It was at a smaller university with a new stadium and it appeared that a normal overhead camera wasn't in place. So, when I saw the camera-equipped drone (with ESPN logo), I assumed they would be using it to replace the cable-mounted camera. However, I'm pretty sure that it was only used for crowd shots and that it was never allowed over the field of play - ESPN just flew it over the stadium crowd. I'm guessing that there was some restriction (like from the NCAA) that kept them from using the drone that way.

    4. Re:the smaller drones work well inside by bluescrn · · Score: 1

      So the risk of crashing a drone onto a crowd is better than risking any injury to a highly-paid sports star?

  7. who really cares? by nimbius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Im sure for anyone who bought a "drone" 2 weeks ago at christmas, this article is neat. However fearmongering aside Terorrism in 2015 killed only 34 people in the United States, the country with the most drones. heck, in 2014 auto accidents alone killed 34,000 people here...and by comparison terorrism is almost a non-issue when pitted against heart disease, which kills 610,000 per year. Unlike terrorism, which is costly to defend against, most of the cases of heart disease in the united states that claim a life could have been prevented by simple diet and exercise. Hell, in 2013 there were 33,000 firearm related deaths in the US, almost 1000 times the number of terrorism related deaths.

    but, you know...terorrism...gotta stop those terrorists.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:who really cares? by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      It's reasonable to suppose that fear of getting caught is a deterrent against many acts. You know that whole "if you could be invisible.." thought that people explore? Nobody ever answers "put in unpaid overtime without the boss yelling at me," or "watch rabbits up close without scaring them away."

      Drones (yes, that's the word people have collectively decided to use -- no quotes required) provide a delivery platform with large or total deniability, and that changes peoples' (largely unformalized) risk assessments. It would be foolish to believe that nobody would capitalize on that. No, there haven't been any attacks yet, but once the dam breaks, expect to see more and more of it.

    2. Re:who really cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The cars, dumbass. Enough with your rhetoric about terrorists "destroying our nation". If the best they can do is kill 34 people a year then they're obviously not very good at their job. Let's concentrate on important things and save our money instead of wasting it in a fruitless attempt to stop terrorism entirely, which is a literall impossibility.

    3. Re:who really cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You are obviously quite afraid of a possible ISIS-dominated future. Otherwise arguing that 34 terrorist deaths (last year in the U.S.) is more important that 34,000 vehicle deaths doesn't make sense.

      Our war on terror has been a fiasco. We would have been better off doing nothing. More U.S. soldiers dies in our gulf wars than in 9/11. Some hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanistanis are dead. And we have way more problems than than when we started! Not too mention the injured soldiers, horrible laws like the patriot act, wasted money, millions of refugees, etc.

      Do you question anything? What about the loss of our freedoms? Don't you remember communism, and what happens when you give a government too much power? Aren't you afraid that we will become a police state? Isn't that more real than some guys in a desert half a world away with ak47s and pickup trucks?

      Better yet would be the american public put a stop to our governments imperialistic dealings with that part of the world. I wonder how it is that a powerful government can restrains itself from imposing its best interests on others.

      I'll tell you what I am afraid of. I'm afraid of the countries of the west turning into police states. Enough of us would have jobs. There'd be plenty of corporate sponsored things to do, but not so much else. Lots of people would medicate, starting with kids in grammer school. You wouldn't want to say or do anything wrong, because everything is kept track of. Meanwhile it's all hacked and sold every which way. The collective public are distracted by politically divisive squables, celebrities, and a never ending stream of fear and manipulation. This is the world that we will grow old in. This is the world we'll be leaving to the next generations. We don't live in a police state yet. But then again, only 34 people dies from terrorists in the U.S. last year. II think the powers that we are giving corporations and the government are going to long outlast some guys in the desert with pickup trucks and AK-47s. That's what I'm afraid of.

      I feel like I'm living in communist USSR. We're doing what I was told as a kid that the bad guys do.

    4. Re:who really cares? by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1

      But think of the pork!

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    5. Re:who really cares? by gweihir · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And that is exactly what reality looks like: Terrorism is not a relevant threat in the west, unless a power-hungry political class, a press serving them and a population that does not get it makes it one. The mechanism at work here is that a population in fear is easy to rule, as a population in fear is dumb.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re:who really cares? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Our war on terror has been a fiasco.

