Terror Online: Developments In The Use Of New Media Technologies By Terrorist Organizations

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The rapid diffusion of decentralized communications technologies is becoming a critical component in the operation and organization of terrorist networks. While security-based concerns regarding the use of the Internet for cyber-terrorism (disruption of critical networks, etc) have somewhat subsided, there is growing recognition that both the Internet’s mass media function and its decentralized infrastructure play a crucial role in modern terrorist organizations.

Internet technologies are being deployed in innovative ways by terrorist groups, from the creation and maintenance of encrypted traffic over rapid and untraceable networks to transmitting alternative news broadcasts. The Internet is serving both as a forum for the training of subterfuge and as a means of conducting that subterfuge, both as a vehicle for dispensing information about terrorism and for coordinating the logistical and financial resources to conduct that terrorism. Additionally, the Internet provides a valuable space for the location and integration of new recruits. New communication technologies are presenting violent groups the means to both target particular audiences as well as reframe their messages independent of the mainstream media for a broader audience. These dynamics together pose new and formidable challenges to domestic and international policy-makers.

This special report examines journalistic coverage discussing these recent phenomena and the scholarship that has grown around that rage. These works provide practical description and rigorous analysis regarding the how the Information Revolution will continue to alter the strategies and tactics used by terrorist organizations. If you would like to post your ideas and reactions to this report, you can add your comments at the bottom of this page.

e-Qaeda: A special report on how jihadists use the Internet and technology to spread their messages
(Hunter Wilson and Steven King, The Washington Post, 2005)
In three video reports, experts on jihadists’ use of the Web describe how al Qaeda and allied groups are using the Internet to recruit more fighters, spread their message and train their followers to commit acts of terror. Samples of terrorist manuals and screenshots of jihadist Web sites are also available.
And for a follow-up discussion to the report: LINK

www-terror-net: How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet
(Gabriel Weimann, senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and professor of communication at Haifa University (Israel), USIP Special Report, March 2004)
Terrorists fight their wars in cyberspace as well as on the ground. However, while politicians and the media have hotly debated the dangers that cyberterrorism poses to the Internet, surprisingly little is known about the threat posed by terrorists’ use of the Internet. Today, as this report makes plain, terrorist organizations and their supporters maintain hundreds of websites, exploiting the unregulated, anonymous, and easily accessible nature of the Internet to target an array of messages to a variety of audiences. Gabriel Weimann identifies no fewer than eight different ways in which terrorists are using the Internet to advance their cause, ranging from psychological warfare to recruitment, networking to fundraising. In each case, the report not only analyzes how the Internet can facilitate terrorist operations but also illustrates the point with examples culled from an extensive exploration of the World Wide Web.

Al-Qaida proving elusive on the Net
(Anne Broache, The New York Times, October 14, 2005)
Al-Qaida has adopted online tactics that mirror its offline techniques for evading discovery: reliance on a constantly shifting collection of Internet sites and hostile takeovers of Web servers where propaganda can be posted. Last year, a server operated by the Arkansas highway office was hijacked and used to distribute 70 files including videos featuring Osama bin Laden. During the past few years, according to terrorism analysts, al-Qaida has embraced the Internet as a new tool for organizing, training and propagandizing. A group believed to be al-Qaida’s Web-based propaganda arm recently debuted a weekly state-of-affairs Webcast and is reportedly searching online for recruits to aid with the coverage—meaning that the group will need to find more hijacked computers to distribute the additional content. What remains unclear is how the U.S. government will respond to the increasing visibility of its far-flung nemesis.

