How to Fight Al Qaeda

First, listen to the comedians...

Here's some sound advice from Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic:

I wonder what kind of tricks the CIA is using against Al Qaeda these days.

If I were in the CIA, I would try to flood the terrorist communication channels with false orders. Some of the false orders would be simple stuff, such as "Everyone gather by the big rock and wait for a big delivery of explosives."

Other times you might say, "Salame is a mole for the CIA. He must die." I figure the terrorists are like any other bureaucracy, and the workers will focus first on whatever is sitting in front of them while ignoring long term planning. And it's probably fair to assume that, like your workplace, no one really trusts anyone else. I think you could keep terrorists busy killing each other until they run out of recruits.

Terror networks are perfect targets for false communications. First, the real orders sound exactly like pranks. It would be hard to sort out the evil mastermind plots from the CIA practical jokes. For example, if you get the order to shove C4 up your ass and yell WALAWALAWALA while running toward a heavily armed American Checkpoint, is that a real one or a prank? It's hard to tell.

I think Scott Adams has a better grip on reality than those CIA agents who decided to invite in a "turncoat" who ended up being a double agent with a suicide bomb.

Maybe the US military & CIA should vet their playbook with Hollywood script writers. I'm pretty sure a quick reading by Hollywood would have pointed out that inviting a guy in who made a name for himself working for Al Qaeda in Jordan would never get written into a Hollywood script as a guy who is allowed to breeze past security checks to detonate a suicide bomb. The Hollywood writers would grouse that the American public is too sophisticated to accept such a dumb plot device. So I'm thinking Hollywood has some expertise in "fighting terrorism" that could be useful. Maybe send a crack squad of Hollywood script writers off to the various military academies to give some remedial education in "how not to handle a 'previous' Al Qaeda operative".

I think it should raise some eyebrows among the American people that they have to undergo a more intensive security search (metal detectors, millimeter wave scanners, pat downs, shoe removal, etc.) than "ex" Al Qaeda operatives escorted onto American military bases to huddle with high level CIA operational staff.