The purpose of Poetslife is to promote the art and discipline of American Tactical Civil Defense for families and small businesses and to contribute practical American civil defense preparedness guidance for all Americans through my articles in the The American Civil Defense Association (TACDA.ORG) Journal of Civil Defense and leadership as the volunteer Vice President of TACDA.

2/27/2022

Hawaii Ballistic Missile Alert Fail and Fix

The primary threat to the American people's Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the people they own in the United States.

Our dependence on the CCP is costing us money, our freedom, our American civilization's and our children and grandchildren's future. Fortunately, American manufactures are leaving Red China like rats off a sinking ship. So are many other nations' manufacturers.

I analyze the CCP threat below using the accidental 2018 inbound ballistic missile threat.

Note: Every primary natural or manmade disaster has a secondary threat. You can find out about secondary's here and here.

Given the reality of the possibility of nuclear war due to:
  1. Red China seeking to pretend they do not have a failing economy by attacking Taiwan as a diversion and to control Taiwan's resources, especially computer chips
  2. Failed Dystopian leadership from Washington, DC that is of Biblical scope of destruction on the world stage
  3. Bad actors like Russia, Iran, North Korea about to exploit the failed leadership in Washington, DC
  4. The always present threat of human error and miscalculation and the Law of Unintended Consequences that surrounds the possibility of nuclear war
We all need to prepare for the possibility of nuclear war. 
Go to TACDA.ORG for multiple resources to prepare.

Here is a case study of why we need to prepare for nuclear war.

The state of Hawaii was as unprepared for the nuclear war on Saturday, January 13, 1918 as they were for the Imperial Japanese attack of 1941.

We need to gain a deeper understanding of what happened the day over a million Hawaiians were horrified to discover their state emergency operations center falsely informed them a ballistic missile strike was imminent.
The bad news is that with the mega failure of the the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) one employee broadcast of an incoming ballistic missile on January 13, 2018 we suffered a catastrophic failure in our national security.
A good summary of this event can be found here and here.
For an excellent analysis of the technical issues of the false alert, see Here's how Hawii's emergency alert design led to a false alarm on The Verge.
Serious software and hardware design issues also contributed to this disaster. Scott Robertson has an outstanding human-centered design (HCI) article for how to fix that part here.
For what an actual ballistic missile strike on Hawaii would look like, see here.
The GOOD NEWS is that there is a simple fix: ONLY HIRE COMPETENT EMPLOYEES TO DO THAT JOB.
For the Congressional Research Service analysis of the false alert, see here.

You Can Survive a Nuclear Ballistic Missile Strike

What if the false incoming ballistic missile warning in Hawaii had been real? 
As long as North Korea, Red China, Russia, Iran and other nations have missiles, the reality is they could be fired at Hawaii or the continental United States at any time...with 20 minutes warning. 
We survived the Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the jihadi 9/11 attack because we're Americans.
We can survive a nuclear hit and the fallout.
There are so many things you can do to to increase your, and your family's, chances of survival. 
The Provident Prepper provides an excellent guide to just how many common sense steps there are.
Here, I will only list the top four steps (and a bonus step if you have the resources) to surviving a nuclear strike.

Water: Store a years supply of fresh water in Waterbricks
A daily clean water water is absolutely essential to life. 
Often people store water in milk jugs that are contaminated or thin water bottles. Both are inadequate for long term storage. Use Waterbricks, 1011 Crown Park Circle, Suite 100, Winter Garden, FL, 877 420 https://www.waterbrick.org/shop/
Food: Store a years supply of packaged food to which you only need to add water to have a nutritious meal. One good source is MyPatriotSupply, PatriotPantry.com in Muncie, IN, 866 229 0927.
Military Grade Medical Kit: You will need to be able to attend to the medical needs of yourself and your family. A military-grade medical kit like those at North American  Rescue are essential. All their products are first rate, but the Combat Activation Tourniquet (CAT) is combat proven and will stop bleeding to preserve a body before it bleeds out. To any father's reading this, save a life. Get a few CAT's for your car and home.
https://www.narescue.com/military-products/casualty-response-kits
Anti-Radiation Tablets: K103 Anti-Radiation Tablets to block radiation fallout absorption by your body, and especially the thyroid. Fake anti-radiation tables were sold to many in California after the Fukushima disaster. Only order the real ones here: K103-USA.com, 800 537 1339,, Medical Corps, 410 Front Street, #3, OH 45750.
Here is an excellent description from the K103 website about the importance of REAL K103.

"If there is a nuclear event, and you are down-wind, you need to take KIO3 or KI before the radioactive plume reaches you. If you do not have KIO3 or KI at the time of the event, then it is most likely too late to take a thyroid blocker unless the authorities can reach you with the proper dose during fallout conditions. Both KIO3 and KI are thyroid blockers and are used world-wide to help prevent radioactive damage to the thyroid in the event of a nuclear incident. If a nuclear bomb detonates or a nuclear power plant is compromised or has a melt-down, then radioactive iodine is always released into the air and environment. 
Radioactive Iodine (I-131) can destroy the thyroid of humans and animals. Even small amounts of I-131 can cause cancer of the thyroid. By taking KIO3 the thyroid becomes saturated with "good iodine" and cannot absorb the "bad iodine" I-131. 
Yes, animals or pets can take KIO3 too."

Underground Shelter:  You can build your own. Or, for those with the resources, use a company, that has done it for years whose owners are experts on nuclear radiation fallout. 
Even if you can afford them, beware of the companies who have been building luxury shelters for billionaires and millionaires lately.
Utah Shelter Systems has been building the best, least expensive, and most trusted shelters for decades.  Contact them if you want a good shelter that works.
Office: (801) 380-2932
Paul: (801) 631-7684
Sharon: (801) 380-2932
Fax: (801)606-7064 
Physical address:
2236 So. 3270 W. #2
West Valley, UT
84119 

Civil Defense Redux

Study history. Civil defense has been critical from the beginning of time. If you don't prepare, protect, defend and practice, you don't last long.
For most people in this nation when you mention civil defense, they think of the "duck and cover" training from their childhood.
Civil defense is far more than that.  
To get a good understanding of civil defense issues, see Michael Mabee here and here.
For a quick review, see my 2005 Civil Defense Redux post here.
Here is one important quote from that article:
"Disasters happen, and taking steps to be prepared is common sense.
Fires, floods, earthquakes, windstorms, power outages, and now terrorist attacks happen. It's a story as old as the Bible. 
Do you and your family and neighbors a favor and make sure you are prepared. Even if it never happens, it's like insurance. 
You never know you need it until you need it and then it is too late to get it. Mitigate and smile."
Sadly, there is nothing to smile about with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency incoming ballistic missile attack.
It never should have happened.
It did not need to happen.
It must never happen again.
As there were no initial reports of panic other than the father who stuffed his children into a sewer manhole in a video that went viral that day, I first wrote "That there was not mass panic, mayhem and accidental injury and death is a miracle." Update: There was.

The Real Cause of the Hawaii False Nuclear Alert

Like other state and local Emergency Operations Centers (EOC's), the people working there are often not hired due to their aptitude, skills and experience in the field of civil defense. 
Rather, they know someone, usually a politician, who appoints them to the position as a favor.
How do I know this?
In the 1980's I visited multiple EOC's in numerous American states. In places like North Dakota, Florida, California, Florida and Georgia, they were extremely professional operations run by true professionals. Managers and line employees all had decades of experience in emergency management, civil defense, and disaster preparedness.
Then there were the others. 
It was obvious to me when interacting with them that they were appointed by politicians and did not earn their position. 
Their work ethic was nonexistent. 
This was a problem then and it is a problem now.
Proof? 
The employee who pushed the wrong button refuses as of 1/27/2018 to cooperate with the FCC investigation and STILL has a job.
"We are disappointed however that one key employee, the person who transmitted the false alert is refusing to cooperate with our investigation," said Lisa Fowlkes, bureau chief of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. "We hope that person will reconsider."
I also taught at the Emergency Management Institute. There, the students who came in from all over the country were first rate, mostly because they were first responders.
But attending those classes there were also the multiple incompetents who had been appointed by politicians.
Now I live in Carroll County, MD and am blessed with an EOC filled with competent, experienced, dedicated professionals. 
(For more information, see here.)

