The Internet has replaced Afghanistan as the main meeting place for radical Islamists, according to experts studying Al Qaeda's presence on the web.
| We've noted that here from time to time, I think ... |
They say the Internet is one of Al Qaeda's key survival tools, through which it is waging a relentless propaganda campaign to incite war against the West. Thomas Hegghammer, who researches Islamist websites at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, last year found a 42-page document detailing how terrorist attacks timed for the Spanish elections could damage the Western coalition in Iraq. "Spain can stand a maximum of two or three attacks before they will withdraw from Iraq," the document said. With hindsight, it suggests a further possible link between Al Qaeda and the Madrid blasts. "What was surprising both to us and to other analysts was the level of sophisticated analytical thinking in the document," Mr Hegghammer said.
| That's because a lot of people make the mistake of assuming that just because they're crazy they aren't also exceedingly ruthless and sophisticated SOBs. I don't. |
"It is very informed about the internal political situation in Spain, in Britain, as well as in Poland. This is quite unique in the Al Qaeda literature which we've seen so far."
| The reference to the UK and Poland may be a clue about other future attacks. My guess is that the UK's safe for now and will remain so as long the Tories are more hawkish than Labour. Not too sure about the Poles, though. |
Mr Hegghammer says there may now be tens of thousands of Islamist web sites inciting violence.
| I'm not sure there are nearly that many, at least in terms of which ones have ties back to the official propaganda line from the media committee. ICT pegged the figure in the low dozens in early 2002 and let's say it's doubled since then, but that still only makes it ~100 websites that we're talking about here. The rest are just wannabes, though they still do the wetwork of recruiting and indoctrinating new krazed killers. |
He says Al Qaeda is not just a terrorist organisation but sees itself as a global movement, an ideology out to win over the Islamic world. "The Internet is important in maintaining a certain cohesion among like-minded radical Islamists," Mr Hegghammer said. "It has, in a sense, replaced Afghanistan as a meeting place." But how easy is it to log on to Al Qaeda? It often has to shut down or move its websites but Lateline reporter Margot O'Neill yesterday found Al Qaeda's main website functioning freely, off an Internet server in Germany.
| That would probably be al-Neda (the Call), though Farooq.net has replaced it in recent months. My guess is that whichever one it is it won't be there tomorrow - these sites move fast. |
The site is not just religious tracts. Al Qaeda now videos many of its actions and puts them online, like the horrific murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Mr Hegghammer does not believe the West should try to shut down such websites, saying it could learn from them instead.
| I would agree, except that orders are now being issued online. That was how both the An Najaf crowd and Istanboomers got their marching orders and my education takes second fiddle to people being killed. |
"The thing that we, the West, might do with the Internet and with all these radical Islamist websites is not to close them down or track them down but rather to read them more in detail and to try to understand the ideology," he said. "That is where you really get the early signs of the ideological developments, which are later going to affect us, or might affect us, physically." Former Reuters journalist Paul Eedle is one person who has been examining radical Islamic websites closely, who has become one of the world's leading experts on Al Qaeda's use of the Internet. In an interview with Lateline's Tony Jones, the award-winning reporter says Al Qaeda is using the Internet to spread a sophisticated propaganda campaign, as well as using it for training and operational purposes. And he says it is virtually impossible for intelligence agencies to track down Al Qaeda messages because of their simple approach.
| It's the same reason we can't shut down the kiddy porn business, more or less. Or these idiot spammers that we've been dealing with recently. |
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