Friday, October 31, 2008

Army Intelligence on the Twitter Threat

Via FAS Blog -

Could terrorists use Twitter, the instant messaging and micro-blogging service? Presumably so, just as they could use credit cards and can openers.

The potential use of Twitter and other communications technologies by terrorists is considered in a new draft Army intelligence paper, based on a review of jihadist web sites and other public sources.

The Army paper on “al Qaida-Like Mobile Discussions & Potential Creative Uses” was dissected by Noah Shachtman in “Spy Fears: Twitter Terrorists, Cell Phone Jihadists,” Danger Room, October 24. A copy of the paper itself, which is more like a student exercise than a finished intelligence assessment, is available here (large pdf, for official use only).

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Terrorist can also call each other to pass along real-time intelligence....the use of Twitter and other near real-time communication services should be understood.

Twitter is a tool, just like a hammer - it can be used for good or for bad.

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