Videogames Used to Train Terrorists?

kalpatin writes "Reuters reports that videogames are being used to train terrorists. The title Counter-Strike is apparently being used as a tool to prepare individuals for a mission: blowing up an oil tanker. The ultimate goal is to 'make the strait of Hormuz impassable, the Jomhouri-ye Eslami daily reported. About two-fifths of globally traded oil passes through the channel. The game illustrates a warning by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said in June that oil exports in the Gulf region could be seriously endangered if the United States made a wrong move on Iran.'"

Re:WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

So now I'm a terrorist because I can use a mouse and a keyboard?

Considering that this criteria instantly excludes the executive boards at most corporations, maybe it's exactly what they're trying to do.

Nope.

[khasim]

They train with real guns, but are using video games to train tactics.
Which can make sense.

Nope. They won't learn anything more about tactics than they would reading a book.

To train tactics, you have to practice the tactics with your team. Video game characters all have the same characteristics. People do not. The biggest differences are speed and grace/clumsiness.

And that doesn't even address the issue that most terrorist's "tactics" at the moment are "strap on the bomb, walk to the target and detonate yourself". If you're in a CS-type firefight, you've already fucked up the mission.

Re:Not Surprising, and it's already being done

[Anonymous Coward]

Attacking ANYONE when you are not a uniformed member of an armed force of a sovreign nation makes you a criminal (assuming murder/attempted murder is a crime in the place where you do this attacking).

It's more complicated than that. Quoting wikipedia on the Third Geneva Convention [wikipedia.org]:

Article 4 defines prisoners of war to include:

• 4.1.1 Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict and members of militias of such armed forces
• 4.1.2 Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, provided that they fulfill all of the following conditions: that of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates; that of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance (there are limited exceptions to this among countries who observe the 1977 Protocol I); that of carrying arms openly; that of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.
• 4.1.3 Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power.
• 4.1.4 Civilians who have non-combat support roles with the military and who carry a valid identity card issued by the military they support.
• 4.1.5 Merchant marine and the crews of civil aircraft of the Parties to the conflict, who do not benefit by more favourable treatment under any other provisions of international law.
• 4.1.6 Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war.