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posted by LaminatorX on Sunday August 31 2014, @09:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the Caliphate-of-Chaos dept.

Foreign Policy Magazine reports that a moderate Syrian rebel group in northern Syria has captured a black Dell laptop in a village in the Syrian province of Idlib close to the border with Turkey that contained 35,347 files that turned out to be a treasure trove of documents that provide ideological justifications for jihadi organizations -- and practical training on how to carry out the Islamic State's deadly campaigns. They include videos of Osama bin Laden, manuals on how to make bombs, instructions for stealing cars, and lessons on how to use disguises in order to avoid getting arrested while traveling from one jihadi hot spot to another. Most disturbing however, is that the ISIS laptop contains a 19-page document in Arabic on how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize bubonic plague from infected animals. "The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge," the document states. The document includes instructions for how to test the weaponized disease safely, before it is used in a terrorist attack. "When the microbe is injected in small mice, the symptoms of the disease should start to appear within 24 hours," the document says.

"Nothing on the ISIS laptop, of course, suggests that the jihadists already possess these dangerous weapons. And any jihadi organization contemplating a bioterrorist attack will face many difficulties," write Harald Doornbos and Jenan Moussa. Al Qaeda tried unsuccessfully for years to get its hands on such biological weapons, and the United States has devoted massive resources to preventing terrorists from making just this sort of breakthrough. "The real difficulty in all of these weapons ... [is] to actually have a workable distribution system that will kill a lot of people," said Magnus Ranstorp. "But to produce quite scary weapons is certainly within [the Islamic State's] capabilities." The documents found on the laptop of the jihadist, meanwhile, leave no room for doubt about the group's deadly ambitions.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:00PM (#87930)

    While I don't doubt the existence of such documents, the idea that these types of documents are somehow unique to so-called "terrorist states" is ridiculous, although certain other countries don't seem to require a lot of documentation or justification to engage in terrorism.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbIX1CP9qr4 [youtube.com]

  • (Score: 2) by Subsentient on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:14PM

    by Subsentient (1111) on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:14PM (#87934) Homepage Journal

    Burn the terrorists at the stake.

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @12:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @12:28AM (#87974)

      Start with the group that meets on Tuesdays in the White House to draw up lists of people to be murdered via remotely-piloted aircraft.

      The number of children and moms they have murdered with their actions makes them the worst terrorists anywhere.

      -- gewg_

      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday September 01 2014, @01:52AM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Monday September 01 2014, @01:52AM (#87982)

        The number of children and moms they have murdered with their actions

        How many is that? And cite something please.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @04:06AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @04:06AM (#87995)

          You need only look further than CNN and you will see for yourself.

        • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @04:50AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @04:50AM (#88002)

          In May 2012, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism said it was 175 kids--in Pakistan alone--at the hands of the CIA alone. [google.com]
          The New America Foundation said 1 in 9 victims was a civilian. [google.com]

          Since 61 percent of drone strikes in Pakistan are on peoples' homes (mostly at night), [commondreams.org] I find that number incredibly low.
          Do you think those folks send their kids and wives out of the house at night?
          Do you think a Hellfire can single out a "bad guy" when fired into a residence?
          Do you think that a kid and his mom are going to be so far apart that a warhead with 100 pounds of high explosive isn't going to get both of them at the same time?
          I don't.

          ...and I'm guessing in getting that 1/9 stat, they used the same metric to determine "civilian" as does the USA Gov't: if it a male corpse, he was an "unlawful combatant".
          ...not unlike shooting at the side of a barn and drawing rings around your best grouping then declaring yourself a sharpshooter.

          I know the USA Gov't has no qualms about murdering USA citizens.
          It's admitted to doing that [commondreams.org] 4 times. [google.com]
          1 of those was a kid with American citizenship.
          You think they give a rat's ass about some foreign kid?

          -- gewg_

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by isostatic on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:15PM

    by isostatic (365) on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:15PM (#87935) Journal

    It does bring up an interesting question, CIA, MI6, or Mosad?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:44PM

      by Gaaark (41) on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:44PM (#87944) Journal

      Ayn Rand underwent surgery for lung cancer in 1974 after decades of heavy smoking.[93] In 1976, she retired from writing her newsletter and, despite her initial objections, allowed Evva Pryor, a social worker from her attorney's office, to enroll her in Social Security and Medicare.