Terror’s media: War over the Web
(Alexandra Marks, The Christian Science Monitor, October 12th, 2005)
Wanted: Video editors, writers, and webmasters to help Al Qaeda spread its message. Contact: The Global Islamic Media Front via e-mail. It sounds unlikely, but such messages have appeared on radical Islamist Internet sites in the past week. They are just the latest sign of Al Qaeda’s increasing sophistication in communications that is allowing the terrorist network to expand its universe of sympathizers around the world … Intelligence experts contend that these recent developments are a sign that the terrorist organization continues to evolve, thrive, and, in parts of the Muslim world, maintain the upper hand in the ideological debate, despite Washington’s attempts to step up its publicity campaign. “The implications are clearly that [Al Qaeda mastermind Osama] bin Laden is able to talk to the people who form his base of his support, and from which he’ll draw more support” says Michael Scheuer, the CIA’s former top Al Qaeda expert. “The one lesson that should come home more than anything else is that these people are not medievalists and anti-modern. They may be anti-Western, but they’re devotees of the tools of modernity in communications and weapons.”

How to Counter Terrorism’s Online Generation
(Joseph Nye, Financial Times, October 13, 2005)
Global terrorism is not new. A century ago, the anarchist movement killed a half-dozen heads of state for utopian ideals. Four decades ago, the red brigades hijacked and killed across borders. Just recently there have been attacks in London, Bali and Madrid — allegedly for utopian goals. Today’s jihadist extremists are a political phenomenon wrapped in religious dress. Many of their leaders are not traditional fundamentalists, but people whose identities have been disrupted by globalisation and who are searching for identity in the imagined community of a pure Islamic caliphate. This too is familiar to students of earlier terrorist movements. What is new is the terrorists’ use of technology, particularly the internet, and policymakers have yet to fully understand the phenomenon. In 1900 and 1970, it was possible to have instantaneous global communications, but the capability was restricted to large organisations with large budgets: governments, multinational corporations or the Catholic church. Today, that capability is available to anyone in an internet café, anywhere. The west sees itself as leader of the information revolution, but the democratisation of technology enables terrorists to close the gap. Insurgents in Iraq are using improvised explosive devices they learnt to build via the internet. They have delivered more precision munitions on their targets than the American military has on them.

e-QAEDA: From Afghanistan to the Internet; Terrorists Turn to the Web as Base of Operations
(Steve Coll and Susan B. Glasser, The Washington Post, August 7, 2005)
In the snow-draped mountains near Jalalabad in November 2001, as the Taliban collapsed and al Qaeda lost its Afghan sanctuary, Osama bin Laden biographer Hamid Mir watched “every second al Qaeda member carrying a laptop computer along with a Kalashnikov” as they prepared to scatter into hiding and exile. On the screens were photographs of Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta. Nearly four years later, al Qaeda has become the first guerrilla movement in history to migrate from physical space to cyberspace. With laptops and DVDs, in secret hideouts and at neighborhood Internet cafes, young code-writing jihadists have sought to replicate the training, communication, planning and preaching facilities they lost in Afghanistan with countless new locations on the Internet.

The Web as Weapon: Zarqawi Intertwines Acts on Ground in Iraq With Propaganda Campaign on the Internet
(Susan B. Glasser and Steve Coll, The Washington Post, August 9, 2005)
Never before has a guerrilla organization so successfully intertwined its real-time war on the ground with its electronic jihad, making Zarqawi’s group practitioners of what experts say will be the future of insurgent warfare, where no act goes unrecorded and atrocities seem to be committed in order to be filmed and distributed nearly instantaneously online. Zarqawi has deployed a whole inventory of Internet operations beyond the shock video. He immortalizes his suicide bombers online, with video clips of the destruction they wreak and Web biographies that attest to their religious zeal. He taunts the U.S. military with an online news service of his exploits, releasing tactical details of operations multiple times a day. He publishes a monthly Internet magazine, Thurwat al-Sinam (literally “The Camel’s Hump”), that offers religious justifications for jihad and military advice on how to conduct it.