Tragically, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency did not have competent people on site that day.
The proof is that this false alarm went out at all.
What has been revealed since reinforces the point.

1.  One person alone was able to send out the alert that caused panic state-wide. There was no second check on the alert message being sent. There is a reason the U.S. Air Force always has TWO officers with the key to launch thermonuclear weapons in missile silos and BOTH have to agree and act in concert. So, the most basic two-tiered decision process was not in place.

2.  The alert was sent to many...but not all who needed to receive it. This indicates to me that HEMA did not prepare thoroughly in years past to create a comprehensive list of ALL who needed to be notified. Make a comprehensive list NOW.

3. Those who make HUGE life and death decisions MUST KNOW THEIR PASSWORDS. The Hawaii Governor, the decision maker responsible to immediately reach all the panicked Hawaiian citizens that the alert was false, did not know his password
So, what could have been corrected in seconds or a few minutes took 38 minutes. I kid you not.
"But one Twitter account was deafeningly silent for 17 minutes: that of Hawaii Gov. David Ige. Though Ige was informed by the state’s adjutant general that the alert was false two minutes after it was sent, he waited until 8:24 a.m. to tweet, “There is NO missile threat. 
On Monday, after he gave the State of the State address in which he avoided the subject of the missile alert fiasco, reporters demanded an explanation for that long silence. Ige’s answer: He couldn’t log in to Twitter. “I have to confess that I don’t know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that’s one of the changes that I’ve made,” Ige said." (The Washington Post, Travis Andrews, 1/23/2018.
Here's the reality. Ever since Sully's U.S. Airways Flight 1549 went down on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009 and a guy on Twitter sent out a photo of the plane with passengers hanging onto the wings a half hour before the New York media, people search Twitter for clues in a crisis. Anyone involved in emergency management or civil defense, and especially a governor, must be able to communicate immediately using Twitter. Forgetting your Twitter password is not an excuse. It is a a firing offense.
Immediately after the event when reporters visited the HEMA they discovered yellow Post-It notes on employee computers with the ID and Password in open site. That is such a fundamental security fail. North Korean or Chinese hackers, and even your run-of-the-mill basement dwelling black hat hackers could have used those IDs and passwords to compromise the system. Worse, the HEMA system connects to Pacific Command and other systems that, and other local, state, national and international secure systems could be compromised.

The Government Self Reviews

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other governmental agencies are reviewing what happened at the HEMA.
That's good, but limited.
No doubt they will identify the systemic failures and recommend changes. Some of those changes will happen. But, based on my prior experience, I am not confident that the most important change, the firing of the incompetent employees and replacing them with professional and competent employees, will happen.
And the Federal Communications Commission and Congress are investigating. What will really change in Hawaii's EOC and the other EOC's?
Having read the Presidential 911 Report and remembering how most recommendations to correct that disaster were ignored, I'm not hopeful
The Governor of Hawaii, the same person who employed the incompetent employee who caused this mega national security failure, assures us that this will never happen again. 
Not having examined the breathtaking failures that let to this event, he has no facts on which to base a statement like that.
For starters, Governor, redesign your control panel. Here is an outstanding analysis of the problem with your current "Alert Button."
Implement this fix (along with hiring competent employees, instituting a  two-tier emergency alert alert process, thorough and vigorous training and so forth) you are well on your way to ensuring that this never happens again.
And for a good primer on civil defense and how it is critical to your family, see here.

We Can Do Better

Here is a link to a worthwhile civil defense primer to help prevent this kind of tragedy in the future. 
The United States has been blessed to not have a real test of its civil defense capability on the scale of incoming ballistic missiles. 
In that sense, this Hawaii false alarm can be a catalyst to take action BEFORE it is too late.
I have been involved in civil defense for 40 years, the past 15 on this Poetslife blog. Here are links on this Poetslife blog on various aspects of civil defense that offer policy, practical photo, and procedures to create robust civil defense options for all the threat matrix in America.