      This, to me, isn't surprising because 'Atlas Shrugged' is a terrible book where 'Capitalists' are the greatest human beings. EVER! . What was that? Something like 88 pages of John Galt talking, and it's supposed to be the greatest speech man-kind has ever heard ("A is A and B is B"). Very childish book. Sorry.

      And now, back to the regular programming.

      --
      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Subsentient on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:52PM

        by Subsentient (1111) on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:52PM (#87948) Homepage Journal

        Ayn Rand books have created more cold, calculating, capitalist assholes than Wall St.

        --
        "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @03:03AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @03:03AM (#87987)

          She's way overrated and not that clever. The really smart selfish greedy people know that the world would be a worse place for everyone including themselves if there were more selfish greedy people around behaving in selfish greedy ways.

          • (Score: -1) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @04:29AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @04:29AM (#87999)

            there are already 6 billion plus selfish greedy people on this planet. there is no escaping human nature. if you think the greedy capitalists are behaving any differently to you or i in a similar situation then you don't understand human nature.

            the greediest of the greedy work in government, since government is the only institution that is legally permitted to engage in theft and fraud, like if apple threatened you with imprisonment if you didn't buy their next iphone (at least you actually get something in that scenario).

      • (Score: 1) by Jiro on Monday September 01 2014, @04:03AM

        by Jiro (3176) on Monday September 01 2014, @04:03AM (#87994)

        Rand had to pay taxes. Paying taxes is not optional even if you're opposed to taxes. If it is wrong for the government to take the money from her, she would be morally entitled to take as much back as was collected. In this case, since she could have bought private insurance if the government hadn't taken money for public insurance, she would be entitled to collect, even by her standards, an amount equivalent to what private insurance would have paid had she been allowed to keep the tax money and spent it on private insurance instead.

        If she believes that private insurance is more efficient than government insurance, this means that, by her own standards, she would be entitled to collect the full government-provided amount.

        It's not hypocrisy to take benefits that you are opposed to if you are opposed to it because of the harm and you are not permitted to opt out of the harm.

        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @08:55AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @08:55AM (#88038)

          Except that the benefits she got were not paid for by her own earlier taxes, but by other taxpayers paying tax at the very same time she got benefits. By accepting the benefits, she also accepted that those tax payers, some of whom were just as opposed to paying taxes, and had never received benefits themselves, would have to pay taxes to support her. If no one eligible of benefits actually applied for benefits, then the state would have no benefit cost, and therefore would no longer pay tax money for benefits.

          In short, she didn't take back the money she paid (those who got the money she paid were unlikely to be tax payers when she was on benefits), she took the money of others who themselves hadn't agreed to that money being taken away from them. So accepting benefits was hypocrisy.

        • (Score: 2) by zsau on Tuesday September 02 2014, @01:17AM

          by zsau (2642) on Tuesday September 02 2014, @01:17AM (#88307)

          Let's say I bought an umbrella for $50. I believed it was a truly great umbrella, and (not only that) but that it had $10,000 worth of gold in it.

          You stole it from me.

          Does that mean I have a right to collect $10,000 off you? Of course not.

          Ayn Rand's beliefs do not enter into whether she is "entitled" by her own standards to collect government benefits. Unless her standards are "whatever I am capable of justifying as right, that's right" which is a pretty poor standard, and not the sort of thing that creates a good and durable society.

          • (Score: 1) by Jiro on Tuesday September 02 2014, @01:46AM

            by Jiro (3176) on Tuesday September 02 2014, @01:46AM (#88318)

            If I stole an umbrella from you containing $10000 of gold, and I'm offering to give you $9000, you certainly have a right to take it.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:52PM

      by zocalo (302) on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:52PM (#87947)
      Given the large numbers of paramiltary groups on the ground in the area it could just be lucky find by a local faction, just as the article claims - I actually find that quite probable since it's unlikely that one of the aforementioned agencies would be releasing the information in the format presented, let alone handling what could be a potential intelligence scoop as described in the article. I mean, seriously, unless there's is some editorial license at play this laptop was supposedly ignored for seven months, then booted up without any consideration that it might have some form of mechanism in place to wipe the data? I actually don't know who was the most amateurish, the original owner for not better protecting the data, the rebels for not thinking the laptop might contain something of value, or the rebels and reporters from Foreign Policy Magazine that blindly booted it up.

