The Command Post
Global War on Terror
August 10, 2003
Looking Under Rocks

Sometimes Truth is stranger than fiction. From the Washington Times comes the story of how a very extraordinary ordinary US citizen is helping in the war against Terror :

Referred to by her spy masters only as "Mrs. Galt," she is by day an unremarkable American housewife and mother. But after her two children go to bed, she plunges into a secret world of Internet chat rooms and Web sites populated by some of the most dangerous people on earth.

Burrowing into the byzantine network of unpublicized Web sites used by al Qaeda and other terror groups for their routine communications, she sweet-talks her interlocutors into revealing their plans, often with fatal consequences for the terrorists.
...
Her most recent venture — penetrating al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Pakistan — is said to have resulted in the death and detention of several terrorists. Others are still at large, making it necessary to keep her real name and hometown secret.

The results of her latest exploits, including transcripts of her chats with suspects, have been placed on a Web site for all to see at www.pakistan-army-isi.com. Despite the name, the site has no connection to the Pakistani army or ISI, the country's intelligence service.
...
Mrs. Galt is an example of a new breed of cyber-spy — ordinary citizens who want to "do their bit" by putting their computer skills to use fighting terrorism.

She reports to London-based private intelligence consultant Glen Jenvey, who makes his research available to government services, including the FBI and the military intelligence agencies of Russia and India.

"She has brought us first-rate military counterintelligence, and the people at the top respect her very much," said her British handler, one of a loosely organized group of counterintelligence researchers who specialize in using the Internet to infiltrate militant Islamic groups.

OK, where do I sign up?

Hat Tip : Little Green Footballs

Posted by Alan Brain at August 10, 2003 05:59 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Whoever gave out this information to begin with is a flaming asshole, or a liberal. There's enough information there for any determined tango to use to learn all about "Mrs. Galt."
Which is why I'm not as enthusiastic about the free flow of certain degrees of information as some. It gets good people killed.
"Loose lips," like the signs used to say, "sink ships".

Posted by: wolf at August 10, 2003 08:40 AM

Wolf,

That's the 1st thing that crossed my mind when I read this. What the hell is this doing in the open air? Just knowledge of her existence, or ones like her, will make it that much harder to keep up this game, if it truly exists. This stinks on ice, no?

Glad to have you back on the blog, man.

Posted by: Elvis at August 10, 2003 08:51 AM

Wolf : I thought about not posting about "Mrs Galt". Of deliberately supressing it, for exactly the reasons stated. Not being American, I don't Fanatically believe in the "Public's Right To Know".

But I decided to go ahead anyway. Rationale as follows:

a) "Cat out of the bag" - the data's already out there, I'm just repeating it. CounterArgument : The more widely it's known, the more likely the Bad Hats will know, and take counter-action. CounterCounterArgument : But they know how to use Google, they're not thick. Conclusion : Best not to, too risky. No payoff for the risk involved.

b) Recruiting : The more people who know about this technique, the more can do it. Which will give cover to the poor bastards with their heads above the parapet at the moment. Counterargument : none. Conclusion : Go for it

c) Playing Head Games : Anything that spreads alarm and distrust amongst the JI and Al-Q is Good. If they spend their time trying to verify each other's Islamofascist credentials before they trust each other, that gives the good folks at ECHELON more to go on. With luck there might be some Blue-On-Blues - it's happened in the past. CounterArgument : It makes it harder for the real Mrs Galts. CounterCounterArgument : They have to already know about the possibility, but they can't do anything about it. They either have to trust someone (who may be CIA or Mossad), or they end up impotent to do anything. Conclusion : Go for it.

So on balance, I published. I may be right, I may be wrong, but I thought about it and came to the conclusion the more publicity the better.

Posted by: Alan E Brain at August 10, 2003 09:16 AM

I go for C. Truly anybody who is involved in such an activity is not going to be publicizing it so freely and risking their life needlessly. Whether it's true or not, it will give the al-Qaida creeps one more thing to be paranoid about. And I'm all for terrorizing the terrorists.

Posted by: Dar at August 10, 2003 10:57 AM

When all this started in 9/11, the one thing I feared was that most of the war would be fought in the shadows and the average citizen would lose patience and faith. From time to time, we are going to get tidbits of how we have been clever. It gets tiresome hearing about all those treacherous effective members of the Iraqi "Resistance" (who ever started the use of that bravery evocative phrase) and from time to time we have to hear of our own ingenuity for morale reasons.

Look at the dark days of WWII and you'll see the very same thing and the same publicization of isolated acts of valor or cleverness.

Now I think Mrs. Galt (married to "Who is John Galt?"from Ayn Rand's The Fountain Head) never existed or was several people or is blown. So we might as well get the remaining mileage out of her. She will surely put a damper of terrorist contacts with innocents on the internet.