Emergency Exercise
Civil Defense Redux
Emergency Exercise Tornado
Emergency Management National Disaster Medical Exercise
Emergency Management Study Scholarships
How to Prepare for a Natural Disaster
Business Continuity Disaster Recovery Plan Outline
How to Handle a Huge Hurricane
CBRNE - Low Probability, High Impact
EPLEX Emergency Plan Exercise
Church Emergency Evacuation and Lock Down Plan
Roll Up ISIS Social Media Weapons
When State Hackers Take Aim at the Power Grid
Church Emergency Plan Template
Emergency Preparedness Expo
Nuclear Weapons Effects
Volunteer Mobilization Center
Idiot's Guide to Disaster Preparedness
Active Shooter
America Rising - Charity
America Rising - Hope
America Rising - Faith
1983 Salt Lake City Great Flood Reflections

Lack of Action by the Trump Administration on Civil Defense

I was optimistic the Trump Administration would see the wisdom of an outstanding American civil defense program, maybe one on par with Switzerland, but so far I have not seen action on that front.
As Vice President of the Board of Directors of The American Civil Defense Association (TADCA), three times I have sent the Trump White House several issues of the recent issues of Civil Defense Journal of the American Civil Defense Association and not even gotten a note back to say they received them...so who knows.
Maybe one day we can come close to the civil defense program in Switzerland.
The Trump Administration has, at least, offered a brief paragraph in their 2017 national security policy to promote "a culture of preparedness." It's a first step.
For an excellent analysis of how long Hawaii has been unprepared for a nuclear strike, see here.
Michael Mabee, author of the Civil Defense Book, has more faith in the Feds to get it right. 
On his blog, he summarizes the goal well:
"What we should take from the Hawaii false missile alert? It is unacceptable that in the U.S. we have an emergency alert and “nobody knew what to do.” We must fix this. Building a culture of preparedness – a civil defense culture – is a critical task for the national security of the country."

My Twitter Tweets the Day of the Hawaii Catastrophic Alert Failure

I was on Twitter when I read this Tweet from Emily Batty. 
After my heart stopped racing, I posted a hope that it was fake news. 
As the story unraveled that day and the next, the Tweets below show my thoughts.
Note: Unfortunately, I was not able to copy many of these posts to this blog.

  1. Hope this is fake news.




Hawaii releases timeline of what transpired after false ballistic missile warning via y

  1. Hawaii's so-called fix for the Emergency Management alert Fiasco is to close down the system. Wrong. My guess is that office is filled with political hacks sadly.
  1. Hawaii has a creepy voice announcing incoming ballistic missiles. Just lame. They need to record another version of this message with a HUMAN, not a computer, voice. Get your act together,



For anyone who due to the Hawaii ballistic missile threat emergency alert woke up to the need to do civil defense prep, here is one resource:
  1. Hawaii has a creepy voice announcing incoming ballistic missiles. Just lame. They need to record another version of this message with a HUMAN, not a computer, voice. Get your act together,




    1. But has practiced it over and over so the same mistake does not happen again?

    Bruce Curley @brucecurley Jan 15
    Hawaii has a creepy voice announcing incoming ballistic missiles. Just lame. They need to record another version of this message with a HUMAN, not a computer, voice. Get your act together,

  1. Emergency Operations Centers often have political hacks (employees with connections, not skills) working there, as my guess is the case in . Many steps must be taken to correct that fatal error. Here is one:

  1. Hawaii releases timeline of what transpired after false ballistic missile warning via
I said on the day of the fake incoming missile alert, "Hawaii's so-called fix for the Emergency Management alert Fiasco is to close down the system. Wrong. My guess is that office is filled with political hacks sadly." I stand by my statement.


