S.C. mom scoops al-Qaida with its videos

AP via Yahoo ^ | Sep 20, 2007 | SAGAR MEGHANI

[stainlessbanner]

WASHINGTON - 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.

"It's really important to understand what the jihadists think and how they're planning on doing things," she said. "They're very vocal. They tell us what they're going to do and then they go out and do it."

Mansfield tips off her intelligence sources when she does find something new, part of an informal working relationship with the government.

"When I send them something, it's welcome," she said. "They thank me."

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.

[sr4402]

I'm an American Mom and I know how to bake Cookies! I know how to root out Right Wing Terrorism in America. Mansfield is nothing to me. Shove off.

/Sarcasm OFF

[tioga]

LOL

[mathluv]

'Conservative hating CIA'

I'm listening to 'Sabotage' now.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Given how hard it is to raise kids decently these days, and how sneaky kids can be, can you think of someone more qualified to uncover these sorts of secrets?

Mark, there is no one on the planet that can be more covert than a 'mom on a mission.'

My threat to my co-workers...'don't make me use my mom skills.'

[PennsylvaniaMom]

I'm trying to learn to be as demure and soft-speaking as Ann Coulter. But it's hard.

I feel your pain. I tend to be rather sarcastic with the offspring. I find it keeps them off guard...the best defense is a really good offense. I have five...the oldest will be 24 in November, the youngest is 10. HEHEHE...Jemian, we are an untapped resource :)

[MEGoody]

You would think with all of the freaking tax money we pay Uncle Sam they wouldn't have to rely on a fat 50-year-old mom sitting at home for intelligence.

So you'd rather they not accept information to help in the WOT if it doesn't come from a government employee?

Weird.

[NeilGus]

Pay per ‘real’ tip based on its value to US Intelligence.

Privatize our Intelligence Agencies.. interesting idea.

[SlowBoat407]

What makes you think the RNC is conservative? It is currently headed by Mel Martinez - an enabler of criminals and a social re-engineer extraordinaire. Your comparison is invalid.

I stand by my comparison. An organization gets a lot of money to do something that private citizens are doing better and more faithfully.

Feel free to dispute me, but I don't want to distract the thread from the admiration of Laura and her work. Let's at least agree on that.

[Oorang]

It’s no secret. Besides Laura Mansfield isn’t her real name either. Get a grip.

[monday]

“The CIA should hire her for $50K per year, and give her an office from which she could do the same analysis.”

lol... I doubt she would take it. I expect she makes more than twice that amount now, an she can work in her pajamas, no commute, no traffic, no office politics, working her own hours. She has it good now, why would she give that up for an office and bureaucratic nonsense.

[monday]

“You would also think that with all the money we send to the RNC we wouldn’t have to rely on a guy named Jim Robinson to keep the Conservative agenda alive.”

Money sent to the RNC funds big government socialism, not conservatism. If you send the RNC money, you need to stop, NOW!

[monday]

“Maybe she shouldn’t be blabbing to AP about what she is doing. Not real smart to putting her name and approximate location - and the fact that she has kids in an online searchable news story.”

Thats not her real name and probably not her approximate location. She may not even have real kids. If she speaks perfect Arabic she probably has a very ethnic sounding real name.

As far a talking with the AP, she makes a living selling subscriptions to her service. Can’t make sales without advertising, but I doubt even her most loyal clients know much about her.

She in the intelligence business, and despite apparent appearances, she is a pro. I suspect she knows exactly what shes doing.

[monday]

“I’m all for reducing the federal pay rate of all intel folks to whatever this old lady makes. If she can do it, on whatever budget she has, so can they.”

I expect she makes considerably more than most govt. intel agents. Of course shes worth more too.

[Col Freeper]

Have you ever seen even one govt employee who really works like a private person??

LOL

Well, I know you haven't ever actually "seen" me, but I like to think that during all those years I was a Gov't employee in the Department of Defense, I really worked as hard as I did when I was in the private sector, and in the military before that.

I can tell you that there were some really hard workers, some not so hard workers, and some total deadwood.

But then I also saw the same categories of people in the private sectors when I worked there, and when I contracted out Gov't work to private companies.

I'm not chastising you, just reminding you that if there really weren't at least some people really working in the Gov't, things would be even worse than they are.

Having said that, from my experience, if it isn't the Government's designated job, don't ask them to do it.

If the Gov't could be pared back to just those things it's supposed to do, it's efforts could be monitored more effectively, and corrective actions taken more quickly.

[Between the Lines]

This woman is a foot soldier in this war as much as a regular soldier.
She is a hero in every sense of the word.
God protect her.

I agree 100%

[af_vet_rr]

Fluent in Arabic, the self-employed terror analyst often hacks into the sites,

LMAO. By "hacks", the reporters mean she uses the search functions.

[af_vet_rr]

I wonder often what is the best fast-track to learning Arabic.

Having a friend who is fluent in both English and Arabic, speaking with you and writing/emailing to you.

Berlitz and Rosetta Stone are supposed to be good software packages, but most fast-track type situations (such as the DoD's language schools, as well as various schools geared towards businessmen) where they try to get you up to speed within a year or two prefer to try and immerse you as quickly as possibly.

It's one thing to go through various little exercises on a computer or listening to CDs, but for reading Arabic on places like internet forums, you really need to be conversing with somebody who is fluent in both, because even little things can throw your translation of something away off, and you tend to miss the little things if you are self-educated through software or CDs that might give you straight up translation skills rather than being able to determine what is really being said.

That's not to say that you can't be self-taught, but you asked about fast-track, and fast-track really requires somebody conversing with you who can easily switch between English and Arabic.

[angcat]

Arabic is a hard language. Thanks to Bill Clinton we do not have many people around that understand the language in the CIA. I would love to do what she does.

[angcat]

And one more thing from what I have read the people in the CIA that are Arabs deliberately misinterpret the information for the good of the Terrorists.

[Sioux-san]

From what I have read, the Guvmint cannot trust its Arabic-speaking translators in the FBI, the CIA, or anywhere else — thank goodness for the vigilant private citizen (and fellow plump Mom)!