      Then again, it's also highly likely that the data contained on the laptop, will be in the possession of all of the above and more besides fairly shortly, if they haven't already.
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday August 31 2014, @11:42PM

        by frojack (1554) on Sunday August 31 2014, @11:42PM (#87961) Journal

        Chances are it had been booted long before it actually fell into the hands of the magazine. Further, I suspect all of the collection was downloaded from the web anyway, so its not likely to be of much actual interest.

        From TFS:

        The real difficulty in all of these weapons ... [is] to actually have a workable distribution system that will kill a lot of people,"

        To that you have to add that people dumb enough to not guard their play-book are probably also not capable of managing any biological weapons without Killing Themselves in droves. Not that they have any particular aversion to suicide, but wiping out half your fighting force by careless handling of bio-weapons is rather more than serious than fumbling a grenade.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 01 2014, @07:02PM

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday September 01 2014, @07:02PM (#88166) Journal

        Security is an afterthought by these guys as much as it is for a good majority of the worlds computer using populous. This isn't A James Bond movie or some super spy story plot. This is the real world where the bad guys use boring old Windows laptops with open office or more likely, bootleg copies of Word.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:32PM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:32PM (#87939) Journal

    Here we go with the WMD justification for Iraq III and a new 100s of billions dollar war.

    It is very convenient to find a laptop chock full with all of this stuff, but even assuming it is actually what is purported, the most ISIS can accomplish is regional control of portions of Iraq populated by whatever flavor of religion is favored by both ISIS and that region. It could never, under any scenario, conquer the US. The best it could ever do is manage a terrorist attack, which can be dealt with handily should it happen. But that is not worth the money and lives a new war would cost.

    For example, 9/11 killed about 3000 Americans. Going to war with Iraq, under false pretenses coupled with every attempt to falsely link Saddam with 9/11, has cost 4489 American lives thus far, plus 32k wounded. http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/ [antiwar.com] So, while Bin Laden was responsible for 3000 American deaths, our Presidents during this war did him 150% better.

    Should we really invest more lives and money in maintaining a set of artificial borders called Iraq? Is it even remotely reasonable to think that every government that springs up in that region will be friendly to the US given our horrid history there? We've stirred the pot so much, it will take decades to settle, but it will never settle while we meddle. It's time accept the consequences of our own behavior, and quit dumping money and lives into that place.

    • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:57PM

      by zocalo (302) on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:57PM (#87951)
      This *is* the primary oil producing region of Iraq that we are talking about here. Also... TERRORISTS. What more justification does the West need to lend a hand by providing some boots on the ground, purely in an "advisory capacity" naturally?

      Also /sarcasm, but I think we all know this is going to end in lots more western blood being shed in the Middle East, sooner or later.
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Monday September 01 2014, @04:22AM

      by kaszz (4211) on Monday September 01 2014, @04:22AM (#87997) Journal

      The facilities that got protected first and most heavily in Iraq was oil production. Go figure.. The rest is just show business in essence. And perhaps it benefits US to have chaos in that region. They just don't want the ISIS level of chaos. Which means the military (fighter jets) are deployed and the ground weapons sent to the Kurdish army so the US army can stay home.

      Turkey is a NATO member and so they don't want ISIS there either even if mainland US is untouchable.

      I hope there will be a economical and environmental sane replacement for oil SOON. It's all about resources whether it's energy (oil), minerals (lithium?) or workers (India).

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Wootery on Monday September 01 2014, @02:43PM

      by Wootery (2341) on Monday September 01 2014, @02:43PM (#88100)

      So, while Bin Laden was responsible for 3000 American deaths, our Presidents during this war did him 150% better.

      Err, no, not even close. Iraqi civilian casualties absolutely dwarf those numbers. No-one seems to be suggesting it could be fewer than 80,000. Some estimates are well over ten times that figure. [wikipedia.org]

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 31 2014, @10:35PM (#87941)

    I recall about 10 years back how the press got ahold of some other terrorist's laptop and it had all these plans for building nukes and other WMDs, but then it turned out that it was just anarchist cookbook type filez that had been kicking around since the BBS days.

    My google-foo is not up to the task of finding the stories about that, perhaps someone else can confirm?

    • (Score: 1) by looorg on Sunday August 31 2014, @11:19PM

      by looorg (578) on Sunday August 31 2014, @11:19PM (#87956)

      Only 10 years? I have seen this crap in circulation since the 80s. Anarchists/Terrorist handbooks/cookbooks or various collections with cool sounding names that contains all kinda crap about bombs, explosives, how to pick locks, poison people, cc fraud etc. Most of it is total crap and might have worked in the stone age but no more. If you cook that up you are probably more likely to blow yourself up then anything else.

