Gallery: Stealth Tech, Facebook Revolutions, Shadow Wars: The Most Dangerous Year Ever
Pete Souza01al-qaida-loses-and-then-loses-some-more
When 2011 began, Osama bin Laden was still alive, U.S. troops were still fighting in Iraq, and Iran could only dream about capturing our most advanced spy drone. By the end of the year -- everything had flipped upside-down. America's shadow wars grew, as its conventional conflicts shrank. Secret tech was suddenly not so secret any more. Dictators in place for decades suddenly found themselves out of jobs, thanks in no small part to Facebook. Even the ordinarily sacrosanct Pentagon budget was suddenly under fire. It was, in retrospect, a decidedly crazy, thoroughly exhausting, and utterly exhilarating year. It's hard to imagine what more could be in store for 2012. Al-Qaida Loses, and Then Loses Some More ---------------------------------------- 2011 was definitely the most dangerous year ever -- if you were an al-Qaida bigwig. Most famously, [Navy SEALs finally killed Osama bin Laden in May](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/u-s-forces-kill-osama-bin-laden/), removing from the Earth the world's most infamous terrorist and puncturing al-Qaida's most potent symbol of resilience. It was an operation that showed off just how deadly the U.S. really is. Special operations forces [paired with CIA operatives](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/cia-killing-machine/), prepped with spy satellites, and [equipped with the latest stealth gear](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/secret-stealth-drone-spied-on-osama-dodged-pakistanis/). Then, less than four months later, the U.S. proved its lethality again. An American missile strike in Yemen [killed al-Qaida's chief online propagandist](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/awlaki-dead-yemen/), Anwar al-Awlaki. No wonder al-Qaida didn't come close to bombing the U.S. at home, unlike its efforts in [2009](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/obama-software-flaws-let-christmas-bomber-get-through/) and [2010](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/its-official-printer-bombs-were-designed-to-be-undetectable/). Instead, it lost two of its most important figures; a treasure trove of its data; and suffered the kind of setbacks that have Washington talking about capital-V Victory. Al-Qaida looks like it's in crisis mode now. Top government officials think it's [almost a spent force](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/the-panetta-doctrine-declare-victory-dont-go-home/). Its new leader, Ayman Zawahiri, is an [uncharismatic, divisive figure](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/al-qaida-names-zawahiri-to-fill-bin-ladens-shoes/). The bin Laden raid gave the U.S. access to [dozens of cellphones, thumb drives and computer hard drives](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/what-theyre-looking-for-inside-osamas-thumb-drives/) revealing terrorist secrets. (Also, bin Laden's [porn](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/we-have-found-bin-ladens-porn/).) The [costly 9/11 Era](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/dangerroom_911toll_0909/all/1) may actually soon be a relic of the past -- if, that is, we can [stop being so afraid](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/end-911-era/) of the terrorists who got rolled in 2011. *Photo: White House*
02the-arab-world-routes-around-its-dictators
The Arab World Routes Around Its Dictators ------------------------------------------ When activists began to threaten Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule, he cut off Egypt's internet, thinking he could sever the ties that bound the protest movement together. It didn’t work. The Tahrir Square network did what strong networks always do: [it routed around the obstruction](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/egypts-internet-shutdown-cant-stop-mass-protests/). In the process, it showed the world the new boundaries of dissent, and how social media pushes them outward -- but doesn't drive them. For the sophisticated version of what social media did and didn't in the protests of 2011, check out our colleague [Bill Wasik's WIRED magazine cover story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/ff_riots_timeline/). The short version is that Facebook, Twitter, and Blackberry Messenger groups were excellent tools for organizing surreptitiously before the protests really became a phenomenon; afterward, it became the chief medium for communicating granular, protests-eye viewpoints to the outside world -- and even [remixing](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/rapper-takes-to-youtube-to-diss-egyptian-dictator/) those messages. Tahrir Square became [a DIY tech hub](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/cairos-band-of-geeks-survives-tahrir-square-assault/). But Mubarak found that [trolling the square's de facto Facebook page](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/trolls-pounce-on-facebooks-tahrir-square/) couldn't stop the movement. That's where his traditional, low tech solutions -- [arrests](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/egypt-arrests-four-facebook-activists/), even [camel-borne cavalry assaults](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/horses-camels-rocks-molotovs-egypts-thug-tech/) -- came