Sic Semper Tyrannis : Administration

Correction on Islam Lecture

One of my neighbors has been kind enough to point out that the Islam lecture is actually under the category "Lectures and Interviews" on TA. pl

07 November 2009 in Administration | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

2nd Infantry Regiment

Someone addressed me as a fellow grunt a few days ago. I served in the second battalion of this regiment. My wife and I have a wedding cup from the officers of the battalion. pl

07 November 2009 in Administration, The Wars | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

It's Halloween on The Athenaeum

Maureen has put up some lovely Halloween things on TA. pl

18 October 2009 in Administration | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

"Per NS Saloman, haven't followed his postings with the same attention as those of the late "ms." NSS some time back claimed he lived in Europe, Portugal I think it was. I recall he claimed to be a US citizen as well at one point. His last comment alone on another thread being prickly/defensive about his use of English and insolent in tone could indicate you have "him"/"them" pinned. As I recall he has been rather consistent in promoting a defeatist line with respect to the US. His disagreeable insolence I should think would disqualify him from SST presence. MS got increasingly insolent as "he" began to melt down. For all the software available out there -- spell checks, translators, and the like -- these hackers still present clumsy posts. The attempts at using US slang and dialect as ms did, for example...very shoddy. "Highlander" was a more skilled poseur/hacker. "MS" would pick up on something like your use of the term "sub rosa." Then, he would google to check the meaning of this term, then shoot something (incoherent) back to attempt to establish some knowledge. I noticed he did this when Sidney Smith mentioned Tony Rice. Ms googled to find Tony Rice and some musical composition of his and then came back with the line that it was "gut-wrenching" to live in Europe and not be able to hear Tony Rice and how he longed for home in the US...blah blah blah. He did this with my mention of Cafe Deux Magots in Paris and botched that. The hackers work to ingratiate themselves into the discussion group, build up a presence, then work toward introducing disinformation and propaganda. Also I note attempts at provocation. From this they sometimes move toward more open disruption of the targeted website as ms did. They could also introduce some coded signals to others working with them and monitoring the targeted site. Perhaps an SST reader who has some professional knowledge of these types of foreign directed cyber operations could give us some leads to open source articles on this threat. " Clifford Kiracofe

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Cliff has this just right. He understands the methodology. The infiltration activities of propagandists are not really a problem but they are a nuisance. The use of such targeted disinformation and disruption is a growing phenomenon on the part of governments and para-governmental support groups. The Middle East is an obvious focal point for much of this activity but there are other concentrations of trollish behavior as well.

Be advised that comments will be examined closely for indications of information operations. pl

16 October 2009 in Administration | Permalink | Comments (43) | TrackBack (0)