      With that in mind. This could just be more of the same. After all high school chemistry teaches you how to make explosives to. What can you do? Ban chemistry?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 31 2014, @11:30PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 31 2014, @11:30PM (#87958)

        You misread what I wrote. I said that it was reported having found it on a terrorist's computer 10 years ago.

        When I wrote "BBS days" that should have been a tip-off that I knew that filez have been in circulation since the 80s.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @06:36AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @06:36AM (#88017)

      > My google-foo is not up to the task of finding the stories about that, perhaps someone else can confirm?

      Not a laptop, but printouts left behind as the Taliban retreated from Kabul. [villagevoice.com]

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Horse With Stripes on Sunday August 31 2014, @11:59PM

    by Horse With Stripes (577) on Sunday August 31 2014, @11:59PM (#87968)

    Doesn't look like they secured the device or used encryption ... and no password (not even 'hunter2'). Their beat up Dell Vostro 1015 was running Vista (it shipped with Vista or Ubuntu).

    Sounds to me like they need to get with the times, outsource their IT and keep everything in the Cloud. As far as their current IT staff ... well ... I'm pretty sure they are dealing with a different form of 'disaster recovery' ;-)

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @08:58AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @08:58AM (#88039)

      Maybe they wanted that laptop, and the documents on it, to be found, in order to spread even more fear.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Horse With Stripes on Monday September 01 2014, @12:01PM

        by Horse With Stripes (577) on Monday September 01 2014, @12:01PM (#88070)

        Or maybe, just maybe, they wanted to torture US agents by making them deal with a Vista laptop.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @12:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @12:07AM (#87970)

    Sounds like your average boring BBS... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phile [wikipedia.org]

    • (Score: 2) by egcagrac0 on Monday September 01 2014, @12:45AM

      by egcagrac0 (2705) on Monday September 01 2014, @12:45AM (#87976)
      Exactly. I wondered when they'd updated the Anarchists Cookbook text file...
      • (Score: 2) by tibman on Monday September 01 2014, @01:37AM

        by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 01 2014, @01:37AM (#87980)

        Has to be a decade old if it doesn't talk about EFP, which is a lot more practical than spreading the plague.

        --
        SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
  • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday September 01 2014, @02:21AM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Monday September 01 2014, @02:21AM (#87985)

    Can we stop calling the "The Islamic State" and refer to it as "Fucktardia" like it so richly deserves.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Monday September 01 2014, @03:50AM

      by Magic Oddball (3847) on Monday September 01 2014, @03:50AM (#87991) Journal

      Er... "The Islamic State" doesn't refer to a freaking location -- it refers to the terror group ISIS:

      a Sunni jihadist group in the Middle East. In its self-proclaimed status as a caliphate it claims religious authority over all Muslims across the world and aspires to bring much of the Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its political control... -- Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]

      ...which, incidentally, includes Israel. Good luck getting away with calling that "fucktardia."

      Besides, the term was already earned by the Christian fundie-filled part of the United States (my own country, to be clear) that, despite being part of the West, keeps trying to teach creationism as "science," is vehemently against "welfare" despite depending on other states' income for survival, and other crap I can't recall off the top of my head.

      In other words, fundamentalism -- particularly the ignorant bigotry it produces -- is the real "fucktardia" and it definitely isn't confined to any one part of the planet.

      • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday September 01 2014, @05:18PM

        by Nerdfest (80) on Monday September 01 2014, @05:18PM (#88131)

        I'm not sure why you think I thought it was a location, and it's a little insulting that people are modding you as "informative". I do agree however, that there are many other places worthy of the name. The really interesting part is that were all to be named "Fucktardia", the civil wars would make any previous nations conflicts seem like minor disagreements.

      • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 01 2014, @07:07PM

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday September 01 2014, @07:07PM (#88168) Journal

        Er... "The Islamic State" doesn't refer to a freaking location -- it refers to the terror group ISIS:

        An islamic state is a government which implements islamic religious law known as sharia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_state [wikipedia.org]

        So ISIS isn't a religious state, they want to create one.

