Messing with the Enemy

by Clint Watts

  2.Harmony database, document no. AFGP-2002-6000053, Combating Terrorism Center, West Point, NY, p. 36. https://www.ctc.usma.edu/.

  3.Harmony database, document no. AFGP-2002-600113, Combating Terrorism Center, West Point, NY, p. 6. https://www.ctc.usma.edu/.

  4.“Exclusive Osama Bin Laden–First Ever TV Interview,” CNN Interview conducted by Peter Arnett, Peter Bergen, and Peter Jouvenal. Published on YouTube on January 10, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqQwnqjA-6w.

  5.Anne Stenersen, “The History of the Jihadi Forums,” Jihadica, March 4, 2009. http://www.jihadica.com/the-history-of-the-jihadi-forums.

  6.Hanna Rogan, “Al-Qaeda’s Online Media Strategies: From Abu Reuter to Irhabi 007,” Norwegian Defence Research Establishment report, December 1, 2007, 48; Brynjar Lia, “Jihadi Web Media Production: Characteristics, Trends, and Future Implications,” paper presented at Check the Web conference, Berlin, February 26–27, 2007, 10.

  7.Thomas Hegghammer, Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism Since 1979 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 171–72.

  8.Anti-Defamation League, Jihad Online, Islamic Terrorists and the Internet (2002), 14.

  9.Brynjar Lia, “Jihadi Web Media Production: Characteristics, Trends, and Future Implications,” paper presented in Berlin on February 26, 2007, entitled “Monitoring, Research and Analysis of Jihadist Activities on the Internet—Ways to Deal With the Issue,” conference hosted by the German Ministry of Interior, 7–10. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqaWhhZGlzbX N0dWRpZXNuZXR8Z3g6NTNiOTQ5ZmZmMThkZWQzMA.

  10.Rogan, “Al-Qaeda’s Online Media Strategies,” 65; Lia, “Jihadi Web Media Production,” 12.

  11.Manuel Ricardo Torres-Soriano, “The Dynamics of the Creation, Evolution, and Disappearance of Terrorist Internet Forums,” International Journal of Conflict and Violence 7, no. 1 (2013): 175.

  12.Maura Conway and Lisa McInerney, “Jihadi Video and Auto-Radicalisation: Evidence from an Exploratory YouTube Study,” in Intelligence and Security Informatics, ed. D. Ortiz-Arroyo et al. (Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2008).

  13.Jane Perlez, Salman Masood, and Waqar Gillani, “5 U.S. Men Arrested in Pakistan Said to Plan Jihad,” The New York Times (December 10, 2009). http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/world/asia/11inquire.html.

  14.Andrew Liepman, “Violent Islamist Extremism: Al-Shabaab Recruitment in America,” hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, March 11, 2009.

  15.Seth G. Jones, “Awlaki’s Death Hits al-Qaeda’s Social Media Strategy,” RAND (September 30, 2011). https://www.rand.org/blog/2011/09/awlakis-death-hits-al-qaedas-social-media-strategy.html; and Paula Newton, “Purported al-Awlaki Message Calls for Jihad Against U.S.,” CNN (March 17, 2010). http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/17/al.awlaki.message/index.html.

  16.Dina Temple-Raston, “Grand Jury Focuses on N.C. Man Tied to Jihad Magazine,” NPR Morning Edition, (August 18, 2010). https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129263809.

  17.Thomas Joscelyn, “Analysis: al Qaeda Groups Reorganize in West Africa,” Long War Journal (March 13, 2017). https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/03/analysis-al-qaeda-groups-reorganize-in-west-africa.php.

  18.The single best resource on the breakup of ISIS and al-Qaeda’s Nusra is: William McCants, The ISIS Apocalypse (New York: St. Martins Press, 2015). Particularly Chapter 4, “Resurrection and Tribulation,” p. 73–98.

