Isn't if futile to think we could ever decipher, view, react in time

[Laura PourMeADrink]

to terrorist communications?

How do we protect ourselves with all these options gone?
1. Monitoring Communications - The potential for knowing before something happens is virtually impossible.
2. Noticing/Reporting People Acting like Terrorists - Radicalized individuals are obviously being trained to act as normal as possible (i.e. San Bernardino)
3. Securing Public Places - Impossible task to secure every public gathering place in US
4. Bombing the hell out of them - Immoral and Impossible - an idea not a geographic site especially in the virtual world. Plus, the US bombing/any occupation fuels hatred.

In September 2014 it was estimated that there were [font color=red]one billion websites [/font color = red]out there.

Disposable Sim cards. Cheap and legally available for cash, these can be bought anonymously over the counter, inserted into a mobile phone, used once and then thrown away.

Email and SMS text message. Wary terrorist planners have tended to communicate in code or use metaphors when discussing targets, knowing they may well be intercepted. For example, two of the 9/11 planners, Mohammed Atta and Ramzi Binalshibh, referred to the World Trade Centre as "architecture", the Pentagon as "arts" and the White House as "politics"

Social media, chat rooms and gaming. An increasingly popular way of disguising messages in seemingly innocuous interchanges between online "gamers". Many online forums are encrypted and require passwords to join. Some may well be infiltrated by government intelligence agents posing as online militants.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-24784756
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/how-many-websites-are-there/408151/

[Ligyron]

1. I've always thought so

I hate NSA and gov spying but I must admit, they've probably stopped some and perhaps many attacks, more than a few of which we won't hear of, at least not for some time.

I don't know if anyone wants to keep score, but if they did, we're so far ahead of that stupid game in this country it's ridiculous.

I mean, a few thousand of us were killed on 911 and what, a couple dozen here in the US since then? Non-trivial, sad and horrible for the family and friends of those lost but we've been bombing the shit out of ISIL killing gawd knows how many of them along with untold innocent civilians, women, children - and that's not even considering the hundreds of thousands in Chimpy's Iraq debacle that started the whole mess in the first place.

They will no doubt kill some more of us before it's all over (if it ever is) that's a given, but unless they somehow come up with a nuc and set it off here it isn't even going to be close.

Europe on the other hand, has a real problem.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

2. agree. And it echoes what Obama said - about great progress

thwarting the big attacks. Shifted now to the smaller ones that no one can predict or protect against completely.

With all the criticism Obama got for "not offering any new ideas" I wish he had said he would be passing on legislation for funding for 1) treasury resources to follow the money, 2)technology experts consults, 3) FBI resource, etc.

Although Trump's ideas are always expressed in a horrible way - if you dig sometimes - there is some value occasionally. He said this morning he would gather all the top technology people in the country to work on possible solutions for the terrorist communications problem.