by Jared Cohen
“badge of honor that I have been personally targeted”: Danny Ayalon’s Facebook page, posts on January 13 and 16, 2012, accessed October 20, 2012, https://www.facebook.com/DannyAyalon.
DARPA approved eight contracts: Austin Wright, “With Cyber Fast Track, Pentagon Funds Hacker Research,” Politico, December 7, 2011, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70016.html.
“democratized, crowd-sourced innovation”: Statement by Dr. Regina E. Dugan, submitted to the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities of the House Armed Services Committee, United States House of Representatives, March 23, 2010, www.darpa.mil/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=542.
“There is a sense among many that hackers and Anonymous are just evildoers”: Regina Dugan, in discussion with the authors, July 2012.
lack of Internet access in a large urban home: Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper, “Detective Work on Courier Led to Breakthrough on bin Laden,” New York Times, May 2, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/02reconstruct-capture-osama-bin-laden.html; Bob Woodward, “Death of Osama bin Laden: Phone Call Pointed U.S. to Compound—and to ‘The Pacer,’ ” Washington Post, May 6, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/death-of-osama-bin-laden-phone-call-pointed-us-to-compound—and-to-the-pacer/2011/05/06/AFnSVaCG_story.html.
But when Navy SEAL Team Six raided his home: Joby Warrick, “Al-Qaeda Data Yield Details of Planned Plots,” Washington Post, May 5, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/al-qaeda-data-yields-details-of-planned-plots/2011/05/05/AFFQ3L2F_story.html.; Woodward, “Death of Osama bin Laden,” http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/death-of-osama-bin-laden-phone-call-pointed-us-to-compound—and-to-the-pacer/2011/05/06/AFnSVaCG_story.html.
Mumbai attacks: Hari Kumar, “India Says Pakistan Aided Planner of Mumbai Attacks,” New York Times, June 27, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/world/asia/india-says-pakistan-aided-abu-jindal-in-mumbai-attacks.html; Harmeet Shah Singh, “India Makes Key Arrest in Mumbai Terror Plot,” CNN, June 26, 2012, http://articles.cnn.com/2012-06-26/asia/world_asia_india-terror-arrest_1_fahim-ansari-ujjwal-nikam-sabauddin-ahmed?_s=PM:ASIA; “Mumbai Attacks ‘Handler’ Arrested in India,” Agence France-Presse (AFP), June 25, 2012, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gydBxOITFOjQ_gOjs278EF2DTvIQ?docId=CNG.1ec8f11cdfb59279e03f13dafbcd927a.01.
To better understand the role that technology played in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, we spoke to Prakash V. Shukla, who is a senior vice president and the chief information officer for Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, which operates the Taj Mahal Hotel. He explained, “It was very clear from reviewing CCTV footage these individuals had never been to the Taj. However, they knew exactly where things were in the hotel, they knew how to get around, etc. The old part of the hotel was built over [a] hundred years ago, therefore we didn’t have floor plans. Combination of the Taj website, Google Maps gave one a fairly good idea of the layout of the hotel. The website also describes the location of premium rooms, which are located on upper floors. It was very easy for them to plan attacks of high-profile targets like the Taj, Oberoi, the train station, etc. This, augmented with Hedley’s reports from actual reconnaissance work in India, gave the terrorists a fairly good idea of the locations. From the time attacks started, the terrorists immediately moved to the old wing (premium) of the hotel and started moving towards the upper floors. Satellite radios were procured. Along with several money transfers using electronic fund distribution. In India, several prepaid SIM cards were procured.”
High-profile terrorist attacks on commercial hotels will have implications for how the hospitality industry deals with security. In speaking with Shukla, we learned that “the hotel industry is going the way of the airline industry. The same measures that the airlines have taken in terms of scanning baggage, doing reference checks on passengers, are being carried out in the hotel industry. Taj, specifically, has a team from Israel who has consulted with us for over four years in creating a security architecture to prevent these types of attacks. In 2008, we had security but the guards were unarmed. We learned that the police were woefully inadequate to handle the situation, and by the time the NSG teams and the Marcos teams arrived it was already over twelve hours. The overall security architecture has several components. Profiling: Guests are profiled from incoming-arrivals list and security agencies are notified of the arrivals; walking in, guests are profiled, and each of our security folks [is] trained to observe individuals entering the hotel; all baggage is screened; disaster-planning drills are conducted on regular intervals; staff has been trained to observe; we now have armed security personnel who are in civilian clothes; all hotel security staff has gone through a month training in Israel on handling of firearms and handling of situations. We have spent [a] significant amount of money to put these measures in place, and we feel that our target would be harder than [the] rest of the hotel industry, and therefore we feel fairly confident that our hotels may not be retargeted. However, having said that, this is a dynamic situation. Whilst we grow in sophistication so do our enemies, and we have to constantly innovate and keep improving the security.”