The Hawaiian government released the following timeline of what transpired that day.
Approx. 8:05 a.m. – A routine internal test during a shift change was initiated. This was a test that involved the Emergency Alert System, the Wireless Emergency Alert, but no warning sirens.
8:07 a.m. – A warning test was triggered statewide by the State Warning Point, HI-EMA.
8:10 a.m. – State Adjutant Maj. Gen. Joe Logan, validated with the U.S. Pacific Command that there was no missile launch. Honolulu Police Department notified of the false alarm by HI-EMA.
8:13 a.m. – State Warning Point issues a cancellation of the Civil Danger Warning Message. This would have prevented the initial alert from being rebroadcast to phones that may not have received it yet. For instance, if a phone was not on at 8:07 a.m., if someone was out of range and has since came into cell coverage (Hikers, Mariners, etc.) and/or people getting off a plane.
8:20 a.m. – HI-EMA issues public notification of cancellation via their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
8:24 a.m. – Governor Ige retweets HI-EMA’s cancellation notice.
8:30 a.m. – Governor posts cancellation notification to his Facebook page.
8:45 a.m. – After getting authorization from FEMA Integral Public Alert and Warning System, HIEMA issued a “Civil Emergency Message” remotely.
The following action was executed by the Emergency Alert System (EAS):
1. EAS message over Local TV/Radio Audio Broadcast & Television Crawler Banner.
“False Alarm. There is no missile threat to Hawaii.”
“False Alarm. There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. There is no
missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. False Alarm.”
2. Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA)
“False Alarm. There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii.”
9:30 a.m. – Governor makes initial media notification.
9:34 a.m. – Governor’s message posted to his Facebook and Twitter accounts.

2/24/2022

Social Media as a Force Multiplier

ISIS has proven very adept at using social media tools to win power, influence, recruits and strategic advantage over their opponents. So far, they've mostly portrayed their strategic, battle field, psychological and opponent success after they have achieved it. Here, I will examine how they could, and likely will, use social media as a significant force multiplier if they coordinate their assault with their social media skills to cause panic, chaos, death and destruction in the United States. Basically, after much research, I believe ISIS will create widespread panic through the use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. They will use social media as a force multiplier in tandem with an actual physical assault within the United States.