in. But they weren't enough either. Mubarak was unwilling to plunge his country into an all-out civil war. Moammar Gadhafi was. No amount of tweeting could substitute for real, if impromptu, resistance. And there the Libyan revolution needed outside help. NATO went to war with Gadhafi for eight months, [slamming Tomahawk missiles](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/drones-suicidal-cousins/) into his air defenses, [bombing his loyalist trucks](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/video-nato-brags-on-blowing-up-a-libyan-tank/) and even [launching a drone campaign](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/predator-libya/). It was a [confused war](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/u-s-plan-to-end-libya-war-hope-the-generals-quit/) of [dubious legality](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/congress-whines-but-wont-defund-libya-war/). Improbably, it worked: NATO managed to [end the war successfully](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/gadhafi-over/) with no casualties and [no post-war occupation](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/nato-libya-war-facebook/). Along the way, the Libyans demonstrated they could jury-rig [trucks into mobile artillery launchers](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/libyas-diy-rebels-outfit-trucks-with-copter-rockets/), fly their [own spy drones](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/libyan-rebels-are-flying-their-own-mini-drone/), and take [commands from Qatari special forces](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/tiny-qatar-flexed-big-muscles-in-libya/). Even after regime change in Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt, the Arab Spring doesn't look so promising now that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is murdering his citizens. And the Obama team still overhypes social media's role in the uprisings: one of its most direct acts against Assad is to [flame him on Facebook](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/u-s-flames-syria-on-facebook/). But the Arab Spring demonstrated both the potential and the limitations for new media's role in social change, and that's why its revolutionaries are [exporting those lessons to Occupy Wall Street](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/egypt-occupy-wall-street/). *Photo: Flickr/Monasosh*
03advanced-warplanes-catch-a-cold
America's Advanced Warplanes Catch a Cold ----------------------------------------- The Air Force has bet big on its expanding fleet of robot planes and manned stealth jets. And not without reason: they maximize what’s arguably the U.S.' biggest wartime advantage: its ability to snoop and strike from the sky. But 2011 was the year the flaws in one of America's major strategic assets began to show. In September, Air Force technicians discovered a [computer virus](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/) in the drones' remote cockpits at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. It wasn't supposed to happen: the cockpits aren't connected to the public internet, and the removable drives that allow malware to jump from network to network have been [banned for years](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/11/army-bans-usb-d/). Worse, the virus resisted the base's efforts to scrub the malware out of the drone cockpits. Even worse than *that*, [officers at Creech waited a whole two weeks before telling anyone off-base](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/drone-virus-kept-quiet/) -- leaving the digital hygiene specialists at the 24th Air Force to learn about the malware from, um, Danger Room. The Air Force claimed that none of this was a big deal; the malware was a common piece of code – like the kind that steals the credentials of folks [playing Mafia Wars](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/drone-virus-nuisance/). Feel better? But as bad as things got for the drones, the Air Force's manned jets had it worse. In May, the Air Force [grounded its entire fleet](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/stealth-fighter-fleet-grounded-by-oxygen-woes/) of F-22 Raptors, the [expensive](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/f-22-real-cost/) stealth jet it considers the future of aerial combat. The cockpit exhibited [persistent malfunctions with its oxygen systems](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/stealth-fighters-oxygen-woes/) that risked [suffocating pilots](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/stealth-fighters-grounded/). But the Air Force is so committed to the jet that it [actually blamed a pilot who couldn't breathe](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/f-22-crash/) for losing control of his Raptor. If that wasn't enough, the multi-purpose jet of the future, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, [amassed 13 expensive new flaws](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/joint-strike-fighter-13-flaws/). A jet that's already the most expensive defense program in human history [isn't even safe enough for training flights](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/joint-strike-fighter-unsafe/) -- and won't be ready to fly [until 2018](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/fighters-fly-for-50-years/) at the earliest. That's enough to make anyone sick. *Photo: USAF*
