Global Wars in Secrecy: Terrorism vs. Counterterrorism

1. Global Wars in Secrecy: Terrorism vs. Counterterrorism James Der Derian Watson Institute for International Studies Brown University

2. Information Operations

3. Secretary Rumsfeld at the Council on Foreign Relations • On February 17th, 2006, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. • His message: Multi-media as new multi-front battlefield of terrorism. • Terrorists leverage advantages in communication, forming elaborate networks through use of Internet, cell phones and other technologies. • The U.S. government lags behind terrorists in terms of speed and effectiveness of communication.

4. ‘Fighting a war inthis new media age…’

5. Government Countermeasures • In 2001, a number of government agencies removed from their websites information that may have proved useful to terrorists, such as CDC warnings of a lack of preparedness for an attack using chemical agents. • Since Rumsfeld’s speech in February, few changes have been made in government policy in the Media War on Terror.

6. Counterinsurgency Operations • In the 78-page text of the Department of Defense’s 2003 Information Operations Roadmap (declassified 01/2006), there is not one mention of the Internet or countering cyber-terrorism. • The Military Counterinsurgency Manual mentions the Internet, but suggests little in terms of government utilization of the Internet to counter terrorism.

7. Military Counterinsurgency Manual • “1-43. As was noted earlier, insurgents now use communications technology, including the Internet, to link with allied groups within and outside the country, joining in loose organizations with a common objective but very different motivations.” • “5-22. Information themes are based on policy and should be distributed simultaneously or as soon as possible using all available means, such as radio, television, newspapers, flyers, billboards, and the Internet. Polling and analysis should be conducted to determine which media allow the widest dissemination of the themes to the desired audiences at the local, regional, national, and international levels.”

8. FBI Seeks Pearl Video Ban on the Internet • In March, 2002, the FBI demanded that a website displaying the horrific 4-minute video clip of reporter Daniel Pearl’s murder remove the clip. • The clip was put back online shortly afterward, and has since been widely disseminated throughout the Internet.

9. The Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) • Extensive database of terrorist internet and multimedia use. • The SITE Institute both monitors and studies ‘primary source propaganda, training manuals, and chatter of terrorists’ online citing the failure to do so as a ‘failure in intelligence.’ • http://www.siteinstitute.org

10. Terror Tales

11. Juba the Sniper: Video I • Juba is the name attributed to a sniper involved with the Iraqi insurgency, claiming to have killed 37 American soldiers. • Originally thought to be an individual, the name ‘Juba’ is now used by the Islamic Army in Iraq to designate a ‘cell’ of snipers. • The first video that has been attributed to Juba shows a man dedicating 9 bullets to President Bush, and then cuts to footage of several sniper strikes, showing US soldiers falling to the ground.

12. Juba the Sniper: Video II • The first video directly attributed to Juba was released online in Nov. 2005. • Featuring slick graphics, the video cuts between images of George Bush, intertitles, and footage of sniper strikes. • Displaying the Islamic Army insignia, the video acts as a recruiting tool for Muslim youth. • The video has assisted in the formation of anti-occupation groups in both cyberspace and the physical space of Baghdad Internet Cafes.

13. Juba the Sniper: Video III, etc. • The second video directly attributed to Juba was released in Oct. 2006 as an end of Ramadan ‘gift.’ • This video features English subtitles that translate a Juba diary entry and an interview with the ‘Baghdad Sniper Commander.’ • Juba’s website - jubaonline.org - is marketing Juba’s videos as a ‘documentary’ series, and contains Arabic, English and French text. • Juba’s videos can be found on YouTube.com, Ogrish.com, and Google Video. And more information can be found at wikipedia.org.

