What If...Anonymous was Used as Someone's Personal Army
The recent events around wikileaks call to mind a concept used in old style intelligence operations know as a false flag operation.
According to wikipedia;
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and can be used in peace-time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag
It just seems rather ironic that Al Qaeda sent two airplanes into the World Trade Center to try and debilitate the financial resources of the "Great Satan" and several years latter, when a unique opportunity arrives, strategically placed provocateurs start to rile up a bunch of passionate Internet people to get them to attack western financial resources, on a whim.
Does that seem extreme?
You tell me.
We all know that on the Internet, no one knows you're a dog. So who is to say that enemies of the United States haven't been lying in wait to try this new form of operation "capitalist-baiting" for want of a better term?
You have to admit, the entire exercise has worked as some sort of grand Proof-of-Concept. Furthermore, if the current Anonymous action isn't a false flag (or no flag) operation you have to admit that the possibilities of using such a volunteer force to accomplish the goals of a specific country, is probably being considered in the back rooms of more than one intelligence agency as you read these words.
So what's the point?
One of the Anonyomous rules is NYPA, Not Your Personal Army. The rule means that Anonymous doesn't act for the personal interests of anyone. It's a good rule as far as it goes, but what if, instead of somebody saying "hey let's take down the major financial organizations of the US," they said, "The bastards, they killed Kenny!"
A ground swell starts.
And subtle little pushes are given to hit this target, or that these guys were really bad, and pretty soon you have a full-blown false flag operation.
Of course, if anyone were to figure such a thing out, there would be all hell to pay. But Anonymous is so anonymous that finding out that some "oldfag" is really an Al Qaeda, Israeli, US, or Russian operative is slim to none.
Of course this is totally theoretical. I'm bringing up the idea because it needs to be addressed. Hopefully Anonymous will realize, that at a certain level, they have become somebody's Personal Army, whether Julian Assange's or someone elses. I doubt sincerely that those who participated have any vested interest in a bunch of State Department cables. I doubt sincerely that they know who Muhamar Kadafi was if they saw him, not because they're stupid, but because it just isn't what they're into. They're into fighting DMCA, RIAA, MPAA. They want the guys at PirateBay to be freed because that is important to them. The guy that got into a chat and said that what they were doing to Julian Assange and Wikileaks was equivalent to what they were doing to PirateBay is the person who is most suspect.
I'd also suspect the next few people who chimed in and said "yeah."
Something's rotten in Denmark, Anonymous has been played, lots of young men and women have been misguided and used as someone's personal army.
It's worth considering, now that the maelstrom has subsided somewhat.
Last Updated on Saturday, 08 January 2011 10:52 Written by DC 406 Webmaster Monday, 13 December 2010 18:40