The regular Stuff We Didn’t Write About will be published later today. But for now, we found this really cool article on Gizmodo recently that is a classic example of horrible OPSEC on the part of the Colombians. The article originated in the Spanish language paper El Mundo and details an attack by Colombian air and ground forces that killed one of the leaders of the FARC, the crew that gave the world the term “narco-terrorist”. Ensconced in a camp deep in a jungle valley no one was finding them. That is, until leader Mono Jojoy needed some new boots for his diabetes stricken feet. Colombian intelligence did the old switcharoo with the boots somewhere in the supply chain and the next thing you know, our boy Mono is walking around with a GPS device in his heel. Fast forward, and the hidden camp is under attack by an air armada of 57 aircraft including helos and Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano turbo-prop fighters built in Brazil. Too bad the US doesn’t have Super Tucano fighters. They would be great for this COIN fight we are in. Instead we are buying planes for dog fights with with 4th Generation fighters.
At any rate, after an aerial bombardment, ground troops air assaulted into the camp and met little resistance, with the only casualty being one bomb dog. Colombian forces found Mono, dead along with other insurgents. Good riddance.
So to sum it all up, way to go Colombia! But, you told the bad guys how you did it. Good luck getting that to work again. The same holds true for the internet. Nothing like folks who don’t know any better (but want you to think they do) teaching the bad guys trade craft on websites.
Tags: irony