Page 29 - Chow Life - 2025 01 Spring

increase the supply of dogs needed by the country competitive society. Their focus was to find those
for explosive detection. The conference presenters
focused on three recent terrorist incidents in New
York City. We learned how ISIS was able to recruit
and train these terrorists, change strategies and
adapt their methods by using print and social
media, TV and internet technologies. Most of
the presenters were bomb detection experts who
carefully explained how ISIS changes strategies
in an effort to bring the fight to our shores.
They described how the three terrorists came to
America via the lottery system and how ISIS was
able to recruit and train them by using the skills
of other people who cleverly crafted ideas and
slogans that successfully motivated
these recruits. With this help, ISIS
was astonishingly successful in
their ability to deliver their “ wear uniforms, carry signs
message to a large pool
of potential recruits. ...their ability to
Imbedded in their
plan was the use of adapt, combine
digital technology and
their ability to adapt ideas and
their methodologies
to fit a variety of carefully craft
changing targets.
When applied to an their messages
audience of potential
recruits, they were
successful in offering them
ideas for using destructive
technologies. Their old strategy
relied on training terrorists in
other countries and sending them back
to do their destruction. This was expensive and
required boots on the ground in several countries.
Their new strategy trains them in the US, in their
home towns, thus avoiding having their passports
identified. This change in strategy also made it
more difficult for law enforcement officials to
identify and track them. It also made their new
strategy low-cost by only requiring the use of
distance learning technology, print and social
media and internet technology, all of which are
well-developed in this country. By adapting and
changing their old strategies, ISIS was able to
train terrorists locally with little notice. With
these changes, they were able to reach out and
recruit three young men who were failures in our
who are consumers of propaganda and receptive
to offers of valor, belonging and meaning. Their
strategy was to convince them that they could
put purpose and meaning back into their life. ISIS
relies on the failed mind and those who lack self-
worth. They seek out failures in the job market
who are the ideal candidates as an ISIS asset. Their
strategy is to offer each recruit the opportunity
to help themselves regain their self-worth with
a simple strategy that reaches large audiences of
would-be terrorists who are easily motivated to
become messengers of fear and destruction. The
ISIS message is "you can do it; we can help".
In the past our government relied on
the fact that our enemy would
and wave their flags. They
intended to be noticed. This
is no longer the case. With
that said, the conference
instructors offered many
ideas about how our
enemy recruits, trains
and delivers destruction
by quickly changing and
adapting. For example,
they wear street clothes in
order to blend in and look
“ like ordinary citizens. It gives
them the cover they need to
move quickly, change direction
and update their skills without being
noticed. This new approach speaks to
their creativity and their willingness to adapt.
When coupled with a well-developed plan and a
propaganda strategy they are able to deliver an
inspiring message of destruction and hate.
My second experience took me directly into an
old but familiar area that we all know. It was the
print and social media we all are exposed to in
our daily news. This experience uncovered several
media groups who were willing to deliver incorrect
information and deliver it in the form of fake
news to a large and unsuspecting audience called
the American public. What was uncovered was
their effective use of false messaging combined
with questionable data delivered in a convincing
manner using print and social media, TV and
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