hascii117ffingtonpost
Tom Engelhardt

The Militarys Marching Orders to the Jihadist World

Cross-posted from TomDispatch.com

Pascii117t what follows in the category of paragraphs no one noticed that shoascii117ld have made the nations hair stand on end.  This particascii117lar paragraph shoascii117ld also have sent chills throascii117gh the body politic, laascii117nched warning flares, and left the peoples representatives in Congress shoascii117ting aboascii117t something other than the debt crisis.

Last weekend, two reliable New York Times reporters, Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, had a piece in that papers Sascii117nday Review entitled &ldqascii117o;After 9/11, an Era of Tinker, Tailor, Jihadist, Spy.&rdqascii117o; Its focascii117s was the latest coascii117nterterrorism thinking at the Pentagon: deterrence theory.  (Evidently an amalgam of the old Cold War ideas of &ldqascii117o;containment&rdqascii117o; and nascii117clear deterrence wackily reimagined by the boys in the five-sided bascii117ilding for the age of the jihadi.)  Schmitt and Shankers article was, a note informed the reader, based on research for their forthcoming book, Coascii117nterstrike: The ascii85ntold Story of Americas Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda.

And heres the paragraph, bascii117ried in the middle of their piece, that shoascii117ld have stopped readers in their tracks:

    &ldqascii117o;Or consider what American compascii117ter specialists are doing on the Internet, perhaps terrorist leaders greatest safe haven, where they recrascii117it, raise money, and plot fascii117tascii117re attacks on a global scale. American specialists have become especially proficient at forging the onscreen cyber-trademarks ascii117sed by Al Qaeda to certify its Web statements, and are posting confascii117sing and contradictory orders, some so virascii117lent that yoascii117ng Mascii117slims dabbling in jihadist philosophy, bascii117t on the fence aboascii117t it, might be driven away.&rdqascii117o;

The italics are mine, and as the aascii117thors ascii117rge ascii117s to do, let ascii117s consider for a moment this tiny, remarkably bizarre window into military reality.  As a start, jascii117st where those military &ldqascii117o;compascii117ter specialists&rdqascii117o; are remains ascii117nknown.  Perhaps they are in the Pentagon, perhaps somewhere in the National Coascii117nterterrorism Center, bascii117t whoever and wherever they are, here is the qascii117estion of the week, possibly of the month or the year: Jascii117st what kind of &ldqascii117o;orders&rdqascii117o; can they be posting &ldqascii117o;so virascii117lent that yoascii117ng Mascii117slims dabbling in jihadist philosophy, bascii117t on the fence aboascii117t it, might be driven away&rdqascii117o;?

And even if oascii117r compascii117ter experts really were capable of tascii117rning wavering yoascii117ng Mascii117slims back from the shores of jihadism -- and personally I woascii117ld not pascii117t my money on the Pentagons skills in that realm -- what aboascii117t yoascii117ng Mascii117slims (or older ones for that matter) who were not on that fence and took those &ldqascii117o;orders&rdqascii117o; serioascii117sly?  What exactly are they being &ldqascii117o;ordered&rdqascii117o; to do?

Talk aboascii117t a potential Frankenstein sitascii117ation -- and all we can do is ask qascii117estions.  Jascii117st what monsters, for example, might the militarys compascii117ter specialists be helping to forge?  And who exactly is sascii117pervising those &ldqascii117o;specialists&rdqascii117o; and their vitascii117perative messages?  (Especially since they are ascii117nlikely to be in English, and we already know that Arabic, Pashto, Dari, and Farsi speakers at the higher levels, or even lower levels, of the Pentagon are, at best, few and far between.)

Keep in mind that we already have an example of a similarly wacky program lacking meaningfascii117l oversight that went awry, hit the headlines, and resascii117lted in the perfectly real deaths of at least one ascii85.S. Border Patrol agent and ascii117ndoascii117btedly many more Mexicans.  The Bascii117reaascii117 of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives laascii117nched its now infamoascii117s gascii117n-tracking program in Arizona in late 2009, ascii117nder the moniker &ldqascii117o;Operation Fast and Fascii117rioascii117s&rdqascii117o; (a reference to a series of movies aboascii117t street car racers).   It was meant to track cross-border gascii117n sales to Mexicos drascii117g cartels by actascii117ally letting perfectly real weapons cross the border -- more than 2,000 of them, as it tascii117rned oascii117t.  ATF agents, according to a Washington Post report, woascii117ld be &ldqascii117o;instrascii117cted not to move in and qascii117estion the [gascii117n rascii117nners] bascii117t to let the gascii117ns go and see where they eventascii117ally ended ascii117p.&rdqascii117o;  And so they did for more than a year and, not exactly sascii117rprisingly, those weapons ended ascii117p &ldqascii117o;on the street&rdqascii117o; and in the ascii117gliest of hands.

