April 28, 2006

Senior Al Qaeda Leader Killed

(Baghdad) I admit my addiction to this type of news. Keep 'em coming.

From Reuters.com:

Iraqi and U.S. forces have killed a senior member of al Qaeda in Iraq, Interior Ministry sources and the U.S. military said on Friday.

Humadi al-Takhi, who they said was a district commander of the group, was killed in a raid on a house on Friday about 10 km (6 miles) northeast of the city of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

Samarra is a stronghold for Sunni Arab miscreants, the city where a Shi'ite shrine was attacked in February. Intelligence reports led to the raid in which Humadi al-Takhi and two other thug terrorists were killed. According to Reuters, the news hasn't been independently verified. It appears that someone wants to see the body.

This latest success follows yesterday's news of the Iraqi Forces' capture of Abdul Khadir Makhol, senior leader of al Qaeda in the Tikrit region.

From Interested-Participant.

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April 26, 2006

Fighting the Media Jihad

Still think killing terrorists is all it will take to win this thing? Think again.

Newswise:

Jihadis place a great deal of emphasis on developing comprehensive public relations and communication strategies to aid their side in the media war.
What an incredible smell you've discovered! You think maybe the terrorists media allies would be limited to the Arab News (the official organ of the house of Saud) and al Jazeera, but you'd be wrong. Try the two biggies as well: the AP and Reuters, both of which are great at spinning things exactly as the Islamists plan.
“Their strategies are crafted after careful audience analysis and message adaptation, two of the most fundamental rules underlying any communication or public relations campaign,” write the authors of a report released this week titled: “Communication and Media Strategy in the Jihadi War of Ideas.” ...

Professor Steven Corman, who co-authored the report with graduate student Jill Schiefelbein, says that in his experience “people are surprised the jihadis think of media as a weapon.”

Yeah, a lot of people are surprised. None of you, my dear paduan readers, but people. You know, retards and the like. more...

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April 25, 2006

Senior Terrorist Captured in Philippines

(Manila) Good news! Filipino authorities made a major arrest yesterday. Abu Sayyaf member Sharie Amiruddin, aka Abu Omar, is linked to al-Qaeda and the southeast Asian terrorist network, Jemaah Islamiah.

From ABS-CBNNews.com:

The military arrested a suspected Abu Sayyaf member linked to kidnappings and bombings that has killed Americans and Filipinos since 2000, an Army spokesman said Tuesday.

Maj. Bartolome Bacarro said soldiers seized Sharie Amiruddin, a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf group, on Monday in Zamboanga City.

"He was the planner of the Dos Palmas kidnapping," Bacarro told reporters, adding Amiruddin was also blamed for bomb attacks in three Mindanao cities in 2002.

As a reminder, the Dos Palmas kidnappings occurred on Palawan Island (map) in 2001 and involved 20 people, including three Americans of which one, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded. During a rescue mission in 2002, another American, Martin Burnham, was killed and his wife, Gracia, was wounded. They were Christian missionaries. The other hostages were Filipino tourists.

It's worth noting that the Philippine government appears to be quite determined and aggressive in its pursuit of terrorist cells and criminals in the country.

From Interested-Participant.

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April 24, 2006

Islamic Extremists Love XXX Porn

So how does a pious Islamic terrorist pass the time? He watches hardcore porn. At least one of two Islamic terrorist planning attack on the US from Canada does. Funny in public these guys call for all women to be covered completely and say that sexual immorality is a huge threat to Islamic nations. Of course it is and the terrorists despite their rhetoric are the ones packing it around and spreading it. Hypocrites!

The Star dot com :Two Georgia men met in Toronto with Islamic extremists to discuss potential terror strikes in the United States, including attacks on oil refineries and military bases, according to U.S. court documents unsealed yesterday.

The documents say the pair met with at least three people, who are under international surveillance, to plot ways to disable the Global Positioning System which would disrupt military and commercial communications and air traffic. They also discussed a trip to Pakistan to receive military training at a terrorist-sponsored camp.

FBI agent Michael Scherk, a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Atlanta, says in a sworn affidavit 19-year-old Eshanul Islam Sadequee of Roswell, Ga., and Syed Haris Ahmed, 21, of Atlanta, made the trip to Toronto in March 2005.

Ahmed has been charged with suspicion of giving material support of terrorism and is being held at an undisclosed location. He pleaded not guilty during a brief court appearance Wednesday in Georgia.

Sadequee is accused of making materially false statements in connection with a terrorist investigation, and he was arrested in Bangladesh, where he told the FBI that he had gone to get married.

I wonder if his new fine pious Islamic bride approves of the porn?
The U.S. Attorney in Georgia, David Nahmias, said in a statement that the charge against Ahmed is "serious and involves national security.''

U.S. Justice Department officials, however, said there was no immediate threat to any strategic U.S. targets.

According to the court document, Sadequee and Ahmed travelled to Toronto from Atlanta on a Greyhound bus, leaving March 6, 2005, and crossed the border back to the United States on March 12.

Sadequee is accused of lying to federal agents when he was detained at New York's Kennedy airport in August 2005, saying he had travelled to Canada in January of that year, staying with an aunt he identified as "Manju Auntie,'' but being unable to name her husband.

I always forget my Uncles name donÂ’t you? I've only known him my entire life. Now, on to the porn!
FBI agents confiscated computer hard drives and data CDs from their home last month.

Federal agents conducted a search of Sadequee's bags before he left for Bangladesh and found two CD-ROMS concealed in the lining of a suitcase.

