ISIS may end up being a footnote in the history of the 21st century sooner than we think, if this kind of idiocy keeps up.
Air Force General Hawk Carlisle tells the story of how an ISIS operative took a selfie at an ISIS headquarters building, posted that selfie online, and led American forces right to the location of the building.
“It was a post on social media to bombs on target in less than 24 hours,” Carlisle said. “Incredible work when you think about.”
General Carlisle is head of Air Combat Command. He said that airmen at Hurlburt Field, Florida, with the 361st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group, saw their opportunity to his ISIS where they live by scouring social media
“The guys that were working down out of Hurlburt, they’re 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 for Daesh, ISIL. And these guys go: ‘We got an in.’ So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three [Joint Direct Attack Munitions] take that entire building out.”
ISIS had the biggest #selfie fail of the week http://t.co/LWNEjfQQYL
— Don't Panic Online (@dontpanic) June 7, 2015
The general did not identify at the time how the Intelligence unit determined the ISIS location. They may have been able to use landmarks or physical characteristics of the area, cross-checked against satellite photos, to find the target. Or perhaps the picture posted contained geotag data that gave them ISIS coordinates almost down to the foot.
Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media, including photographs. The necessary tools are often built into camera and camera phones and either use the mobile phone networks or global positioning system (GPS) to pinpoint a given photo. The tool is very useful for photographers wanting to keep track of the places they shoot.
The same technology can also have applications in forensics. Websites such as Flickr and many other photo-sharing and social networking sites can also utilize this metadata or allow users to add the appropriate geotags to their photos manually.
However they got to the end result, three bombs leveled the poor “moron’s” building, along with any occupants cheering on the beheadings and terror the ISIS organization foments.
US Takes Out ISIS Headquarters Building After Fighter Posts Selfie Standing In Front http://t.co/IKgst0S6VE
— FTSN Mainstream News (@ftsnnewsdeskm) June 7, 2015
