Destroy first, ask question later

This blogger has a “running record of efforts to arrest former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, who is indicted on charges of inciting mass rape and genocide.”

The latest post is intriguing:

Since making an active effort to recruit hackers to target enemy websites and chatrooms over five years ago, it [US government] has actively sought to erase enemy websites rather than use them to gather intelligence.

Such is the case with karadzic.org. Once the central stopping point for sympathizers wishing to leave messages of support and encouragement – and occasionally actionable information about his appearances at different events and homes – the site is now non-existent thanks to American government efforts to shut it down. Now Karadzic supporters still chat, but on hundreds of more obscure sites that make monitoring infinitely more difficult.

Karadzic.org is not the only instance of this blunder. The inefficient tactics of destroying mainstream enemy websites has also been used against various insurgent groups in Iraq.

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