
The Merry Pranksters Who Hacked the Afghan War - samclemens
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/politics-and-law/the-merry-pranksters-who-hacked-the-afghan-war-60873/
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drpp
World is small. I spent a winter there, working with the Synergy Strike Force.
One thing led to another and I ended up coaching the regional basketball team:

[https://nplusonemag.com/basketball-diaries-
afghanistan/](https://nplusonemag.com/basketball-diaries-afghanistan/)

Here are some photos of home base:

[https://www.flickr.com/search?user_id=68877611%40N00&text=ta...](https://www.flickr.com/search?user_id=68877611%40N00&text=taj%20afghanistan)

One of my best basketball players, an Afghan, and SSF member, is now a
Fulbright in the US:

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifl/13007763495](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifl/13007763495)

@rdl don't believe we've met but nods to you.

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rurounijones
Hey, he received military funding to ultimately try and do good in a crappy
situation, hats off to him.

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contingencies
Directly taking funding from an occupying army to manipulate popular behaviour
in to a centralized intelligence gathering system, then claiming some form of
moral outcome for the greater good? Somehow I missed the connection.

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jakeogh
Antz:
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/openantz/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/openantz/)

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chaz81
I also saw this on
[https://tinyletter.com/intriguingthings](https://tinyletter.com/intriguingthings)
5 Intriguing Things, a daily email by Alexis Madrigal I would highly
recommend.

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sreejithr
Loved the "Beer for data" approach. It could work in a lot of other settings.
Very novel idea to mine data from otherwise hostile environments. Does he
publish this data online?

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breakingcups
Wow, what a guy.

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jedanbik
So this dude siphons off of the military industrial complex to feed both his
addictions and his narcissism? Count me out.

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rdl
I visited/helped out a tiny bit with these guys.

It really wasn't about ego on the part of the people I encountered, so much as
frustration and genuinely wanting to see things happen.

They actually had a hard time raising money because they needed/wanted to stay
under the radar. After Mehrab's death as far as I can tell things shut down.

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jedanbik
Fair enough. Sorry to be so harsh. I think it was the tone of the article that
made me upset yesterday. I definitely realize the need for accurate
information in that part of the world!

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Ntrails
For me it was less about the data for beer (which in and of itself was
brilliant) and more about them using government (and their own) money to set
up small positive projects for local people.

