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2004-07-24 Home Front: WoT

9/11 Report calls for hiring imaginative evil geniuses

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Posted by Korora 2004-07-24 12:30:24 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 The hallmark of a good analyst is that he/she is able to get inside the head of the opponent - see the world from the adversary's eye, and reason the way the adversary does.

I know from personal experience that people like that have a very hard time fitting in to the normal military establishment, and are very troublesome for supervisors and commanding officers.

But there were areas in the intelligence and special warfare community (at least in the 1980's) where they really put mindsets like that to very good use.

I know ;-)

Its a shame the military and intel community was "PC-ized" in the 1990's.

Posted by OldSpook 2004-07-24 1:03:15 AM|| 2004-07-24 1:03:15 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 How about Rumsfeld and Cheney?

Posted by Susan 2004-07-24 1:46:59 AM|| 2004-07-24 1:46:59 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 "hire more evil people who could effectively anticipate acts of unrestrained wickedness."

"a new generation of heartlessly wicked and depraved agents and analysts who can stay a step ahead of Usama bin Laden and his imitators."

You called?

Among my ideas:
1. Kidnap the entire Reuters staff, sell them to Sudanese slave traders, then pull a double-cross and napalm the lot at the time of exchange.
2. Secretly plant remote control bombs in all new Volvos so Leftist agitators could be eliminated at will.
3. Set off a nuclear bomb in some Iranian mullah's garage and blame it on a "work accident."
4. Crucify the men of the Saudi royal family at 50 yard intervals along the Mecca-Medina highway.
5. Invite Arafat to Camp David, replace him with a double, and plant the real one in the Maryland woods.
6. Turn commercially available remote control model planes into cruise missiles, issue them to agents in various key places, and launch a simultaneous untraceable assault on baddies and fellow-travelers all over the world.
7. Saturate lefty moonbat message boards with lunatic conspiracy theories in an effort to sow discord and confusion. Oh, wait a minute.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2004-07-24 2:18:44 AM|| 2004-07-24 2:18:44 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 No, Susan, scuzzy and shifty are no substitute for evil and depraved in this time of need.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2004-07-24 2:20:21 AM|| 2004-07-24 2:20:21 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Did someone let the children out this late?

Posted by Capt America 2004-07-24 2:27:11 AM|| [http://captamerica.blogspot.com/] 2004-07-24 2:27:11 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 I know from personal experience that people like that ... are very troublesome for supervisors and commanding officers.

LOL - I guess I shoulda been an analyst.

Posted by AzCat 2004-07-24 3:25:49 AM|| 2004-07-24 3:25:49 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 4. Crucify the men of the Saudi royal family at 50 yard intervals along the Mecca-Medina highway.

That one works for me, AC.

Posted by Zenster 2004-07-24 3:38:08 AM|| 2004-07-24 3:38:08 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 Okay AC, once your paperwork and background checks are cleared, you're hired. Welcome to the team, but you are not allowed to play with any sharp instraments. :)

Posted by Ben 2004-07-24 4:05:42 AM|| 2004-07-24 4:05:42 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 We need to send scouts from OPM to all the world's hollowed-out volcanos forthwith! Then we'll hit all the undersea strongholds. Finally every breeder of fluffy, white cats in the western hemisphere.

We know these people. We just need to recruit 'em where they are. :)

Posted by eLarson 2004-07-24 7:02:36 AM|| 2004-07-24 7:02:36 AM|| Front Page Top

#10 Love it AC!

Posted by Shipman 2004-07-24 8:12:13 AM|| 2004-07-24 8:12:13 AM|| Front Page Top

#11 Folks, it's just not true that people didn't anticipate suicide attacks by aircraft prior to 9-11. People did, and it was widely discussed and agonized over in "certain circles". Additionally, there are a lot of other devious attack scenarios that were spelled out prior to 9-11, but fortunately have not been attempted by the jihadis yet. The problem is people don't pay attention to these things until something happens.

