September 06, 2007

Report: al Qaeda Using Internet to Plan Terror

It looks like Rabbi Abraham Cooper and I are on the same page. Since this is a press release, I'll just post the whole thing. The original can be found here. Bold and italics are mine. A couple of brief highlights:

1) Al Qaeda is winning the internet battle and is using the internet not only for propaganda but for "command-and-control". It's true. One caveat, over the past several weeks there has been a chorus of complaints from the online jihadis that their websites are going down one by one. The lesson is that when we choose to fight, we win. The problem not that we can't win, it's that we have not yet begun to fight. To paraphrase Churchill, "Give us the tools and we will win the war."

2) It's time to formulate a policy to battle the online jihadis for the hearts and minds of Muslims.

3) Our 'friend' inshallahshaheed from the Wordpress hosted al Qaeda support website The Ignored Puzzle of Knowledge'. I'll let you read what he says. But be prepared for your blood to boil. Researchers from the Simon Wiesenthal Center today presented 9/11+6: THE INTERNET @GROUND ZERO OF TERROR before an open hearing convened by leading members and the staff of the House Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security Committees. The presentation was sponsored by Foreign Affairs Chairman Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and attended by Congressmen Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Bob Inglis (R-SC).

In the presentation, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center and one of the leading experts in the analysis of cyberspace extremism, said, “The U.S. and the world have yet to formulate an online campaign to reverse the progress Al Qaeda and its allies in the battle for the hearts and minds of young Muslims.”

Cooper, who was joined by Rick Eaton, the Center’s senior researcher, told the lawmakers that even as intelligence and law enforcement agencies try to make inroads in their online investigations, Al Qaeda is already ahead in what they call the “electronic jihad” by using the tools of Web 2.0PDAs, cell phones, RMS and SMSwhich rely less on websites and more on one-to-one communications.

“On the eve of the sixth anniversary of 9/11, we have to be honest with ourselves,” continued Cooper. “Al Qaeda and others who promote a culture of death are winning the battle of the Internet. From command-and-control to recruitment, they are ahead of the curve.”

Congressman Lantos recognized the Center for its leadership in investigating the world of technology and terrorism. Congressman Wilson remarked, “Ultimately, we have to harness the power of the Internet to defeat Islamist terrorism.”

To conclude the presentation, Cooper and Eaton showed a September 2 posting from a blog, (inshallashaheed.wordpress.com) that read “Soon …. Soon … Soon … Soon… the blessed invasion of Manhattan… There will be a special gift coming on the day of the blessed invasion of Manhattan…,” a chilling message in light of this week’s thwarting of terrorist plots in Denmark and Germany and a week before the 9/11 anniversary.

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In addition to the press release, there's this AFP story which I found via AllahP:

Besides being used as propaganda stirring young Muslims in the West and Middle East to violence, radical Islamist sites amount to a "virtual university of terror," promoting the creation of cells without requiring members to travel to Afghanistan or Pakistan for training, as in the past, Cooper said.

"There is enough accurate information on the Internet to teach anyone to do pretty much anything," he said.

Scary, because it's true.

Posted by: Rusty at 09:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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