Medieval butcher bastards ISIS are adept at using the web to lure Western followers to their warped cause – but the internet can turn around and bite back.
Air Force General Hawk Carlisle, head of US Air Combat Command, told a conference that analysts at the 361st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group spotted a selfie snapped and posted online by an ISIS fighter standing outside a command-and-control building in the Mid East.
"The [airmen are] combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command," Carlisle said at the speech, Air Force Times reports. "And in some social media, open forum, bragging about command and control capabilities for Da'esh. And these guys go 'ah, we got an in.'"
According to the general, the analysts worked out the position of the building based on the information posted online, and 22 hours later the Air Force paid a visit, dropping three Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) – dumb iron bombs fitted with fins and a guidance package for precision strikes – on the building, destroying it.
"Through social media. It was a post on social media. Bombs on target in 22 hours," Carlisle said. "It was incredible work, and incredible airmen doing this sort of thing."
On Wednesday, US Congress's House Homeland Security Committee heard that ISIS is flooding social networking websites with propaganda, reaching thousands of potential recruits to their evil cause.
At those briefings, Michael Steinbach, assistant director in the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, claimed Apple and Google's use of encryption was helping ISIS by hiding their communications from view. Based on this latest case, ISIS is doing a pretty good job of making it easy for Uncle Sam to spot them. ®