Posted by virginian 2004-07-24 8:18:48 AM|| 2004-07-24 8:18:48 AM|| Front Page Top

#12 "The problem is people don't pay attention to these things until something happens."

And even when we do pay attention to them, as with the 1993 WTC bombing, our attention span is often rather short.

The period between the end of the first Gulf War up until the 9/11 attacks has been called America's "holiday from history," and I think that's a good characterization: the American people were in no mood for serious, dangerous, difficult things during that period, and we had a government whose saliant feature was a slavish committment to following public sentiment instead of leading. So we paid little attention to the WTC bombing, Khobar Towers, the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, and the attack on the USS Cole. Each attack caused a brief flurry of excitement, which soon abated.

Radical, expansionist Islam has been at war with us-- in an openly declared state of war aimed explicitly at our destruction-- ever since November 1979. But until 9/11 we weren't willing to pay attention.

But even that is fading, thanks in large part to the efforts of the Democratic Party to re-focus the American people's concern back onto domestic "issues" involving the redistribution of wealth and forced "fairness".

And a large segment of the public appears to be buying the Donk package, and I'm beginning to wonder just what the hell will have to happen before we really, REALLY decide it's time to get off our asses and get serious about the war-- one of our cities getting nuked? God forbid.

Posted by Dave D. 2004-07-24 9:20:55 AM|| 2004-07-24 9:20:55 AM|| Front Page Top

#13 Dave, I often wonder about that myself. Unbelievably, I've heard it expressed by smart people in the defense-intel establishment that 3,000 deaths isn't really that big a deal in the larger scheme of things. So maybe it will take a nuke strike. However, I don't think the jihadis are quite up to that yet ("yet" being the key word). There is a certain scenario that I worry about, which I won't describe, that pertains to the Olympics. It doesn't take an evil genius to figure out what it is, and I'm sure many Rantburgers can imagine it. There are also ways that a 9/11 style attack could be repeated without hijacking airliners, and those are not hard to figure out either.

Posted by virginian 2004-07-24 10:13:10 AM|| 2004-07-24 10:13:10 AM|| Front Page Top

#14 7. Saturate lefty moonbat message boards with lunatic conspiracy theories in an effort to sow discord and confusion. Oh, wait a minute.

Heh heh, heh. ;)

Posted by Asedwich 2004-07-24 11:08:58 AM|| 2004-07-24 11:08:58 AM|| Front Page Top

#15 In sober truth, #11 is right. It didn't take a genius, evil or otherwise, to anticipate the 9-11 hijack-suicide attack scenario. I remember a number of discussions of that very possibility, as well as some others that probably shouldn't be mentioned here.
It even came up in the media in reference to a terrorist who had been caught in the Phillipines. He told the Phillipine authorities about a plan to hijack a number of planes simultaneously and crash them into various public buildings. At the time the media were primarily concerned about reports that the suspect had revealed this under torture. I wish I could find this story now, but a Google search is hopeless because of all the 9-11 references.
In private discussions of this possibility, the main objection was that a sizable group of terrorists would not be able to get the rudimentary flight training needed without at least one of them arousing suspicion and setting off a massive alarm. Even I thought they would have to get the training overseas. Of course, one of them, Moussaui, actually was caught, but the alarm didn't ring.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2004-07-24 12:03:33 PM|| 2004-07-24 12:03:33 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 The problem is that even if an analyst pegs the problem, you have to sell the issue to "The powers that be". Not only do you have to get into the other guy's heads, you have to sell it to people who do not want to believe it because it conflict with their view of the opponent and the world.

And in the case of analysts in the 1990's, they did NOT have an audience that was willing to even listen, much less beleive. Trying to convince TPTB that people actually beleive that kind of stuff (Jihad, virgins, killing in the name of God/Allah etc) is damned difficult.

I heard of one who had to rework things because he was told "Killing in the name of God is so Medaeval" and had the analysis dismissed out of hand, then when it was presented again, it was dismissed it becuase he could had no "motive" for actions.

