Internet Anthropology and the GWOT

BIG 'SURVEILLANCE BOT' ANNOUNCEMENT MONDAY 2 PM EST gImage via Wikipedia

We are entering a new era of Internet warfare, "New uses and discoveries for the INTERNET will center on "PROCESS" & "ORGANIZATION".

The Internet can be turned against the Terrorist, but there doesn't seem to be much cooperation
between government agencys. Turf, methods and Intel are still cloistered.

There is a classification of "Security Anthropologist" but the work I do is a little different,
it is Internet Anthropology.

I am defining Internet Anthropology in this case as the study and research of the interactive interfacing of human culture with this technology the Internet.

And my studies have take me into the war arena looking for ways to implement this information into methods of Intel collection. With the focus on actionable Intel.

We have written white papers for the Air Force, "Dominating the Internet Domain", to White papers for the Army and Department of Home Land Security.
And an invitation to speak at the Chinese The 16th World Congress of IUAES, on Social Change Engines.
And the International Conference Organized by the Turkish National Police on Democracy and Global Security use our Intel and site in presentations.


Some of my conversations with the Government's genius lead anthropologists Brian R SelmeskiCiv USAF AETC AU/CFA, have been very enlightining, and excitiing.

There is a open field in the study of Internet anthropology and its uses in the GWOT.

Gray Intelligence

Observation, synthesis and action are the essence of applied Anthropology.

The application of these ethnographic studies can make the Internet work against the Terrorists.

We continue to work these advantages and drive new uses for Internet technology.

http://warintel.blogspot.com/2009/02/applied-anthropology-and-fourghs.html

We have over 100,000 BSU's on call.

And I want to thank our Civilian Battalion ( 4 companies ) for their hard and diligent work.

Gerald
Internet Anthropologist.

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Off subject, Internet Insanity.

Internet Insanity:

We have all seen it, I've done it, and some of you have experienced it also, maybe even guilty also.

I think its cause is "huge rolling successes".

And its from not checking details thru a third uninvolved party.

The first time I saw it was in my first computer. This was before hard drives, floppys only.
And we thought that was genius.

Do you remember your first computer?
To turn the computer off, you click the "start button".

Know I know the engineering logic that resulted in that "insanity".
"They" were a huge rolling sucess, they got a computer to work !!!!
And they wrote up the program thinking forward, and they started with a "start" button.

And at the end "they" needed an "off " button so they just went back and put the "off" button near the start button, but in the lines of code stop comes after start, so thats why we have to click start, to get to the control to turn the computer off.

I've seen lots of this type of sanity over the years, and to be "computer literate" isn't to be logical. Logic says you don't click "start" to turn the PC off.
But If you stand on your head and look backward thru a mirro it make sense, kind of.

Computer literacy comes from experiencing enough of this "insanity" to figure out how "it"
works, and that isn't based on logic. You look at the "PC" problem, or what ever computer related item is stoping you, and kind of close one eye half way, and look at the problem from the corner of the open eye and you can figure out how to make it work, thats computer literacy.

Now some stuff you just have to work around, you don't have time to fix it or even understand it,
you just need to a work around.
I had a 1962 Jaguar, 3 SU carbs, convertable, Jag brown. Flew over the road.
But I had a work around for it.
Sometimes it wouldn't start unless I stepped on the high beam switch 3 times.

And that worked for a week before I could get it to the Garage.
Turns out there was a short under the carpet near the high beam switch.

And a "work around" is what i use for the Google "Insanity"

Some times you don't understand why, just how, and will figure out the why later.
And the "HOW" is much more important than the "why". How is a green light, "why" is reading.

And this bring me to my latest piece of Internet Insanity.
The Google search engine, it used to blow my mind when it found 20 million pages, in 0.017 seconds. Why doesn't MY computer run that fast? Its a trick, thats how Google does it.

But back to the insanity, I do a finely detailed search on Google and get 80 hits.
And I carefully read them all just to get to the last one and read;
"repeat the search with the omitted results included."

Yes PLEASE I'd like to reread the 80 I just read thru to find the ones you didn't give me in the first place.

YES I'D LIKE TO READ 240 MORE WITH THE FIRST 80 I ALREADY READ.

I'M AN IDIOT AND I'd like to "repeat the search with the omitted results included."

Poke me in the eye again please...

That drives me just nutz up the wall.

Now I know what happened, the programer found a way to exclude the "near" repeats. And then thought, well maybe they will just want to see everything, I'll just add a link at the END of the search letting them do so.