A social media force multiplier as I use the term here is an individual or small team who, through the use of special tactics, can do the damage of a much larger force. It is easy to understand that a skilled sniper is a force multiplier on the battle field. Why? Because one sniper can tie up an enemy battalion and are capable of force multiplication without ever directly engaging the enemy, they are a commonly known force multiplier. I propose that a few jihadi social media “snipers” can create the kind of chaos, death, destruction, and panic to millions of American civilians. Enter “#ISIS” as a search term in Twitter. You will be amazed at the number of entries that display when you do, and most of those entries support them. Or, if you prefer, enter “#ISIL” as a search term in Twitter and you will get similar results. With social media tools, whatever safety we enjoyed once behind oceans and land masses is gone. Every day and night, state sponsored and individual hackers’ strike at our government, our corporations, and our infrastructure. (Most recently was the hacker attack against SONY.) As they are after specific information, be it financial, military, or otherwise, they generally do not destroy the servers or data or destroy electronic, digital, water, financial or other networks. But what if ISIS were to strike those same networks? And what if they used their substantial knowledge of social media as a force multiplier to increase their destructive capability? They’ve already proven themselves to be very adept at using their social media tools to recruit and train candidates from dozens of nations. They’ve uploaded their combat and recruitment films to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Their assault on Syria and Iraq was probably the first combat operation that was widely carried live on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media. They have demonstrated a professional grasp of messaging and messaging tools. They understand that the optics as captured in social media is as important to their victory as anything they achieve on the battlefield. So…let’s take just one scenario. Let’s assume that for a year or two ISIS and their sympathizers accumulate weapons and explosives inside the United States. If they preposition operatives and supplies in just 20 U.S. neighborhoods, they have a rather formidable force. Then, they pick a day for a coordinated attack and hit hard. But knowing how powerful social media can be as a force multiplier, they not only stock piled arms and explosives. They also set up hundreds of accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and other social media, and preprogrammed smart phones to spread their message rapidly…all as a force multiplier. As in Syria and Iraq, they have one operative with a cell phone recording every action. As fast as it happens, they upload it to social media websites like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook using accounts they have already established. And they comment about it all, enjoying the element of surprise and the advantage of first report without counterviews reported. With a terrorist journalist assigned to each strike force, they could quickly and widely disseminate their message. A violent, coordinated, well executed attack on a large number of American neighborhoods accompanied by a professionally executed social media campaign, in addition to causing a large loss of life and significant damage to property, could accomplish the penultimate goal of every terrorist organization: panic. And they have mastered this ability already. Just one Tweeter named Mahdi under the name “Shami Witness,” an executive from Bangalore, India: “…spent his mornings, afternoons and evenings sending thousands of tweets of propaganda about the Islamic State militant group, acting as the leading conduit of information between jihadi’s, supporters, and recruits. His tweets…were seen two million times each month, making him perhaps the most influential Islamic State Twitter account, with over 17,700 followers.”[i] Remember how adept at using social media as a force multiplier the Islamic terrorist was who struck the patrons of the Lindt café and chocolate store in Sydney, Australia at the height of the Christmas shopping season and in the heart of their financial district. In contrast to prior terrorist hostage takings going all the way back to when the Palestine Liberation Organization who when they would hijack planes in the 1970’s silenced all hostages , the jihadi at the Lindt store allowed their hostages to keep their phones. And he sent out a barrage of tweets to news media outlets and others. Why? Why would they do that when doing so would provide an opportunity for them to communicate with their families and the media? He had some hostages call news outlets to try to get on the air. Again, why? I argue they know by now very how powerful a force multiplier social media can be as a way to get on the networks. While misguided, uninformed or defeatist analysts in the West may label these actors “lone wolfs,” they are well aware they are part of a larger, global jihad. They now use social media as a force multiplier with the sword to continue their 1,400 year long drive for world domination. Orson Wells in his famous 1938 drama “War of the Worlds” achieved massive citizen panic using just his voice and an earlier social media tool, the radio. ISIS has far more sophisticated tools at its disposal, and it knows how to use them. Once underway this kind of large-scale citizen panic is difficult to contain. As they have already cut off captives heads, engaged in mass murder and mass rape, enslaved thousands, turned Christian churches into prisons, recruited, trained and activated suicide bombers and engaged in other widespread and repeated violent behavior, their launching multiple attacks inside the U.S. is easily imaginable. Given their proven global proficiency and experience coordinating their attacks with social media propaganda, ISIS using social media as a multiplier force when they strike the United States is easily imaginable. The full impact of that attack through their use of these social media tools for the past several years in the Middle East and globally shows they are proficient in their use, and they will use them here when they hit hard. We can shut down ISIS social media tools BEFORE their use of them results in large numbers of American death, panic, mayhem and destruction. The consequences of waiting until AFTER this social media force multiplier is used on a larger scale are unimaginable.http://www.channel4.com/news/unmasked-the-man-behind-top-islamic-state-twitter-account-shami-witness-mehdihttp://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/11/11/363018388/how-the-islamic-state-wages-its-propaganda-warhttp://www.npr.org/2014/12/11/370022514/isis-used-predatory-tools-and-tactics-to-convince-u-s-teens-to-joinhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/12/12/inside-the-battle-for-ask-fm-the-site-where-islamic-state-recruited-three-american-teens/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

Rolling Up ISIS Social Media Weapons

In 2015, I wrote this analysis of ISIS use of social media tools to win their propaganda battles.. I repost it today because it offers lessons about how Russian intelligence is using the same tools effectively to win the information war message about their February 24th 2022 Ukrainian invasion.