You get a lot of "Thats crazy, nobody thinks like that" which translates to "I dont think like that so nobody else does". Liberals are far worse about this than conservatives. I think this is because conservatives believe there is evil, individuals can be deeply evil, and that you do have to act to stop it. Liberals simply will not accept that people are evil, they blame things on circumstances and groups, not on individuals.

Conservatives place the blame on individual evil and are amenable to taking action against the individual. Liberals blame circumstance, and want a circumstance that they can work to make things better.

Add to the ideaology preconceptions, that there was a fundamental misunderstanding, antagonism and mistrust by the Clinton administration for the intelligence and military communities. That makes a major roadblock for any analyst and analysis products - and the Gorelick barrier prevented anything from cosssing between agencies unless the "Executive" layer at the top decided to let it cross - i.e. to get an idea from Agency N to Agency F, you had to sell agency N first all the way up the food chain, then Agency F's head will have to get a sales job that will allow his people to see and act on it.

And THAT is why competent analysts are hard to find. And why so many left in the 1990's. (And why so many of us came back in, post 9/11 - we finally had an audience that is willing to listen open mindedly).

We make pretty good project managers out in the world. ;-)

Posted by OldSpook 2004-07-24 12:03:39 PM|| 2004-07-24 12:03:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 I wish I could find this story now, but a Google search is hopeless because of all the 9-11 references.

The secret word is bojinka.

Posted by Angie Schultz 2004-07-24 12:41:27 PM|| [http://darkblogules.blogspot.com] 2004-07-24 12:41:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 I would have thought Clinton would have been an easy sell on the dying-for-72-virgins idea. "So these guys have to pick between staying alive and having 72 virgins? I feel their pain."

Posted by Matt 2004-07-24 1:35:10 PM|| 2004-07-24 1:35:10 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 Both Old Spook and the Virginian nail it -- the intel agencies need to generate the information, analysts have to understand and connect the dots, and the policymakers and politicans at the top have to get the message and act.

That's what damns Sandy Berger: as the NSA it was his job to do that final integration of data and analysis and make sure the President got the message, and -- repeatedly -- he didn't do that with al-Qaeda. He didn't sell it, he didn't try to sell it, he just wrung his hands and said 'no'.

Posted by Steve White 2004-07-24 1:37:38 PM|| 2004-07-24 1:37:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#20 The 9-11 Report says that Richard Clark worried about suicide hijackings but that his source for this scenario was Tom Clancy, not the intel agencies. The scenario is in Debt of Honor IIRC. Clancy said he got the idea when he was in college.

There are some very interesting analyses of possible future threats in the open literature that I have found, but I don't have the links anymore.

Posted by virginian 2004-07-24 2:02:53 PM|| 2004-07-24 2:02:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#21 I guess I have seen every wickedness, evilness, depravity...

Too bad, wrong passport.

Posted by True German Ally 2004-07-24 2:17:54 PM|| 2004-07-24 2:17:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#22 Virginian, Just after 9/11 a lot of people mentioned that it was 'like a Tom Clancy Novel'....

Posted by CrazyFool 2004-07-24 2:20:05 PM|| 2004-07-24 2:20:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#23 I always liked the scenario with Lex Luther wanting new beachfront property and going out of his way to develop it.
In the Mid-East there is this nice rift valley that ends up being the Red Sea. Lots of stressed rocks there. I am sure that a new sea branch could be encourged to reach Mecca.

Evil thoughts are fun. Now, how to make them profitable?

Posted by 3dc 2004-07-24 2:43:09 PM|| 2004-07-24 2:43:09 PM|| Front Page Top

#24 AC: It even came up in the media in reference to a terrorist who had been caught in the Phillipines. He told the Phillipine authorities about a plan to hijack a number of planes

He did not simply "tell" the Filipinos. They administered severe beatings and knocked his teeth out. The coup de grace came when they threatened to send him to Israel for questioning by the Mossad.

AC: Of course, one of them, Moussaui, actually was caught, but the alarm didn't ring.