  19.Clint Watts, “al-Qaeda Plots, NSA Intercepts & the Era of Terrorism Competition,” Foreign Policy Research Institute (August 5, 2013). https://www.fpri.org/2013/08/al-qaeda-plots-nsa-intercepts-the-era-of-terrorism-competition.

  20.Clint Watts, “Jihadi Competition After al Qaeda Hegemony–The ‘Old Guard’, Team ISIS & the Battle for Jihadi Hearts & Minds,” Foreign Policy Research Institute (February 20, 2014). https://www.fpri.org/2014/02/jihadi-competition-after-al-qaeda-hegemony-the-old-guard-team-isis-the-battle-for-jihadi-hearts-minds.

  21.Clint Watts, “ISIS’s Rise After al Qaeda’s House of Cards,” Foreign Policy Research Institute (March 22, 2014). https://www.fpri.org/2014/03/isiss-rise-after-al-qaedas-house-of-cards-part-4-of-smarter-counterterrorism.

  22.The best reference for ISIS and the Islamic State’s social media operations is: Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger, ISIS: The State of Terror (New York: Ecco, 2015). Particularly chapter 6, “Jihad Goes Social,” p. 127–46, and chapter 7, “The Electronic Brigades,” p. 147–76.

  23.“2015 Charlie Hebdo Attacks Fast Facts,” CNN (December 25, 2017). http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/21/europe/2015-paris-terror-attacks-fast-facts/index.html.

  CHAPTER 3: “THAT IS NOT AN OPTION UNLESS IT’S IN A BODY BAG”

  1.“Al-Shabaab Militants in Somalia Post Alleged Photo of French Commando Killed in Botched Raid,” CBSnews.com (January 14, 2013). https://www.cbsnews.com/news/al-shabab-militants-in-somalia-post-alleged-photo-of-french-commando-killed-in-botched-raid.

  2.Harmony database, document no. AFGP-2002-800640, Combating Terrorism Center, West Point, NY, p. 7. https://www.ctc.usma.edu/.

  3.Ken Menkhaus, “al-Shabaab and Social Media: A Double-Edged Sword,” The Brown Journal of World Affairs (Spring/Summer 2014). https://www.brown.edu/initiatives/journal-world-affairs/sites/brown.edu.initiatives.journal-world-affairs/files/private/articles/Menkhaus.pdf.

  4.“Kenya’s Military Tweets of Latest Threat in Somalia War: Donkeys,” NBC News (November 3, 2011). http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45154226/ns/world_news-africa/t/kenyas-military-tweets-latest-threat-somalia-war-donkeys/#.WcleB0yZNTY.

  5.David Smith, “Al-Shabaab in War of Words with Kenyan Army on Twitter,” The Guardian (December 13, 2011). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/13/al-shabaab-war-words-twitter.

  6.“‘American al-Shabab’ Disavows Militant Group, al-Qaida,” Voice of America (September 5, 2013). https://www.voanews.com/a/american-alshabab-disavows-militant-group-alqaida/1743983.html.

  CHAPTER 4: RISE OF THE TROLLS

  1.Mike Krumboltz, “WhiteHouse.gov Petition Seeks to Give Alaska Back to Russia,” Yahoo (March 27, 2014). https://www.yahoo.com/news /blogs/sideshow/whitehouse-gov-petition-seeks-to-give-alaska-back-to-russia-165159170.html.

  2.Edmund Lee, “AP Twitter Account Hacked in Market-Moving Attack,” Bloomberg Business (April 23, 2013). https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-04-23/dow-jones-drops-recovers-after-false-report-on-ap-twitter-page.

  3.Max Fisher, “Syrian hackers Claim AP Hack That Tipped Stock Market by $136 billion. Is It Terrorism?,” The Washington Post (April 23, 2013). https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/04/23/syrian-hackers-claim-ap-hack-that-tipped-stock-market-by-136-billion-is-it-terrorism/?utm_term=.0cb10e61e8fc; James Temperton, “FBI Adds Syrian Electronic Army Hackers to Most Wanted List,” Wired (March 23, 2016). http://www.wired.co.uk/article/syrian-electronic-army-fbi-most-wanted.