04mexicos-cartels-attack-bloggers-irl
Mexico's Cartels Attack Bloggers, IRL ------------------------------------- Mexico's murderous drug cartels have never taken too kindly to outsiders exposing their excesses. In 2011, though, the drug lords took things to grisly new heights. Hanging from a pedestrian overpass near the Texas border in September were the bodies of "[snitches](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/mexican-cartels-hang-disembowel-internet-snitches/)." "This will happen to all the internet snitches," a note accompanying the corpses read. All this because people blogged about Zeta cartel -- or, at least, said more about the Zetas online than the narco-killers wanted. Last year, Mexican bloggers began [documenting cartel atrocities](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/mexicos-top-narco-blogger-comes-forward/); in 2011, the cartels demanded silence. In November, a headless body turned up in Nuevo Laredo with a gruesome note: "[Hi I'm 'Rascatripas' and this happened to me because I didn't understand I shouldn't post things on social network](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/mexican-blogger-decapitated/#more-62903)." That made four corpses in three months, all to intimidate people from talking about the cartels online. Bloggers weren’t the only targets. By the end of the year, *[two-thirds](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/border-surveillance-plan-stumbles-as-two-thirds-of-mexico-declared-unsafe/)* of Mexico was considered unsafe. And while the cartels stockpiled [and](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/new-player-in-mexicos-drug-war-the-nra/) [U.S. guns](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/new-player-in-mexicos-drug-war-the-nra/), America [sent in the drones](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/u-s-drones-are-now-sniffing-mexican-drugs/) to help hunt the drug gangs. One U.S. presidential candidate even floated the idea of [invading Mexico](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/we-already-invaded-mexico/). It's hard to imagine that things with get any safer South of the Border in 2012. Especially not when bloggers calling the cartels on their excesses are being silenced. *Photo: Flickr /cfrausto*
© Stringer Pakistan / Reuters05secret-tech-is-dragged-into-the-light
Secret Tech Is Dragged Into the Light ------------------------------------- You were never supposed to see the [stealthy helicopter](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/aviation-geeks-scramble-to-i-d-osama-raids-mystery-copter/ ) that Navy SEALs rode in on their mission to off Osama bin Laden. The [advanced spy drone](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/high-rez-pics-stealth-drone/) keeping watch over that operation (and [Iran's nuclear facilities](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/iran-drone-video/)) -- that was supposed to be a secret, too. And the [robotic space plane](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/air-force-extends-secret-space-planes-mysterious-mission/) circling the planet on a classified mission? The military would prefer we stop talking about that one altogether. But a combination of loose lips, technical glitches, and a network of amateur sleuths pushed each of these supposedly clandestine projects from the black world to the white. All of which made 2011 the year that secrets died. The CIA became [one hell of a bragging machine](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/cia-killing-machine/) about its ostensibly-secret ops to hunt down terror targets. Previously hush-hush advances in [bomb-stopping](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/iraqs-invisible-war/), [heat-sensing](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/night-vision/), and [population-monitoring technologies](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/darpas-secret-spy-machine/) were revealed in these pages. Other reporters exposed the [growing shadow war](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/secret-programs/?pid=1015) (complete with secret detention facility) in Somalia. WikiLeaks threw open the [secret files](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/did-a-sex-tape-create-an-al-qaida-spy/) of the terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon and its pals tried to lock things down -- with [decoy documents](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/darpa-trap-wikileaks/) and [software to spot malcontents](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/hey-loser-you-cant-hide/). But not all those plans panned out. When the security firm HBGary tried to hatch a plot to [kneecap WikiLeaks and its supporters](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/paranoia-meter-hbgarys-plot-to-find-the-next-pentagon-wikileaker/), those supporters hacked HBGary - and published thousands and thousands of private documents the company that it was keeping to themselves. Score another round for the secret-spillers. *Photo: Reuters*
Photographer's Mate 1st Class (A06the-shadow-wars-grow
