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Blog*Spot ArchivesContactRichard Ceccarelli Josh Mandir |
Sunday, August 14, 2005TerrormetricsIf you haven't heard, last week, a military intelligence operation known as Project Able Danger was revealed to have possibly flagged 4 future terrorists (future 9/11 pilots) for arrest in the year 2000. They were not able to get this across because of the law against sharing intelligence info with the FBI. Of course, it is difficult to say how much of this is true (right now it is just a couple of unnamed sources). A new article from Mike Kelly of the Bergen Report (hat tip: TKS) highlights how Able Danger did what they did: through data mining. This passage makes them sound like newfangled baseball statisticians using SABRmetrics:
The 11-person group called itself "Project Able Danger." Think of them as a super-secret Delta Force or SEAL team. But instead of guns, they relied on advanced math training as their key weapons. And instead of traditional spying methods or bust-down-the-door commando tactics, the Able Danger group booted up a set of high-speed, super-computers and collected vast amounts of data.Maybe Able Danger will publish 90% TORT (Terror Over Replacement Terrorist) levels for all of the major terrorists every year. Comments:What's the denomination for a TORT? Civilian deaths? Number of mentions in the Times, New York or Los Angeles? My guess is that it's a combination of the above, adjusted for nation factor (it's easier to be terrorist in Iran than say, Britain). Richard -- you've got it backwards. It's based on the difficulty of the places the terrorists have bombed. Set off a car bomb in Berlin and terrorize Germany? High level of difficulty. Do the same in Peru? Hm, not so much. By the way, Josh, whaddya think an Al Qaida chat room is like? Terrorist 1: Death, death to them all. Terrorist 2: Yes, death to all the infidels! Terrorist 1: We shall rain fire and justice in the name of Allah! Terrorist 2: WE WILL BRING DOWN MORE TOWERS OF EVIL WITH FLAME AND RUIN! Terrorist 1: Hey, Ahmed, did you see the Best Damned Sport Show last night? John Salley is the funniest infidel ever. Terrorist 2: Yes, Jahir, but Chris Rose is a nerdy infidel, is he not? Terrorist 1: Hey, let's go get some cous-cous and a Coke. Terrorist 2: Yes, yes, I'm hungrier than Oprah Winfrey and Kirstie Alley combined! (lol) That's all very good. I would think that property damage, number of people killed, number of infidels killed (kind of like extra base hits), suicide or not (lowest possible TORT would be a suicide bomber killing only himself), and clutch hitting (of course). Difficulty of country to hit would be like ballpark factors (Iraq is like Coors). |