      I disagree. The purpose of this "war" obviously was never to be won (because it cannot, just like the now over 100 years of the "war on drugs"), but to keep the fear in the US population and the west in general alive. This serves several purposed. For one, a population in fear is easy to govern. It also serves to blow up the budget for organizations like the DHS, the TSA, the NSA, etc. All these organizations are primarily in love with power and money, their actual duty, namely to server the US population, comes a distant second if they remember it at all. And the "war on terror" has one other desired effect: It keeps validation for the actual terrorists up. It keeps them motivated, it allows for easy recruitment (David vs. Goliath Effect, nobody likes a bully) and it keeps them funded. Because the worst thing you can do to a terrorist organization is to not take them seriously and the absolute, unmitigated best thing for them is to style them as some sort of great threat. That makes them feel really important and bad-ass.

      Now I submit that the people that orchestrate this "war" on terror do not all know this, but they will either be dumb or they will understand very well what they are doing. Both kinds are a serious danger to western values, as exemplified by, for example, universal snooping and reduction of freedoms. In comparison to the severe damage these people have done and continue to do, all the things the terrorists have managed look puny and unimportant.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    7. Re:who really cares? by erapert · · Score: 1

      If you're including suicides in that firearm deaths figure then you're being disingenuous.

    8. Re:who really cares? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      They are not really talking about protecting the general public, they don't give a crap about the general public. This is about protecting specific people from targeted assassinations. The simplest attack, coating a drones blades with a toxin and flying it at the targets head, a very small drone but still logically very effective, the infamous poisoned blade.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    9. Re:who really cares? by lucien86 · · Score: 1

      Terrorism is the mouse that roars.

      --
      Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
    10. Re:who really cares? by lucien86 · · Score: 1

      Sports drone with FPV control, or AI face recognition and GPS. Setting a drone up with 1 km + radio is also not very difficult.. Or with a bit more technical ability use an IR laser designator.. Fit it with a knife or an anti-personnel grenade or small high explosive bomb. Or as rtb61 said you could cover a drones blades with poison..
      If you have a really high profile target and some more money then go for an attack based on drone swarming technology.. Stopping one drone might be quite easy but stopping a dozen of fifty at once? That's the big (near future) fear the military are currently worrying about..

      --
      Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
  8. Crashing to the ground into a crowded street... by Koreantoast · · Score: 1

    There is also that small question of what happens when a five, ten or even twenty pound object hovering from even a few dozen feet comes crashing down into a crowded street. Probably not an ideal solution, liabilities and whatnot.

    1. Re:Crashing to the ground into a crowded street... by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      There is also that small question of what happens when a five, ten or even twenty pound object hovering from even a few dozen feet comes crashing down into a crowded street. Probably not an ideal solution, liabilities and whatnot.

      When they are flying IEDs they don't go crash, they just go boom.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re:Crashing to the ground into a crowded street... by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      When they are flying IEDs they do't go crash, they just go boom.

      However, there are no flying IEDs. The whole idea is terminally stupid - there are so many better ways to deliver explosives.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    3. Re:Crashing to the ground into a crowded street... by mujadaddy · · Score: 1

      there are no flying IEDs. The whole idea is terminally stupid - there are so many better ways to deliver explosives.

      I'm fairly certain they all involve math, though.

      --
      Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
      "Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
  9. Legalize Jamming by gurps_npc · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Just make it legal to jam drones. Problem solved.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    1. Re:Legalize Jamming by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Just make it legal to jam drones. Problem solved.

      So you have a plan for how you're going to jam GPS across a miles-wide area, but without impacting all of the other users who need it? And, you have a pretty good sense of how all "drones" use RF? Meaning, you're going to jam all of the same frequencies that mobile phones and WiFi devices use in the entire area? Please be specific.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    2. Re:Legalize Jamming by wasteoid · · Score: 1

      If it is in fact a drone, that means it is not receiving signals from an operator but flying autonomously, so a jamming signal wouldn't work.

    3. Re:Legalize Jamming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "PURPOSE:
      The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources
      Board (CARB) mandate that engines with adjustable parameters (i.e., carburetors) utilized in
      lawn and garden equipment be âoetamper resistant.â The carburetors present on some MTD
      products require the use of a special carburetor adjustment tool for a product being serviced or
      repaired, due to the tamper resistant mechanisms present on the product. This special tool is to
      be made available and used exclusively by MTDâ(TM)s trained service technicians; it may not be sold
      to the public, as this could be a violation of EPA regulations.
      Specifically, the United Code of Federal Regulations, at 40 CFR 1068.101(b)(2) states:
      (2) Defeat devices. You may not knowingly manufacture, sell, offer to sell, or install, any
      part that bypasses, impairs, defeats, or disables the control of emissions of any
      regulated pollutant, except as explicitly allowed by the standard-setting part.
      We[EPA] may assess a civil penalty up to $3,750 for each part in violation.