Augghhhhhhh.
Ask me BEFORE I read the results, before I read 60% of the hits.
ASK ME " do you want to see all the results, or the 60% best fits?
BEFORE I START READING NOT AFTER "repeat the search with the omitted results included."

Do you see my point, I have to waste the time I spent reading the first 60%.
By having to REREAD the 60% again to find the missing 40%.

Now try 50 or 100 searches a day.

Stop the insanity, Beta test for "sense" as well as "bugs".
Does this make sense? How it works?
There has always been a tendency on the web/pc to settle for "it WORKS".

And my mantra of surprise on this Internet/ PC ride has been WOW "it works".

I've always had an awe of the pc/Internet, a sense of magic.
I had a computer before there was the Internet, in the OLDe days it was just
bulletin boards and phone lines.

My first modem was 300 baud, as a broker I sent a text message across the country and in just a couple of hours, it was awesome.

Now if my pages don't load in seconds I get impatient.

I guess the "Insanity" is ok after all, look what it brought with it.

I've had a rather unique view of the process, it starts with the first binary calculator I built as a child, stack of 100, 3 X 5 cards, with punch holes at the top.
Punch a hole is = 0
Punch a slot, not a hole = 1
and punch all the cards in the same places, and use a pencil to sort in the holes.
I did 100 cards, 1 to 100.
0, a hole stays on the pencil, while a slot, a 1, pulls off the pencil.
And I could do math.
I was using PC before there were browsers.
And now a PC and the Internet, "participant observer" on the PC/Internet.
Watching the context and process, My first web page was 1997.
And the introduction to "banners".
Waves of paradigms, rising and crashing.

The Internet talks to me, its not alive, yet. But it does have a rudimentary logic.
It signals what it is going to do next, and in turn or from that, what I need to do.
It tells me when the light receptors of your eyes (reading) have viewed my thoughts (web page).
Not "who" you are but "whom" you all are.
What country your from, what you were looking for, how long you looked at it.
What kind of stuff you like to read, from my logs. And even what your thinking, from comments.

And the world wide connection, if your reading this that means there was at some point a physical connection between YOU and ME. Wires and optic cable but there was a physical connection. My key board to your mind.

In many ways its the ultimate form of communication, you can read me, view videos, photos, graphs charts, etc. If we were just talking at the local bar, I couldn't communicate all that.

The context continues to grow, the processes continue to multiply.

My confusion and joy is what do I want to build with all this?

This blog functions as a Social Change Engine.

But there is INSANITY and insanity.

Al Qaeda and the Insurgent groups have in excess of 4000 web sites,
Forums, groups etc.
They have convinced their key demographic that continual losses is a good thing, Martyrs.
They are waging a virtual information war.
Their are two basic views, the "Western News" and " terrorists".
Their brand has placed them on a level with News.
And it is a world wide brand, the 'recognition value' any CEO would be happy to have.
I'm not afraid of what the terrorists say, I can't stop or control that on the Internet. I am afraid of not answering their lies.
A lie posted often enough
in enough places
and over a long enough period of time
IS BELIEVED TO BE THE TRUTH...

Our experience posting on blogs where Insurgents are, is they have a different knowledge, some of it is even false.
One of the big differences between an Westerner and some from the M.E. is their "world history" view.
They know and learn a different history than the West does.

The number of Islamofacsists posting on the net far out number the Wests postings in regard to the conflict, USA should be targeting the same demographic as the terrorist do, countering the lies.

This is a battle for the hearts and minds and in many cases the USA is MIA, not even posting in the indigenous languages, the terrorist are. Google is working on a Turkish translation, the newest hackers are coming from Turkey.

Its hard to win a hearts and minds when USA isn't even posting in their language.

The Internet is the future battle ground for the hearts and minds, and the balance beam that will determine if our Grandchildren are still fighting the same war.

Currently there is a forest fire of lies going on and very little water in sight.

Our answer to the INSANITY.

As an anthropologist I wanted to do something in the GWOT,
I re-oriented an old blog "Internet Anthropologist" , Platform #1
and an Operative joined a Forum, Infovlad: where the terrorist videos are exchanged, Platform #2

A standby web site for when we need volunteers. Click to join AIcyber-Corps, fight internet terrorism.
A second recruiting social web site. Built, and loaded. on Standby.

And started applying my training. Applied anthropology, Social Change Engines ( SCE ), Gurellia Anthropology ( GA ) and our Paradigm Intel Engine,
PIE ( Data from closed cell and used info for troop family support ).
Context is the force and the Internet is the medium. Participant Observation.

