Terrorism & Communication: Osama Bin Laden Style
Terrorism has been around for ages and just like any common organization, the terrorist organization needs to have the ability to communicate amongst one another. A lot of the prominent terrorist organizations define themselves as international terrorist groups or organizations. Soldiers can attest that communication can be difficult on the same battlefield and families can attest that communication can be difficult in the same household. Now, try and imagine the difficulty of communicating from side of the world to another side of the world secretly without giving away your position. Sounds difficult right? The following paper will outline how the Osama Bin Laden communicated to his followers …show more content…
They could not rely on cellphone text messages, emails or satellite phones because of the United States ability to intercept and trace signal world-wide. The United States Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) ability forced Osama Bin Laden to use courier by hand method, which has become known as, the “Bin Laden” method. The Bin Laden method has worked for years. It avoids leaving any digital trail, but of course still needs a human courier who can be tracked to his destination, as was the case with the al-Qaeda leader, killed by US Navy Seals in Pakistan in 2011 (Gardner, 2013). Since the death of Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda has had limited success as a terror organization as a whole. It has been said though, if Al Qaeda harnesses the social networking tools that facilitated the “Arab Spring” to spark a transnational spate of spontaneous terrorist attacks (Hoffman, CTC Sentinel, …show more content…
The first example of bad communications is, the process of expanding their operations beyond their scope of managing the communications among their organization and affiliates. According to Thomas McCabe , “Al Qaeda repeatedly expanded its theater of operations to embrace a greater portion of the world” (McCabe, 2010).This problem is detrimental to the success of their operations because it forces the organization to move more quickly and use means of communication that is less safe, such as text messages and emails. Al Qaeda lost their ability of command and control because they spread themselves to thin. The second way Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda organization failed in regards to communication was by miscommunicating with the local population, the same local populace of which they
Terrorism has been around for ages and just like any common organization, the terrorist organization needs to have the ability to communicate amongst one another. A lot of the prominent terrorist organizations define themselves as international terrorist groups or organizations. Soldiers can attest that communication can be difficult on the same battlefield and families can attest that communication can be difficult in the same household. Now, try and imagine the difficulty of communicating from side of the world to another side of the world secretly without giving away your position. Sounds difficult right? The following paper will outline how the Osama Bin Laden communicated to his followers …show more content…
They could not rely on cellphone text messages, emails or satellite phones because of the United States ability to intercept and trace signal world-wide. The United States Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) ability forced Osama Bin Laden to use courier by hand method, which has become known as, the “Bin Laden” method. The Bin Laden method has worked for years. It avoids leaving any digital trail, but of course still needs a human courier who can be tracked to his destination, as was the case with the al-Qaeda leader, killed by US Navy Seals in Pakistan in 2011 (Gardner, 2013). Since the death of Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda has had limited success as a terror organization as a whole. It has been said though, if Al Qaeda harnesses the social networking tools that facilitated the “Arab Spring” to spark a transnational spate of spontaneous terrorist attacks (Hoffman, CTC Sentinel, …show more content…
The first example of bad communications is, the process of expanding their operations beyond their scope of managing the communications among their organization and affiliates. According to Thomas McCabe , “Al Qaeda repeatedly expanded its theater of operations to embrace a greater portion of the world” (McCabe, 2010).This problem is detrimental to the success of their operations because it forces the organization to move more quickly and use means of communication that is less safe, such as text messages and emails. Al Qaeda lost their ability of command and control because they spread themselves to thin. The second way Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda organization failed in regards to communication was by miscommunicating with the local population, the same local populace of which they