Researcher Says Social Networks Link Terrorists 212
An anonymous reader writes "At the International Conference on Cyber Security 2009 in New York, Evan Kohlmann, a senior investigator and private consultant for Global Terror Alert, claimed that a new breed of terrorists are using online forums to recruit people who align themselves with the mission of Al Qaeda, creating global networks of would-be terrorists."
FUD (Score:5, Insightful)
solution (Score:1, Insightful)
I see a new agency to observe / control these.
Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:5, Insightful)
I've heard that terrorists also speak to people to recruit new members!
We should stop right now the use of language.
Oh come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
How many stories like this do we have to read? When will the internets finally be recognised as a medium rather than an entity?
As soon as government agencies begin to properly recognise this fact, they will be able to operate within the medium, making use of its strengths and weaknesses, instead of fearing it the whole damned time. Did it never occur that social networking sites offer an excellent means of infiltrating "would-be terrorist" networks? Anonymity works both ways.
Just my 0.02.
Same ol' FUD (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyways, what's the fuss? Terrorist on Facebook? Police should cheer, it'll be a lot easier for them to infiltrate these groups and identify their members.
Re:FUD (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:FUD (Score:5, Insightful)
Also ink - people always forget about the ink. Used by terrorists for recruitment and plotting attacks. When will the madness end and ink be banned.
How convenient (Score:5, Insightful)
So the jist of this article is several semi-permanent chatrooms have been identified where proto-terrorists gather to recruit and discuss strategy, and they want to take these down??!!!
That's perverse. Why on earth would you want to take out honeypots that your foes are kind enough to set up for you?
Ooh the hilarities we sadly never will know about (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone notice a trend...? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:FUD (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't forget e-mail! And cellphones! The 9/11 hijackers used e-mail and cellphones to communicate! I hear some cellphones can do both. Does that mean that the Blackberry is the epitome of all evil?
Re:Red herring (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:5, Insightful)
I congratulate the author (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone stupid enough to read this article and decide avoid the Internet because it is a hive of scum & villany is just one less stupid person on the net in the first place. So much the better.
Please guys, they are winning (Score:4, Insightful)
Terror: "One that instills intense fear".
How is this continual stream of "they could be EVERYWHERE" news not spreading the terror? Seriously ... every once in awhile they fly a plane into a building or blow up a bus, which is horrible!! But having our media and our politicians say, "forall x. x can be used by the terrorists (watch out|let's get rid of it)" is doing way more damage to our lives.
Preaching to the converted, I know, but that's why we comment on Slashdot after all :)
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:1, Insightful)
Okay, but what's the point then?
Not being complete imbeciles, we presumably all realise that people use communications media to communicate. We presumably all realise that social networking sites, just like telephones, radio transmitters etc etc are communications media. We presumably all realise that terrorists, just like bakers, stamp collectors etc etc are people. So we can presumably all work out for ourselves that terrorists will use social networks to communicate. Is there anything more to be said?
I bet drug traffickers use them too. And gun runners. And child molestors. Can we have a generic 'bad people communicate too!' article to get the whole lot covered in one go?
Re:FUD (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't think of any technology that can't be twisted and turned towards aiding evil.
OMG stop making penicillin as it could be given to a terrorist to make him healthy enough to be able to bomb his next target, where before he may have died from his illness.
it gets better (Score:2, Insightful)
this just in:
literacy enables terrorist to communicate more effectively
related news:
troops in Afghanistan will begin rooting out insurgent teachers who are instructing the next generation of terrorists the techniques of reading and writing (arithmetic, aka math, had been banned long ago once it was discovered that 3rd grade Afghans were surpassing the proficiency of US high school grads)
Re:Anyone notice a trend...? (Score:3, Insightful)
Which is the entire point of warrants. Can someone explain to my why the government would ever possibly need to act without a warrant? If there's an imminent threat, they can even go ahead with a wiretap and get the warrant later, they just have to let a judge know why they did it. Is the government afraid our judges are terrorists now?
Re:Oh come on... (Score:2, Insightful)
"How many stories like this do we have to read?"
They will keep repeating this until it has become public opinion. Then probably start monitoring social networks or ban 'm outright.
Money! (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, the irony. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Prison System... (Score:2, Insightful)
"Convicts register their religious affiliation when they're processed into prison. And about 99.5% of the huge U.S.A. prison population consists of inmates who identified themselves as members of religious denominations." -- Gene M. Kasmar."
Everyone knows that convicts would never lie on an admission form.
Re:How convenient (Score:3, Insightful)
I would think a law protecting websites from civil liability with such sites and encouraging them to permit them would do more for intelligence gathering than a dozen agents in the field could ever dream of doing.
The West apparently stopped doing intelligence work some time between 1991 and 2001. Your suggestion is therefore completely unworkable. Repost your idea in Mandarin, perhaps someone will actually pick it up :-)
Re:FUD (Score:3, Insightful)
I've done a lot of sales in my life. But I can't even begin to understand how difficult it must be to convince some idiot to blow himself up with the notion of virgins in paradise etc..
On the other hand I can't think of a better thing to do with a radical Moslem than strapping bombs to them and blowing them up.
Re:This Just In! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:1, Insightful)
We should stop right now the use of language.
No, actually every conversation made should be recorded, transcribed, indexed and kept forever in a huge database, run by the cheapest private contractor we can find.
Re:Oh come on... (Score:3, Insightful)
When the public is scared, it's easy to justify spending on security, etc. Where does a lot of that money end up going? To consultants. And guess who wrote the TFA?
This is the single most insightful comment on this post. I really need to get in on consulting work.
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:3, Insightful)
I believe things would get very quiet in the Middle East if you chose Pig Latin instead of Yiddish.
Re:Prison System... (Score:3, Insightful)
You are in prison - what are the advantages to going it alone? By declaring affiliation with a group, what have you lost?
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:1, Insightful)
Even though it was years and years ago. It still counts. Bloody imperialists. (I'm not making this up, there is still a guilt complex among some Danes about this.)
Don't sweat it; you also gave us Lego. It's all good now.
Re:Money! (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:2, Insightful)
Hmmm. Lets take a long hard look at the crimes against humanity commited by atheists, shall we?
Ten million Ukrainians killed by Stalin in the farm collectivization. Six million Jews by Hitler and two to three million Cambodians by Pol Pot. This is a very short list from the 20th century.
This history books on the library shelves don't do any good unless you read them.
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:3, Insightful)
Obedience to authority and submission are pretty much human traits, and I don't think you'll ever get rid of them. Check out the Milgram experiments.
Re:Money! (Score:3, Insightful)