Want to fight al-Qaida? Call in the Geek Squad... Uncle Sam's Geek Squad.
During her keynote speech at the Special Operations Command gala dinner in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday night, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that State Department specialists attacked sites tied to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that were trying to recruit new members by "bragging about killing Americans."
"Within 48 hours, our team plastered the same sites with altered versions of the ads that showed the toll al-Qaida attacks have taken on the Yemeni people," Clinton said. "We can tell our efforts are starting to have an impact because extremists are publicly venting their frustration and asking supporters not to believe everything they read on the internet" [Dana Hughes, "Hillary Clinton: U.S. Hacked Yemen al-Qaida Sites," ABC via Yahoo, 2012.05.23].
Cruise missiles cost $1.41 million a pop... and you get to use them once. Money like that can keep a good hacker on the job for a decade, applying their skills over and over. How's that for smart?
...Highlighting the government's use of "smart power" to fight extremists, Clinton said that military and civilian specialists around the world are focused on preempting, discrediting, and outmaneuvering extremist propaganda. Calling them "a digital outreach team," Clinton said the specialists are fluent in Urdu, Arabic, and Somali. The group is "already patrolling the web and using social media and other tools to expose al-Qaida's contradictions and abuses, including its continuing brutal attacks on Muslim civilians" [Hughes, 2012].
Urdu, Arabic, and Somali... South Dakota high schools and universities would be smart to update their world language curriculum.
Update 07:50 MDT: The Displaced Plainsman notes some good advice from Colin Powell on foreign policy... advice the Clinton State Department appears to be following.
Once again, the pen proves more mighty than the sword. Good story, Cory.
Remember Einstein's line about fighting World War IV with sticks and stones? Maybe we can avoid that stage by fighting our current wars with electrons... which, depending on how you read your quantum mechanics, may not even exist, at least not in the way sticks and stones do. Think about that: fighting bad guys with clouds of existential probability.
Excellent. Just read the other day a description of humans by Tom Robbins who writes that we are 'meat waves of possibility.'
Well that beats the heck out of dumping flyers out of planes. The article is very enlightening Cory! Thanks.
Something to keep in mind, however, is the problems with relying on electronics.
For example, we're getting almost 100% of our intel in Yemen from either Yemeni officials or electronic surveillance. This has led to dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent Yemenis dying due to faulty intelligence.
Further, there's a line that's easily (and frequently) crossed when it comes to electronic intelligence. Hacking Al-Qaeda websites to show statistics is one thing, but real information is acquired by intercepting thousands and thousands of communications from everyone. When do we reach the line between "Spying on our enemies" and "Watching peoples' lives just in case"? When do we become the Stasi, or the terrorists, or Big Brother?
Just because it's overseas and the people aren't Westerners doesn't mean they deserve less.
Until we significantly improve our computer systems and our philosophy of their use, boots (or in this case, patent leather oxfords a la James Bond) on the ground are the best, most reliable and effective source of information.
Though the hacking Al-Qaeda sites does have my approval. It's better than blowing people up.
I read an article in the Spanish news about how in the Canary Islands, very few speak German and when the tourists come, the hotels have to hire Germans from Germany to be able to communicate. The schools there, missed the mark with preparing students for the real world. My point is this, what an opportune time to be teaching foreign language in our schools. We have some smart kids here with a varied ethnic backround. Some know some words in their "old country" language and some know words from their "in country" language, so that could help them unlock the key to that language block.
Problem is picking the right foreign language to study. There are a few more than German or French.
The US State Dept. fired some of their best Arabic speakers because they were gay when Bush was President. Might have been useful to have a few more of them gay or not..
You're right, Carter: every weapon requires careful aim, and every weapon can cause collateral damage. We might even be concerned that the government could turn its hackers against domestic dissent more easily than it could turn its weapons against domestic political opponents. But used properly, hacking bad guys' websites and other applications of smart power could keep us from having to use more destructive power.
And indeed, it is hard to predict which language will provide the market. On the military side, who knows who will be our primary enemy/intelligence target in ten years?
We're already being monitored by the NSA, Cory. They've been monitoring pretty much all communication (except face-to-face and snail mail) since what? J. Edgar's reign in the FBI, I suppose. So hacking is likely only a matter of time on that front. It's probably already occurred a handful of times.
That said, while I'm not much of a fan of this gray hat hacking we use, it is better than the alternatives. A better alternative still would be to use gathered intelligence to actually decide why these people are joining Al-Qaeda. What better way to beat the terrorists than shutting them down by getting people to stop hating us?
Sure, there will always be some, but we could certainly cut that number down to the size of maybe Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, except for all the Al-Qaedas combined.
Anyway, if I'm really honest with myself, I think I've changed my mind, and the hacking should be done away with as soon as possible and replaced with intelligence gathering. The part I heard on NPR today about infiltrating Al-Qaeda chat rooms and saying statistics they keep out should stay though. It's certainly not any more morally gray than Sibby coming here.
You make a good point about language, too. Gathering intel from the internet via chat rooms, etc., worldwide is an excellent way to know what's going on.
For a good read, and excellent background on this topic, may I suggest reading James Gleik's 'The Information.' What Carter seems to be suggesting is right on. We need to get better at understanding each other and just keeping in touch. Dialogue, not monologue.
A little more from the Clinton file:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/18/1120088/-Hillary-Clinton-Badass-continued
Plus, Secretary Clinton made that statement in Kyrgyzstan, challenging a culture on its own turf to get with the feminist program.