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Global Wars in Secrecy:
Terrorism vs.
Counterterrorism
James Der Derian
Watson Institute for International Studies
Brown University
Information Operations
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.
‘Fighting a war in
this new media age…’
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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.
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.
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.”
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.
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
Terror Tales
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.
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.
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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.
New Media
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.inten
sifies.recruitment.online.html
Voice-over Internet Protocol
• With an increasing availability of
wireless Internet access and Internetdriven 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/saskatoonstar
phoenix/news/nationa/story.html?id=cc
9af095-c672-4d5d-8c31-20ca710b3010
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
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/0
100news/0200wales/tm_headline
=terrorists--seeking--to-hide-in-anonymity--of-wales-&me
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.
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.
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.
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 substate 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.”
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.
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.’
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.’
Theatre of terror,
cont’d
• ‘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.’
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.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Independence Day (1996)
Traffic (2000)
The cover graphic of a Federal Emergency Management Agency/
Department of Justice manual, published before May 1998
Homeland Security
• Armed dolphins carrying
toxic dart guns have
been trained by the US
military to shoot
terrorists and pinpoint
spies underwater.
Facing the Enemy:
The Semiopolitics and
Biopolitics of Terror
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.”
“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.
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.”
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.”
Revolution in Military
(RMA) and the Gulf War
Affairs
• 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
(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.”
Affairs
The Terminator Effect:
Man Becomes Machine
• Muscles are “guns.”
• Iraq civilians are “collateral
damage.”
• American strength portrayed
in Gulf War I as having the
ability to overcome human
weakness.
“Our goal was not to kill people. Our goal was to destroy the Iraq Army.”
— Brent Scowcraft, NSA
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.
“Mostly, it would just be fun to play God.”
— DARPA researcher
DARPA: Genius or Hubris?
• 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.”
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.”
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…
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
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
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
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.
MKULTRA
• Military began to test LSD on
soldiers to see how the drug
would affect their performance.
• Tested on without knowledge of
soldiers, without FDA approval,
often without medical presence
of medical personnel.
• 1500 soldiers tested throughout
the course of MKULTRA.
• Supreme Court ruled the
soldiers cannot be compensated
for after-affects of drug trials.
New Strategies for
Fighting Fatigue
DARPA – Continued Assisted Performance:
“The capability to resist the mental and
physiological effects of sleep deprivation
will fundamentally change current
military concepts of 'operational tempo'
and contemporary orders of battle. In
short, the capability to operate
effectively, without sleep is no less than a
21st Century revolution in military affairs
that results in operational dominance
across the whole range of potential U.S.
Military deployments.”
DARPA - Continued Assisted
Performance, cont’d
The goal of the CAP
program is the pursuit of
genetic tinkering that
would permit military
combat troops seven
sleepless days in which
they don't lose the power
to reason, react or
realize the impact of
their actions.
“The human is becoming the weakest link.”
— DARPA
History of Approved
Amphetamine Use in the Military
• Amphetamines as a combat
tool were dispensed to
German and British forces in
WW II.
• American pilots were fed
amphetamines in the 1950s
and 60s who were involved in
trans-oceanic missions.
• During Vietnam both the Air
Force and Navy made
amphetamines and sedatives
available for specific missions.
Amphetamine Use,
cont’d
Following Desert Storm, a
survey conducted by the
Virtual Naval Hospital found
that 57% of fighter pilots used
stimulants(17% routinely, 58%
occasionally, 25% only once).
Usage among fighter pilots in
sustained combat missions
saw the most frequent usage
with numbers as high as 96%.
61% of those who used
stimulants reported them
essential to “mission
accomplishment.”
Go-Pills: Amphetamines
In the War on Terror
• In the “Basic Principles” section of the Top Gun
document Maintenance During Continuous Flight
Operations, the U.S military clearly states its intent
when employing stimulants in combat: “We manage
maintenance, we manage fuel and weapons; we can
also manage fatigue.”
• Dexedrine (dextroamphetamine) is a potent central
nervous stimulant that induces the release of the
neurotransmitters dopamine. The drug acts as a
psychostimulant, increasing mental alertness and
decreasing fatigue.
• Dexedrine is prescribed legally for off-label use by the
military in 5 or 10 milligram doses. These 'go-pills’ are
given to pilots who are completing sustained combat
patrol missions in single-seat aircraft missions of more
than 8 hours or two-seat aircraft missions of more than
12 hours.
“Better bombing through chemistry.” — John Pike of the
defense policy think-tank Globalsecurity.org
Positive Effects of Go-Pills
“I'm not a big fan of anybody taking
medication in the flight business, but
sometimes situations call for it in combat. I
never had any bad effects from it and it
served me well.” — Retired Col. Richard
Graham, logged 4,600 hours of flight time
in the Air Force including 210 combat
missions in Vietnam.
• An intermittent low dose regimen
maintains aviator performance such as
alertness and cognitive performance.
• Each pilot is screened to determine if
he or she experiences side effects and
are then given the option of using the
pills in-flight but only as a last resort.
• The low doses allow for the avoidance
of undesired medication affects such as
changes in mood or perception.
• In a study conducted at Walter Reed
Army Institute of Research dexedrine
was found to restore wakefulness for
six to eight hours in subjects that had
been kept awake for 65 hours.
Negative Effects of Go-Pills
According to the Performance
Maintenance During Continuous Flight
Operations guide possible side effects
of Dexedrine are:
• Euphoria
• Depression
• Hypertension
• Addiction
• Idiosyncratic reactions such as
aggression and paranoia
• Amphetamine psychosis causing
paranoid delusions and hallucinations
• Addictive tendency among those who
continue to use it regularly as it is easy
to build a tolerance
“It has been explained to me and I understand that the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration has not approved the use of Dexedrine to manage fatigue...I further
Understand that the decision to take this medication is mine alone.”
