p2pnet - rss feed: Al Qaeda and the Net
p2pnet.net news:- “Internet chat rooms are now supplementing and replacing mosques, community centers and coffee shops as venues for recruitment and radicalization by terrorist groups like al Qaeda,” said Frank J. Cilluffo, associate VPS for Homeland Security, director, Homeland Security policy institute, The George Washington University.
“The real time, two-way dialogue of chat rooms has taken the fight global, enabling extremist ideas to be shared, take root, be reaffirmed and spread exponentially.”
Cilluffo co-authored a just-released report called Network Radicalization: A Counter-Strategy in which he says, “Extremists have come to value the Internet so highly that some ‘jihadists’ have adopted the slogan ‘keyboard equals Kalashnikov’.”
His declaration came during a US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing slugged The Internet: A Portal to Violent Islamist Extremism.
Leaders of the committee say the US government must, “do more to counteract propagandizing by al Qaida and radical terrorist groups on the Internet,” states CNET News.
Extremists are “increasingly flocking to the Web to recruit, organize, conduct online courses, raise funds and plan attacks in a manner that’s cheaper and speedier than ever before,” it has committee chairman senator Joseph Lieberman saying, going on, “We cannot cede cyberspace to the Islamist terrorists because if we do, they will successfully carry out attacks against us in our normal environment.”
The hearing featured testimonies from Michael S. Doran, deputy assistant secretary of defense for support for public diplomacy, US Department of Defense; Lieutenant Colonel Joseph H. Felter, director, combat terrorism center, US Military Academy; and, Cilluffo.
“Terrorists are using the Internet now more than ever in an attempt to influence the global political environment,” says Doran. “Al-Qaeda and its associates, in particular, use the Internet to spread their political ideology, disseminate the extremist interpretation of religion that supports it, and coordinate their operations.” And, “Because individuals can access the Internet anonymously from virtually anywhere on the globe, the use of the web by terrorists is a constantly moving target.” But, “The Department will continue to work with our U.S. government partners to engage the terrorist enemy in the cyber battlefield as a critical domain in our efforts to win the war of ideas and ultimately achieve the President’s vision,” he concludes.
It’s, “not possible to capture, kill, or incarcerate ideas,” observes Felter. “We should not think of al-Qa`ida in terms of organizational charts and bureaucratic hierarchies that typify a conventional military enemy. Al-Qa`ida has become a brand name, a way of seeing the world. This global movement would not be possible without the pervasiveness of Internet accessibility and the capability it offers al-Qa`ida’s thought-leaders to define the way disillusioned youth think about the world. The Internet allows thousands of disenfranchised and displaced individuals to build a virtual community of followers bound together only by a body of shared ideas and digital relationships. We cannot prevent all of these relationships from forming or stop the generation of these ideas, but we can do a better job of understanding how the Internet facilitates these processes so we can monitor and thwart those who join the Jihadi Movement.”
“Savvy use of the Internet has empowered terror networks to expand their reach beyond national borders by enabling wide distribution of a compelling message and social connectivity with new audiences,” says Cilluffo. “Cyberspace is now the battlefield and the ‘war’ is one of ideas. Our adversaries currently have firm possession of the battlefield because they understand this shift and have crafted and disseminated a narrative that resonates and has served both to energize and expand their ranks. Internet chat rooms are now supplementing and replacing mosques, community centers and coffee shops as venues for recruitment and radicalization by terrorist groups like al Qaeda. The real time, two-way dialogue of chat rooms has taken the fight global, enabling extremist ideas to be shared, take root, be reaffirmed and spread exponentially.”
In Network Radicalization, “Denying or disrupting their access to the Internet is easier said than done effectively, however,” say Cilluffo, et al.
In certain circumstances, it may be possible to invoke the law as a blunt instrument to shut our adversaries down. This would be the case when extremist websites directly incite violence or provide material support to known terrorist organizations, thereby crossing the line from constitutionally protected speech into illegal acts. In other instances, technical means could be used to knock our adversaries off balance. The U.S. Air Force, for instance, has announced plans to create a Cyber Command which will, among other things, “work to defeat terrorists by disrupting…the Web sites they create for training and recruiting.
As a practical matter, though, it is difficult to squelch an extremist presence online. A website targeted in one country can often simply move to a new server in another. Indeed, some groups change their server daily. Like a game of whack-a-mole, you may knock down one site only to find another pop up elsewhere. The analogy is imperfect however, because the offending online material may not be so easy to spot. Extremists may go to great lengths to mask their activities online, such as concealing materials by fragmenting, encrypting and scattering them across a number of different websites.
Stay tuned.
Also See:
CNET News - Senators voice alarm over terrorist Net presence, May 3, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 4th, 2007 at 11:11 am
neat graphic
May 4th, 2007 at 11:46 am
If the governments would stop disenfranchising and disillusioning youths, then the movement would die out. However Big Corporations with their big government buddies persist in trying to enslave the common man. A well amred and well informed polulation make a lousy slave.
May 4th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
We (the West) have ridiculously over-funded internal security services. It should be a piece of cake to search for overly radical religious fundamentalist websites and keep an eye out on those websites for planning of violence.
Of course, that’s too easy isn’t it - that doesn’t get votes from the small minded terrorized (by the executive) populace with a collective memory that doesn’t even span back as far as the cold war, never mind World War 2.
Will someone please think of our freedom?
May 4th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
We (the West) have ridiculously over-funded internal security services. It should be a piece of cake to search for overly radical religious fundamentalist websites and keep an eye out on those websites for planning of violence.
Of course, that’s too easy isn’t it - that doesn’t get votes from the small minded terrorized (by the executive) populace with a collective memory that doesn’t even span back as far as the cold war, never mind World War 2.
Will someone please think of our freedom?