  • (Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Monday September 01 2014, @03:02AM

    by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Monday September 01 2014, @03:02AM (#87986)

    Is the desire to control information.
    Our leaders have not adapted to a world where information wants to be free.
    The knowledge required for a biological or dirty nuclear attack is not much more than is found in most text books. This makes it all the more farsical to prosecute people for having information.
    The "war on terror" has always been misguided adventurism. The only way to reduce the atrocities being committed (by the so-called terrorists and by those who claim the moral high ground of opposing them) is to recognize the basic rights of these people's to self-determine and to control their own resources. So far the west has done little but destabilize, steal and then blame the victim.
    If you were from Iraq or Afganistan, wouldn't you be doing everything to boot out the invaders? Unfortunately these situations also empower extremists (on both sides).
    True diplomacy means accepting when you disagree with your advisary. True assistance in development involves allowing sovereign ownership of resources. Until we make those shifts, the next battle on the soil of the UK or the US is not far away.

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday September 01 2014, @04:30AM

      by kaszz (4211) on Monday September 01 2014, @04:30AM (#88000) Journal

      How do you account for that the west *need* those resources? moral or not..

      Secondly, much of the traditions (not religion) make any highly organized and efficient society hard to accomplish. In fact much of Europe (and US?) didn't get around until the religion there made good work a praise to god. And the massive organized industry happened quite soon.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @06:18AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @06:18AM (#88014)

        How do you account for that the west *need* those resources? moral or not..

        It's indeed true that the need is dire but that's only thanks to 150 years of insane decisions accelerating down the dead end...

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 02 2014, @02:19AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 02 2014, @02:19AM (#88330)

          How do you account for that the west *need* those resources? moral or not..

          It's indeed true that the need is dire but that's only thanks to 150 years of insane decisions accelerating down the dead end...

          And one must also account that "the west" is not a monolithic singularity, but a vast plurality, as is the "non-west". I.e. it's not a simple matter of "the west leaching resources it wants and/or needs from the east", but rather in all various scenarios it's more of "these particular groups in varying degree get these resources in varying degree". Depending on who precisely you are, including importantly both the color of your skin, your gender, your religious, philosophical and scientific beliefs, etc... you might find yourself doing variously prosperous or less well in various scenarios (of traditonal "westerners exploiting resources of non-westerners").

          I've been indoctrinated as a U.S. citizen fairly well about values of freedom of speech, privacy from unreasonable warrantless surveillance, freedom of religious practice, etc... But I've also lived to see that indoctrination for the blatant hypocrisy it is. Likewise I expect there are similar people on the other side of the globe, living as close to "ISIS Terrorist Laptop Toters" as I am to "CIA Freedom Laptop Toters" with god knows what kind of information about tools of suffering on their hard drives. And probably if my parents had done their lubricated dancing on that side of the globe, I'd pay about as much lip service allegience to the ISIS folks as I currently pay to the CIA. I love you guys- please protect me, and not rape me. You guys are awesome!!!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 02 2014, @01:28AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 02 2014, @01:28AM (#88311)

        http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/allwarsarebankerwars.php [whatreallyhappened.com]

        Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqIHKWd9rSc [youtube.com]
        70-minute interview with John Perkins.

        Saw this quite some time ago. Eye-opening stuff!!! o_O;

        TL;DR animated version (2-minutes)
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-dsiufhMu0 [youtube.com]

        Other versions found in 'GooTube'....

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cora2zzVl3o [youtube.com]
        26-minutes

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8 [youtube.com]
        54-minutes

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUDTRfbs-oM [youtube.com]
        90-minutes

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-96vNOYzcs [youtube.com]
        77-minutes

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVsB07CcSNw [youtube.com]
        24-minutes

        Perkins wrote a book about his time as one....
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man [wikipedia.org]

        Perkins describes the role of an EHM as follows:

        Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

        The powers that be figure it is ultimately cheaper to use 'dirty tricks' to get what they want instead of negotiating fairly with other parties for them.... :(

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @08:04AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @08:04AM (#88031)

    Mmh. You don't say. Do I have to be even more worried now?

    • (Score: 1) by deimios on Monday September 01 2014, @08:33AM

      by deimios (201) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 01 2014, @08:33AM (#88034) Journal

      Yes citizen. Also keep in mind that only the police and the state can save you.

      P.S. OBEY!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @09:01AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01 2014, @09:01AM (#88040)

        Yes citizen. Also keep in mind that only the police and the state can save you.

        In other words, the federal government can't. ;-)