— Informed Consent Form for Operational Use of Dexedrine
Dexedrine: the military's approved
(non-illicit) form of 'speed.'
Dexedrine
• The U.S. military's policy on drug
use states that drug use and abuse
directly impacts the safety of the
drug user and the other soldiers
within his/her unit.
• An increase in drug testing has
occurred in Afghanistan and Iraq
because of military concern about
troops using drugs due to the
stress of combat.
• But what about the amphetamines
troops on the ground and in the
air are being issued?
Case Study:
When Fatigue Kills
• In April 2003 former Top Gun
flight school instructor, Harry
Schmidt and commander Major
William Umbach unleashed a
single laser-guided 227 kg bomb
on Canadian troops in Kandahar,
Afghanistan who were performing
night time live-fire exercises.
• Four Canadians were killed, and
eight injured.
• An investigation revealed the
pilot's thought they were under
attack and the pilots did not wait
for clearance to drop their
payload.
When Fatigue Kills,
cont’d
The use of dexedrine may be to blame
for the pilot's actions according to some:
“The initial depiction of the Canadian
friendly fire accident made it seem as if
the pilot was behaving in an unusually
aggressive fashion.” — John Pike
Others believed fatigue played a role in
the incident:
“The culprit here, in my opinion, is sleep
deprivation.” — Dr. Charles R. Schuster,
former head of the NIDA
After being charged with involuntary
manslaughter, Major Schmidt
claimed he was forced to use
amphetamines on the 14 hour long
sortie and had not received
instruction from the flight controller
that the Canadians were performing
the drills.
Contemporary Necessity of
Anti-Fatigue Strategies in Wartime
• According to Air Force safety
officials fatigue was a
contributing factor in 391 Air
Force aircraft accidents from
1991 to 2002.
• Lack of sleep in ground troops
as they pushed toward
Baghdad in 2003 created a
dreamlike scene with soldiers
in slow-moving convoys
nodding off at the wheel
causing their military vehicles
to drift off route into
sandstorms.
Necessity of Anti-Fatigue
Strategies, cont’d
• Sharply reduced manpower
within the armed services in
the past 20 years has
required higher performance
from fewer people.
• Ever extending reach of air
power forces combat flight
units to fly longer to get to
targets.
“As asymmetric threats such as ballistic
missiles become more available to our
adversaries, we are going to stand even
farther back, that means this problem
of combat fatigue can only grow.”
— Daniel Goure, military specialist at
Lexington Institute
What are Methamphetamines?
• Legal Methamphetamines can
be prescribed for treating
anaesthetic overdose,
narcolepsy and obesity.
• Illicit Methamphetamines are
a potent stimulant synthetic
drug of the amphetamine
series that can be made with
inexpensive over-the-counter
ingredients.
Methamphetamines, cont’d
• Also known as meth, crystal, ice, fire, speed, crank,
and glass.
• Delivery systems include smoking, snorting, injecting
and oral ingestion which produce varying effects that
last up to eight hours.
History of Methamphetamine
Use and Production
• 1887 – Methamphetamine first synthesized in 1887 by Japanese
chemist A. Ogata.
• 1932 – Amphetamine marketed as Benzedrine as over-the-counter
inhaler to treat nasal congestion and was eventually used in
clandestine production of methamphetamine.
• WWII – Distributed by Allies and Axis powers to troops under the
name of Pervitin. Hitler receives frequent injections of
amphetamines by his doctor.
• 1950s – Rise in legal prescription of amphetamines to American
public for alcoholism, narcolepsy, obesity, and depression.
• 1960s – Significant increase in clandestine manufacturing of
methamphetamines, legal prescriptions of.
• 1965 – All amphetamines become illegal in U.S. without
prescription.
History of Methamphetamine,
cont’d
• 1970 – Controlled Substances Act restrict
legal production of injectable Meth.
• By 1971, legal production of amphetamines
reached 12 billion pills a year.
• 1986 – U.S. Government passes Federal
Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement
Act, which prohibits the possession of
equipment and chemicals for
methamphetamine production as well as
outlining legal consequences for distribution
and use.
• 1990 – Establishment of first “meth prison”
where abusers who have committed nonviolent crimes undergo rehabilitation for reentrance into society.
Effects of Methamphetamines
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mental alertness
Eliminate fatigue
Decrease appetite
Elevate body temperature, heart
rate, blood pressure, blood sugar:
initiates
“Fight or flight syndrome”
Produce convulsions, anxiety,
insomnia
Inflammation of heart lining and
damage to blood vessels in brain
Increase violent behavior
Cause paranoia, auditory
hallucinations, delusions,
homicidal and suicidal thoughts
In 2004 the DEA declared a “methamphetamine
crisis” in the western regions of the country.
California & Methamphetamines
California threat decreases,
as purity and availability
remain stable.
• Methamphetamine remains the primary
drug threat in California.
• Two of the top four cities for adult male
arrestees testing positive for
methamphetamines in 2003 were in San
Diego (36.2) and Los Angeles (28.7).
Tweakers & Meth Populations
“Tweakers” are
identified as people who
abuse methamphetamines
regularly and who may
not have slept for 3-15
days.
How long until
we unleash
something
beyond our
control … ?
The history of progress is a nightmare from which we have
always tried to wake — but what if we never fall asleep?
Title: Line One
Title: Line Two