Vo.4-Moshirnia-Final

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2013 / Valuing Speech and OSINT in the Face of Judicial Deference 400 anti-Soviet sentiment, as well as other policy factors, prevented this from occurring. 3. Analyzing publishing patterns A great deal of OSINT may derive from analysis of so-called “gray” literature which include trip reports, working papers, discussion papers, unofficial government documents, proceedings, preprints, research reports, studies, and market surveys with limited public availability. While the text of documents contains actionable information, publishing patterns also provide valuable intelligence. During the Cold War, U.S. intelligence agents tracked the publication patterns of Soviet scientists. 82 When certain scientists ceased to publish for extended periods of time, this signaled that they were sequestered to work on new technologies. 83 The known specialties of these scientists helped inform the actions of covert intelligence agents, who could be directed to investigate a possible Soviet break through. 84 C. Modern Datamining, Webmining, and OSINT: Terrorism Informatics While OSINT has traditionally relied on human driven intelligence, modern datamining and webmining techniques create the possibility for automaticity and quantitative-based investigations. These novel techniques have been employed in numerous ways by the intelligence community to create actionable information reports relating to the war on terror. This Section outlines several of these promising methods, including: deep web analysis, automated content analysis of jihadi recruitment videos, semantic analysis of language used in jihadi forums, social network analysis, and terrorist detection using web browsing pattern analysis. Deep Web Analysis. Terrorist entities frequently make use of websites that are beyond the reach of search engines—the so-called “Deep Web.” 85 the billions of dollars in U.S. support for the Afghan mujahadin during the war to expel Soviet forces from that country.”). 82 See Amy Sands, Integrating Open Sources into Transnational Threat Assessments, in TRANSFORMING U.S. INTELLIGENCE 63, 67–68 (Jennifer E. Sims & Burton Gerber eds., 2005). 83 Id. 84 Id. 85 Mohit Kumar, What is the Deep Web? A First Trip Into the Abyss, HACKER NEWS, May 30, 2012, http://thehackernews.com/2012/05/what-is-deep-web-first-trip-into-abyss.html.
401 Harvard National Security Journal / Vol. 4 These non-indexed sites may use a variety of methods to prevent detection from web crawlers (that is, automated browsers that follow hyperlinks, indexing sites for later queries). 86 Analysts in 2006 began a detailed web analysis in order to detect Internet use patterns. 87 Specifically, analysts sought to determine the technological sophistication of various terror groups, their preferred avenues for disseminating technological propaganda, and their use of covert messaging. As a first step, analysts compiled a list of known terrorist groups and their associated URLs. 88 Next, this set of URLs was expanded through link and forum analysis—that is, an automated process examining out-links and in-links from a target URL and a semi-automated process combing message boards for links to forums posted by extremists. 89 <strong>Final</strong>ly, after arriving at this expanded list, analysts tailored a web crawler to download all files, both textual and multimedia, from these sites. 90 This automated crawler populated the study database with 1.7 million documents. 91 The resulting investigation of coding style, file type, total link-ins, and other objective measures allowed for statistical analysis of organizational technological sophistication, content richness (examining the use of video and audio files), and site interconnectedness. 92 Analysis of Jihadi Recruitment Videos. Using a similar harvesting method, researchers downloaded 705 multimedia files used in jihadi recruitment. 93 86 James Bruce, How To Build A Basic Web Crawler To Pull Information From A Website (Part 1), MAKEUSEOF.COM (Dec. 10, 2010), http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/build-basic-webcrawler-pull-information-website/. 87 Jialun Qin, Yilu Zhou, Edna Reid, & Hsinchun Chen, Studying Global Extremist Organizations’ Internet Presence Using the Dark Web Attribute System: A Three Region Comparison Study, in TERRORISM INFORMATICS: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND DATA MINING FOR HOMELAND SECURITY 244–45 (Hsinchun Chen et al. eds., 2008). 88 Jialun Qin, Yilu Zhou, Edna Reid, & Hsinchun Chen, Studying Global Extremist Organizations’ Internet Presence Using the Dark Web Attribute System: A Three Region Comparison Study, in TERRORISM INFORMATICS: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND DATA MINING FOR HOMELAND SECURITY 237 (Hsinchun Chen et al. eds., 2008). 89 Id. at 244. 90 Id. 91 Id. at 245. 92 Id. at 248–62. 93 Arab Salem, Edna Reid, & Hsinchun Chen, Content Analysis of Jihadi Extremist Groups’ Videos, in TERRORISM INFORMATICS: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND DATA MINING FOR HOMELAND SECURITY 273 (Hsinchun Chen et al. eds., 2008) (see text and Table 13- 2).
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