Al-Qaeda’s Next Generation: Less Visible and More Lethal
(Michael Scheuer, Global Terrorism Analysis, October 4th, 2005)
The question arising is, of course, what threat will the next generation of al-Qaeda-inspired mujahideen pose? Based on the admittedly imprecise information available, the answer seems to lie in three discernible trends: a) the next generation will be at least as devout but more professional and less operationally visible; b) it will be larger, with more adherents and potential recruits; and c) it will be better educated and more adept at using the tools of modernity, particularly communications and weapons. The next mujahideen generation’s piety will equal or exceed that of bin Laden’s generation. The new mujahideen, having grown up in an internet and satellite television-dominated world, will be more aware of Muslim struggles around the world, more comfortable with a common Muslim identity, more certain that the U.S.-led West is “oppressing” Muslims, and more inspired by the example bin Laden has set—bin Laden’s generation had no bin Laden.

Jihadist Forums: Producing a more savvy next generation
(Jeffrey Pool, Media Line, October 19th, 2005)
Jihadist groups operating online appear to be raising awareness about information and communications security, and stressing the importance of technical know-how in conducting successful operations. Two training manuals recently found on Internet discussion forums promoting militant Islam illustrate the importance of technical savvy to the jihadist movement. Formerly used chiefly as a platform for al-Qaeda statements and claims of responsibility for attacks by numerous groups, these forums have become a grassroots medium through which individuals without any particular group affiliation can post a document or manual of their own creation, subsequently useable as standard procedure for terrorist cells. Although the technology discussed is simple in nature, the dissemination of basic security guidelines for hacking and for mobile phone use could greatly enhance the effectiveness of aspiring mujahideen, as they would make fewer security mistakes and create fewer leads for Western intelligence services.

An Online “University” for Jihad
(Stephen Ulph, Global Terrorism Analysis, October 18th, 2005)
In an interesting new development, the al-Qaeda network is making strides to present itself as a permanent cultural—as well as military—phenomenon. An October 7 posting on the al-Farouq jihadi forum (www.al-farouq.com) by Ahmad al-Wathiq bi-Llah, the “deputy general emir” of the Global Islamic Media Front, announced what it referred to as an “al-Qaeda University of Jihad Studies.” The accompanying statement explained that “al-Qaeda is an organization, a state and a university, this is a fact which cannot be denied.” Readers, it noted, might be amused by the headline, but the writer simply refers them to the experience of al-Qaeda’s origins in Afghanistan: “it began with the Bureau of Services, the Bait al-Ansar and the al-Farouq Training Camp—until it reached the present stage.”

The New Al-Qaeda: jihad.com
(Peter Taylor, BBC News, July 25th, 2005)
The internet has been key in pulling together the shattered remains of the organisation that operated before the invasion of Afghanistan, according to the general running the Iraq war, Lt Gen John Abizaid. He says: “The only safe haven that remains for al-Qaeda is the virtual realm. It is one that we all should be worried about.”

Internet has ‘given Al Qaeda wings. Shock discovery: terrorists use computers too
(John Lettice, The Register, July 27th 2005)
Al Qaeda is now a “global brand driven by the power of the world wide web”, and media-savvy cyberjihadis are manipulating the internet for training, recruitment and propaganda, according to the first of a three part series on The New al Qaeda broadcast on Monday 25th July) on BBC2. “The internet,” says programme-maker Peter Taylor, “has given it wings.” These apparent bombshells, however, appear to be based on a number of unremarkable discoveries, such as that terrorists have computers, that cheap video cameras allow them to film attacks and executions and distribute the results via the internet, and that there’s stuff on the internet you might not like but can’t necessarily get much of a lid on.

Al Qaeda puts job ads on Internet
(Reuters/Dubai, October 6th, 2005)
Al Qaeda has put job advertisements on the Internet asking for supporters to help put together its Web statements and video montages, an Arabic newspaper reported. The London-based Asharq al-Awsat said on its Web site this week that al Qaeda had “vacant positions” for video production and editing statements, footage and international media coverage about militants in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and other conflict zones where militants are active. The paper said the Global Islamic Media Front, an al Qaeda-linked Web-based organization, would “follow up with members interested in joining and contact them via email.”
See Also: LINK