Some of my research:
My "Terrorism Toolbar" ( 108 links, for OSINT and OPs ) and "CI Toolbar"; over 200,000 downloads.( its been checked by NSA )
My data bases, ( over 3,000 terrorist web sites, Public info ) Data from News, blogs and the web.
Intel Wiki ( 500 pages+ Confidential Intel, evidence ).
"Order of the Squid" Secure, encrypted web page for 'Troops', command and control.
1590 posts in Infovlad
and 1,093 Posts to the Blog, about 10% over lap with Infovad.

The effort is labor intensive, and requires equal amounts of action, reading and thinking TIME.


So far al Qaeda's use of the Internet has been reactionary.
USA cuts them off, Phones, so they switch to what ever else is
available. So in a sense their next move the Internet should not have been a surprise.

USA's use of the Internet is defensive, it is a paradigm they and we are still working out.

We put our own concept of the Internet paradigm, the "cyber warrior"
into cyber space. "Info War", version.

as I understand it, it requires an order/ok from Bush to take down a server, and that kind of offensive is forming, ON THEIR SIDE, I could be wrong, and hope I am.

There doesn't seem to be any rules for engagement for Gov, MIL, NAV, etc.?

The civilian sector lacks organization, direction and instruction..
AND FUNDING, This effort currently runs us about $12,000 out of pocket, all work is pro-bono.

While it is not my intention to tell anybody how to do this, we wanted to show what the civilians have done and are doing.

A Russian hacking team just announced placing keyloggers on some terrorist PC's. And exposed the Porno visits of the Jaddiees.

Civilians provide deniability but run the risk of prosecution without a letter of Marq, all our limits are governed by, directed by CI paradigm, nothing illegal, of course we have the potential of developing those capabilities, but the risk of prosecution constrains us.

If al Qaeda can manage perception, I think USA is also capable of same.
They have managed to convince the Ummah that all the insurgent DEAD, is GOOD....Martyrs. Dying = winning. ???

The value of OSINT may not be fully appreciated.


Our OSINT picked up the "Arabic Hacker" Trainer.
Some civilian sectors are well versed in OSINT, Competitive Intelligence rely on it.

Off the top of my head, some of the fundamental methods we use, in general.


Basic: Up todate bio info , facts, etc, culled from OSINT and filed.

Analyzing if Target is in deception mode.

These usually will become apparent as a linear, in depth paradigm is developed, and as the incident/action/writing deviates from the paradigm. Lies will appear as a spike on the paradigm model, the question becomes 'is it a paradigm shift' or 'deception'. the test is the future, the News/blogs/forums.Did it happen like the target says or not, paradigm shift indicator if it checks out, or possible deception if its false. The value is you know something different is going on, and can analyze it.

Of course we deal with public reports related to the target.

One can track 'talk' vs 'actions', And develop a pattern. Major changes in the pattern can point to paradigm shifts which can be useful in forecasting.

One can track what they say they are going to do vs what happens ( check the news a month later see if it happened; or the appropriate time frame ). Looking for patterns which can reveal deception, or if 'it ' continues a shift indicator.

Collecting Geographic Intel ( everything about a Geographic area/state/town ) also can reveal links/connections.


Eventually you have a Paradigm for the target, a history, understanding, knowledge of target and idiosyncrasies.

With our paradigm we start to measure action, statements, reports against the paradigm.

We call this Paradigm Intelligence. A long form of inductive reasoning, confirmed by repetition.
Then we we check items against the Paradigm mostly deductive reasoning/logic.

Ontological problem with ' Paradigm Intel ' is its seminal fault "Just because you can forecast actions doesn't mean you understand whats going on." ( Example: Ptolemy and his theory of the planets, Earth-centered Ptolemaic system, LOOPING Planets. He could forecast position of the planets, but his understanding of the system was very wrong.)

While you forecast with Paradigm Intel, one can have multiple hypothesis of the cause of the "action at a distance",

Utilizing this method it is possible to get a look inside a closed cell.( This link will give you some background and context, On that page click on the "Internet Anthropologist Link, we were able to peak into the USA and Taliban closed cells/Paradigm, both attempting to deceive the other ).

Paradigm Intel is good a developing alternate hypothesis, and testing them.
A useful tool in the arena of forecasting asymmetrical threats in war.

