Schneier on Security : The Pentagon's World of Warcraft Movie-Plot Threat

Schneier comments on a salon article about a the use of World of Warcraft as a possible terrorist communication channel (emphasis added):

I don't know why he thinks that the terrorists will use World of Warcraft and not some other online world. Or Facebook. Or Usenet. Or a chat room. Or e-mail. Or the telephone. I don't even know why the particular form of communication is in any way important.

I have an idea why. The analyst is saying the opposite of "... not some other online world. Or Facebook. Or Usenet..." On the contrary: "revealing" this threat "reveals" the others, and for a purpose.

Government agencies aren't interested so much in stopping terrorists as improving their surveillance capabilities. Making a case that there are many communication channels (don't forget the nefarious NickelAds! Evil!) argues for initiatives like the IAO. An agency capable of watching all communication channels at once becomes an extremely powerful tool, and even an extremely powerful entity in its own right. It seems to me that the threat of "asymmetric warfare" is little more than a ruse for grabbing power.

We've always been at war with Eastasia.