Al-Qaeda Releases Second Online Newscast
(Mohammed Al Shafey, Asharq Al-Awsat, October 6th, 2005)
Al Qaeda broadcast the second episode of its newscast on Wednesday under the name “Voice of the Caliphate” and allegedly produced by Osama bin Laden’s supporters. An Egyptian anchorman, wearing a black ski mask and an explosives belt, believed to be an al Qaeda figure, presented the “weekly review of the state of the nation” with news on suicide operations in Palestine and Iraq as well as the state of Muslims in Niger … Broadcast on the internet, broadcast began with a reading of Quranic verses urging men to fight to pictures of al Qaeda members receiving military training in Afghanistan, followed by its slogan “a cry of justice in the face of wrong” which was accompanied by flames that melted away the slogans of western news agencies and television stations.

Terrorist Propaganda Tool: Alleged Al Qaeda Newscast on the Internet
(Brian Ross, ABC News, September 27th, 2005)
A video newscast, alleging to be an al Qaeda production, was broadcast over the Internet for the first time this week. Although it lacks the trademarks of the usual al Qaeda productions, the broadcast – called the “Voice of the Caliphate,” a reference to the 7th century Islamic Empire – is still a potentially powerful propaganda tool. 

A web wise terror network
(Gordon Corera, BBC News, October 6th, 2004)
The capture of alleged al-Qaeda computer expert Mohamed Naem Noor Khan by the Pakistani authorities in July brought with it an unprecedented haul of high-tech intelligence. Speaking in London last month, America’s homeland security chief Tom Ridge said the volume of potential information was “the largest we’ve ever seen - I mean potentially millions and millions of pages of information”, and revealed that intelligence officers had yet to decipher it all. Communications have always been an essential part of al-Qaeda’s strategy, but the internet and email have become even more important in recent years.

Al Qaeda Website Refuses to Die
(Michelle Delio, Wired News, April 7th 2003)
Repeatedly tossed off the Internet, a website believed to be al Qaeda’s primary online method of communication continues to resurface as an uninvited guest on other websites. Alneda.com first appeared after the Sept. 11 attacks, hosted by legitimate Internet service providers in Malaysia and the United States who promptly evicted the site after being alerted to its contents and purpose. Al Neda eventually lost ownership of the Alneda.com domain in August when Jon David Messner, a hacker who runs porn sites, took it over. But the website formerly known as Alneda.com is still online. For the past eight months, it has functioned as a so-called Internet parasite—a site that is embedded within another website without the site owner’s knowledge.

There would be no Al-Qa’idah without the Internet or Al-Jazeera
(Gilles Kepel and Francois Burgat, Liberation (France), BBC International Reports, September 24th, 2005)
Available via Lexis
The issue of Al-Qa’idah’s immateriality is a real problem, because it is not a traditional Leninist-type organization, or even a group of militants. We have several indications of this - the documents circulating on specialized websites, the attacks and suicide operations, and the executions planned and staged according to their impact on TV. It is by means of this impact that Al-Qa’idah’s ideologues hope to surmount the failure of the Islamist movements of the 1980s to mobilize the masses in Egypt, Algeria, and elsewhere. The system functions by means of these spectacular attacks, which are intended to spread terror in “enemy” ranks and to mobilize the Muslim masses. But behind the TV coverage there is also an ideology that is part of a line of descent, which is distinct, or not, from other actors in the radical Islamist movement. It is this ideology that we need to understand.

Extreme Islamist returns on Internet
(Sean O’Neil and Yaakov Lappin, The Times, October 21, 2005)
After a period of silence that came after Bakri Mohammad’s decision to leave Britain for Lebanon to avoid the threat of arrest and deportation, his followers have re-emerged online. They have been detected using a chatroom labelled “Muslims in the UK” to deliver lectures that deliberately challenge proposals in the Terrorism Bill to outlaw the glorification of terrorist acts. The nature of the material suggests that Bakri Mohammad’s movement is prepared to be more explicit in its preachings and teachings.