  4.For a short summary of the “Turing Test”, Wikipedia does a good breakdown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test.

  5.Phil Howard, “Computational Propaganda: The Impact of Algorithms and Automation on Public Life,” Presentation available at: https://prezi.com/b_vewutjwzut/computational-propaganda/?webgl=0.

  6.Caitlin Dewey, “One in Four Debate Tweets Comes from a Bot. Here’s How to Spot Them,” The Washington Post (October 19, 2016). https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/10/19/one-in-four-debate-tweets-comes-from-a-bot-heres-how-to-spot-them.

  7.Manny Fernandez, “Conspiracy Theories Over Jade Helm Training Exercise Get Some Traction in Texas,” The New York Times (May 6, 2015). https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/us/conspiracy-theories-over-jade-helm-get-some-traction-in-texas.html.

  8.For examples of Jade Helm posts, here are some representative articles: “Jade Helm 15: What You Need to Know About 7-State Pentagon Super-Drill,” RT (July 14, 2015). https://www.rt.com/usa/273436-jade-helm-drill-explained; Robert Bridge, “Jade Helm 15: One nation under siege?,” RT (July 10, 2
015). https://www.rt.com/op-edge/272920-us-army-jade-helm; “Are Jade Help 15 Drills Disguise to Enact Martial Law in US?,” Sputnik (May 27, 2015). https://sputniknews.com/us/2015 05271022628702; and “Jade Help 15: Texans Terrified of Obama-led US Army Invasion,” Sputnik (July 7, 2015). https://sputniknews.com/us/201507071024303072.

  9.Wade Goodwyn, “Texas Governor Deploys State Guard to Stave Off Obama Takeover,” NPR (May 2, 2015). https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/05/02/403865824/texas-governor-deploys-state-guard-to-stave-off-obama-takeover.

  10.Adrian Chen, “The Agency,” The New York Times (June 2, 2015). https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html.

  CHAPTER 5: HARMONY, DISHARMONY, AND THE POWER OF SECRETS

  1.“Translation of Aweis Letter.doc,” Wikileaks (December 28, 2006). https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Translation_of_Aweis_Letter.doc.

  2.“Top Somali Islamist Flown to Mogadishu ‘After Split,’” BBC News (June 29, 2013). http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-23115819.

  3.Raffi Khatchadourian, “No Secrets,” The New Yorker (June 7, 2010). https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/06/07/no-secrets.

  4.Ibid.

  5.Shaun Walker, “Was Russian Secret Service Behind Leak of Climate-Change Emails?,” Independent (December 7, 2009). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/was-russian-secret-service-behind-leak-of-climate-change-emails-1835502.html.

  6.Fred Weir, “WikiLeaks Ready to Drop a Bombshell on Russia. But Will Russians Get to Read About It?,” The Christian Science Monitor (October 26, 2010). https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/1026/WikiLeaks-ready-to-drop-a-bombshell-on-Russia.-But-will-Russians-get-to-read-about-it.

  7.Simon Shuster, “Wikileaks. Is Russia the Next Target?,” Time (November 1, 2010). http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2028283,00.html.

  8.James Ball, “Why I Felt I Had to Turn my Back on Wikileaks,” The Guardian (September 2, 2011). https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/sep/02/why-i-had-to-leave-wikileaks.

  9.Kapil Komireddi, “Julian Assange and Europe’s Last Dictator, Alexander Lukashenko,” New Statesman (March 1, 2012). https://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2012/03/belarus-assange-lukashenko.

  10.“U.S.–Led Attack on Afghanistan Begins,” History.com (2010). http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-led-attack-on-afghanistan-begins.

  11.Gregory D. Johnsen, The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia., W.W. Norton (November 19, 2012). https://www.amazon.com/Last-Refuge-Al-Qaeda-Americas-Arabia/dp/0393082423.