The Shadow Wars Grow -------------------- This is what President Obama means when he says the "[tide of war is receding](http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/06/22/137354474/live-blog-the-president-lays-out-his-plan-for-afghanistan)." U.S. troop numbers are coming down in Afghanistan and they've zeroed out in Iraq. But all around the globe, America is escalating its Shadow Wars -- undeclared conflicts against al-Qaida, waged by spies, special operations forces and their robotic pals. It wasn't just the killings of [Osama bin Laden](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/u-s-forces-kill-osama-bin-laden/) and YouTube terror preacher [Anwar al-Awlaki](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/awlaki-dead-yemen/). Drone strikes and commando raids have migrated from Pakistan and into [Yemen](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/cias-drones-join-shadow-war-over-yemen/) and Somalia. The U.S. is reportedly setting up a [new drone base](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/new-drone-bases/) for striking terrorists in east Africa. And it's even started using Navy ships as impromptu, floating Gitmos, [holding terror suspects for weeks](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/floating-gitmo/) without telling anyone. The White House counterterrorism team simultaneously says al-Qaida's on its last legs *and* [it's got to prosecute these Shadow Wars forever](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/white-house-al-qaida-is-toast/), all the while [rejecting congressional attempts](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/pentagon-isnt-hot-for-a-new-law-blessing-al-qaeda-war/) to define the president's war powers. This is what "peace" looks like in the 9/11 Era: wars you never hear about -- until missiles destroy people halfway around the world. *Photo: U.S. Navy*
07counterinsurgency-ends-in-afghanistan
Counterinsurgency Ends in Afghanistan ------------------------------------- Goodbye, counterinsurgency. The idea that protecting Afghans would turn around a faltering, decade-long war died a hard death in 2011. Afghanistan was far from a classical counterinsurgency campaign. Gen. David Petraeus [seriously beefed up the air war](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/5800-attacks-are-just-the-beginning-after-petraeus-year-long-air-war/) while commandos [hunted Taliban at night](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/actually-special-ops-night-raids-are-rather-gentle/). Once all 30,000 U.S. surge troops were in place, they didn't just drink tea, they [leveled entire (empty) *villages*](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/i-flattened-afghan-villages/) that had been turned into bomb factories. But that was mostly in the south. As our own David Axe found during a trip out east, the areas abutting Pakistan became [even more violent](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/ambushed-afghanistan/all/1), with huge [battles on the border](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/epic-border-battle-a-bad-sign-for-afghanistan/5/), and rising tides of [homemade insurgent bombs](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/blown-to-hell/) and [rocket attacks](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/pakistan-rockets-us-troops/). Commanders began [winnowing down Afghan districts](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/new-plan-for-afghanistan-fortress-districts/) that would receive protection. The result? Violence in Afghanistan [merely leveled off](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/progress-taliban-attacks-only-up-a-little/), rather than dropping substantially, like in Iraq. So President Obama changed course. He announced in July that [the surge troops would come home by October 2012](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/never-mind-the-drawdown-taliban-talks-not-troop-numbers-are-what-really-matter/) -- hmm, just in time for a presidential election -- which means a [counterinsurgency campaign in eastern Afghanistan](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/will-the-u-s-military-concede-east-afghanistan-to-the-taliban/) is a [nonstarter](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/this-is-the-end-of-counterinsurgency-in-afghanistan/). The war there will be [waged largely by drones and air assault](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/obama-wont-use-troops-to-save-afghan-hellhole-drones-maybe/) as the remaining 68,000 troops try to consolidate their hold on the south and [get Afghan troops ready to take over in 2014](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/afghanistan-new-plan-training/). The thing is, no one knows if the new plan can salvage the war, either. *Photo: Flickr/AfghanistanMatters*
08the-pentagons-mad-scientists-go-to-war