The gunmen relied on basic consumer technologies: Jeremy Kahn, “Mumbai Terrorists Relied on New Technology for Attacks,” New York Times, December 8, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/world/asia/09mumbai.html; Damien McElroy, “Mumbai Attacks: Terrorists Monitored British Websites Using BlackBerry Phones,” Telegraph (London), November 28, 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3534599/Mumbai-attacks-Terrorists-monitored-coverage-on-UK-websites-using-BlackBerry-phones-bombay-india.html.
electronic trail: “Global Lessons from the Mumbai Terror Attacks,” Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), November 25, 2009, http://www.investigativeproject.org/1539/global-lessons-from-the-mumbai-terror-attacks.
described a top al-Qaeda commander who was exceptionally cautious: A Navy SEAL Team Six member in discussion with the authors, February 2012.
Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout was kidnapped: “Canadian Amanda Lindhout Freed in Somalia,” CBC (Ottawa), last updated November 25, 2009, http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/11/25/amanda-lindhout-free.html.
her former captors: Author conversation with Amanda Lindhout, July 2012.
It is estimated that more than 90 percent of people worldwide: Technology / Internet Trends October 18, 2007, Morgan Stanley (China Mobile 50K Survey), 7. Posted on Scribd, http://www.scribd.com/doc/404905/Mary-Meeker-Explains-The-Internet.
Osama bin Laden’s compound contained a large stash of pornographic videos: Scott Shane, “Pornography Is Found in bin Laden Compound Files, U.S. Officials Say,” New York Times, May 13, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/world/asia/14binladen.html.
Secretariat of Public Security compound in Mexico City: Venu Sarakki et al., “Mexico’s National Command and Control Center Challenges and Successes,” 16th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium in Quebec, Canada, June 21–23, 2011, http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a547202.pdf.
TIA was designed and funded to aggregate all “transactional” data: Dr. John Poindexter, “Overview of the Information Awareness Office.” Remarks as prepared for the DARPATech 2002 Conference, August 2, 2002. Posted by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/poindexter.html.
provision to deny all funds for the program: Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2004, S.1382, 108th Cong. (2003), see Sec. 8120; Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2004, H.R.2658, 108th Cong. (2003) (Enrolled Bill), see Sec. 8131.
some of its projects later found shelter: Associated Press (AP), “U.S. Still Mining Terror Data,” Wired, February 23, 2004, http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2004/02/62390; Michael Hirsh, “Wanted: Competent Big Brothers,” Newsweek and Daily Beast, February 8, 2006, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2006/02/08/wanted-competent-big-brothers.html.
An estimated 52 percent of the worl
d’s population is under the age of thirty: “Mid-Year Population by Five Year Age Groups and Sex—World, 2011,” U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base, accessed October 20, 2012, http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/informationGateway.php.
“What defeats terrorism is really two things”: General Stanley McChrystal, interview by Susanne Koelbl, “Killing the Enemy Is Not the Best Route to Success,” Der Spiegel, January 11, 2010, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-general-stanley-mcchrystal-killing-the-enemy-is-not-the-best-route-to-success-a-671267.html.
With more than four billion videos viewed daily: Alexei Oreskovic, “Exclusive: YouTube Hits 4 Billion Daily Video Views,” Reuters, January 23, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/23/us-google-youtube-idUSTRE80M0TS20120123.
CHAPTER 6
THE FUTURE OF CONFLICT, COMBAT AND INTERVENTION
“orient [us] away from violence and toward cooperation and altruism”: Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (New York: Viking, 2011), xxv.
“The world begins to look different”: Ibid., xxvi.
deliberately excludes some 2.2 million ethnic Roma: Amnesty International (AI), “Romania Must End Forced Evictions of Roma Families,” press release, January 26, 2010, http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/romania-must-end-forced-evictions-roma-families-20100126.
The Roma are persecuted in similar fashion across Eastern Europe and, increasingly, Western Europe. In July 2010, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France led a campaign to forcibly repatriate his country’s foreign Roma population to Bulgaria and Romania. Within a month, more than fifty illegal Romany camps had been closed, and by September over a thousand Roma had been deported. See “France Sends Roma Gypsies Back to Romania,” BBC, August 20, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11020429; “France: Renewed Crackdown on Roma: End Discriminatory Roma Camp Evictions and Removals,” Human Rights Watch (HRW), News, August 10, 2010, http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/08/10/france-renewed-crackdown-roma; “French Ministers Fume After Reding Rebuke Over Roma,” BBC, September 15, 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11310560.
“Online intimidation by hate groups”: Christian Picciolini in discussion with the authors, April 2012.
Julius Caesar: Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, translation by John Warrington with a preface by John Mason Brown and an introduction by the translator (Norwalk, Conn.: Easton Press, 1983); see also Dr. Neil Faulkner, “The Official Truth: Propaganda in the Roman Empire,” BBC, History, last updated February 17, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/romanpropaganda_article_01.shtml.
“Video: IDF pilots wait for area to be clear”: @IDFspokesperson tweet, November 19, 2012.
Neda Agha-Soltan: Nazila Fathi, “In a Death Seen Around the World, a Symbol of Iranian Protests,” New York Times, June 22, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/world/middleeast/23neda.html.
The videos were passed: Thomas Erdbrink, “In Iran, a Woman Named Neda Becomes Opposition Icon in Death,” Washington Post, June 23, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/22/AR2009062203041.html.
raided their offices: Information obtained in Jared Cohen’s research for his book One Hundred Days of Silence: America and the Rwanda Genocide (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007); see also Alison Liebhafsky Des Forges, Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999).
Hutu radio stations announced names and addresses: Allan Thompson, ed., with a statement by Kofi Annan, The Media and the Rwanda Genocide (London: Pluto Press, 2007), 49, http://www.internews.org/sites/default/files/resources/TheMedia&TheRwandaGenocide.pdf.
“virtually inoperable”: Dan Verton, “Serbs Launch Cyberattack on NATO,” Federal Computer Week, April 4, 1999, http://fcw.com/articles/1999/04/04/serbs-launch-cyberattack-on-nato.aspx.
Tom Downey’s revealing March 2010 article: Tom Downey, “China’s Cyberposse,” New York Times Magazine, March 3, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Human-t.html.
gruesome video: Ibid.
perpetrator was soon tracked: Ibid.
took just six days: Ibid.
a bill (struck down one month later by the French Constitutional Council): Scott Sayare, “French Council Strikes Down Bill on Armenian Genocide Denial,” New York Times, February 28, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/world/europe/french-bill-on-armenian-genocide-is-struck-down.html.
“racist and discriminatory”: “Turkey PM Says French Bill on Genocide Denial ‘Racist,’ ” BBC, January 24, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16695133.
“singularity”: P. W. Singer, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century (New York: Penguin Press, 2009), 102.
DARPA’s mission: DARPA, “About,” accessed October 9, 2012, http://www.darpa.mil/About.aspx; DARPA, “Our Work,” accessed October 9, 2012, http://www.darpa.mil/our_work/.
three Ds: Singer, Wired for War, 63.
iRobot, the company that invented: Ibid., 21–23.
Two PackBots were deployed during the Fukushima nuclear crisis: Amar Toor, “iRobot Packbots Enter Fukushima Nuclear Plant to Gather Data, Take Photos, Save Lives,” Engadget, April 18, 2011, http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/18/irobot-packbots-enter-fukushima-nuclear-plant-to-gather-data-ta/.
Foster-Miller, makes a PackBot competitor: Singer, Wired for War, 26.
And then there are the aerial drones: For descriptions of the Predator, Raven and Reaper drones, see Singer, Wired for War, 32–35, 37, 116.
31 percent of all military aircraft: Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman, “Almost 1 in 3 U.S. Warplanes Is a Robot,” Danger Room (blog), Wired, January 9, 2012, http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/drone-report/.
“lethal kinetics”—operations involving fire—“will be handed over to bots”: Harry Wingo, in discussion with the authors, April 2012.