CONTEXT and Cultural familiarity: Can be definitive also.
Patki news services tend to down play number of Taliban or al Qaeda killed and over state the number of Patki troops dead. Often they will state total number deaths, with no break down between insurgent and government troops. And the tend to use the word "dead " rather than "killed". As one denotes facts, dead, while the other denotes actions, killed.Patki news semantics are very exacting and aim for neutrality as they consider all killed on both sides as Pakistanis first and government or insurgents second.
There is a taste of killing your enemy without offending their/our culture.
If the KIA are related to as "Killed" This can be a message the ummah hear that others may miss.
The use of the term "Killed" instead of "dead" is meant to be offensive to the ones killled in this instance.
Coupling OSINT with sub-rosa investigations and social engineering also give an options for checking details.


We set up a baby feed for the "cyber troops", everything they need, and fully customizable, by user on anything. The feeds are supplied by 1,000 spider bots per Trooper, using as many or few as they need, that search the Internet 24/7 and feed it to the troop, so they have a real time ( Internet ) knowledge ( News, blogs,forums,groups,docs,excel, all translated ) of their arena.

Knowledge in depth, historical and current.

And sets up a frame work for a 'social change engine' and propaganda ops.

A Question we had to address was how to run propaganda with out interfering with any 'OFFICIAL' Ops.
We found a solution on a Pakti forum:
Our efforts have been guided by Pakti Intelligence manual .
"Psychological warfare is an art adopted to defeat the enemy's will to fight. It predominantly aims to win the battle before it starts. It is aimed at convincing the enemy that:-
( Our operations have been designed around these three concepts )
a. Your equipment and war assets are obsolete. ck5 shoulder fired rocket, martyr maker
b. You are being commanded by inefficient commanders. new leader of al Qaeda.
c. Your basic human rights are being suppressed." suicide bombers dance, for al Qaeda

One person on a forum can affect morale of the Jahiddi community. We have. They deleted it.

This is "our" version of a "Info War" cyber Troop,
And we have been running this for around a Year,

Our concept includes other "cyber troops" that are not 'Info war' oriented but performing other duties.

Its one concept of a Cyber Warrior..

How effective is it?

We tracked Mullah Omar's website and the webmasters to their PC's IP in Quetta, Pakistan.
lhr63¸pie¸net¸pk (202¸125¸143¸xxx.xxxxx)
We dropped the dime on them to the FEDS on 4-Jul-07, arrested Sunday, 8 July. 07
It took the Feds 4 days, to check, verify, contact Paki Intel, and plan op and arrest them, good enough for Government work.
"two men responsible for Mullah Omar's letters and communications.
They have been named as Mullah Jahangir and Mullah Mohid."

This is only one instance of pursuit.

We think its working, demographics says our targeting is right and the Social Change is remarkable.

Exclusive: Bin Landen on O2

EXCLUSIVE OUR INTERVIEW w/LARS ...

Taking down al Jinan . com

"CYBER ALERT" Islamofascist head hacker burned

Baitullah Mehsud, artist drawing

CYBERWARS's Pearl Harbour

The Internet Anthropologist Team

Gerald
Anthropologist

Oh Googles fast search trick, they only "do" the first 1,000 and then look at the total number, they DON'T look up the 20 million.

And the "work around " for the Google, "repeat the search with the omitted results included.".... is to go to the end of the search and click let me see them all.
Before you read anything, and of course google doesn't give you a "last" page function so you have to scroll to the end...

What do you want to know?

.

USSOCOM: new multiple language web sites.

I was studying "Civilian Irregular Information Defense Group" and posted a comment on
'Trans-Regional Web Initiative' Friday, 18 January 2008 by cannoneerno4.
( Excellent article )

USSOCOM: new multiple language web sites.

They are outsourcing the effort to build websites in different languages to counter the Terrorist propaganda, lies, and present USA efforts in balanced terms in support of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT).

And I suspect the military are scared as hell of it, will blanket it with all variations of rules, regulations and red tape.

A blogger in the Military must get permission of 5 or 6 officers before they can post, and each post must be reviewed. These reviews come from Officers in theater in combat, and have much better use for their time. And instead of thousands of Blogs in real time from US military personnel they have close to none.

The Military's concept of the Internet is utilitarian communications channel, suspect, dangerous
and high risk.
They tend not to view the Internet as the ultimate war weapon.
Intead of viewing the Internet as a "Social Change Engine", a hearts and minds access tool: the Military consensus is the INTERNET is a leak vector, career killer, mine field.
But it is a start, they will no longer be MIA on the Internet.

What bench mark would I use to gage its sucess?
A million hits a year to an Arabic website.

If you have that kind of traffic they you are hitting the mark/interest of your surfers.
And you then have an audience to influence, a real chance to connect to the hearts and minds.