Infamous Al-Qaeda Bloggers Nationalities Revealed
(Mshari Al-Zaydi, Asharq Al-Awsat, October 13th, 2005)
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- Some of the most infamous contributors to extremist internet chartrooms, known for their support of al Qaeda and attacks on those intellectuals and politicians who disagree with fundamentalist Islamic ideology are not Saudi citizens, according to exclusive information obtained by Asharq al Awsat, but most readers were.

Al Qaeda and the Internet: The Danger of “Cyberplanning”
(Timothy L. Thomas, Parameters, Spring 2003)
We can say with some certainty, al Qaeda loves the Internet. When the latter first appeared, it was hailed as an integrator of cultures and a medium for businesses, consumers, and governments to communicate with one another. It appeared to offer unparalleled opportunities for the creation of a “global village.” Today the Internet still offers that promise, but it also has proven in some respects to be a digital menace. Its use by al Qaeda is only one example…Evidence strongly suggests that terrorists used the Internet to plan their operations for 9/11. Computers seized in Afghanistan reportedly revealed that al Qaeda was collecting intelligence on targets and sending encrypted messages via the Internet. As recently as 16 September 2002, al Qaeda cells operating in America reportedly were using Internet-based phone services to communicate with cells overseas. These incidents indicate that the Internet is being used as a “cyberplanning” tool for terrorists. It provides terrorists with anonymity, command and control resources, and a host of other measures to coordinate and integrate attack options.

Communications by and about Terrorists: An Operational Perspective
(Joan Deppa, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, February 2004)
Al Qaeda and other terrorists use communications technology as an “equalizer” against conventionally powerful foes, not only for the exchange of command-and -control messages, but also as the means to attack (anthrax and bombs via the mails, cell phones to trigger bombs remotely), as targets to attack (computer networks that can be hacked, GPS systems that can be rendered ineffective, traditional communications transmitters that can be toppled), and ultimately by “acts of mass communication”4 that will be intensely covered by the news media and followed by the public (those causing high casualties and economic damage, targeting symbolic targets, and/or emphasizing the randomness of victims).

Reality Bytes: Cyberterrorism and Terrorist ‘Use’ of the Internet
(Maura Conway, First Monday, November 2002)
This paper examines the concept of cyberterrorism. Fringe activity on the Internet ranges from non-violent ‘Use’ at one end to ‘Cyberterrorism’ at the other. Rejecting the idea that cyberterrorism is widespread, the focus here is on terrorist groups’ ‘use’ of the Internet, in particular the content of their Web sites, and their ‘misuse’ of the medium, as in hacking wars, for example. Terrorist groups’ use of the Internet for the purpose of inter-group communication is also surveyed, partly because of its importance for the inter-networked forms of organisation apparently being adopted by these groups, but also due to the part played by the Internet in the events of September 11 and their aftermath.

Information Technology, International Politics and Political Change in the Arab World
(Michael C. Hudson, Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, Briffs, Autumn/Winter 2002)
The information and communications technologies (ICTs) revolution in the Arab world coincides with an era of political turbulence marked by a wave of Islamic political activism, the reinflamed Palestinian-Israeli conflict and, most dramatically, the attacks of 11 September 2001 on the United States and the subsequent American ‘war on terrorism.’ All of this is taking place against a background of globalization and its profound multiple effects on Arab societies. This essay begins with a sketch of ICT development in the Arab world. It contends that ICT is accelerating the erosion of the state’s ability to frame identities and loyalties and is opening the door to transnational political action. Exogenous transnational action affects Arab societies, but transnational forces arising in the Arab and Muslim worlds can have global effects, with attacks on American territory serving as an extreme example. The essay goes on to describe the changing political terrain in the Arab world and the development of networks as powerful structures for contestation, with attention being drawn to the particular successes of Islamist networks. American assertiveness after 11 September has deepened the contradictions in Arab politics and society. The essay concludes with ten propositions concerning the relationships between ICT, political identities, networks and American ‘imperial’ behaviour.