"The Russians call this maskirovka--the art of deception and confusion. It is as old as strategy itself. Undermine your enemy, Sun Tzu advised 2,500 years ago. "Subvert him, attack his morale, strike at his economy, corrupt him. Sow internal discord among his leaders; destroy him without fighting him." Call down the fog of war, he was telling conspirators and generals and swordsmen, let it descend on your opponent until they cannot see what is right before them. Because "all warfare," Sun Tzu reminds us, "is based on deception." Not just keeping secrets--that's the first part, the passive part, a refusal to reveal your true intentions--but active, outwardly focused deceit intended to disorient and weaken the enemy. The long-term strategic drive to a decisive legal action--the hope of taking a case against Gawker to a real jury of normal people outside the Manhattan media bubble--had been set by Peter Thiel early on. By 2012, not only was the ideal case found with which to execute this strategy, but a lawsuit was filed within days of discovery. As the case wound its way through the legal system in 2013, it had seen many setbacks, some expected and others not, but these setbacks were not without their upside. They had, in the end, created a scenario in which the case's final home in Florida district court might spell a bankruptcy-level event for Gawker Media."