      ACTION REQUIRED:
      Accordingly, MTD asks that carburetor adjustment tools be made available only to
      service centers and their authorized technicians; no public advertisement or sale of the tool is to
      occur.
      Selling the special carburetor adjustment tool to a consumer or making the tool
      purchasable on a website may be a violation of 40 CFR 1068.101(b)(2) above, and subject you
      to significant fines and penalties."

      http://www.mytractorforum.com/...
      http://www.lawnsite.com/archiv...

      Screwdrivers have been outlawed. We may have a problem...

    4. Re:Legalize Jamming by k6mfw · · Score: 1

      I think airplane pilots will be able to resort to non-GPS means of getting around. But for many drivers, they will be lost and will drive around in circles "where do I go? where do I go? where do I go?" until they run out of gas. And probably they will stall in the worst spots like middle of SF Bay Bridge (plus others in same predicament) causing massive traffic jams.

      --
      mfwright@batnet.com
    5. Re:Legalize Jamming by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      You ought to at least attempt to learn a thing or two about allocated spectrum, directional radiators, and tune able power levels before showing you ignorance to the masses.

      Really? You're lecturing me about learning something as I respond to a completely witless post about "just jam drones" being the simple solution?

      No, learning more about directional radiators and tunable power levels won't teach me more that I need to know about how "jamming a drone" that's on a combination of inertial, magnetic, and GPS guidance while moving on a pre-programmed waypoint path at, say, 75mph just above tree-top level as it approaches from a mile away. Though it sounds like YOU could learn a few things.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    6. Re:Legalize Jamming by lucien86 · · Score: 1

      The lawnmower police state.. And it wont do a thing to actually combat climate change..

      --
      Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
  10. Re:Easy peasy.. the NRA solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    shotgun, dumbass. The NRA is composed of people who understand that gun control is all about keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. We don't point rifles up; we use shotguns for flying things.

  11. Obligatory Buckaroo Banzai Reference by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 1

    Reporter: "Mister Secretary, what about the possibility of war in the Eighth Dimension?"

    Defense Secretary: "What?"

  12. I'll rain hell foam!!! by wkwilley2 · · Score: 1

    As loosely as the term "terrorist" is thrown around these days, they had better look out for my drone mounted nerf guns

    --
    Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
    1. Re: I'll rain hell foam!!! by WarJolt · · Score: 1

      I'll just spray your done with my super soaker and see who wins.

  13. Escalate! by Billy+the+Mountain · · Score: 1

    Measures -> Counter Measures -> Repeat

    --
    That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
  14. Re: One word by WarJolt · · Score: 1

    Right. Let's get rid of the terrorists and replace it with a psychopathic machine.

  15. Re:Easy peasy.. the NRA solution by camperdave · · Score: 1

    How do you hit a drone with a shotgun without pointing the muzzle up? Throw it?

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  16. Root Threat by camperdave · · Score: 1

    If you ask me, I'd say the root threat here is the Oxford Research Group. They're the ones yelling "Phear Dronze"!

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  17. Sending a drone to Paradise? by seven+of+five · · Score: 1

    Do terrorists really think about using mini copters for attacks? Have they done so already? I mean, the notion of sending a suicide martyr to heaven is much more compelling and romantic than plopping bombs on a flying robot.

    1. Re:Sending a drone to Paradise? by lucien86 · · Score: 1

      Yep they already have suicide robots - they call them 'martyrs'.

      --
      Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
  18. Re:Explosives are Stupid by gweihir · · Score: 1

    The concentrated stupid of your posting is the only danger here. From the document you link:

    Orally, potassium chloride is toxic in excess; the LD50 is around 2.5 g/kg (meaning that a lethal dose for 50% of people weighing 75 kg (165 lb) is about 190 g (6.7 ounces)). The oral toxicity of sodium chloride (table salt) is about the same, 3.75 g/kg. Thus potassium chloride is harmless for alimentation (and even good for health, see previous paragraph). But intravenously, without the step of digestive absorption, this is reduced to just over 30 mg/kg.

    That still means you have to pump a 75kg person (not large) full of 2.25g (almost all 10ccs in solution) to get a 50% death rate and that is without medical attention and you have to hit a vein (because that is what "intravenously" means). Not a credible threat. I also would also very much expect the target to indeed start screaming and panic if stuck with a large needle without warning. The countermeasure is simple though: Just rip out the needle immediately.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  19. Re:self driving cars by gweihir · · Score: 1

    And then they are out of a job and purpose in life. Made obsolete by technology. I feel sad for them.

    Yes, that is about the level of respect that idea deserves. Sure, somebody will do it eventually, but the danger here is "car", not "self driving" and society has decided to accept it a long, long time ago.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  20. My concerns about losing my life by k6mfw · · Score: 1

    as result of car accident, industrial accident, fire, disease, crime, earthquake, meteor, and a whole number of unexpected causes which terrorism is not on that list.

