Task Force Stratus Ivy
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Task Force Stratus Ivy
Introduction Task Force Stratus Ivy was an American Department of Defense (DoD) counterintelligence unit that operated against Al-Qaeda cells in Afghanistan as a part of the Able Danger counterterrorism program. The primary tools of Stratus Ivy were the use of data mining and other means of cyberwarfare. The aim of the unit was to uncover terrorist cells and reveal terror operations before they occurred, and they even claimed to have discovered multiple perpetrators of the September 11 attacks almost a year before the attacks. The task force was the first covert offensive cyber unit at the DoD, and it was created and initially led by Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer. In addition to its operations in Afghanistan, Stratus Ivy also had smaller penetration efforts in Iran and North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia t ...
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United States Department Of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the United States Army, Army, United States Navy, Navy, United States Marine Corps, Marines, United States Air Force, Air Force, United States Space Force, Space Force, the United States Coast Guard, Coast Guard for some purposes, and related functions and agencies. As of November 2022, the department has over 1.4 million active-duty uniformed personnel in the six armed services. It also supervises over 778,000 National Guard (United States), National Guard and reservist personnel, and over 747,000 civilians, bringing the total to over 2.91 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the Department of Defense's stated mission is "to provid ...
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Counterintelligence
Counterintelligence (counter-intelligence) or counterespionage (counter-espionage) is any activity aimed at protecting an agency's Intelligence agency, intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or other Intelligence field, intelligence activities conducted by, for, or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations or persons. Many countries will have multiple organizations focusing on a different aspect of counterintelligence, such as domestic, international, and counter-terrorism. Some states will formalize it as part of the police structure, such as the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Others will establish independent bodies, such as the United Kingdom's MI5, others have both intelligence and counterintelligence grouped under the same agency, like the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). History Modern tactics of espiona ...
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Al-Qaeda
, image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden(1988–2011) * Ayman al-Zawahiri{{Assassinated, Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri(2011–2022) * Saif al-Adel(''de facto''; 2022–present) , active = {{nowrap, August 11, 1988 – present , allegiance = {{flag, Taliban (1995–present) , ideology = {{Collapsible list , title={{Nbsp , {{Plainlist, * Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism{{refn, name=Sunni Islamism, {{cite book, editor1-last=Bokhari, editor1-first=Kamran, editor2-last=Senzai, editor2-first=Farid, year=2013, chapter=Rejector Islamists: al-Qaeda and Transnational Jihadism, chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ThiuAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA101, title=Political Islam in the Age of Democratization, location=New York, publish ...
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Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran border, west, Turkmenistan to the Afghanistan–Turkmenistan border, northwest, Uzbekistan to the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border, north, Tajikistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, northeast, and China to the Afghanistan–China border, northeast and east. Occupying of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains Afghan Turkestan, in the north and Sistan Basin, the southwest, which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Kabul is the country's capital and largest city. Demographics of Afghanistan, Afghanistan's population is estimated to be between 36 and 50 million. Ancient history of Afghanistan, Human habitation in Afghanistan dates to the Middle Paleolithic era. Popularly referred to as the graveyard of empire ...
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Able Danger
Able Danger was a classified military planning effort led by the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). It was created as a result of a directive from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in early October 1999 by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hugh Shelton, to develop an information operations campaign plan against transnational terrorism. According to statements by Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and those of four others, Able Danger had identified two of three al-Qaeda cells active in the September 11 attacks; the 'Brooklyn cell' linked to "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman, including 9/11 leader Mohamed Atta, and three of the plot's other 19 hijackers. In December 2006, a sixteen-month investigation by the US Senate Intelligence Committee concluded "Able Danger did not identify Mohamed Atta or any other 9/11 hijacker at any time prior to September 11, 2001", and dismissed other assertions that have fueled 9/11 conspiracy theories. The Senate J ...