  12.“Document and Media Exploitation (DOMEX),” U.S. Army (2009). https://www.army.mil/aps/09/information_papers/document_media_exploitation.html.

  13.An overview of the Combating Terrorism Center’s Harmony Program can be found at their website. https://ctc.usma.edu/programs-resources/harmony-program.

  14.Joseph Felter, Jacob Shapiro, et al., Harmony and Disharmony: Exploiting al-Qa’ida’s Organizational Vulnerabilities, Combating Terrorism Center, (February 14, 2006). https://ctc.usma.edu/programs-resources/harmony-program.

  15.Ibid, 42.

  16.Ibid, 43.

  17.Ibid, 43.

  18.Clint Watts, Jacob Shapiro, Vahid Brown, et al., al-Qa’ida’s (Mis)Adventures in the Horn of Africa, Combating Terrorism Center (2007). https://ctc.usma.edu/al-qaidas-misadventures-in-the-horn-of-africa/.

  19.Vahid Brown, Cracks in the Foundation: Leadership Schisms in al-Qa’ida From 1989–2006, Combating Terrorism Center (2007). https://ctc.usma.edu/cracks-in-the-foundation-leadership-schisms-in-al-qaida-from-1989-2006/.

  20.Ibid.

  21.A copy of Sheikh Hassan Aweys’s Kenya visa application can be found here: https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2013/10/Hassan-Aweys-Kenya-Visa-Application-Translation.pdf.

  22.James R. Hollyer, B. Peter Rosendorff and James Raymond Vreeland, “Democracy and Transparency,” The Journal of Politics, vol. 73, No. 4 (Oct. 21, 2011), 1191–1205. https://wp.nyu.edu/faculty-rosendorff/wp-content/uploads/sites/1510/2015/03/HRVJOP.pdf.

  23.Eric Schmitt, “C.I.A. Warning on Snowden in ’09 Said to Slip Through the Cracks,” The New York Times (October 10, 2013). http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/us/cia-warning-on-snowden-in-09-said-to-slip-through-the-cracks.html.

  24.“Executive Summary of Review of the Unauthorized Disclosures of Former National Security Agency Contractor Edward Snowden,” U.S. House of Representatives (September 15, 2016). https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hpsci_snowden_review-unclasssummary-final.pdf.

  25.An edited extract of a copy of Julian Assange’s “Conspiracy as Governance” was posted by the Frontline Club on June 28, 2011 and is available at: https://www.frontlineclub.com/julian_assange_the_state_and_terrorist_conspiracies/.

  26.Khatchadourian, “NoSecret.”

  27.Ibid.

  28.Mariano Castillo, “Bodies Hanging from Bridge in Mexico Are Warning to Social Media Users,” CNN (September 15, 2011). http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/09/14/mexico.violence/index.html.

  29.Ibid.

  30.For a summary of the Panama Papers see Will Fitzgibbon and Emilia Diaz-Struck, “The Panama Papers,” International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (December 1, 2016). https://panamapapers.icij.org/blog/20161201-impact-graphic.html.

  31.Juliette Garside, Holly Watt, and David Pegg, “The Panama Papers: How the World’s Rich and Famous Hide Their Money Offshore,” The Guardian (April 3, 2016). https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/the-panama-papers-how-the-worlds-rich-and-famous-hide-their-money-offshore.

  32.Luke Harding, “Revealed: The $2bn Offshore Trail that Leads to Vladimir Putin,” The Guardian (April 3, 2016). https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore.

  33.Michael Forsythe, “Paradise Papers Shine Light on Where the Elite Keep Their Money,” The New York Times (November 5, 2017). https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/paradise-papers.html.

  34.“Daphne Caruana Galizia: The Blogging Fury,” Politico (2017). https://www.politico.eu/list/politico-28-class-of-2017-ranking/daphne-caruana-galizia.