SWORDS robots: Singer, Wired for War, 29–32; Noah Shachtman, “First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq (Updated),” Danger Room (blog), Wired, August 2, 2007, http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/08/httpwwwnational/.
combat units in the future: Navy SEAL in discussion with the authors, February 2012.
“It’s a big strategic question for them”: Peter Warren Singer in discussion with the authors, April 2012.
Joint Tactical Radio System: Bob Brewin, “Pentagon Shutters Joint Tactical Radio System Program Office,” Nextgov, August 1, 2012, http://www.nextgov.com/mobile/2012/08/pentagon-shutters-joint-tactical-radio-system-program-office/57173/; Matthew Potter, Defense Procurement News, “Joint Program Executive Office Joint Tactical Radio System (JPEO JTRS) Stands Down and Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC) Opens,” press release, October 1, 2012, http://www.defenseprocurementnews.com/2012/10/01/joint-program-executive-office-joint-tactical-radio-system-jpeo-jtrs-stands-down-and-joint-tactical-networking-center-jtnc-opens-press-release/.
“They just can’t afford that kind of process anymore”: Peter Warren Singer in discussion with the authors, April 2012.
“The military was, in some ways”: Ibid.
Even Venezuela has joined the club: Brian Ellsworth, “Venezuela Says Building Drones with Iran’s Help,” Reuters, June 14, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/14/us-venezuela-iran-drone-idUSBRE85D14N20120614.
“Of course we’re doing it”: Robert Beckhusen, “Iranian Missile Engineer Oversees Chavez’s Drones,” Danger Room (blog), Wired, June 18, 2012, http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/mystery-cargo/.
“Most advances in technology, particularly big ones, tend to make people nervous”: Regina Dugan, in discussion with the authors, July 2012.
“non-state actors that range”: Peter Warren Singer in discussion with the authors, April 2012.
unmanned drones, available to rent for surveillance: Singer, Wired for War, 265.
In 2009, it was contracted to load bombs: James Risen and Mark Mazzetti, “C.I.A. Said to Use Outsiders
to Put Bombs on Drones,” New York Times, August 20, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/us/21intel.html.
For example, some real-estate firms are now using private drones: Somini Sengupta, “Who Is Flying Drones over America?,” Bits (blog), New York Times, July 14, 2012, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/who-is-flying-drones-over-america/.
Kansas State University has established a degree: Jefferson Morley, “Drones Invade Campus,” Salon, May 1, 2012, http://www.salon.com/2012/05/01/drones_on_campus/.
“battle of persuasion”: Peter Warren Singer, quoted by Noah Shachtman, “Insurgents Intercept Drone Video in King-Size Security,” Danger Room (blog), Wired, December 17, 2009, http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/12/insurgents-intercept-drone-video-in-king-sized-security-breach/.
RQ-170 Sentinel: Scott Peterson, “Downed U.S. Drone: How Iran Caught the ‘Beast,’ ” Christian Science Monitor, December 9, 2011, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1209/Downed-US-drone-How-Iran-caught-the-beast.
“land on its own where we wanted it to”: Scott Peterson and Payam Faramarzi, “Exclusive: Iran Hijacked U.S. Drone, Says Iranian Engineer,” Christian Science Monitor, December 15, 2011, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1215/Exclusive-Iran-hijacked-US-drone-says-Iranian-engineer-Video.
known as spoofing: Adam Rawnsley, “Iran’s Alleged Drone Hack: Tough, but Possible,” Danger Room (blog), Wired, December 16, 2011, http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/iran-drone-hack-gps/.
$6 million: Dan Murphy, “Obama Taking Heat for Asking for U.S. Drone Back? Pay Little Heed,” Christian Science Monitor, December 15, 2011, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2011/1215/Obama-taking-heat-for-asking-for-US-drone-back-Pay-little-heed.
leaks resulted in detailed articles: Daniel Klaidman, “Drones: How Obama Learned to Kill,” May 28, 2012, Newsweek and Daily Beast, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/27/drones-the-silent-killers.html; Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,” New York Times, May 29, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html; David E. Sanger, “Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran,” New York Times, June 1, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html; Charlie Savage, “Holder Directs U.S. Attorneys to Track Down Paths of Leaks,” New York Times, June 8, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/09/us/politics/holder-directs-us-attorneys-to-investigate-leaks.html?pagewanted=all.
