"In Second Life you can practice intelligence tradecraft; you can test your elicitation skills, pass off (hopefully unnoticed) notes and packages, and meet in private with co-conspirators. You can sit down in a classroom and learn how to field-strip a rifle or pistol, conduct fire-and-maneuver drills, or run through an urban combat scenario. You can send and receive money to help fund your operation and you can conduct "legitimate" business that ends up funding terrorism."
Once I stopped laughing, I was boggled by this. Then I started laughing again.
In Second Life you can practice intelligence tradecraft; you can test your elicitation skills
Well, maybe - but not really practically. You can play make-believe the way you might in your own back-yard though, if you want.
pass off (hopefully unnoticed) notes and packages
Err, no. It just doesn't work that way. All information and inventory transfers are invisible. There's no way to practice pass-offs in Second Life. The system doesn't support that level of interaction between avatars.
meet in private with co-conspirators
AIM and Yahoo Instant messengers are far more private. There's no real privacy in Second Life.
You can sit down in a classroom and learn how to field-strip a rifle or pistol
Only as well as you can from a book or a comic or a power-point presentation. Your interaction with objects is pretty much limited to left-clicking on them.
conduct fire-and-maneuver drills, or run through an urban combat scenario
Yes but ineffectively. You'd be better off playing Counter-Strike or Rainbow Six.
Static online training materials or even interactive-but-text-based Jihadist discussion forums cannot match the rich and substantial – if one may be excused for adopting a marketer's language – content
Almost all educational material in Second Life can be described as static online training materials or interactive-but-text-based. Pardon me, but have you seen Second Life?
1. Well, you can try seducing people for information. Make sure your poseballs are sterile.
Posted at 4:30AM on May 15th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi