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30.09.05, 21:34
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Sep. 30, 2005 0:25 | Updated Sep. 30, 2005 7:44
Islamic terrorism spreads via Internet
By JUDY SIEGEL AND TALYA HALKIN
Islamic terrorism is being promoted by a phenomenal growth in jihadist Web
sites, which have grown from fewer than 20 five years ago to more than 4,000
today, according to French and US researchers writing correspondence published
in the September 29 issue of the prestigious journal Nature.
Dr. Scott Atran of the Jean Nicod Institute in France and the University of
Michigan and Dr. Jessica Stern of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University concluded that, due to the increasing role played by the Internet
in the spread of terrorism, efforts should foster alternative peer groups in
cities and cyberspace showing the same commitment and compassion towards their
own members as terror groups seem to offer, but in life-enhancing ways.
"It is fair to say global Islamic jihad wouldn't exist without the Internet,"
said Yael Shahar, a researcher who specializes in the study of cyber-terrorism
at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. "Today, the structure of the Web is
the structure of terrorist organizations. Without it, they would be reduced to
local cells."
Al-Qaida, Shahar said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, set the model
for Web-based terrorist organizations that have no specific geographical
location and for whom cyberspace has essentially replaced the need for state
sponsorship, state-based espionage agencies and other forms of support. The
Internet, according to Shahar, allows terrorist organizations to function like
major corporations who do business in the global village online using workers
from different countries and which grow by mergers.
"Suppose you are a small organization in Turkey concerned with regional
jihad," Shahar said. "Along comes al-Qaida, and says 'We know you're not doing
so well, but we'll help you build bombs and send you a suicide bomber or two
if you sign on to global jihad.'"
Shahar said that the use of the Internet for global terror unfolds in four
fundamental ways. Cyberspace is a platform for propaganda and incitement aimed
both at the enemy and at existing and potential supporters. Often, on-line
propaganda may send a double message – one directed at the Western world and a
second, more violent message, written in Arabic. It exploits the vulnerability
of the democratic communications revolution. "Beheading videos [are] not aimed
at people in totalitarian regimes who can't do anything about it," she said,
explaining they are aimed at a democracy where enough of those videos may
cause people to ask why their soldiers are fighting a war.
In addition, the Internet is a source of recruiting potential jihadists in
both closed and open Internet forums. Command and control to carry out
attacks, coordinate cells, send user manuals, and select targets is also done
via the Web along with more administrative functions such as fundraising. "At
the forefront of global jihad are technologically savvy, Western-educated
terrorists," Shahar said.
"The problem is that counterterrorism agencies and jihadists are not on the
same wavelength. We need to be using the same means as the terrorists, with
the same kind of freedom, and that is not going to happen very soon," Shahar
said, because counterterrorism agencies are still hierarchical, and are not
exchanging information in real time for political, economic, and technological
reasons. In addition, there is a strong resistance to change and various
structural problems.
"We're already in the middle of a Third World War, in which the Internet is
the means used by both sides to get their messages across," Shahar said.
"Unfortunately, the West isn't doing so well."
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127987659736