Terrorist 'tweets'? US Army warns of Twitter dangers

By Nipun Mohta
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Nipun Mohta

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WASHINGTON: A draft US Army intelligence report has identified the popular micro-blogging service Twitter, Global Positioning System maps and voice-changing software as potential terrorist tools.

The report by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion, posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), examines a number of mobile and web technologies and their potential uses by militants.

The posting of the report on the FAS site was reported Friday by Wired magazine contributing editor Noah Shachtman on his national security blog "Danger Room" at wired.com.

The report is not based on clandestine reporting but drawn from open source intelligence known as OSINT.

A chapter on "Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter" notes that Twitter members sent out messages, known as "Tweets," reporting the July Los Angeles earthquake faster than news outlets and activists at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis used it to provide information on police movements.

"Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences," the report said.

Hacktivists refers to politically motivated computer hackers.

"Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives," the report said.

"Extremist and terrorist use of Twitter could evolve over time to reflect tactics that are already evolving in use by hacktivists and activists for surveillance," it said. "This could theoretically be combined with targeting."

The report outlined scenarios in which militants could make use of Twitter, combined with such programs as Google Maps or cell phone pictures or video, to carry out an ambush or detonate explosives.

"Terrorists could theoretically use Twitter social networking in the US as an operation tool," it said. "However, it is unclear whether that same theoretical tool would be available to terrorists in other countries and to what extent."

Besides Twitter, the report examined the potential use by militants of Global Positioning Systems and other technologies.

"GPS cell phone service could be used by our adversaries for travel plans, surveillance and targeting," it said, noting that just such uses have been discussed in pro-Al-Qaeda forums along with the use of voice-changing software.

"Terrorists may or may not be using voice-changing software but it should be of open source interest that online terrorist and/or terrorist enthusiasts are discussing it," the report said.

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Grand Master

gigapixels Veteran

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"Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences," the report said.

Oh noes, not the vegetarians!

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gollux

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Yep, wherever Ethan Allen is now, he's probably on Prozac to not get depressed over what this country has turned into. George and the Independence boys are probably thinking that all that Revolutionary stuff, the Constitution and that Bill of Rights were time wasted on this generation. It was good while it lasted.

The whole report essentially renders down into the following: People we don't understand use whatever technology available to communicate. Since we don't understand them, we'll lump vegetarians in with ELF, the more violently active members of PETA and Green Peace. Athiests don't believe in God like a core group in our command who support Blackwater and since they won't be raptured or pay tithes because they don't believe like us, they must be evil and plotting to burn our churches and rape our women. Socialists like those legacy countries we call Europe who have formed that European Union are also suspect despite the fact we have allowed them to join our exclusive club called NATO.

I always notice in all these Pinko, Commie, Socialist, Environmentalist, Vegetarian Terrorist Scare messages a distinct failure to note that while property damage and death by starvation of the poor liberated animals was the result of eco-terrorism, in terms of loss of human life the ones doing this are bombers of family planning clinics (ironic name Pro-Life), murderers of doctors who may perform abortions (is the doctor death-list still online), a rather successful US Army Veteran of the Christian Identity Movement (Oklahoma City, Alfred P. Murrah Building), a group of ultra-conservative Wahabists who object to US Policy overseas (Al Qaeda, "The Base"), some person who decided to send anthrax spores through the US Mail (affiliation probably conservative), the Uni-Bomber (Neo-Luddite) and Eric Robert Rudolph, a Christian Identity Movement adherent who was fighting the "Homosexual Agenda" (Olympic Park Bombing among others that included abortion clinics and gay clubs).

Personally, I think we probably are more likely to be hit by another attack by someone like Timothy McVeigh who becomes disaffected after his war-time experiences, sees a lot of people being harmed by the current financial meltdown and decides that it can be cured in some extremely violent, wasteful event. Then there are others who don't think Armageddon is coming soon enough who might be texting each other about what can be done to incite riot at this time, but they won't be mentioned in any of these reports.

Grand Master

Rappy Veteran

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Yep, wherever Ethan Allen is now, he's probably on Prozac to not get depressed over what this country has turned into. George and the Independence boys are probably thinking that all that Revolutionary stuff, the Constitution and that Bill of Rights were time wasted on this generation. It was good while it lasted.

The whole report essentially renders down into the following: People we don't understand use whatever technology available to communicate. Since we don't understand them, we'll lump vegetarians in with ELF, the more violently active members of PETA and Green Peace. Athiests don't believe in God like a core group in our command who support Blackwater and since they won't be raptured or pay tithes because they don't believe like us, they must be evil and plotting to burn our churches and rape our women. Socialists like those legacy countries we call Europe who have formed that European Union are also suspect despite the fact we have allowed them to join our exclusive club called NATO.

I always notice in all these Pinko, Commie, Socialist, Environmentalist, Vegetarian Terrorist Scare messages a distinct failure to note that while property damage and death by starvation of the poor liberated animals was the result of eco-terrorism, in terms of loss of human life the ones doing this are bombers of family planning clinics (ironic name Pro-Life), murderers of doctors who may perform abortions (is the doctor death-list still online), a rather successful US Army Veteran of the Christian Identity Movement (Oklahoma City, Alfred P. Murrah Building), a group of ultra-conservative Wahabists who object to US Policy overseas (Al Qaeda, "The Base"), some person who decided to send anthrax spores through the US Mail (affiliation probably conservative), the Uni-Bomber (Neo-Luddite) and Eric Robert Rudolph, a Christian Identity Movement adherent who was fighting the "Homosexual Agenda" (Olympic Park Bombing among others that included abortion clinics and gay clubs).

Personally, I think we probably are more likely to be hit by another attack by someone like Timothy McVeigh who becomes disaffected after his war-time experiences, sees a lot of people being harmed by the current financial meltdown and decides that it can be cured in some extremely violent, wasteful event. Then there are others who don't think Armageddon is coming soon enough who might be texting each other about what can be done to incite riot at this time, but they won't be mentioned in any of these reports.

Thats pretty to the point...

Grand Master

p858snake

Posted
Posted

oh noes.... not twitter! what about plurk, identi.ca(spelling??), email, forum systems..... Can't all these systems be used the same way.

I bet there just trying to convince people that certain services are bad sites so that they can try and block them.

Grand Master

p858snake

Posted
Posted
"Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives," the report said.
Extremist ideoligies such as freedom of speech, freedom to move about unrestricted, freedom from arbitrary search and seizure, and of course the most extremist of all ideologies: limits on government power and government revenue. These will all have to be monitored to keep the radicals from compromising the power pyramid, without which society would collapse.(Source)

Heres the /. discussion on it: http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/10/26/1737229.shtml

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