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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| "Islamists" Jihadis taking over the Internet |
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| jannah |
| 01/04/03 at 03:27:17 |
| This article is almost laughable but then you realize that they are actually serious. some special preview highlights: [themes including enigmatic symbols such as flowers and trees—which could contain coded messages for terrorists, says private terrorism investigator Rita Katz.] God help us all.. I wonder what they think the butterflies mean on the front page. [“The trick we have is to convince you and the Congress to give up some money and the power to grab the [enemy] communications while you’re trusting we won’t touch yours.”] This is like a line oup of 1984. [The CIA also employs “psy-ops” agents and linguists who work chat rooms, trying either to trick radicals into revealing information or posing as moderate Muslims countering extremist arguments.] There's proof for anyone who doubted. [But in the borderless world of the Web, culprits could be anywhere..] Yeah like the people who wrote this article spouting *!@1 it's a crime. and what do you call it? propoganda, playing on people's fears, making stuff up so that they can take over all communication networks and make all our lives as painful as possible... ever wonder if people are deliberately evil or just evil out of ignorance? http://www.msnbc.com/news/850166.asp?0cv=KB10 Intelligence and terrorism experts say that the Islamist presence on the Internet has expanded rapidly in recent months [IMG: Islamist presence on the Internet] Al Qaeda’s New Life Bin Laden loyalists are still hiding and on the run. But they’re also ever more active on the Web By Mark Hosenball NEWSWEEK Jan. 6 issue — The latest Internet entertainment for aspiring Islamic holy warriors is a video montage that opens with a picture of Osama bin Laden set against a background of rugged mountains. Bin Laden is aiming an assault rifle across the computer screen. His picture, on the right, begins to bob up and down, and a few seconds later, an image of George W. Bush appears, bobbing up and down on the left side of the screen. THE BIN LADEN picture then fires at the picture of the American president, almost immediately shooting Bush’s face full of bullet holes. Seconds later the Bush and bin Laden images dissolve, to be replaced by graphics of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Islamic archenemy, Chechen guerrilla leader Khattab. Putin also ends up full of holes, and he is followed by a jihadist rogues’ gallery: Israeli leader Ariel Sharon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who meet a similar fate. Intelligence and terrorism experts say that the Islamist presence on the Internet has expanded rapidly in recent months, and it’s not just a matter of virtual violence. New Web sites have cropped up featuring gory games, comic strips and themes including enigmatic symbols such as flowers and trees—which could contain coded messages for terrorists, says private terrorism investigator Rita Katz. Driven even deeper underground than it was before the 9-11 attacks, Al Qaeda is using the Net to assert its presence far more than in the past. Before 9-11, intelligence officials say, bin Laden and his henchmen rarely claimed direct responsibility for terror incidents. But since then—especially in recent weeks—Al Qaeda and close affiliates have used the Internet to assert their role in the recent killing of Kenyans and Israelis in Mombasa, and to threaten future assaults. Some U.S. experts suggest the new Net presence is a sign of Al Qaeda’s desperation. Robbed of its base in Afghanistan, fragmented by the arrests and deaths of its operatives, Al Qaeda’s leadership has few places to roost. But the terror group is proving that the Net is far more effective for propaganda and operations than a samizdat newspaper. Recently a site called Mojahedoon.net distributed an audio message from Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, taking responsibility for the Mombasa attacks. After Abu Ghaith spoke to his Net audience, similar threats echoed through other Islamist Web sites. For U.S. terror trackers, Al Qaeda’s invasion of the Net has posed a fresh challenge, one that raises some uncomfortable civil-liberties issues. Agencies like the CIA and the supersecret National Security Agency think they have to flirt with the kind of covert activities they have pledged to shun, like spying on Americans and bugging American Net companies (though not necessarily without their permission). “We’re living in a global telecommunications structure in which the communications you really want me to be [targeting] are coexisting with yours; they’re going on the same circuits,” says a senior Defense Department official involved in the tracking. “The trick we have is to convince you and the Congress to give up some money and the power to grab the [enemy] communications while you’re trusting we won’t touch yours.” The CIA also employs “psy-ops” agents and linguists who work chat rooms, trying either to trick radicals into revealing information or posing as moderate Muslims countering extremist arguments. <http://a799.g.akamai.net/3/799/388/9833e026fa919e/www.msnbc.com/modules/newsweek/art_drop/acol/nwk_periscope_acol.gif> Sometimes U.S.-based Internet service providers can host suspect Web sites without even knowing it. Six months ago the operators of an obscure Internet service provider in a Northeastern U.S. city were astonished to learn from business contacts that their computers were hosting Jehad.net, which officials regard as a semiofficial Qaeda site. Jehad.net recently carried a message from bin Laden’s official spokesman, as well as copies of two purported jihadi training manuals: “The Mujahideen Explosives Handbook” and “The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook.” Sources say that the U.S. Internet company had subcontracted part of its capacity to another firm, which in turn may have subcontracted to others. [IMG: Issues 2003] Increasingly, the Bush administration also worries that Islamic extremists may be among the owners of U.S. companies involved in sophisticated computer activity. In Dallas last week, a posse of FBI agents arrested the operators of Infocom, an Internet service firm allegedly financed by a leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas. In mid-December, Customs agents searched the office of a Quincy, Mass., software firm called Ptech that had been financed by capital raised by Yassin Qadi, a Saudi businessman whose assets were frozen by the Bush administration after 9-11. The company had software contracts with several government agencies, including the FBI, Federal Aviation Administration, Navy and Energy Department. Both the company and Qadi have denied any connection to terrorism, and U.S. officials say there is no evidence national security has been compromised. “We do polygraphs and security background checks on our contractors,” the senior Defense official says. But in the borderless world of the Web, culprits could be anywhere. With Michael Hirsh and Colin Soloway in Washington and Emily Flynn in London |
| Re: "Islamists" Jihadis taking over the Internet |
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| se7en |
| 01/05/03 at 02:40:16 |
| [quote] New Web sites have cropped up featuring gory games, comic strips and themes including enigmatic symbols such as flowers and trees—which could contain coded messages for terrorists, says private terrorism investigator Rita Katz. [/quote] For all you agents out there, decipher this: :-* |
| 01/05/03 at 02:40:41 |
| se7en |
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