A consideration would be a forum, dual english/arabic, where the Jihadiies can talk directly to
USA Info warriors. I don't fear what the terrorist say, I fear not answering their lies.
The expectation is not to convert the hard core, but to influence the 'Lurkers' the visitors who don't post but just read, they out number the posters by at least 4 to 1.
And your demographic will be the same as the terrorist use to recruit.

The main site would have an automated news feeds related to Arabic interest in the Middle East.
VOA type commentary, Drudge type breaking news, and hot viral videos.

A huge draw would be to match up Terrorist videos, with US videos of same incident, a chance to see the action from both sides. This alone would flood the site with visitors.

I'm a member of some Military forums, both covert and in the open.
And the experience has been generally disappointing.

Innovation, breaking free, exploring new uses, and utilizing the full potential, and concepts of social change are not the de-rigeur, rule bound and archaic web concepts are usually the rule of the day.

The aspects of the Internet as a social weapon, the context for the concept is generally lacking.
Process is key to deployment.
The faulty paradigm is that generally the USA would be un able to influence opinion.
This thought co-exists with that of a man in a cave running the worlds biggest, and most successful Brand of social change engine in the world, out maneuvering the worlds Greatest multi media force, USA culture.

This Internet operation is going to be very difficult to engender a success.
The mixing of the Militarys Oil ( control/order ) with civilian Water, ( savvy/Innovation ) is going to take a very strong civilian counter part to stand against the built in risk aversion/fear attitude the Military has towards the Internet.

I am defining Internet Anthropology in this case as the study and research of the interactive interfacing of human culture with this technology.

Observation, synthesis and action are the essence of applied Anthropology.

Internet Paradigms
( From a paper I wrote in 2000 )


5 Internet Paradigms

Depth and Breadth of Internet.

Paradigm #1) Biological paradigm.

The Internet almost seems alive, it not only knows when someone touches it, but who touched it (IP adr) when and for how long. And ( I'm taking some license here) but can tell me when the data on my web page has passed over the light receptors in your brain. It seems almost alive in terms of telling us when it is being used, where person is, what country, time on site, pages visited, length of time on each page, how they got to my web pages.

Paradigm #2)

Law of supply and demand.

There ARE many examples of new Internet processes. Lets look at a few. The "Wall ST. Journal", January 1, 2000 had an extensive Issue on 'So long Supply and Demand' and 'the New Economy'. As a veteran stockbroker I feel the laws of supply and demand ARE eternal, but ARE they? Lets look and see are these laws slipping?

1. The Industrial companies of the S&P 500 during the 1990's created $245 BILLION dollars of new wealth by converting atoms to bytes as in software. They send copies of the program over the Internet and rearrange the bytes on your computer. There is almost an unlimited source of atoms & limited demand, and as the software improves it becomes more valuable ($). Under the old laws of supply and demand they worked something like this, supply + demand = price. If there is a small supply the price tends to go up and if there is small demand the price tends to go down. But we have almost a reverse of Supply and Demand, We have an unlimited supply and limited demand. The Internet is presenting us with new paradigm a New Process.

2. Free.

Computer programs are given away free over the Internet, (winamp.com, equal to a $200 stereo system, Free) because they make more money selling cheap but great UPGRADES, and from advertising than if they sold the original product. Another example is giving away Internet service, 100 megs bytes of computer space, because they make more from the advertising they sell on these pages, than if they charged for their products.

Once you write a computer program each additional copy is almost costless. This is a new process to make money by giving away your base product. These Internet companies carry very little inventory unlike General Motors or a manufacturing corporation, they just move bytes on your computer into the form of their program via the Internet. New corporations with unlimited product supply, computer programs, no inventory, instant delivery, and potential world wide market is a NEW paradigm. We will have stock market corrections, but we are playing with a new economic paradigm. And we have not seen the new mega Internet corps. yet, only the seeds of germination of their seeds, forms and concepts. ( Google went public in 2004 at $100 per share, Friday it was over $600)

Paradigm #3)

Third world internet usage.

It used to be that one had to know a specific computer language just to get a program to run, "msdos", now it is point and click. Even the African, Bushmen in south Africa, ARE helping in a conservation project with 'palm pilots', which have had a Global positioning System added. When they see an animal the push a icon key that relates to that animal, they are able to track herd movements, sizes, directions, deaths etc. even though they don't know any computereese.
( Bushmen and jahidies both learned the WWW )

New process.

And there ARE many translation programs available that automatically translate a document or web page on the web.

Paradigm #4 )

Arbitrage.

