economist: INTERNET JIHAD

jul 22, 2007

these guys are pretty good at using new technologies.

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From: <<<ThirdEye>>>

A world wide web of terror

Jul 12th 2007
From The Economist print edition

Al-Qaeda's most famous web propagandist is jailed, but the internet remains its best friend

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BY HIS own admission, he never fired a single bullet or "stood for a second in a trench" in the great jihad against America. Yet the man who called himself "Irhabi007"-a play on the Arabic word for terrorist and the code-name for James Bond-was far more important than any foot soldier or suicide-bomber in Iraq. He led the charge of jihad on the internet.

In doing so, Irhabi007 was a central figure in enabling al-Qaeda to reconstitute itself after the fall of the Taliban and its eviction from Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda ("the base") and its followers moved to cyberspace, the ultimate ungoverned territory, where jihadists have set up virtual schools for ideological and military training and active propaganda arms.

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The most headline-grabbing material on the internet is the military manuals-whether as books, films or PowerPoint slides-giving instruction on a myriad of subjects, not least weapons, assassination techniques, the manufacture of poisons and how to make explosives. But intelligence agencies say there is nothing like having hands-on experience in a place like Iraq, or at least a training camp. In the latest attempted attacks in London and Glasgow, for example, the attackers clearly botched the manufacture of their car bombs even though many of the alleged plotters were well educated.

Still, internet-based compilations such as the vast and constantly updated "Encyclopedia of Preparation", as well as militant e-magazines such as the Tip of the Camel's Hump (used to mean "the pinnacle") found on Irhabi007's computer, make it easier for self-starting groups around the world to try their hand at terrorism. The Dutch counter-terrorism office, which publishes many of its studies on extremism, concludes that the existence of virtual training camps "has the effect of lowering the threshold against the commission of attacks".

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Open university of jihad

One of the most prolific al-Qaeda strategists is Abu Musab al-Suri. He is now in American custody, but his 1,600-page opus, "The Global Islamic Call to Resistance", survives. It advocates the creation in the West of self-starting, independent terrorist cells, not directly affiliated to existing groups, to stage spectacular attacks.

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So Irhabi007 may be off the internet, but others like him remain. Among the most prolific is a figure who roams the web by the name of, yes, Irhabi11.

http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9472498