The Pentagon's Mad Scientists Go to War --------------------------------------- We're used to the mad scientists at the Darpa preparing for the wars of 2030. But in 2011, the agency's top priorities focused on the wars of... 2011. "There is a time and a place for daydreaming. But it is not at Darpa," agency director Regina Dugan said. For an agency that spent millions of dollars on [shape-shifting robots](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/video-pentagon-shape-shifter-folds-itself-into-boat-plane/) and [mind-controlled limbs](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/next-step-for-darpas-mind-controlled-prosthetics-relibability/), that was something of a revolutionary statement. One of Darpa's most important projects is one of its most secret. Known as [Nexus 7](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/darpas-secret-spy-machine/all/1), it seeks the hidden metrics of the Afghanistan war's progress. Like for instance: the price of fruit in Jalalabad, which stabilizes when violence is predictably high or low. That's arguably an intelligence program, though, which is decidedly not what Darpa is chartered to do. But agency director Regina Dugan pushed Nexus 7 as a way for Darpa to help the Afghanistan war -- even if many serving in Afghanistan ridicule the idea that they can learn anything new from the cost of a banana. Nexus 7 grew out of Darpa's current obsession with crowdsourcing. And that obsession showed no signs of letting up in 2011. The agency turned to us great unwashed to come up with [new spy drone designs](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/is-darpa-recruiting-wireds-editor-to-build-drones/). Dugan even showed off Darpa's [crowdsourced armored car](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/as-obama-hails-darpa-senate-panel-knifes-its-budget/) to President Obama. Meanwhile, Darpa is looking to appeal to a very different crowd: the hackers who have traditionally shied away from government work. The agency introduced a [crash program](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/darpa-fast-track/) to approve cash for computer security research in a week. Dugan [waxed poetic](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/darpa-hackers-cybersecurity/) in a "cyber colloquium" meant to appeal to the hacker-minded. Darpa is [getting more than a half-billion dollars](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/gates-boosts-cash-to-darpa-for-cyber-tech-research/) to fight what many believe to be the Pentagon's most pressing security issue of today: its porous network defenses; somebody with clue out to get that cash. Darpa didn't totally take its eyes off of the future, of course. The agency is funding a [robotic ostrich that'll outrun Usain Bolt](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/darpa-ostrich-robot/), taking ideas for the [starship of the 22nd Century](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/nerds-darpa-wants-your-advice-on-interstellar-flight/), searching for [life's master clock](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/darpa-life-master-clock/), and trying to [recruit your dog](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/darpas-new-recruits-you-your-grandpa-and-your-dog/) as an oh-so-very "unconventional warfighter." And then there was the [Mach 20 missile it fired over the Pacific](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/mach-20-missile-lost-again/). It remains to be seen when Darpa's efforts will bear, er, fruit. But Dugan's ended the days of her researchers focusing solely on the long-term. Still, there's at least one moment from 2011 Dugan wants to leave in the past: [she's owed money by one of Darpa's contractors](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/all-in-the-family-darpa-chief-owed-250000-by-darpa-contractor/) -- which just so happens to be [her family company](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/darpa-gave-400000-to-chiefs-family-firm/). *Photo: U.S. Air Force*
09fbi-trainers-compare-islam-to-the-death-star
FBI Trainers Compare Islam to the Death Star -------------------------------------------- Last year, anti-Islam zealots protested in Lower Manhattan against the "Ground Zero Mosque," warning that Muslims were trying to conquer America. Not many actual counterterrorism scholars took them seriously; those who did warned they would harm counterterrorism. Problem was: they had a foothold into the FBI, the Justice Department and the military. One of leaders of the "Ground Zero Mosque" protest, [Robert Spencer](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/fbi-islam-101-guide/), lectured before FBI audiences and had his anti-Islam tomes grace the [bookshelves at the FBI's training academy at Quantico](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/fbi-islam-domination/all/1). Another, FBI counterterrorism analyst William Gawthrop, taught agents at Quantico that ["mainstream" Muslims were violent](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/fbi-muslims-radical) and the Prophet Muhammad was a "cult" leader. He told an FBI partnership in New York that [al-Qaida was "irrelevant" compared to the overall threat from Islam](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/fbi-islam-qaida-irrelevant/3/), which he compared to the Galactic Empire's Death Star mega-weapon. Little wonder that the FBI *also* thinks [fans of the Insane Clown Posse are a violent gang](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/fbi-gang-insane-clown-posse/). It wasn't just the two of them, nor was the problem limited to the FBI. Gawthrop lectured before military intelligence audiences and taught veterans at an online college. [Similar messages](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/islamophobia-beyond-fbi/) turned up at the U.S. Army's brain trust at Fort Leavenworth and in a U.S. Attorney's office in Pennsylvania. Hawkish Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) [condemned the training](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/senators-fbi-lies/); Attorney General Eric Holder testified that it [harmed U.S. counterterrorism efforts](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/holder-fbi-islamophobia/). The FBI even brought in the Army's real counterterrorism experts from West Point to [revamp its training](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/fbi-west-point-training/). And in October, the White House ordered the entire federal government [to purge the anti-Islam material](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/obama-islamophobia-review/) and raise its standards for imparting counterterrorism expertise. If it's serious, the Islamophobes will be stuck yelling on street corners [by the spring](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/terror-training-overhaul/). *Image: Slide from a presentation by Justice Department intelligence analyst John Marsh*