Arbitrage used to be used only in financial and commodity markets. When there were market imbalances, buy low on one market and sell higher on another market. But it now applies to labor markets, Lucent Technologies and Consolidated Edison have turn to India and Ireland for software testing, because of cheaper labor. Just these two points present a potential new process, for a capitalistic motive to place Internet backbone and computers in third world countries for Free because of a profit motive from labor arbitrage.

Icon oriented programs or translation programs and labor arbitrage opens the door for the possibility of profit from outfitting the third world with computers. Which would also allows the developing world to market finished products world wide via the Internet not just export raw goods with the help of IMF and the World Bank.

It also places in their hands tools for their own concepts in 'social change engines'. I have seen news reports that Bill Gates has plans to orbit 300 satellites for world wide wireless Internet.( This was 7 years ago )

5th paradigm,

What is the internet?

A book, telephone, magazine, stereo, movie, typewriter, mail, news, stock trading, catalogs, bulletin board, diary, meeting place, business, fax, library, photo album, radio, search engine, etc. No it IS none of these and IT CAN BE ALL OF THESE!

"New uses and discoveries for the INTERNET will center on "PROCESS" & "ORGANIZATION". ( ie terrorism, process and organization, I didn't see terrorist using it 7 years ago though )

Using these paradigms we see the Internet is (sic) almost alive, has changed the laws of economics, and will probably encompass the entire world for economic reasons, and its uses and functions are limited only by our imaginations. The point I want to get across is that by putting "intelligence (data)" into a paradigm and tracking its growth our understanding is far more broad and comprehensive and immediate, than just by looking at facts and data. This is very important concept when trying to understand the Internet. There are now more pages on the internet than have been printed since the invention of the printing press.

Web pages are NOT like: Newspapers, magazine's, video, photo albums, radio, CD's, US mail, telephone, games, library or graffiti. Web sites can be like all of these combined.

An example of a successful 'social change engine' used only one of these, a book! Upton Sinclare's book "The Jungle" also was a prime example of applied anthropology, there were great changes in the meat packing industry sanitation and for workers conditions as a result of this book.

Could the Internet be used as a Social Change Engine like Sinclare's book?

Hegel (1770-1831) may have expressed it best. In his terms, we discover an antithesis and develop a thesis out of which emerge a synthesis, and this dialectical process continues as each generation becomes more enlightened. We seek rational insight not just the ambition to amass a mere heap of facts, an encyclopedia. Like Hegel we believe in the unconquerable faith that reason does exist. However truth exist only as a possibility, a potential. It is only when this idea is accompanied by action that this idea as well as abstract characteristics generally, are realized or actualized. For in and of themselves facts are powerless. A WEB PAGE WITH OUT HITS, followed by action, IS JUST A PILE OF WORDS AND GIFS, images, encyclopedia.

By Adapting Professor Keyan Tomselli's concepts of semiotics, as presented in his book " Appropriating Images" we are able to track a web sites many messages, i.e. the conceive text, the produced text, and received text. We can track levels of understanding, orders of significance, and any discrepant decoding. And review the pages ORGANIC's, how alive the page is. HOW I can connect it to the visitor, and improve this communication connection to the point of action on the part of the visitor.

Observation, synthesis and action are the essence of applied Anthropology.
I am defining Internet Anthropology in this case as the study and research of the interactive interfacing of human culture with this technology, to the point of action.

Al Qaeda understands this concept and is currently running the Internet Paradigm.Below
From 6/16/2007 11:06:00 PM
al Qaeda is different than ever before.
They have morphed from a controlled corporate structure to a free form franchise.
Moved on from a centrally controlled payroll to affiliations under the same BRAND.

They have suffered many defeats which has caused them to switch battlefields
and methods. They have opened new fronts in Lebanon, Algeria, London, Germany, China, and many other locations because they are loosing troops, cadre in Iraq, but the major shift has been to the Internet.

The USA is allowing al Qaeda to control the Internet paradigm.
USA controls the battle field but al Qaeda controls the Internet and consequently the hearts and minds.

If USA kills them it is called a victory of martyrs.
If they are jailed they plead torture and disrespect,
and then they produce videos of them beheading civilians.

They show videos of USA attacks and claim civilian casualties.
They show videos of their attacks and claim all USA troops were killed.

Al Qaeda hide in the shadows and attack easy targets, and call them selves brave.
USA patrols the most dangerous parts of Iraq protecting the public and AQ call them
infidels.

AQ videos an attack with their cell phone, email to their media section and they have it out on the Internet in 30 min. of the attack.

On balance,
USA's losses are very good, any KIA, is sad.

But compared to WWII rates the USA army is doing a remarkable job.