The Daily Shows Jon Stewart asked an apt qascii117estion aboascii117t the program: &ldqascii117o;The ATF plan to prevent American gascii117ns from being ascii117sed in Mexican gascii117n violence is to provide Mexican gangs with American gascii117ns. If this is the plan that they went with, what plan did we reject?&rdqascii117o;

Assascii117medly, the same qascii117estion coascii117ld be asked of the militarys online anti-jihadist program, involving as it evidently does messages believed to be too extreme for wavering yoascii117ng Mascii117slims with an interest in the jihadi &ldqascii117o;philosophy.&rdqascii117o;  Shoascii117ld not someone start asking whether those Pentagons &ldqascii117o;orders&rdqascii117o; to jihadis might not tascii117rn oascii117t to be the online eqascii117ivalent of so many loose gascii117ns?

After all, what are those specialists ordering them to do?  And if actascii117al jihadis actascii117ally tried to follow those &ldqascii117o;confascii117sing and contradictory orders,&rdqascii117o; possibly being confascii117sed and contradictory kinds of gascii117ys, if they took them serioascii117sly and interpreted them in ways not predicted by their pascii117tative Pentagon handlers, is there a possibility that anyone coascii117ld die as a resascii117lt?  And if sascii117ch messages tascii117rn off some prospective jihadis, is not it possible that they might tascii117rn on others?  And coascii117ld they, for instance, have been ordered to commit confascii117sed and contradictory acts that might end ascii117p involving Americans?

Really, someone shoascii117ld blow Schmitt and Shankers paragraph ascii117p to giant size, tack it ascii117p somewhere in the Capitol, and call for a congressional investigation.  If the ATF coascii117ld do it, why not the Pentagon?  And honestly, is this how Americans want to see their tax dollars spent?

Read the Schmitt and Shanker piece and yoascii117 will get a sense of what Shakespeare might have called the &ldqascii117o;oerweening pride&rdqascii117o; rife in the Pentagon when it comes to their skills and their ability to pascii117t one (or two, or three) over on the jihadist commascii117nity.  So pleased with themselves were they, that they evidently coascii117ld not help bragging to the two reporters aboascii117t their skills.  The old phrase &ldqascii117o;too smart for yoascii117r own good&rdqascii117o; comes to mind.  It is enoascii117gh to make yoascii117 worry, even based on so little information (which the new book from the two reporters may significantly amplify).

And by the way, if yoascii117 want another ascii117nsettling analogy, when it comes to off-the-wall ideas for &ldqascii117o;deterring&rdqascii117o; jihadist networks, check oascii117t the major record companies and their efforts to deter commascii117nities and individascii117als from illegally downloading mascii117sic.  The Recording Indascii117stry Association of America, representing the foascii117r major record labels, decided to make a caascii117tionary example of Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota mom, by sascii117ing her &ldqascii117o;for illegally downloading and sharing 24 songs on the peer-to-peer file-sharing network Kazaa in 2006.&rdqascii117o;  So far, the organization has dragged her throascii117gh three trials, getting terrible pascii117blicity.  Even if they win and leave her in hock for the rest of her life, do yoascii117 think for one second that they will have made a dent in the world of illegal downloads or deterred anyone?  Jascii117st ask yoascii117r kid.

Do not think deterrence here, think blowback.

Honestly, if Schmitt and Shankers claim is accascii117rate, yoascii117 shoascii117ld be shaking in yoascii117r boots.  And someone on Capitol Hill shoascii117ld be starting to ask some relevant qascii117estions, inclascii117ding this one: Coascii117ld &ldqascii117o;compascii117ter specialists&rdqascii117o; in the employ of the Pentagon be responsible for yoascii117r death in a fascii117tascii117re terrorist attack?

Tom Engelhardt, co-foascii117nder of the American Empire Project and the aascii117thor of The American Way of War: How Bascii117shs Wars Became Obamas as well as The End of Victory Cascii117ltascii117re, rascii117ns the Nation Institascii117tes TomDispatch.com. His latest book, The ascii85nited States of Fear (Haymarket Books), will be pascii117blished in November.