14. New Media

15. Al-Qaeda Net • Before September 11, there was one al-Qaeda website; now nearly five thousand. • Imam Samudra, on death row in Indonesia for 2002 Bali bombings, had laptop with wireless Internet access and a cell phone smuggled into his prison cell, through which authorities believe he planned October 2005 bombings. • Al-Qaeda, citing ‘technology-based crime(s),’ recruits online people who understand technology. • http://www.sunstar.com/ph/static/cag/2006/11/13/news/al.qaeda.intensifies.recruitment.online.html

16. Voice-over Internet Protocol • With an increasing availability of wireless Internet access and Internet-driven phone programs (eg. Skype), Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is becoming increasingly popular among terrorists who see those types of transmissions as more difficult to tap. • Recipes and instructions for explosives using commercial components ‘are now almost as common as restaurant reviews.’ • Successful attack techniques in the Iraq war are being transmitted instantly. • http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/nationa/story.html?id=cc9af095-c672-4d5d-8c31-20ca710b3010

17. Secret Files in Images • Steganography: a way to hide messages in seemingly innocent digital images. • Mathematicians at Iowa State University have developed software to detect data and information disseminated through digital images, the artificial neural net (ANN). • http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/5147

18. Anonymity on the Internet • Seeking anonymity, high-ranking terrorists use internet cafés in the UK. • Dhiren Barot, recently sentenced to 40 years in prison, planned to plant bombs in both the UK and the U.S. and on one occasion drove from London to Swansea to use an internet café, sending emails in a coded language. • http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_headline=terrorists--seeking--to-hide-in--anonymity--of-wales-&me

19. Google for Terrorists • The Jihad Media Battalion has published a 26-page guide for using Google to ‘remind our Muslim brothers in general, and the mujahideen in particular, the need to learn the arts of jihad on the internet and Jihad media’ (sic). • Many of the JMB’s videos are targeted at Western perceptions of the War on Terror, almost all videos featuring English subtitles.

20. Al-Jazeera • The television news channel garnered worldwide attention when it aired videos of Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders defending and justifying the attacks in America on 9/11. • Since then, members of the Bush administration have criticized the channel as having a strong anti-American bias and airing jihadist propaganda.

21. The Mongols of the Information Age • Max Boot, Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote an op-ed on October 29, 2006, detailing the failure of America to maintain supremacy in the Information Age. • Boot likens the United States to great powers of the past, such as the Mongol Empire, that were overcome by lesser powers who succeeded in taking advantage of revolutions in military affairs. • Boot suggests that the US may be just such a power in the Information Age, giving way to insurgent and terrorist groups more capable of utilizing new technologies.

22. Mongols, cont’d: • “Our most formidable enemies, Al Qaeda and its ilk ... are using relatively simple information technology—the Internet, satellite television, cellphones—to organize a global insurgency.” • “New revolutions in military affairs, possibly centered on biotechnology and cyber-war, promise to give smaller states or sub-state actors more destructive capacity.” • “The future of U.S. power rests on our ability to remake a government still structured for Industrial Age warfare to do battle with decentralized adversaries in the Information Age.”

23. Theatre of terror • Jason Burke of The Observer writes that terrorist use of the media is based on dramatic spectacle—theatre. • He writes that jihadist use of the media began in the 1980s with crude videos made during the Afghan war. Eventually these videos became more violent and more elaborate as competition for audiences increased. • Terrorism has always needed an audience but as consumers of media, we run the risk of becoming desensitized to violent and atrocious acts.

24. Theatre of terror, cont’d • ‘The Arabic word for martyr (and, incidentally, the Greek word too) also means witness, as in someone who, by their actions or speech, makes a hidden truth clear to an audience. There was no doubt that the 11 September attacks would have an audience.’

25. Theatre of terror, cont’d • ‘What the execution videos have done is take our technology, the spearhead of our invasion, and turned it back on us - exactly as the high-tech passenger jets that so epitomise the modern world were turned on New York.’

26. ‘The killers are of course aware that what they are doing is deeply controversial … The very act of throat-cutting will, they hope, legitimise their actions.’ Theatre of terror, cont’d

27. The Flip Side? • Scientists at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California have developed a virtual reality simulation for soldiers suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and say that early trial results of this kind of “exposure therapy” have been “encouraging.” • The ICT was commissioned by the Office of Naval Research.

30. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

31. Independence Day (1996)

32. Traffic (2000)

33. The cover graphic of a Federal Emergency Management Agency/ Department of Justice manual, published before May 1998

34. Homeland Security • Armed dolphins carrying toxic dart guns have been trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater.

35. Facing the Enemy: The Semiopolitics andBiopolitics of Terror

36. Roland: “Technology, Ground Warfare & Strategy” “The world wars may have been wars of industrial production; the next war would be won by technological development. Quality of arms replaced quantity as the desideratum of warfare in the second half of the 20th century.”

