Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command
Washington Times: Special Ops targets social media
U.S. special operations forces, elite commandos engaged in high-risk operations around the world, are adding a new focus to their portfolio of activities: social media and other unconventional information warfare threats.
“Social media is another component of unconventional strategies, and the security environment in general, that is playing a central role in recruiting individuals to causes,” Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, said Wednesday in prepared testimony to the House Armed Services Committee.
“We must therefore develop our ability to interact with key influencers through this medium, or else risk blinding ourselves to this important conduit of information and influence in unfolding crises,” Gen. Votel said.
Update: Pentagon Special Ops Forces' New Task: Information Warfare -- Sputnik
WNU Editor: I can understand why US Special Operations Command is now focusing on unconventional information warfare .... the Islamic State has shown how effective of a platform it is in recruiting supporters and gaining intel. But is this the right organization to focus on this? I have my doubts .... social media is a forum that requires 100% dedication and focus in order to be successful .... but it looks like the warriors in U.S. Special Forces are now going to have additional duties and responsibilities on top of what they are doing right now.
2 comments:
My guess is that they will be even more paranoid than their fellow spies.
Not a good development to have special forces doing this. I agree that people who spend 100% of their time on this need to be the ones doing it while special forces engage the enemy militarily. Giving these brave warriors even more responsibility would seem to be an even worse trend.
They currently have to many duties and responsibilities and now policy makers want to add their burden?!!? It would seem scaling back their responsibilities so they could work on the mission they all signed up for which is to defend America. As I've pointed out elsewhere, a redeployment of our forces is badly needed to give them a chance to actually defend America.
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