Posted on 11/12/2004 2:04:05 PM PST by The Loan Arranger
CONRAD, Mont. — Shannen Rossmiller finds early mornings are best for hunting terrorists.
When it's 4 a.m. in this one-stoplight prairie town, it's 3 p.m. in, say, Karachi, Pakistan, the sweltering hours just before the evening call to prayer. That's when Rossmiller, while her husband and three children sleep, finds the Internet chat rooms and bulletin boards frequented by radical Muslims and jihad warriors are busiest.
It is when Rossmiller pursues her deadly serious hobby: Citizen cyber-spy.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Internet has become sprinkled with self-proclaimed intelligence agents and freelance threat analysts like Rossmiller — ordinary civilians who comb Web sites and chat rooms for hints of the enemy's next move. The phenomenon, propelled by the Internet's anonymity and worldwide reach, is unique to the war on terrorism.
(Excerpt) Read more at cweb.jewishworldreview.com ...
It would be best to learn Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, etc. I wonder if the FBI / CIA would fund language and culture training for otherwise unpaid sleuths.....
I hope that's not her real name and city.
switchboard.com says it is...
Good for her, -and us.
This is something I got into shortly after 9/11. Compiled a big dossier on various names linking to aviation-related terrorism and bio warfare. All sent to the authorities . Was it valuable intelligence, elaborate misinformation by the terrorists or perhaps deliberate self-incrimination to incite mistrust of muslim community? The connections were way too strong to dismiss as coincidence but I suspect they were a bit too easy to find.
I'm convinced bin laden deliberately "leaked" details of 9/11 to a few groups around Europe with the intention of fomenting mistrust after the event - not to say this mistrust is unwarranted but it does illustrate the level of cunning were up against.
Should also bear in mind that if you're monitoring you're also being monitored - by friendly agencies and perhaps some not so friendly. In doing so you're adding to the background noise and, worse, could blunder in and alert the terrorists.
Maybe she's trolling for domestic terrorists...If not, I hope she has appropriate security...
bttt
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