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MAlign Tradecraft

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MAlign Tradecraft
Post by kenl511   » Mon Aug 10, 2015 11:58 am

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Harahap is Firebrand. On Kornati, Montana and Seraphim. This is poor tradecraft, relying on opposition sloppiness to protect him.

Isabel Bardasano used the Marianne to transport shipyard techs to Monica and supply weapons to Nordbrandt and Westman. This violates the principle of compartmentalization which should be automatic spinal reflex in this kind of operation.

In fact, given the level of tradecraft I see in MAlign operations and how successful they are; I get the distinct impression that covert operations was a dead art and is being revived piecemeal or the Mesan Alignment got too used to surviving sloppy work in a "mistakes kill" field of endeavor.
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Re: MAlign Tradecraft
Post by cthia   » Mon Aug 10, 2015 12:05 pm

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kenl511 wrote:Harahap is Firebrand. On Kornati, Montana and Seraphim. This is poor tradecraft, relying on opposition sloppiness to protect him.

Isabel Bardasano used the Marianne to transport shipyard techs to Monica and supply weapons to Nordbrandt and Westman. This violates the principle of compartmentalization which should be automatic spinal reflex in this kind of operation.

In fact, given the level of tradecraft I see in MAlign operations and how successful they are; I get the distinct impression that covert operations was a dead art and is being revived piecemeal or the Mesan Alignment got too used to surviving sloppy work in a "mistakes kill" field of endeavor.

This is almost my entire point and part and parcel of The Manpower Files thread! It was just too ambitious of an operation for humans to have achieved -- even genetic super Nazis, to not have left crumbs, loose threads or mistakes -- glaring or no.

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: MAlign Tradecraft
Post by niethil   » Mon Aug 10, 2015 12:09 pm

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Might have they been getting sloppy because of the assurance that no one could imagine they existed in the first place ?
-------------
'Oh, oh' he said in English. Evidently, he had completely mastered that language.
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Re: MAlign Tradecraft
Post by kzt   » Mon Aug 10, 2015 12:18 pm

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Plot.

Like code naming your operations something that makes it obvious what is going on.
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Re: MAlign Tradecraft
Post by saber964   » Mon Aug 10, 2015 2:40 pm

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kzt wrote:Plot.

Like code naming your operations something that makes it obvious what is going on.



Nobody is immune from that problem read FiE. with Operation Stalking Horse and Dagger.
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Re: MAlign Tradecraft
Post by Garth 2   » Mon Aug 10, 2015 2:48 pm

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Given the MAlign has been able to operate for several hundred years (if not longer) without detection it's impossible to believe it's trade craft is that bad, after all they are successfully manipulating the SL, managed to penetrate the SKM/SEM, the RH/PRH/RH, the AE and Beowulf.

Don't forget, you only hear about intelligence operations when things go wrong (or, in the Honorverse the author needs us to see/hear about something.)

Prior to Firebrand joining MALign he was a SL operative, which meant he 'knew' he had the backing of the SL if anything went wrong. Remember when he went back to Norbrant (Spelling) after everyone thought she was dead and he got picked up by her people, his thoughts on the situation were very clear about 'how things were done'.

As for shipping the weapons and the tech teams via the same ship, in this instance this was more due to timing (after all the MAlign didn't find out the schedule had slipped until late in the day) as they had to utilise an expedited response, which was then followed up by a lucky break by the Nasty Kitty.
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Re: MAlign Tradecraft
Post by kzt   » Mon Aug 10, 2015 2:57 pm

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saber964 wrote:Nobody is immune from that problem read FiE. with Operation Stalking Horse and Dagger.

That is why it's plot. Nobody with a brain does that in reality. People do it in books so the reader doesn't get lost in a blizzard of meaningless nonsense phrases.

Consider how the book would read if every time a reference to Harahap appeared he had a different name and the attack on Manticore was ascetic titration, vs Grayson which was grub jupiter.
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Re: MAlign Tradecraft
Post by kenl511   » Mon Aug 10, 2015 5:11 pm

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kzt wrote:Plot.

Like code naming your operations something that makes it obvious what is going on.


Like "Buttercup"? I keep wanting to sing the song "Sweet little Buttercup" from the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan.
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Re: MAlign Tradecraft
Post by Garth 2   » Sun Sep 13, 2015 6:30 am

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I expect that we will see more of the MAlign tradecraft in the next book, specially as the wheels start to come off and their networks are compromised now that people are looking for them.

Also, don't forget we still haven't seen the RMN internal security investigation into the attack on Honor (which would be sweet short story).
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Re: MAlign Tradecraft
Post by Kizarvexis   » Sun Sep 13, 2015 11:19 am

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kzt wrote:
saber964 wrote:Nobody is immune from that problem read FiE. with Operation Stalking Horse and Dagger.

That is why it's plot. Nobody with a brain does that in reality. People do it in books so the reader doesn't get lost in a blizzard of meaningless nonsense phrases.

Consider how the book would read if every time a reference to Harahap appeared he had a different name and the attack on Manticore was ascetic titration, vs Grayson which was grub jupiter.



I can agree with this.

There is also the fact that the MAlign wants to pin Firebrand's activities on the Manties. Firebrand is supposed to be pretty smart, so I would think he would know how ruthless the Mesan people he is working for are and ditch at some point so that a dead Manty spy named Firebrand doesn't popup to bring some physical evidence to the tale to link all the rebel movements to the evil Manties who want to overthrow the just and fair Solarian League.
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