Around 150,000 troops at WAR, and KIA are 3 or 4 a day.
And they are not setting around is some safe fort,
they are out on patrol looking for AQ.

Hunting AQ, snipered, IED, Shaped charges.

AQ instruction manuals say to be like dust or a gas, unnoticed and just disappear,
to always seek a safe easy target.

USA troops are trying NOT to kill civilians,
AQ is trying TO kill civilians, Market bombings.

USA troops are trying to stop a civil WAR.
AQ is trying to start a civil WAR.

USA troops are trying to build a country.
AQ is trying to destroy the country.

USA troops patrol the streets.
AQ hides in shadows.

USA troops are trying to give the Umma the VOTE.
AQ is trying to KILL the Umma.

AQ says fighting the USA troops is like trying to run in STEEL RAIN.

AQ IS BASTARDIZING ISLAM.
USA troops know the difference between AQ and Islam.

( Al Qaeda has managed to brand the USA as the bad guys even in light of ll the above. )

And USA is loosing the media war, loosing the hearts and minds to al Qaeda...

They have suffered many failures, many of its top cadre killed, failures in
attempted take overs of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and attempted
establishment of government in Somalia.

By by corrupting the Koran al Qaeda has established a base of followers world wide
who are subject to his brand of propaganda, even though it violates the very basic principles of the Islamic religion.

By effectively using the Internet he has established a a cadre of members in Europe, England
the Maghreb, far and near East and Asia.

His "Brand " labels him as the primary symbol of terrorism, in the West and the successful
symbol of resistance in the Muslim world.

His primary goal is to establish a caliphate and destroy Israel, Jordan, Pakistan,and Saudi Arabia.

But he mis-calculated on his strategy with the USA, he thought he could lure them
into a short war in Afghan and defeat them much like the Russians.

So far USA has focused on attacking al Qaeda not its ideas, or the false brand
of Islam they have established, which has allowed world wide recruiting.

Al Qaeda's hypothesis is its Achilles heel, it is in violation of Allah's word the Koran

And AQ is not being attacked in this quarter.

AQ media arm is recruiting via the www more wannabees, their social change engine is running at full speed, and the rest of the world has yet to field any social change engine other than military.

AQ media arm promotes its propaganda daily, and are moving into a NEW PHASE OF PROPAGANDA PROLIFERATION and recruitment and funding. ( Breaking )

AQ is being defeated militarily every day, but their propaganda proclaim their continually victory.
The number of their deaths, defeat by western standards, are celebrated as victory's of martyrs.
While the West talk of pull out.

The media arm of AQ is more dangerous than AQ in Iraq, The media arm is the deep well for the suicide bombers, cannon fodder and homegrown terrorist, wiping them out will go along way to stopping recruitment and home made wannabes.

They are not being engaged on the Internet, they are winning on the WWW with USA as a "no show".

USA needs to deploy the mother of all "Social Change Engines".

al Qaeda has Weaknesses:

Pakistan has arrested more high level AQ than any where in the world, because Pakistan is the seat of AQ.
They still have a base of operations in Pakistan and continue to erode that government.

When USA does pull out of Iraq all the AQ assets will shift to Afghanistan.

AQ has become a criminal enterprise with kidnappings, extortion and Bank robberies, They have so much money in Iraq now they can send money back to AQ in Pakistan.

AQ is trying to create a new state in Western Iraq, in effect seceding form Iraq.

Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide attacks against Israeli.
The founder of Hamas supported AQ, but refused an alliance with them.
Hamas has been independent, and realizes it is an national case not international problem.
Hamas has rejected the sectarian violence AQ espouses,
And Hamas won the elections last year and AQ then became critics of Hamas,
stating they had sold out for wining using a political movement.

AQ has apologized for Hamas for their surrender to the political answer
to the violence in Gaza.

AQ fears a solution to the Arab-Israeli war movement, as it removes a leg of their
logic in recruiting.
The Israeli Arab problem is a basic recruiting tool and they do not want an answer, they want cannon fodder, recruits, financing not peace.

AQ may view Hamas as an enemy if they move towards peace with Israel.
Any move in that direction will bring Hamas under attack by AQ.

Iran and AQ have "convergence of interests." and inclined to co-operate, on a temporary basis. When USA leaves Iraq they will become mortal enemies.
Fighting to corrupt the soul of Islam....

al Qaeda is vulnerable, these vulneriblities need to be exploited and USA needs to be setting the Internet Paradigm, not al Qaeda. The ammunition is there, use it.