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Counterterrorism
Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and Intelligence agency, intelligence agencies use to combat or eliminate terrorism and violent extremism. If an act of terrorism occurs as part of a broader insurgency (and insurgency is included in the definition of terrorism) then counterterrorism may additionally employ counterinsurgency measures. The United States Armed Forces uses the term "foreign internal defense" for programs that support other countries' attempts to suppress insurgency, lawlessness, or subversion, or to reduce the conditions under which threats to national security may develop. History The first counterterrorism body to be formed was the Special Irish Branch of the Metropolitan Police, later renamed the Special Branch (Metropolitan Police), Special Branch after it expanded its scope beyond its or ...
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Data Mining
Data mining is the process of extracting and finding patterns in massive data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems. Data mining is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and statistics with an overall goal of extracting information (with intelligent methods) from a data set and transforming the information into a comprehensible structure for further use. Data mining is the analysis step of the " knowledge discovery in databases" process, or KDD. Aside from the raw analysis step, it also involves database and data management aspects, data pre-processing, model and inference considerations, interestingness metrics, complexity considerations, post-processing of discovered structures, visualization, and online updating. The term "data mining" is a misnomer because the goal is the extraction of patterns and knowledge from large amounts of data, not the extraction (''mining'') of data itself. It also is a buzzwo ...
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Cyberwarfare
Cyberwarfare is the use of cyberattack, cyber attacks against an enemy State (polity), state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, Internet manipulation, manipulation or economic warfare. There is significant debate among experts regarding the definition of cyberwarfare, and even if such a thing exists. One view is that the term is a misnomer since no cyber attacks to date could be described as a war. An alternative view is that it is a suitable label for cyber attacks which cause physical damage to people and objects in the real world. Many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, Israel, Iran, and North Korea, have active cyber capabilities for offensive and defensive operations. As states explore the use of cyber operations and combine capabilities, the likelihood of physical confrontation and violence playing out as a result of, or p ...
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September 11 Attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the third into the Pentagon (headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense) in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt. The attacks killed 2,977 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history. In response to the attacks, the United States waged the global war on terror over multiple decades to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, as well as the foreign governments purported to support them. Ringleader Mohamed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex at 8:46 a.m. Seventeen minutes later at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flig ...
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Anthony Shaffer (intelligence Officer)
Anthony Shaffer (born 1962) is a former U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who became known for his claims about mishandled intelligence before the September 11 attacks, and for the censoring of his ghost written book ''Operation Dark Heart.'' Shaffer was a member of the Able Danger project, having joined in 1999. Following a Defense Intelligence Agency investigation into Shaffer, his access to classified information was revoked in September 2005 and his security clearance was revoked in February 2006. That revocation essentially ended Shaffer's career as an intelligence officer, both at DIA and in the Army Reserve. Shaffer is currently the president of the London Center for Policy Research. 9/11 hijacker claims Shaffer responded by alleging that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) failed to properly pass on intelligence on 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta. Shaffer's allegations subsequently became known as the Able Danger controversy. In October 2003 Shaffer told the ...
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Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. With a Ethnicities in Iran, multi-ethnic population of over 92 million in an area of , Iran ranks 17th globally in both List of countries and dependencies by area, geographic size and List of countries and dependencies by population, population. It is the List of Asian countries by area, sixth-largest country entirely in Asia and one of the world's List of mountains in Iran, most mountainous countries. Officially an Islamic republic, Iran is divided into Regions of Iran, five regions with Provinces of Iran, 31 provinces. Tehran is the nation's Capital city, capital, List of cities in Iran by province, largest city and financial ...
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North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen River, Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone, Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. North Korea, like South Korea, claims to be the sole legitimate government of the entire peninsula and List of islands of North Korea, adjacent islands. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city. The Korean Peninsula was first inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic period. Its Gojoseon, first kingdom was noted in Chinese records in the early 7th century BCE. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea into Unified Silla, Silla and Balhae in the late 7th century, Korea was ruled by the G ...
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