Am I crazy, or is this a really good thing?

In theory it’s a good thing from their POV. Problem is, in reality, they don’t have the kind of smarts to make it work. So it becomes a good thing from our* POV.

The flip side of your secret tiny little dynamic training bases is that they’re going to be harder for recruits to find. If you limit comms to keep them secret, then nobody who isn’t already in the loop finds out about them to start with.

Hence the only penetration that matters is still that of the comms/logistics chain. There’s not been a lot of actual human penetration of serious cells (as opposed to entrapment of non-serious ones) and I don’t think you should expect their ever will be.

Shit like this is doable, ask the Russians. But you only get the benefits of this type of tradecraft if you do it properly in the first place, which they can’t. If you do, you give up access and convenience for security – aka the golden rule of security. In this case this translates to less recruits. Well ok.

I’ve always been a big fan of encouraging young impressionable jihadis to travel to Afghanistan to attend training camps that may not actually exist. Get on google maps. Ain’t nothing surer to kill jihadi wannabes than that country and some bad directions.

*assumes you are with us, not with the terrorists. Decision pending.