    --
    mfwright@batnet.com
  21. Re:Easy peasy.. the NRA solution by tnk1 · · Score: 2

    The point you missed is that shotguns are not rifles. Shotguns are generally smoothbores.

    Shotguns are aimed up because that is what is used for hunting birds. You don't generally hunt a flying bird with a rifle. You want shot dispersal to bracket them for much the same reason you wanted to shoot at airplanes with proximity fused ammo or a veritable hail of bullets: it's hard to hit a flying, moving object with a single slug.

    You should always point any weapon downrange and/or toward the ground when it is not in use, but there's no reason whatsoever to point an actual rifle up at the sky unless you're trying to take a lucky shot at an airplane.

  22. Re:Root Causes Important, but You have Crime & by rtb61 · · Score: 1

    It is far trickier than the current anti-drone technology implies. Consider the flight path of a drone attacking a public speaker. All hovering and manoeuvring is done at a distance to get the drone in the best position for a final run. A path as close to people as possible and just out of reach, on a direct vector as possible. That final run will be done a maximum forward speed, giving seconds as reaction time. The laser will end up being aimed at spectators heads as well as the drone, so now you have, " we had to permanently blind spectators including children but that's okay because they are nobodies and we had to protect the extra special person, also the four peoples heads we blew off when we exploded the drone doesn't count for shit either". That doesn't even take into account destructive lasers being used in metropolitan areas with lots and lots of very reflective windows.

    So something more along the lines of say a chameleon, where a sticky bundle of fibres on the end of a strong line, is fired at the drone and it is reeled in. The unit mounted on fairly high poles around the zone to be temporarily or permanently protected. That way the drone is caught and should it contain explosives it will detonate at a safer range to the public. A compressed air shotgun with rapidly degrading pellets would logically be required for more intensely protected zones. That final attack run is really quick and does not leave much time.

    People doing stupid things near airports or other places is much easier to deal with with the drones moving more slowly and spending considerable time in the location as well as the locations usually having very deep safety zones, this allows capture drones or crash drones with sharp stainless steel blades to be used.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  23. Root Causes? by JimSadler · · Score: 1

    It is a noble idea to address the root causes of terrorism. But can it be done? In the case of the Arab nations, there is a constant cultural pressure caused by being the crossing point of European, Asian and African cultures. Then we have the over- population vs. lack of resources conflict. And on top of that, we see educational levels of a population that are dismal. All of these factors take long periods of time to deal with if they can be dealt with at all. Long term solutions mean nothing when some group goes off of their nut and launches a drone with some sort of weapon attached. Sadly I think, that the only method of controlling such evil is a delivery of a far greater and punitive evil. Usually, if people fear that consequences of an action will surely result in a great likelihood that they will suffer, their behavior will be more moderate.

  24. A decade late and unknown trillions short by TheCarp · · Score: 1

    Seriously, more than a decade ago: http://www.wired.com/2004/04/i...

    The point produced a depressing recognition. There's a logic to P2P threats that we as a society don't yet get. Like the record companies against the Internet, our first response is war. But like the record companies, that response will be either futile or self-destructive. If you can't control the supply of IDDs, then the right response is to reduce the demand for IDDs. Yet as everyone in the class understood, in the four years since Joy wrote his Wired piece, we've done precisely the opposite.

    This wasn't very hard to figure out that when you look at how easy it is to make weapons. The technicalities of terrorism are easy. You can learn most everything you need at the library and always could. You can build bombs, and you can do it without anyone knowing. Its technical work but its nothing compared to some people's hobbies.

    The real question is, why doesn't something so easy happen every day? The problem isn't what is easy, the problem is why would anyone do it. The real enemy is the perception that there is a goal that it can accomplish, and you can't fight that away.

    --
    "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
  25. Re:.. if you believe the neckbeards. by TheCarp · · Score: 1

    You know, back before 9/11, when websites were "cool". I remember the gaffaws we had looking at the FBIs infamous "10 most wanted" list. Remember that? Seems like a lifetime ago doesn't it? A whole 15-20 years.

    They couldn't even come up with a top 10 list that was the least bit scary. The only "terrorist" on there set off a bomb...at night... when nobody was around. The rest were mostly various drug dealers, including some dude with really wild hair who was (big shock) the one acid dealer.

    So basically, the threat was a joke then, and well... I don't see many bombs going off. I see a large increase claims of plots, but they can't be real because, there arn't enough real ones that ever happened as to justify the ones they catch now.

    --
    "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"