Posted on 09/20/2007 8:56:59 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
WASHINGTON - Once her son is off to school, Laura Mansfield settles in at her dining room table with her laptop and begins trolling Arabic-language message boards and chat rooms popular with jihadists.
Fluent in Arabic, the self-employed terror analyst often hacks into the sites, translates the material, puts it together and sends her analysis via a subscription service to intelligence agencies, law enforcement and academics.
Occasionally she comes across a gem, such as when she found a recent Osama bin Laden video — before al-Qaida had announced it.
"I realized, oh my gosh, I'm sitting here, I'm a fat 50-year-old mom and I've managed to scoop al-Qaida," said Mansfield, who uses that name as a pseudonym because she receives death threats.
She sometimes spends 100 hours a week online, and she often finds items after word has begun spreading on the Arabic forums of an imminent release.
"It's really important to understand what the jihadists think and how they're planning on doing things," she said. "They're very vocal. They tell us what they're going to do and then they go out and do it."
Mansfield tips off her intelligence sources when she does find something new, part of an informal working relationship with the government.
"When I send them something, it's welcome," she said. "They thank me."
There have been times when an impending video release has kept her from a planned shopping trip with her daughter.
"It gets really challenging when you're trying to do that and cook spaghetti at the same time," she said.
Something is that no one has touched on is that when people volunteer for things like this, they feel great about it.
Pay them, make them provide a product or service and they no longer feel so good about doing it. And they won’t continue with the high quality they once had as a volunteer.
Funny, isn’t it?
bttt
God bless her, but 100 hours a week at your computer?
That’s some serious time.
I hope she is being paid.
How far is that from treason?
Do you mean Ann’s book? Sabotage is about the CIA’s war on conservatives.
We do have our own FReeper who has been translating documents for several years.
“You would think with all of the freaking tax money we pay Uncle Sam they wouldn’t have to rely on a fat 50-year-old mom sitting at home for intelligence.”
fat or thin doesn’t have anything to do with being fluent in arabic,and it looks like this is a skill our government is in short supply of.
Why insult her for using a valuable skill?
“Finding Arabic speakers as competent as Laura AND as aware of the cultural nuances is very difficult. Money isn’t the problem. We have plenty of money to hire people for those jobs. There are few applicants qualified to fill them.”
It is inspiring to read about her.
Sometimes I read stories like this and consider that type of thing because learning other languages has always come very easy to me.
But understanding the culture, like you said, is something that most people would lack.
“in short supply of.”
that didn’t make sense did it?
it doesn’t look like our government has a large supply of arabic/english translators.
I don't care if she weighs 90 pounds, its just sad that the US intelligence services are so pathetic.
Don't tell me....they're getting this money from taxpayers. : )
Where’s NSA on this?
Good for you Laura you are a patriot keep up the good work. The government should be paying her for her good work! We should all learn form this, don’t sit back get invovled! Its your A## their after!
This is very poor reporting. I’m sure that by Monday, the NY Times will post this lady’s name, phone number and SSN, in the interest of the public’s right to know /sarc, maybe.
The (think)Stink~Tank will be built next to the new college
and will be wired directly to the CWC on base,,,(safe),,,
Add super-computer and the fact the water-way to the east
has alligators,,,I’ll give it a blue-ribbon...;0)
Tell me, what is the point to this “think tank”?
For what purpose is there to even spend $100 MILLION on such a thnig????
oops....thnig = thing.
True Dat,,,She is just the type we need to support the
Cyber Warfare Center...;0)
The CIA under good ol’ Ronnie RayGun fed the Russians a
“Bug” that caused gas pipe-lines to blow-up!!(FR thread)
Puter controlled valves went wide open and made a BOOM
that was seen from space on sat-pics,,,LOL,,,TROJAN GOT~EM!!
I think it’s money well-spent,,,Sooper-Duper Puters cost
big $$$$$$$$$$$$ as well as making the site self-contained.
I think it’s money well-spent,,,To prevent the Chineezz/ETC.
from cracking Ya’ll’s ATM’s and Cyber~Rob US,,,LOL,,,
And,,,This will give the U.S.Military “Walk Through Walls”
in the Cyber area of war...;0)
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