Instead of beating him to a pulp, the FBI couldn't even get permission to look at his computer. 9/11 occurred because of political correctness.

Here are few details about Project Bojinka:

Project Bojinka (apparently a Croatian word for "explosion") was the devious brainchild of these sessions. The plan was ruthless and devious, and it employed every scrap of ingenuity that Yousef could muster, which is saying quite a bit.
In Phase One of Bojinka, a minimum of five al Qaeda operatives would work in concert to destroy 11 U.S.-bound airliners over the Pacific almost simultaneously starting on Jan. 21, 1995.

The terrorists would board planes bound for the U.S. with stopovers all across Asia. They would plant bombs timed to explode on the second leg of the flight, then get off during the layover and repeat the process for another plane. The plan was elegant and highly coordinated. All five operatives would have escaped to Pakistan unharmed.

If the plan had succeeded, it would have killed an estimated 4,000 people and completely shut down all air travel around the world for days or even weeks.

The bombs were ingenious constructions, using Casio digital watches as timers and virtually undetectable liquid nitroglycerin as the explosive. Yousef tested the device on a flight from Manila to Tokyo on Dec. 11, 1994. He built his bomb in the lavatory and left it under his seat when he disembarked in Cebu, the Philippines. It exploded on the way to Japan, killing the businessman unfortunate enough to have taken over Yousef's seat. The plane managed to land successfully thanks to a heroic effort by the pilots. Yousef resolved to increase the potency of the explosive.

On Jan. 5, 1995, one of Yousef's compatriots started a small chemical fire in the apartment where the bomb supplies were being mixed. The conspirators fled, leaving documents and alaptop computer behind. Watching smoke pour out the apartment window, Yousef calmly sent Abdul Murad back to retrieve the computer after the fire department left, but the police were already on their way and Murad was arrested.

Yousef left the country a day or two later, and Khalid Shaikh wasn't far behind. Murad, left to the gentle ministrations of the Philippines police, began a lengthy confession under torture. During the course of his confession, he laid out Phase Two of Bojinka.

Murad told his interrogators that he had been selected for the great honor of martyrdom (an honor the secular Yousef preferred to leave for others). Murad, who had trained as a pilot in the United States, had been instructed to hijack a commercial airliner and crash it into a U.S.landmark. Possible targets included the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and CIA headquarters.

Yousef and Khalid Shaikh fled to Pakistan. One month later, U.S. officials tracked him down and arrested him. The team of FBI agents and Pakistani intelligence officials who made the arrest were so busy patting themselves on the back that they completely ignored Khalid, who was sleeping in the room next door.

Yousef was flown back to the United States, and into New York, where an outstanding indictment for the WTC 1993 bombing awaited him. As the plane landed, an FBI agent pointed out the World Trade Center towers to the terrorist, and commented, "They're still standing."

"They wouldn't be if I had enough money and explosives," Yousef reportedly responded.

Yousef was convicted in a New York courtroom for both the WTC bombing and the Bojinka plot, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Judged a high escape risk, he was sent to serve his sentence at the Supermax prison in Colorado. His cellmates included the Unabomber, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. After McVeigh's execution, Yousef wrote of the Oklahoma City bomber, "I have never (known) anyone in my life who had so similar a personality to my own."

Yousef might have been locked away, but on Sept. 11, 2001, he still managed to take one last shot at his favorite target, and this time he succeeded. An al Qaeda operation led by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed finally made the Bojinka plan a reality, hijacking four jets and crashing three of them into their targets, the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.

It must have given Yousef some satisfaction to see the fruits of his handiwork on his tiny black-and-white TV set. With a body count around 3,000, it was only a little less mayhem than would have been caused by Yousef's first draft of the plan (which U.S. authorities had reviewed in detail well before 9/11). And this time, the towers did come down.

We can only hope that was the last plan Ramzi Yousef left unfinished on the drawing board...

Posted by Zhang Fei 2004-07-24 5:19:16 PM|| [http://www.polipundit.com] 2004-07-24 5:19:16 PM|| Front Page Top

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