21–30 of 83 posts
The real problem is flagging 0.2% of the population is useless when 0.00001% of the population is terrorists. If everything works perfectly your people end up investigating 1,000 innocent people in a row which trains them that everything is a false positive. The 9/11 hijackers and the Boston marathon bombers where both flagged yet the attacks still happened in large part because there was simply far to much noise fro…
In my mind, the erosion of privacy and freedom - some of the most vaunted principles of the West - is the ultimate triumph of terrorist organizations like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. They can't beat us by strength of arms, so instead they're stunting our culture.
I think that's just a side effect. I don't think terrorists actually care that much about western society. They want to ultimately defeat the west at least ideologically, if not economically and ultimately militarily (in order they can further their own goals) So it's beside the point to them. Let's say someone wants your money, so in fear, you stop spending your money, stop bringing your wallet with you, the thief d…
I encourage everyone to read more on this topic and the background behind AL Quaida and Isis.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The gp isn't calling that noise, it's the thousands of other things that they track that don't lead to anything that are noise.
And my argument is that the Boston bomber warning from the Russian authorities doesn't appear like a typical "noise," at last for somebody just reading the news, like me. I admit I don't know how many such warnings come from Russia, but I doubt it's really something overwhelming, especially compared to collecting every phone record of everybody, if you know more I'm surely interested.
But, the attack still happened. Which points to a wider issue, sure he was suspicious, but then what?
In my mind, the erosion of privacy and freedom - some of the most vaunted principles of the West - is the ultimate triumph of terrorist organizations like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. They can't beat us by strength of arms, so instead they're stunting our culture.
I think that's just a side effect. I don't think terrorists actually care that much about western society. They want to ultimately defeat the west at least ideologically, if not economically and ultimately militarily (in order they can further their own goals) So it's beside the point to them. Let's say someone wants your money, so in fear, you stop spending your money, stop bringing your wallet with you, the thief d…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's just a side effect. I don't think terrorists actually care that much about western society. They want to ultimately defeat the west at least ideologically, if not economically and ultimately militarily (in order they can further their own goals) So it's beside the point to them. Let's say someone wants your money, so in fear, you stop spending your money, stop bringing your wallet with you, the thief d…
Noooo. We cannot win the "war on terrorism" while people still have this misconception. The Islamic terrorist don't care about the west at all, their goal is to gain ground in countries with Islamic population. The only reason west got dragged into this war was because AL Quaida were miserably failing at this in the 90s, and so tried to create a common enemy: the west. I encourage everyone to read more on this topic…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, its like poisons that kill you by triggering an overreactive histamine response. The body's zealous desire to protect itself is precisely what kills it.
I like that analogy. Can you give an example of a specific poison that does that?
In my mind, the erosion of privacy and freedom - some of the most vaunted principles of the West - is the ultimate triumph of terrorist organizations like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. They can't beat us by strength of arms, so instead they're stunting our culture.
The real problem is flagging 0.2% of the population is useless when 0.00001% of the population is terrorists. If everything works perfectly your people end up investigating 1,000 innocent people in a row which trains them that everything is a false positive. The 9/11 hijackers and the Boston marathon bombers where both flagged yet the attacks still happened in large part because there was simply far to much noise fro…
> The 9/11 hijackers and the Boston marathon bombers where both flagged yet the attacks still happened because there was simply far to much noise and not enough signal. I've never read that this was a typical "noise": "NBC News said the Russian intelligence agency FSB cabled the FBI about its concerns in March 2011, warning that Tsarnaev was known to have associated with militant Islamists." http://www.reuters.com/ar…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think he meant it in the sense that "we have 10,000 other people who are associated with militant Islamits in our database, why should we care about these guys?" That's the noise he's talking about. The reason you can't "prevent" terrorism, is because there are way too many people who "act a certain way", whatever that way may be. This isn't helped by the fact that agencies like TSA and whatnot have huge lists or v…
> "we have 10,000 other people who are associated with militant Islamits in our database "And for who even Russians spent their energy to notify us"? I'd expect that most of the 10,000 others aren't on the list because Russians notify the FBI. Or you know more than I do, and I'd be glad to learn. Or maybe the warning was ignored because of the Tsarnaev's uncle? http://backchannel.al-monitor.com/index.php/2013/04/5090…
This doesn't strengthen your assertions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Noooo. We cannot win the "war on terrorism" while people still have this misconception. The Islamic terrorist don't care about the west at all, their goal is to gain ground in countries with Islamic population. The only reason west got dragged into this war was because AL Quaida were miserably failing at this in the 90s, and so tried to create a common enemy: the west. I encourage everyone to read more on this topic…
That's an interesting valid point, still, the terrorists don't actually care how we deal with things internally. In other words they are not concerned with our behavioral changes and whether they lead to an erosion of liberty or not. Their only concern is to further their own goals, whatever they be.
Yes, but we don't actually have to help them to further their goals.