Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

November 28, 2015

Paris Terrorists and the Kansas City Shuffle

Filed under: Government,Security — Patrick Durusau @ 8:20 pm

The Kansas City shuffle was described by Mr. GoodKat (Bruce Willis) in Lucky Number Slevin, “is is when everybody looks right, you go left.”

The security forces in Paris were victims of a self-inflicted Kansas City shuffle.

Stacy Meichtry and Joshua Robinson detail in: Paris Attacks Plot Was Hatched in Plain Sight how the Paris attackers:

  • used their real names
  • used their real IDs
  • used unencrypted, simple messaging to coordinate

While the Paris attackers were in plain sight, “left,” the Paris security and intelligence services were laboring over electronic debris from innocent civilians, worrying about encrypted messages and other futile and meaningless activities, “right.”

No doubt while preparations for the Paris attack were ongoing, intelligence agencies around the world were laboring to decrypt encrypted messages, mining every growing databases composed primarily of electronic debris from innocent civilians, and engaging is other utterly futile and meaningless activities.

Moreover, none, repeat none of the current data mining activities would have identified the Paris terrorists before the attack or have disclosed their plans.

Intelligence agencies have no profile for a terrorist, short of participating in a terrorist attack, and even then, apprehending a known terrorist taxes their capabilities.

Without a useful terrorist profile, all the data mining in the world won’t help intelligence agencies stop terrorist attacks.

If anything, looking “right,” and wasting government funding on more looking “right,” while terrorists go “left,” is as classic a Kansas City shuffle as I can imagine.

Is your police or intelligence agency victimizing itself and you with the Kansas City shuffle?

1 Comment

  1. […] Paris Terrorists and the Kansas City Shuffle Another Word For It […]

    Pingback by Links 11/30/15 | naked capitalism — November 30, 2015 @ 6:57 am

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