To Defeat Terrorists, Start Using the Library

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-31/to-defeat-terrorists-do-a-little-research-in-the-library-scott-helfstein.html

By Scott Helfstein
Bloomberg
Aug 30, 2011

The information glut that marks the 21st century is evidenced in some 
unexpected places. Last month, my organization, the Combating Terrorism 
Center at West Point, released a report that sharply disputed 
conventional wisdom about terrorism along the Afghanistan-Pakistani 
frontier.

The report argued that the Haqqani Network, a border- spanning tribal 
group with deep ties to Pakistan’s government, had been more influential 
than the Taliban in aiding al-Qaeda’s rise.

How did we support this thesis, which has vast implications for 
reconciliation efforts in the region as well as for the distribution of 
U.S. military aid? Not with data culled from clandestine operations in 
Pakistan’s tribal areas or from Osama bin Laden’s computer hard drive. 
The report was based on the public statements and writings of individual 
extremists over the past 30 years. Rather than ferreting out secret 
information, researchers merely took extremists at their voluminous 
word.

It seems terrorists, too, are susceptible to the syndrome known as Too 
Much Information.

[...]

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