ISIS uses social medial tools to take territory, gain power, spread its influence, recruit new fighters, advance its propaganda, and create a myth that it is indomitable. 
They film their butchery using professional film crews and hundreds of thousands of cell phones. They upload these videos by the thousands to intimidate their enemies into submission. 
But their social media weapons can be taken out if we have the will and unleash our experts to do so.
For more resources on how to combat them, see here

ISIS Social Media Jihad
ISIS almost immediately uploads their videos to social media when slitting the throats of captives, selling conquered people as slaves, throwing homosexuals off buildings, engaging in battlefield slaughters, shooting prisoners, and conducting victory parades.
They continuously celebrate their depraved lifestyle, ideology, tactics and beliefs on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and other social media. And when some social media companies take down their excesses, ISIS as quickly regroups and posts it on other social media outlets.  Their social media jihad is relentless and operates 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
The leaders of ISIS know we live in a socially-connected culture and they use it daily to advance their ends. More importantly, they know that a single Tweet generates little action, but a Tweet and a post on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram increase the circulation, and influence of a single Tweet, exponentially.
In 2007, the blogger Robert Scoble identified the social media starfish as a visual way of representing what ISIS does every minute in the Internet: Use various branches of social media to convert the vulnerable to believe their propaganda.
The critical concept in this diagram is “conversions.” Used correctly, a company with a product, a politician with a cause, a now a jihadi with a fanatical ideology can convert others into willing believers.
ISIS leaders know that social media enables them to share larger, deeper, and more extensive relationships. It is why they draw converts from over 70 countries to their expanding caliphate.
Social media tools are so ubiquitous we forget how powerful they are. Mostly, they are fun which is why they are so popular. They create a social story…a human story…not a technology story.
When used together in a Starfish strategy, intelligence services in the West can develop relationships with others to increase trust. ISIS uses this tactic successfully. Our intelligence services were very good at doing this during the Cold War. With the correct use of social media, we can convert social media relationships to fight the scourge of ISIS.
With social media tools we can create, collaborate and share information with others. To compete successfully against ISIS, we must use these social media tools to our advantage to contact, convince, and befriend others through a relationship.
We can use them, as ISIS does, as a force multiplier. Social media aggregator tools like Google+, Instagram and Twitter can be used to defeat ISIS.
These social media tools are more powerful by a factor of millions when used together than when used alone. ISIS and other radical Islamic terrorist organizations know this.
As a force multiplier, ISIS perpetually uploads its combat and recruitment films to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms and reaches hundreds of millions of viewers. They must be stopped.
We need to act on this as well.

ISIS Use of Social Media in an Operational Attack
During terrorist operations, they have demonstrated a professional grasp of messaging and messaging tools. They understand that the optics, as captured in social media, is as important to their victory as any military objectives they achieve on the battlefield.
And, they’ve used the mainstream media, often unfiltered, as an adjunct force multiplier to increase their power. They are very good at the social media war.
Their attack on the Lindt store in Australia is a good example. For unlike decades of practice in prior attacks, the terrorists at the Lindt store in Australia allowed their hostages to keep their cell phones.
Then they ordered some hostages to call news stations to try to get on the air live.  Why the change in tactics? Because now they have seen how ISIS has mastered the tactical advantage of manipulating social media to broadcast their ideology. 

WWII Social Media Redux
This is not the first time we have faced a social media challenge from a murderous organization bent on world domination. When I was a student at the American College (now University) in Paris, France in 1975, I used to go to Nanterre University to research original sources (films, posters, newspapers) to write a paper for a political science class on Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi Propaganda Ministry.
I saw remarkable propaganda films Goebbels created in the 1930’s and 1940’s in the original versions. Watching those films for many hours on Saturday’s, I knew immediately that there is no question that, like the ISIS propaganda ministry, Goebbels and the Nazi Propaganda Ministry understood the impact of film and radio, the social media tools of his time, for changing the opinions and feelings of people worldwide. As with ISIS, they used that knowledge, ultimately, to bring about massive death and destruction.
But as good as Joseph Goebbels was at using the social media tools of his time to conquer tens of millions, he never had Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Twitter and the other social media tools ISIS has appropriated and used so successfully  to spread its ideology through visual depictions of its hyper-violence.
The fight against ISIS will take place on many fronts. The social media front is one we created and mostly dominate. There is no reason we cannot win this one. All we need to do is to unleash our social media professionals and companies. Even if we are already several years late to the fight, working together with our intelligence professionals, they can roll back the ISIS and other terrorist organization’s cyberspace battlefield wins.