On Saddam's trail
February 26, 2010 8:04 AM   Subscribe

Searching for Saddam : how the U.S. military used social networking to capture the Iraqi dictator
posted by Gyan (8 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Anything to stop his damn Farmville requests.

Too easy?
posted by LordSludge at 8:58 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Thanks For The Memories, Saddam.
posted by homunculus at 9:08 AM on February 26, 2010


Saddam became a fan of SPIDER HOLES.

The U.S. Army added the Have You Seen Saddam? application.

The people of Tikrit say, I BET WE CAN FIND 1,000,000 PEOPLE AGAINST SHIITES.

George W. just scored 500K on Bejeweled. Think you can beat his score?
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:54 AM on February 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


Apologies to this other Slate series of articles.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:55 AM on February 26, 2010


It's surprising how little the US Army actually tries to analyze the people they're shooting.
posted by GuyZero at 11:01 AM on February 26, 2010


It's surprising how little the US Army actually tries to analyze the people they're shooting.

The problem is that actual intelligence is counterproductive to pork barrel military industrial complex profits. Getting people trained to do things the smart, cheap way, doesn't offer as much profit as a new experimental uber-machine, which will take billions to research, billions to build, and billions to maintain.

So, we get lots of neat toys, and shitty Intel. So we do things the hard way.

Then, we can invest billions into medical technology!

Everyone wins!

(Except the people getting shot. Our folks we sent over to do the shooting. Our tax payers. But man, the investors are happy. And that's what matters.)
posted by yeloson at 11:44 AM on February 26, 2010


One of my favourite conspiracy theories is that it was the Kurdish peshmerga that found him, and they tipped off the US in exchange for a free hand in Kirkuk.
posted by YouRebelScum at 12:26 PM on February 26, 2010


Good old-fashioned snitching is called "social networking" now?
posted by Skeptic at 11:44 AM on February 27, 2010


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