U.S. Marines10the-military-freaks-out-over-budget-cuts
The Military Freaks Out Over Budget Cuts ---------------------------------------- Officers don't rise high in the military by losing their cool. But it turns out there's an easy way to make a four-star flip his lid: just tell him that his budget is getting cut. "[We won’t be able to meet the global force management plan](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/top-brass-unload-on-austerity-plan/)," warned the Navy chief, Adm. Jonathan Greenert. The second in command of the Air Force worries that the military [can't afford](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/rule-sea-sky/) its new plan for joint aerial-naval war. And all these nightmares come true if the U.S. military... goes back to its 2007 budget. The U.S. spent [$6 trillion on defense](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/dangerroom_911toll_0909/all/1) since 9/11. If the military budget stays flat, it'll spend another $5 trillion over ten years. But the U.S. is deeply in debt to China and is trying to close a yawning federal deficit. One idea in Congress was to [slash over $600 billion out of defense by 2022](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/no-automatic-defense-cuts/) if lawmakers couldn't agree on a big deficit reduction deal. They couldn't. [Out comes the whining](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/defense-budget-sequestration-myth/). Some advanced weaponry and research programs will almost certainly take a hit if the budget crunch continues; you can probably [kiss your super-lasers goodbye](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/power-down-senate-zaps-navys-superlaser-railgun/). And pressure will likely mount to rein in the biggest Pentagon weapons-program of them all: the [trillion-dollar Joint Strike Fighter](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/joint-strike-fighter-13-flaws/). But [Ragnarok](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k) this is not. The defense industry may (dubiously) claim that [the economy will screech to a halt](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/defense-industry-cuts-economy/) if it doesn't get its government cash. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta sputters that [we're gonna get nuked](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/defense-cut-paranoia/). The biggest cuts proposed would merely reduce defense spending to its 2007 levels, however. Now Panetta has [agreed to lock in the defense cuts](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/no-automatic-defense-cuts/), expect the four-star hysteria to intensify next year. *Photo: DVIDSHUB*
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The Iraq War Goes Mercenary --------------------------- The Iraq war [ended this month](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/iraq-garbage-haditha/). All U.S. troops have now come home after eight and a half bloody years in Baghdad. But that [finality](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/iraq-war-flip-flop/) comes with a [big asterisk](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/obama-iraq-eternal/): a hired army is staying behind. [Up to 5,500 mercenaries](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/5500-mercs-to-protect-u-s-fortresses-in-iraq/) will guard fortress-like U.S. embassies and the diplomats who work there. They'll work for the State Department, which proved unable to control a much smaller component of security contractors in the past, when they [killed 17 Iraqis](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/tag/nisour-square/) in one of the worst debacles of the war. Starting right now, the guards -- from firms [SOC Inc., Triple Canopy and Global Strategies Group](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/two-more-merc-firms-get-big-iraq-contracts/) -- will do everything from convoy security to [airborne medical evacuation to search and rescue](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/11/iraq-diplomats-search-rescue/). And the State Department has [blocked nearly all oversight](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/iraq-merc-army/) into how they'll operate, including when they can open fire on Iraqis. All that seems like gasoline near a fire that most Americans think is extinguished. And if that isn't enough, Iran has agents in Iraq who'd [love to introduce flame to fuel](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/iraqs-flying-bombs-return-killing-6-g-i-s/) -- and get Iraqis outraged over U.S. hired guns all over again. *Photo: Wikimedia Commons*
