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America's Secret Weapon - It takes a network to beat a network.
Business 2.0 ^ | December 2001 | Thomas A. Stewart

Posted on 11/21/2001 8:28:29 PM PST by InvisibleChurch

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INRI
1 posted on 11/21/2001 8:28:29 PM PST by InvisibleChurch
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To: InvisibleChurch
Long read but an excellent article. Thanks.
2 posted on 11/21/2001 10:03:21 PM PST by Mind-numbed Robot
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To: Mind-numbed Robot
You're welcome and a bump.
3 posted on 11/22/2001 6:11:59 AM PST by InvisibleChurch
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To: InvisibleChurch
Even though this has been posted several times (no blame!) it has yet to recieive the attention it deserves. I went to a neswstand and bought the magazine, Business 2.0 because I like the article so much.

bump

4 posted on 11/22/2001 6:21:32 AM PST by Poincare
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To: veronica; beowolf; Sabramerican; FITZ; Lent; angelo; boston_liberty; EaglesUpForever; Mr. Snrub...
bttttttttttttttttt
5 posted on 11/22/2001 9:36:59 AM PST by dennisw
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To: Poincare
This real "outside the box" thinking. This is a how to book on defeating Al Qaeda style terrorism.
6 posted on 11/22/2001 9:39:25 AM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw
We have more than a quarter of a billion people, a $10 trillion dollar economy, an unmatched military, and the greatest concentration of technical expertise the world has ever seen.

The US has the assets to win this. Management and will are all that is needed.

7 posted on 11/22/2001 9:42:33 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
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To: InvisibleChurch
Thr secret weapon is right here, the people who post on FR.
8 posted on 11/22/2001 9:44:51 AM PST by codebreaker
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To: NativeNewYorker
You like this take? Good Thanksgiving to you and your closest ones. Zai Geshunt (sp)!
9 posted on 11/22/2001 9:48:05 AM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw
Any model that drives us to think in new ways, and expand our defense capabilities, is a good thing...even if daisy cutters and bank auditors are all we really need. :)

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

10 posted on 11/22/2001 9:52:19 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
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To: InvisibleChurch
Happy Thanksgiving Bump!!! At first assessment, the article sounds good. Must, however, bookmark for a complete read later. (The turkey calleth...)
11 posted on 11/22/2001 10:03:42 AM PST by B52Bomber
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To: InvisibleChurch
Great article, thanks. I went to the site, and under this one is another one entitled "Six Degrees of Mohammed Atta" which is also very interesting. I'm glad America has so many smart people!
12 posted on 11/22/2001 10:42:31 AM PST by walden
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To: dennisw
From my experience the key is building the business. The military of the future will have to work on commission based hits. In addition the military grunt will have to recruit grunts on the streets, turning them into net soldiers and earning commissions from his recruits' hits. They could do it on a volunteer basis and part time or full time.

This could be easily done, I wonder if the Pentagone thought about it. Building a business and using IT tools to leverage industry and war making is key. We cannot enslave ourselves to human resources either, robotisation is a must.

13 posted on 11/22/2001 10:55:31 AM PST by lavaroise
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To: dennisw
Thanks for the ping, happy thanksgiving!
14 posted on 11/22/2001 11:34:10 AM PST by knighthawk
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To: dennisw
This is a new kind of war -- netwar

This is an interesting, and I believe, valid, overview.

15 posted on 11/22/2001 1:32:55 PM PST by backhoe
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To: dennisw
Al Qaeda seems to do a pretty good job of getting the best of both worlds. For instance, its use of public networks, such as the Net for communications and an ancient money-transfer system called hawala for moving cash, is highly effective and protects anonymity extremely well. Al Qaeda's most important nodes -- bin Laden himself, for example -- aren't put at risk by having direct contact with operatives who are more exposed or of less certain loyalty. Peter Schwartz, co-founder of Global Business Network and an adviser to people involved in the war effort, says al Qaeda appears to be what network mavens call a SPIN: a segmented, polycentric, ideologically integrated network. Its semiautonomous pieces don't depend on each other for survival, nor does a SPIN rely on just one leader -- indeed, taking a leader out might energize the network, whose most important asset is its ideological fervor.

Netwar, Arquilla says, demands examining an enemy in five different dimensions: technological, social, narrative, organizational, and doctrinal. Technology is partly, but by no means entirely, a matter of Tomahawks vs. truck bombs. Al Qaeda and other terror networks rely on a lot of freelance technical expertise. For example, we know to our sorrow that al Qaeda had to go outside the organization to train its operatives to fly airplanes. As Business 2.0 went to press, it was unclear whether recent anthrax attacks are al Qaeda's work, but whoever is behind the scheme needed more than a chemistry set to pull it off. By taking out or compromising technical experts like document forgers and money launderers -- or anthrax cooks -- authorities can force a network to make itself vulnerable, says Dutch criminologist Peter Klerks, an expert on drug-smuggling networks. Just chasing bad guys doesn't work. "The net effect is almost negligible," he says. What works is targeting their processes and technology; if you shut down one supplier, the bad guys have to find a new one. That disrupts their operations and creates the potential for security leaks.

Excellent idea. Sounds good to me.

16 posted on 11/22/2001 1:37:11 PM PST by Victoria Delsoul
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To: walden
Great article, thanks. I went to the site, and under this one is another one entitled "Six Degrees of Mohammed Atta" which is also very interesting. I'm glad America has so many smart people!

Also at the site is Breaking a Terror Net, Israeli agents on what they've learned.

Israel has some smart people too. :-)

The comments in the Business 2.0 forum relative to this the network article are not too encouraging. Most commenters did not grasp the article at all.

17 posted on 11/22/2001 2:20:13 PM PST by Poincare
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To: dennisw
BTTT

Thanks for the ping. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, my dear friend.

I didn't plan to be here (FR) today, but I had to escape from football and family, (not necessarily in that order) for a few hours!

18 posted on 11/22/2001 2:46:35 PM PST by onyx
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: NativeNewYorker
The US has the assets to win this. Management and will are all that is needed.

Yep. And as the next poster said, the secret weapon is the people here on FR.

The question in my mind is, will the Powers That Be be willing to let We the People deal with this, or will they continue to "use" the terrorism to implement their NWO controls, as they have with the new legislation, etc.?

In my opinion, if those powers keep on doing what they're doing - implementing more and more control legislation and draconian nonsense - not only will what's left of our freedom disappear in short order, there's a good chance that the real terrorists will truly win.

We in America DO have the resources to win against terrorism, especially in the resources of We the People. If our "leaders" were to come out and say that we need to arm ourselves, be vigilant, and take care of business when necessary - in short, if they were to put the power back where it belongs - we would probably eliminate terrorism on American shores within one year, especially if new measures were taken to eliminate all current and future illegal alien Middle Easterners from our country.

But I fear that the Powers That Be are going to simply use the terrorists' actions to justify and further their power and control. And the Federal Government will NOT be able to stop the terrorism. They're simply not equipped to do so, even with all of their new snooping, spying and seizing capabilities - which, of course, they'll be using primarily on US, not on the terrorists, if I am correct.

I hope I'm wrong.

20 posted on 11/22/2001 5:04:59 PM PST by Jefferson Adams
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