Dicken's had an equally non-existant but important character "Mrs. Harris." I suspect she's on the Spy Mom roles two.

Isn't it great when Western women outwit Islamic men who view all women as beneath them?

Must be twice as painful. And laughable.

Posted by: Limpet at August 10, 2003 10:02 PM

There's gotta be more to this blurb than face value. At least I would hope so. If it is real, than she would have never been exposed, unless of course her superior was Inspector Clouseau.

Posted by: Elvis at August 10, 2003 11:35 PM

Glen Jenvey's been in the news -- and this blog! -- before.

http://www.command-post.org/gwot/2_archives/007815.html

I think I scared him off; sorry guys, we might have scooped the blog-o-net by interviewing him.

Posted by: TBox at August 11, 2003 09:03 AM

From my own experience infiltrating Islamofacist groups with a few trusted friends, I can definitely say it has a detrimental effect on jihadi recruitment sites.

We practically shut down one forum when we first started, because even though they knew they were infiltrated (some beginners were not that convincing at pretending to be wannabe jihadis, and did not enough about net security to cover their own tracks) they did not know how many of us there were, and what we were up to.

The result was they started infighting among themselves, accusing some of the real Muslims of being infiltrators, and pushing them off the site, and giving each new comer the third degree until the site ground to a standstill. Of course, we sat back and laughed our asses off at all the trouble we had caused them.

Its surprisingly easy to infiltrate some groups, if you know where to look for them. Ive had discussions with some of these brainwashed slaves of Islam in private chatrooms, and have heard many a Muslim in the US and Europe tell me about their desires to become shaheeds (martyrs) and about their hatred for western values.

Its also interesting how receptive they are to females on the net. One of our infiltrating buddies is female and she often has more than a few wannabe jihadis vying for her attention when shes around.

The more people that are out there doing this the better. They have more unwanted attention than ever right now and its paying off, big time. One careful note tho'.... spend time on Islamic forums and learn ALL the Islamic lingo first :o)

Posted by: USF at August 11, 2003 10:37 AM

Damn it! I wanted ©, and I wanted it all to myself... SO much for greed. Maybe what I ought to do is go for Avarice.

Posted by: Cap'n SPIN at August 11, 2003 11:34 AM

Lust. Did I mention that one? Islamowhackos don't favor 'protection'. Beneath them. Or under them. Somethin' like that. Maybe she ought to, like, mention SID. That would tend to raise the level of awareness, wouldn't it? Barin' her 'soul' so to speak. Allah made me say that.

Posted by: Cap'n SPIN at August 11, 2003 11:41 AM

Hey Cap'n, every red blooded Muslim male in search of female companionship thinks that Muslims females don't have any thing that requires the males to use "protection." They are all "good girls" who know nothing about this "protection" you speak of, unlike those decadent western females that run around half naked with their hair and ankles exposed for all to see.

Talking to them about "protection" is a waste of time, like having a useless ugly fourth wife that knows no tricks with her tongue.

Posted by: MuslimahMujihadeenHottie469 at August 11, 2003 03:03 PM

Muslimahwhatever - You crack me up. Let me do this thing by the numbers, then. Pride. Avarice. Lust. Envy(wooooow. Viagra? I mean, the Dr. whomever on the Wiagra site is a KICK!) Gluttony. Hmmm. Have to ponder the marketing possibilities for that one. Anger. WTF? Sloth. Okay. So, maybe an EagerBeaver gone bad? This crap is boring. I stick with original ©. If for no other reason than it sounds like a CheapThrill.

Posted by: Cap'n SPIN at August 11, 2003 04:11 PM

LOL. Ok Cap'n, CheapThrill © it is!

Btw, does anyone know how to get a hijab off in a hurry? hehe ;o)

Posted by: MuslimahMujihadeenHottie469 at August 11, 2003 05:04 PM

a bowl of hummus, a fig/date candy mixture and re-runs of 80's star search.

Posted by: gijoe at August 11, 2003 05:14 PM

Hey gijoe, you sound like a man who knows how to melt the heart of the most hardened chechyen mujihadeen widdow about to do the next bombing run to Moscow.

Throw in some 2 day old falafel and I will set you up on a date. ;o)

Posted by: MuslimahMujihadeenHottie469 at August 11, 2003 07:20 PM

Hi all hope you all liked mrs galt! as you may-be aware Mrs galt has help arrest and kill serveral al-qaeda terrorists in kashmir and chechnya and there may-be a few arab al-qaeda member's to be confirmed. This is not her real name so she is still very secret and safe. i take full blame. if anyone would like to pass on infomation via P.G.C.C. just send via the email address on line or use f.b.i. tips lines. the russian FSB can be contacted via your local russian embassy or by fsb@fsb.ru ..remember to tell others that al-qaeda got beat by a american house wife! glen

Posted by: GlenJenvey at August 15, 2003 11:31 AM

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