  35.Juliette Garside, “Malta Car Bomb Kills Panama Papers Journalist,” The Guardian (October 16, 2017). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/malta-car-bomb-kills-panama-papers-journalist.

  36.“Daphne Caruana Galizia: The Blogging Fury.”

  37.Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries (New York: PublicAffairs, 2015), 215.

  CHAPTER 6: PUTIN’S PLAN

  1.Thomas Boghardt, “Active Measures: The Russian Art of Disinformation,” AIRSHO (October 2006), 20–26. https://spy-museum.s3.amazonaws.com/files/back_active-measures.pdf.

  2.“History of HIV and AIDS,” Avert.org (March 9, 2018). https://www.avert.org/professionals/history-hiv-aids/overview.

  3.Thomas Boghardt, “Operation INFEKTION: Soviet Bloc Intelligence and Its AIDS Disinformation Campaign,” Studies in Intelligence, vol. 53, No. 4. (December 2009) 1–24. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol53no4/pdf/U-%20Boghardt-AIDS-Made%20in%20the%20USA-17Dec.pdf.

  4.Robert Coalson, “Top Russian General Lays Bare Putin’s Plan for Ukraine,” The Huffington Post (November 2, 2014). https://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-coalson/valery-gerasimov-putin-ukraine_b_5748480.html.

  5.“Russia to create ‘cyber-troops’–Ministry of Defense,” RT (August 20, 2013). https://www.rt.com/news/russia-cyber-troops-defence-753.

  6. Eric Lipton, David E. Sanger, and Scott Shane, “The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.,” The New York Times (December 13, 2016). https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html.

  7.Joe Uchill, “Typo Led to Podesta Email Hack: Report,” The Hill (December 13, 2016). http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/310234-typo-may-have-caused-podesta-email-hack.

  8.Lipton, Sanger and Shane, “The Perfect Weapon.”

 
9.Patrick Tucker, “EXCLUSIVE: Russia-Backed DNC Hackers Strike Washington Think Tanks,” Defense One (August 29, 2016). http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2016/08/exclusive-russia-backed-dnc-hackers-strike-washington-think-tanks/131104.

  10.Massimo Calabresi, “Inside Russia’s Social Media War on America,” Time (May 18, 2017). http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america.

  11.“Is Donald Trump a Man to Mend US Relations with Russia?,” Sputnik (August 24, 2015). https://sputniknews.com/politics/201508241 026144021.

  12.David Ignatius, “Russia’s Radical New Strategy for Information Warfare,” The Washington Post (January 18, 2017). https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/01/18/russias-radical-new-strategy-for-information-warfare/?utm_term=.1873e03e1c47.

  13.Ashley Parker and David Sanger, “Donald Trump Calls on Russia to Find Hillary Clinton’s Missing Emails,” The New York Times (July 27, 2016). https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-clinton-emails.html.

  14.Clint Watts and Andrew Weisburd, “How Russia Dominates Your Twitter Feed to Promote Lies (And, Trump, Too),” The Daily Beast (August 6, 2016). https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-russia-dominates-your-twitter-feed-to-promote-lies-and-trump-too.

  15.Ryan Goodman, “How Roger Stone Interacted With Russia’s Guccifer and Wikileaks,” Newsweek (September 28, 2017). http://www.newsweek.com/how-stone-interacted-russias-guccifer-and-wikileaks-673268.

  16.Ibid.

  17.Matthew Cole, Richard Esposito, Sam Biddle, and Ryan Grim, “Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election,” The Intercept (June 5, 2017). https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russian-hacking-effort-days-before-2016-election.

  18.Bence Kollanyi, Philip N. Howard, and Samuel C. Woolley. “Bots and Automation over Twitter during the Third U.S. Presidential Debate.” Data Memo 2016.3, Oxford, UK: Project on Computational Propaganda (October 31, 2016). http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/working-papers/bots-and-automation-over-twitter-during-the-third-u-s-presidential-debate.