[November 27, 2016] During World War II, one of the strategies employed by the Allies against Nazi Germany was the bombing and sabotage of ball-bearing factories. The idea was to grind to a halt their highly effective armored forces which depended upon those ball-bearings. Today we see something similar as the U.S. strategically targets the Islamic State’s (IS) social media experts to help bring their recruiting and propaganda activities to a halt.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) program to find and kill their media experts is not new but was recently made public by the New York Times in a recent article.1 They discussed some of the now open sources that allow us to look inside a well-lead FBI terrorist targeting effort of the Islamic State terrorist social media organization.
The Islamic State has developed an extensive and successful effort to gain both personnel and money through its social media and those efforts were seen by the FBI as having weaknesses that could be exploited. One of those weaknesses was the locating of their social media personnel themselves. Once located, the FBI used armed drones to kill as many of them as possible.
The effort has disrupted IS’s English language efforts that many from the U.S., England, and Australia came under the influence of IS propaganda. Initially considered reactive law enforcement, the effort has been to arrest those who become radicalized and run afoul of the law. The FBI has gone proactive and in addition to targeting the media personnel overseas they also managed to shutdown many of the Internet-centric avenues to recruit and raise money.
Raising money is the heart of all terrorist organizations and none can effectively operate without it. While long recognized as a weakness in terrorism, the U.S. has had success over the past decade in restricting the flow of cash. With the development of new tools to attack the social media of IS, the FBI along with other U.S.-based counterterrorism organizations have used technology effectively to slow IS growth.
Director of the FBI, James Comey, has been particularly effective in successfully leading alternative strategies to inhibit the growth of IS within the confines of U.S. law. The U.S. has been fortunate that Comey has made progress in this ever evolving threat. He has also teamed with other senior leaders from a number of internal and international law enforcement agencies. His success in developing this has been a major factor in the overall success of non-military options against IS.
Expect to see more from the FBI and Director James Comey.
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