For those not already familiar with the Shannen Rossmiller story, she catches you up at Middle East Quarterly.
What I find amusing about all such stories, Rossmiller, Kohlmann, etc., is this idea that the spooks are so dumbfounded about the ‘Net that they could never have figured this out on their own or that they’re so hopelessly behind:
From Rossmiller:
If we are to defeat Al-Qaeda and all it encompasses, governments need to develop a better understanding of the ways Al-Qaeda and its affiliates use the Internet and technology. Intelligence agencies must be allowed to “think outside the box” and incorporate creative strategies that allow them to anticipate where the terrorist movements might next carve their path on the Internet. Western governments lag behind in Internet cyber-warfare with Al-Qaeda. If they do not catch up, they will not gain the upper hand in the war on terror.
and from Kohlmann:
The United States is gradually losing the online war against terrorists. Rather than aggressively pursuing its enemies, the U.S. government has adopted a largely defensive strategy, the centerpiece of which is an electronic Maginot Line that supposedly protects critical infrastructure (for example, the computer systems run by agencies such as the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration) against online attacks. In the meantime, terrorists and their sympathizers, unhindered by bureaucratic inertia and unchallenged by Western governments, have reorganized their operations to take advantage of the Internet’s more prosaic properties.
Not trying to insult or offend, but extrapolating your eight-digit grid-coordinate view of things onto a 1:10,000 sized map is a seriously flawed way of viewing things.
It’s intelligence, not public affairs.
And given that it is intelligence, it is a core axiom that you don’t shut down good data feeds until you absolutely have to, and even then, you drive the adversary to use a channel or medium you already “own.”
You’re doing yeoman’s work folks, keep it up, and I hope you receive due recognition in short order.
