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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Soccer mom fights the jihadis with her PC |
| 2007-09-22 |
| Once her son is off to school, Laura Mansfield settles in at her dining room table with her laptop and begins trolling Arabic-language message boards and chat rooms popular with jihadists. Fluent in Arabic, the self-employed terror analyst often hacks into the sites, translates the material, puts it together and sends her analysis via a subscription service to intelligence agencies, law enforcement and academics. Occasionally she comes across a gem, such as when she found a recent Osama bin Laden video — before al-Qaida had announced it. "I realized, oh my gosh, I'm sitting here, I'm a fat 50-year-old mom and I've managed to scoop al-Qaida," said Mansfield, who uses that name as a pseudonym because she receives death threats. She sometimes spends 100 hours a week online, and she often finds items after word has begun spreading on the Arabic forums of an imminent release. . . . There have been times when an impending video release has kept her from a planned shopping trip with her daughter. "It gets really challenging when you're trying to do that and cook spaghetti at the same time," she said. God love her! |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #5 Laura Mansfield for Woman of the Year! |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2007-09-22 16:44 |
| #4 Almost makes me wish to learn Arabic, if I didn't have so much trouble with other languages. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-09-22 14:47 |
| #3 It can. The question is whether the group-mindset would tolerate or trust an ElAris. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-09-22 13:32 |
| #2 Hummm..... abu ElAris anyone? This can work both ways. |
| Posted by: Thomas Woof 2007-09-22 10:16 |
| #1 God bless her. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-09-22 09:28 |