Communists, Vegetarians, and Anarchists, Oh My!

I'm glad that we have Army analysts who are constantly thinking about how terrorists might use new technologies to attack our civilians and infrastructure more efficiently. Noah at the Danger Room tells us that they have decided that Twitter is a potential way to do just that. CNet took a closer look at the Army's draft report on this possible approach and found this:

"Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences," the report said.

The report goes on to say:

Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives. Extremist and terrorist use of Twitter could evolve over time to reflect tactics that are already evolving in use by hacktivists and activists for surveillance. This could theoretically be combined with targeting.

The report describes hacktivists as politically motivated hackers.

This is almost sad, and I don't mean just the reference to vegetarians as "social activists" in the same breath as communists, socialists, and terrorists. Is it the tool that's dangerous or the actual activities that the terrorists are planning that ought to be the focus? If there wasn't Twitter, they'd use cheap cell phones or Skype or any number of other communication tools. But it's easier to think up worse-case scenarios that never materialize instead of getting human intelligence on terrorist sources and capabilities.

Comments

[ajay]

...socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others...

Vegetarians? Political enthusiasts? Atheists?

This is verging on the Dr. Strangelove. I wonder who the 'others' are?

Home brewers! Mac users! People who use fabric conditioner! Drinkers of Belgian beer! Rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists!