Threat Assessments

Here are the dossiers for threats that your operations team has been tracking. By the way, your current operational name is Task Force One... if you guys want to give the team an actual codename, let me know. The other team is Task Force Blackbird, and the as-yet unrecruited CIA team is Task Force Three.

Rising Dragon - Threat level I

Sphere of influence: Southern Asia and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on anarchic former Soviet states like Chechneya and industrialized Asian nations like Japan and Hong Kong

Influence: Law enforcement (Interpol & police), organized crime (Yakuza, Chinese Triads & Russian Mafia), business interests and black marketeers

Assets: Japanese hacker/biker gang Neon Tigers, Asian assassins/spies Shaolin Sisters, ex-Soviet special forces Red Hand and the remaining organizational assets of the Crimson Dynasty

Membership: Unknown, suspected number in the thousands

Leadership: Unknown, suspected to be ranking former member of Crimson Dynasty

Organization: Unknown, suspected that high-ranking members of other organizations (Yakuza, Triads, Neon Tigers, Red Hand) serve as "middle management" for a single leader, whose name, identity, specialty and even gender are a mystery.

Goals: Unknown, but if they are consistent with Crimson Dynasty, include a desire for control of drug trade and weapon trafficking and general power-brokering in the region.

Threat Analysis: Sinister motivations like world conquest or genocide generally do not fit Rising Dragon profiles, and thus it is more the purview of standard CIA operations instead of Project: Scarecrow, except that the Rising Dragon seems to have a personal interest in some Scarecrow recruits, and thus could pose a threat to operational security and secrecy.

Shadow Protocol 9 (S.P. 9 or Speed 9) - Threat Level II

Sphere of Influence: Global

Influence: Vast resources inside intelligence agencies and the black market worldwide, political and business influence brought about through blackmail and bribery

Assets: Former members of Agency and Shadow, freelance assassins and mercenaries

Membership: Unknown, but suspected to number in the thousands

Leadership: The Shadowman, a mysterious figure with impressive intelligence-gathering and tactical abilities

Organization: The Shadowman seems to have an unbreakable communications system consisting of dead drops, computer viruses and live agents through which he contacts employed agents and freelance assets

Goals: Shadow Protocol 9 refers to the Shadow protocol whereby operational policy was to terminate Agency assets as soon as they were identified. So far, S.P. 9 seems dedicated to rooting out and destroying any former Agency assets and recruiting Shadow assets. Some theorize that S.P. 9 is turning what Agency assets it can as well.

Threat Analysis: The organization seems to be very much in the recruiting/setup and foundational phase of operation, but their ultimate goals once they've put together this organization are unknown. A group with this much intelligence gathering capability and veteran espionage talent is potentially very dangerous, but until their goals are known, their actual threat is relatively minimal except to those with former Agency or Shadow ties.

Dr. Dean Hammond -Threat Level III

Sphere of Influence: Primarily Africa, with some influence in the United States politically

Influence: Political influence in Africa and the United States thanks to humanitarian efforts and monetary resources

Assets: Hammond Industries, a multibillion-dollar corporation with subsidiaries in pharmaceuticals, shipping and a variety of manufacturing industries

Membership: Hammond Industries employees as of July 2005 number 38,000. The number of those actually involved with any of Hammond's more sinister activities are probably in the low thousands

Leadership: Dr. Hammond is a multi-PhD and well-respected leader in African commerce and humanitarian efforts. He is also the guiding force behind Hammond Industries' more sinister directives

Organization: Hammond Industries is controlled by a board of directors which Hammond controls through friendship, bribery, blackmail and coercion

Goals: Unknown. Scarecrow intelligence indicates that Hammond Industries has been involved in human experimentation, "natural" disasters in the area and human trafficking. His ultimate goals are unknown, but it is clear that the people of Africa are not high on Hammond's list of concerns.

Threat Analysis: Aside from the Middle East, Africa is one of the most dangerous and unstable regions in the world, and Hammond seems poised to make a rather large power grab in that region. Hammond already controls, through political influence and reputation, a good deal of the region, and past "rogue" operations by his employees suggest that he has larger plans.

The Many Hands of God - Threat Level IV

Sphere of Influence: Global

Influence: Supported by religious organizations of many stripes under different names, many of them having no idea that they are supporting a multi-theological organization

Assets: Fundamentalist groups including violent extremists from the Muslim, Christian and other faiths, Faith Inc, a non-denominational corporation with multiple subsidiaries that employs and benefits largely those with a religious faith

Membership: Duped supporters include small churches and congregations throughout the world numbering in the millions, while the actual core believers are probably closer to the tens of thousands. The Many Hands of God, if not for it's splintered, cell approach to organization, could be considered the world's largest cult.

Leadership: Heading up The Many Hands of God is a charismatic man known only as The Prophet, whose religious expertise and ability to be all things to all faiths has allowed him to communicate and sympathize equally well with Islamic extremists and Christian fundamentalists on issues where they are completely polarized.

Organization: At the lowest level, The Many Hands of God is represented by the Intra-Faith Council, a group that works on charity and public relations projects for a variety of churches, as well as facilitating communication amongst different faiths. The Many Hands of God is known by hundreds of different names, but if you follow the ladder of money and influence up, you will eventually reach past extremist terrorist groups and political access committees to The Prophet and his core group of believers, who believe that it doesn't matter which God is worshiped, as long as everyone on the planet believes in a higher power.

Goals: The Many Hands of God wishes, quite simply, for the codes of law and daily behavior to be more closely based on scripture. The immediate goal is for each country to closely follow the religion of the majority of its populace (Christianity for the United States, Islam for much of the Middle East, Hinduism in India), but it is believed that The Prophet has a favored religion blending elements of all of these religions (and including himself as its most high mortal supporter) that he would institute once phase one of his plan was complete.

Threat Analysis: With religious extremism on the rise and becoming more and more influential in geopolitics, not to mention the driving force of most terrorism and many wars, the notion of increased, even universal, religious extremism is something that would frighten even many of the religious moderates who unwittingly help to fund The Many Hands. In addition, The Many Hands is insidious, because it coexists with actual charitable and philosophical religious organizations, making operations very difficult and politically-sensitive, lest Project: Scarecrow target innocents or politically-connected religious figures. Perhaps most dangerously, it would seem that the endgame of The Many Hands of God is a worldwide theocracy ruled by one man ambitious enough to put together this massive organization and callous enough to use violence and terror as his weapons. The Many Hands of God is a powerful, diverse, well-hidden and exceptionally dangerous organization and is exactly the sort of threat that Project: Scarecrow exists to combat.