USA is building civil projects ( water systems ), and inside on their PC they read "the baby killers are building their water system" . NO wonder USA is loosing the war for minds and hearts.
From 6/16/2007 11:06:00 PM


Gerald


"Iraqi Insurgent Media: The War Of Images And Ideas" by RFE/RL
The book-length report, "Iraqi Insurgent Media: The War Of Images And Ideas" by RFE/RL regional analysts Daniel Kimmage and Kathleen Ridolfo, provides an in-depth analysis of the media efforts of Sunni insurgents, who are responsible for the majority of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq.
The popularity of online Iraqi Sunni insurgent media, the authors contend, reflects a genuine demand for their message in the Arab world.
The entire report

Gerald
Godspeed on the USSOCOM: new multiple language web sites.

Paradigm Hunters/Engineers

al Qaeda setting the Internet terrorism Paradigm

Human terrain system

H.t. System NPR

Using Anthropology, social science, in one case reduced violence by 60% in Afghan.

Great listen.

Gerald
Now they need an "Info War" officer.

AAA guilt complex is preventing them from looking at areas (Human terrain system), AAA is not adhering to it's own standards of clarity or argument within its own ontology.

.

US Army's strategy in Afghanistan: better anthropology

US Army's strategy in Afghanistan: better anthropology.

Shabak Valley, Afghanistan - Evidence of how far the US Army's counterinsurgency strategy has evolved can be found in the work of a uniformed anthropologist toting a gun in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Part of a Human Terrain Team (HTT) – the first ever deployed – she speaks to hundreds of Afghan men and women to learn how they think and what they need.

One discovery that may help limit Taliban recruits in this rough-hewn valley: The area has a preponderance of widows – and their sons, who have to provide care, are forced to stay closer to home, where few jobs can be found. Now, the HTT is identifying ways to tap the textiles and blankets traded through here to create jobs for the women – and free their sons to get work themselves.

"In most circumstances, I am 'third' gender," says Tracy, who can give only her first name. She says that she is not seen as either an Afghan woman or a Western one – because of her uniform. "It has enhanced any ability to talk to [Afghans]. There is a curiosity."

Such insight is the grist of what US forces here see as a smarter counterisurgency. "We're not here just to kill the enemy – we are so far past the kinetic fight," says Lt. Col. Dave Woods, commander of the 4th Squadron 73rd Cavalry. "It is the nonkinetic piece [that matters], to identify their problems, to seed the future here." Nearly six years after US troops toppled the Taliban, the battle is for a presence that will elicit confidence in the Afghan government and its growing security forces. "Operation Khyber," which started Aug. 22, aims for a more effective counterinsurgency – using fewer bullets and more local empowerment.

US commanders have doubled US troop strength in eastern Afghanistan in the past year. They are also fielding the HTT – a "graduate-level counterinsurgency" unit, as one officer puts it – to fine-tune aid and to undermine the intimidating grip of militants in the region.

"This battlefield has changed," says Colonel Woods, from Denbo, Pa., whose 450 or so troops are working with 150 Afghan police and 500 Afghan Army soldiers to bring security to three districts along the Khost-Gardez Pass, a key trade route. "I think the enemy has changed. He has to work harder to gain popular support. He can't work openly any longer."

Militant influence is palpable

US and Afghan officers estimate 200 to 250 Taliban, foreign fighters, and members of local criminal networks operate in the three districts – Gerda Serai, Swak, and Waze Jadran.

Several key Taliban leaders have been killed in Paktia Province and neighboring Paktika Province in recent months, and an expected Taliban spring offensive never took hold.

But this week in Chawni, as Afghan and US forces pushed deeper into territory steeped in Taliban influence, two 107-mm rockets fell close by on either side of their camp one night. No third shell came, and while the attack was small by the standards of Afghan violence, it illustrated the challenges of rooting out militants.

One villager in Chawni, where the high, dun-colored compound walls are divided by tall trees and irrigation ditches, recounts how, the night before, he had seen a Taliban convoy of six cars and two motorcycles pass through, preventing him from watering parched fields.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0907/p01s08-wosc.html?page=1

http://tinyurl.com/34krmp

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anthropology debates war

.Confused anthropologist deny terror,

al Qaeda as Tribe


Talibans war plans: 02.16.08

.

Invited to speak at 16th Congress of IUAES

The invite came from the secretary of the 16th Congress of IUAES (The International Union of
Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences)，which will be held in the City
of Kunming, China, from July 15-23, 2008 invited me to speak on our work
using "Social Change Engines". I will be developing a academic Panels/Session
covering the use and application of SCE.

http://www.icaes2008.org