4 ms·

This is just patently not true. If you read up how Osama bin Laden practiced tradecraft, you'd know that he did not even so much have a land line at his compoun

This is just patently not true. If you read up how Osama bin Laden practiced tradecraft, you'd know that he did not even so much have a land line at his compound when they offed him, definitely not a cell phone. If you'd like a credible news source for these sorts of things, read Stratfor. They're relatively cheap as far as these things go. Terrorists do not use gmail, skype or cell phones. You are right that armchair BS isn't going to get us anywhere here. To that end, your comment is ironic because do know that the real terrorists know they're being snooped on.

bazillion 13y ago
While I can't comment on the UBL part, I will say that the stratfor part made me pee a little in my pants. I don't mean this to come off as condescending, but stratfor is one of the biggest jokes by people who do real intelligence. It's like saying "if you want to know what's really going on in the world and what's really important, watch Fox News.".
- lambdasquirrel 13y ago
  You know... it's a joke, but it's still less of a joke than everything else out there, kind of like Hacker News or /r/programming. ;-) The people who actually do "real" anything tend to think that everything beneath them is a joke.
- tmzt 13y ago
  I'm guessing all Commerical OSINT is. I read http://kgsnightwatch.com http://kgsnightwatch.com nightly and used to read the DHS OSINT open source report daily. (Both are available to the general public.) I want to be informed as a citizen and as a human being living on this planet where the events of the world do effect us. On top of those we have Twitter, which is really kind of one sided when you're limited to English language views of the middle east conflicts and social struggles.
mjwalshe 13y ago
yes and that seriously hampered him in exerting direct control over al qaeda. before he was found there where numerous articles showing that Bin Laden was losing control and getting hacked off about affiliates doing their own thing.

bazillion 13y ago

While I can't comment on the UBL part, I will say that the stratfor part made me pee a little in my pants. I don't mean this to come off as condescending, but stratfor is one of the biggest jokes by people who do real intelligence. It's like saying "if you want to know what's really going on in the world and what's really important, watch Fox News.".

lambdasquirrel 13y ago
You know... it's a joke, but it's still less of a joke than everything else out there, kind of like Hacker News or /r/programming. ;-) The people who actually do "real" anything tend to think that everything beneath them is a joke.
tmzt 13y ago
I'm guessing all Commerical OSINT is. I read http://kgsnightwatch.com http://kgsnightwatch.com nightly and used to read the DHS OSINT open source report daily. (Both are available to the general public.) I want to be informed as a citizen and as a human being living on this planet where the events of the world do effect us. On top of those we have Twitter, which is really kind of one sided when you're limited to English language views of the middle east conflicts and social struggles.

mjwalshe 13y ago

yes and that seriously hampered him in exerting direct control over al qaeda. before he was found there where numerous articles showing that Bin Laden was losing control and getting hacked off about affiliates doing their own thing.