37. “If you’ve got an idea that will revolutionize the world and doesn’t violate too many of the laws of physics, we’re listening.” — DARPA manager The marriage of science and war: • Military research skyrocket in the aftermath of WWII with the creation of federally funded agencies. • Scientists and soldiers were “posed in close collaboration.” • 1958 Sputnik prompted frenzied efforts to improve in the areas of science and technology. • Eisenhower creates DARPA.

38. Loss of Innocence • War quickly shattered illusion that superior weaponry alone could overcome inferior numbers. • Bombers, fighter jets, helicopters, communications systems, could not overcome the ingenuity and perseverance of the Viet Cong soldier. • Napalm: a reinvigoration of the debate over chemical and biological warfare. • Vietnam set the stage for “Revolution in Military Affairs.”

39. Time Magazine, October 1965 “Day and night, screaming jets and prowling helicopters seek out the enemy from their swampy strongholds … the Viet Cong’s once-cocky hunters have become the cowering hunted as the cutting edge of US firepower slashes into the thickets of communist strength.”

40. Definition of RMA: “technological advances, possibly accompanied by broader economic and political changes, bring about dramatic innovations in weapons, tactics, and strategies.” (O’Hanlan, Can High Technology Bring US Troops Home?) Gulf War prompted praise of American military might—particularly with regards to high tech, “smart” and “humane” forms of weaponry and warfare. Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and the Gulf War

41. Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and the Gulf War • Technology provided both offensive and defensive strength and protection—troops equipped with gas masks, speed to stay awake, night vision goggle to see in the dark. • “This is the first time in history that a ground campaign supported the air campaign.”

42. Muscles are “guns.” Iraq civilians are “collateral damage.” American strength portrayed in Gulf War I as having the ability to overcome human weakness. The Terminator Effect:Man Becomes Machine “Our goal was not to kill people. Our goal was to destroy the Iraq Army.” — Brent Scowcraft, NSA

43. The Pinocchio Effect: Machine Becomes Man • Weapons are “arms,” nuclear missiles have “warheads” and satellites are our “eyes and ears.” • The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were referred to as “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.” • “Smart bombs.” • War portrayed as a clash of machines.

45. “Mostly, it would just be fun to play God.” — DARPA researcher DARPA: Genius or Hubris? A sample of current DARPA projects: • Two dozen different insect-related initiatives, including: • development of an insect-shaped microaircraft • training beetles, moths, and bees to hone in on landmine of chemical weapons chemical signature • interfacing radioactive controls and a bug’s brain to create a remote-control driven bug • Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation program—create power suits that contain sensors to amplify human muscle movement, allowing soldiers to “extend the load carrying and power delivery of the individual soldier.” • Virtual Soldier Project—create a virtual soldier which will “provide multiple capabilities, including but not limited to automatic diagnosis of battlefield injuries, testing and evaluation of non-lethal weapons, and virtual clinical trials.”

46. The Future of War • Economist headline, May 1991: “The Future of Warfare: Select Enemy. Delete.” • Newsweek: “The day is not far off when the computer chip and the robot will be mobilized in the battle of war.” • Some, however, are skeptical of this new, virtually “soldier-less” form of warfare…

47. The Future of War,cont’d “If a tank is beside a hospital, a soldier needs good judgment more than computer gadgets … no screen can convey perfect information: there is always more to know, like, are the enemy soldiers tired and hungry?” — Infantry Colonel in Iraq

48. The Weakest Link • Human fallibility is not an impediment to technological warfare, but rather, an obstacle to be overcome. • Past DARPA successes: • First networked computer system, the precursor to the Internet • Night vision goggles • Radar evading aircraft prototypes that evolved, eventually, into the • F-117 and B-2 stealth bomber

49. The Weakest Link,cont’d “The human being is becoming the weakest link. Sustaining and augmenting human performance will have a significant impact on Defense missions and systems.” — DARPA report

50. In Search of the Truth • After the Korean War, rumors spread that the Koreans had invented a “truth serum” to brainwash and collect information from American POW’s. • The US military sought to create its own truth-telling drug. • OSS and CIA experimented with alcohol, barbiturates, peyote, scopolamine, marijuana, mescaline, and cocaine. • 1953 first LSD experiments on unwitting civilians and soldiers.