Return-Path: <sentto-279987-1983-1000776292-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Mon, 17 Sep 2001 18:26:13 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 17698 invoked by uid 510); 18 Sep 2001 01:25:07 -0000 Received: from n24.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.74) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 18 Sep 2001 01:25:07 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-1983-1000776292-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.4.56] by ef.egroups.com with NNFMP; 18 Sep 2001 01:24:52 -0000 X-Sender: fc@big.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_2_2); 18 Sep 2001 01:24:52 -0000 Received: (qmail 70418 invoked from network); 17 Sep 2001 20:41:34 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by l10.egroups.com with QMQP; 17 Sep 2001 20:41:34 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO big.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta2 with SMTP; 17 Sep 2001 20:41:34 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by big.all.net (8.9.3/8.7.3) id NAA16384 for iwar@onelist.com; Mon, 17 Sep 2001 13:41:34 -0700 Message-Id: <200109172041.NAA16384@big.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL1] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 13:41:34 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] [fc:Future.Wargame.Presaged.Terrorist.Challenge] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Defense Week September 17, 2001 Future Wargame Presaged Terrorist Challenge By Christian Lowe Four years ago, the Army conducted a wargame pitting terrorists against U.S. and allied forces. Despite some success against the terrorists, the allied forces were never able to destroy them, according to an official familiar with the game. In the 1997 wargame, the terrorist group was similar to the one that attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon with hijacked commercial airliners Tuesday, said Steven Metz, chief of research for the Army War College's Regional Strategy and Planning Department, in an interview Thursday. Although U.S. and allied forces were able to knock out several elements of the terrorist organization in the game, they were never able to totally disable the group, said Metz, who drew up the notional terrorist group and participated in the wargame. "You had these five or six different nodes, each of which had a different function and a different organization," Metz said. The terrorists "created some serious problems, ... because even if [allied forces] totally quashed one of these little nodes, the other five or six ... kept on, and you'd eventually build these nodes back up." Set in the year 2020, the scenario involved an insurgent group of terrorists bent on overthrowing an unnamed government in Asia. The wargame lasted three to four days and involved strategists from across the services, Metz said. "We'd been hurt," Metz said, referring to the terrorist cells. "I mean we'd been struck in some ways by the government and the Americans. But we were pretty much intact. We took the best that this Asian government and the Americans could dish out, and we were still O.K." Since the simulated conflict was to take place in 2020, Metz and his colleagues were given wide latitude on designing the terrorist insurgents. "We created this very, very highly decentralized network," Metz said. "We had one little node that actually did the terrorism. We had one little node that was our top-notch cyber-criminals. Their entire mission was to raise money. We had another node that was the political part, that had connections all over the world, that was pure as the driven snow. These guys literally knew nothing about the violence that was taking place. "In this organization we never had one person in command," Metz added. "We never had a meeting where all of the leaders of these nodes got together." It was clear from the wargame that even the forces the United States might bring to bear in 2020 weren't prepared to defeat Metz's terrorist cells. "Within the contours of that particular game, the American forces and their allies simply weren't configured to deal with an enemy like the one we created," he said. They weren't then, and they aren't now, Metz said. "The answer might be, 'Well, there aren't any enemies like that today,' " he said. "And as I'm watching the television I'm going, 'Well maybe there is and we just don't know it yet.' " ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Secure all your Web servers now: Get your FREE Guide and learn to: DEPLOY THE LATEST ENCRYPTION, DELIVER TRANSPARENT PROTECTION, and More! http://us.click.yahoo.com/k0k.gC/nT7CAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-09-29 21:08:44 PDT