- Joined
- Mar 17, 2015
While social media has become a valuable recruiting tool in recent months for the Islamic State, the US Air Force managed to use it to deal a crippling blow to the terrorist organization. But the tool backfired when a militant inadvertently gave away the position of ISIS headquarters by taking a “selfie” at the location.
Less than 24 hours after an image of the militant’s bragging was discovered on social media, the US Air Force performed an airstrike on the facility, destroying it completely.
At a breakfast meeting in Washington D.C., Air Force General Hawk Carlisle said, “The guys that were working down out of Hurlburt, theyre combing through social media and they see some ‘moron’ standing at this command. And in some social media, open forum, bragging about the command and control capabilities of ISIL. So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three [bombs] take that entire building out.”
It was “incredible work when you think about,” he said.
This demonstrates how the Air Force can use propaganda on social media, for the purpose of intelligence gathering that can be turned against Islamic State.
Less than 24 hours after an image of the militant’s bragging was discovered on social media, the US Air Force performed an airstrike on the facility, destroying it completely.
At a breakfast meeting in Washington D.C., Air Force General Hawk Carlisle said, “The guys that were working down out of Hurlburt, theyre combing through social media and they see some ‘moron’ standing at this command. And in some social media, open forum, bragging about the command and control capabilities of ISIL. So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three [bombs] take that entire building out.”
It was “incredible work when you think about,” he said.
This demonstrates how the Air Force can use propaganda on social media, for the purpose of intelligence gathering that can be turned against Islamic State.