One CD contained encrypted files that FBI technical experts still cannot decode, the affidavit said, while the other CD contained a bootleg copy of a hard-core pornographic movie.

You nasty, nasty boys.
They are also disillusioned in many cases, he (The U.S. Attorney in Georgia, David Nahmias) said, and sometimes take up Islam "in the radical form."

"I do believe that when the time comes, a number of these people will attempt to do something quite serious."

I donÂ’t doubt that! After all their minds are all twisted by the Koran and porn. more...

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April 22, 2006

WaPo Editor Offers Idiotic Defense For Treason

While Dana Priest, the Washington Post post reporter at the center of the Mary O. McCarthy CIA leak scandal refused to comment to her own newspaper about the story, one of the Post's executive editors offered this remarkably obtuse excuse for McCarthy's partisan:

Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said people who provide citizens the information they need to hold their government accountable should not "come to harm for that."
Now, think about that. Downie is actually advocating trying to run a government in which not a single bit of data can reasonably be expected to remain confidential. Downie doesn't explain what disclosures match his criteria for "holding their government accountable". Evidently, those determinations are up to any of the hundreds of thousands of government employees who are privy to classified information.

Presumably, based on the WaPo's history, any revelation that can be used to damage a Republican administration is "sharing information" and holding the government accountable. Revelations that damage Democratic politicians or support Republicans are "leaks" that are betrayals of public trust.

Are you a CIA officer pissed off because the candidate you donated $2000 to lost the Presidential election? Disregard your oath, your secrecy agreement, and the law, and hold the government accountable by leaking classified information! Leonard Downie Jr. has given his okay.

Cross-posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto, Vince Aut Morire, and Stop the ACLU.

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April 21, 2006

Student Indicted in Terror Plot

Syed Ahmed(Atlanta, Georgia) A 21-year-old mechanical engineering student at Georgia Tech, Syed Ahmed, was arrested last month by FBI agents on charges related to terrorism.

From 11Alive.com:

"Mr. Ahmed knowingly and unlawfully attempted to provide, conspired to provide materials, support, and resources, knowing the materials, support and resources were going to be used in the preparation for and the carrying out of two other federal terrorism laws," said U.S. Attorney David Nahmias.

Ahmed's family suspects a videotape of their son made of a building is what made authorities suspicious but FBI agents will not confirm that. The family reportedly allowed federal agents to take computer information from their son's room.

"Yesterday, Mr. Ahmed appeared in court for his initial appearance and arraignment in front of Judge Feldman," said Nahmias. "He entered a plea of not guilty and is presumed not guilty until the government proves his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

Ahmed's family came from Pakistan in 1997 and became U.S. citizens. Syed is reported to have become increasingly involved with Islam and allegedly attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan last year. If he's guilty, it seems obvious to me that Ahmed was recruited through a mosque in the U.S.

Ahmed was taken into custody and ordered held until trial. No date has been set.

From Interested-Participant.

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April 17, 2006

Sami Al-Arian Pleads Guilty

University of South Florida professor Sami al-Arian, who became a cause célèbre to the ACLU crowd, has admitted to being involved with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (the group responsible for this outrage), and, as a bonus, turned snitch on his co-defendants.

From Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON, April 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Former University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a specially designated terrorist organization, in violation of U.S. law, the Department of Justice announced today.

In the plea agreement, Al-Arian admits that he was associated with several organizations, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s. He also admits that co-defendants Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, Bashir Musa Mohammed Nafi and Mazen Al-Najjar were associated with PIJ.

Al-Arian's agreement with the government calls for a recommended prison sentence of 46 to 57 months in prison, based on a five-year maximum statutory sentence. Al-Arian, 48, who has been in custody since his arrest on Feb. 20, 2003, has agreed to stipulate to deportation to another country by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement once his prison sentence has ended. Al- Arian has lived in this country for approximately 30 years.

This bastard should be deported to Hell.

Via Stop the ACLU.

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto and Vince Aut Morire.

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April 11, 2006

Islamists Post Hit List of 'Apostates'

An Egyptian group calling itself the "al-JamaÂ’ah Consultative Council" has sent an e-mail hit list to people deemed 'apostates' yesterday. The group warned that those people on the list who had left the faith would have three days (as of yesterday) to repent or they would be killed. The group also warned that the wives and children of the Muslim apostates were being followed & would be killed.

Under Islamic Law, the maximum penalty for apostasy is death.

The list includes prominent Muslims living in the West who have spoken out against violent Islamic extremism and intolerance, some still living in Muslim countries, as well as Coptic Christians who have advocated equal treatment in Egypt.

According to Copts-United (hat tip: Clarity and Resolve) the group issued the following threat if the 'apostates' did not publicly repent:

we will follow them everywhere they go and at anytime; and they can never be far from the swords of truth, and they are closer to us that our shoelaces.

They are monitored day and night. We are fully aware of their hiding places, their houses, their childrenÂ’s schools, and the times when their wives are alone at home.

We gave our rules to the soldiers of God to execute the rule of God so that their blood can become close to God [to kill them] and burn their houses.

And we thank God that many of those infidels and atheists do not exist in the land of Islam, so that they do not defile the Islamic land with their rotten blood. They are in the land of infidelity, the land of idols, pagans, and Cross worshippers: in America, Canada, Switzerland, and Italy.

If they existed on a spot in the Islamic land, let us wash the places of their slaughter and beheading seven times to purify the Islamic land of the impurity of their blood. And let us captivate their women and enslave their children loot them. Let us apply the Islamic rule to them; and whoever kills one of them, will get his loot.

The fatwa was signed by Abu Dhur Al-Maqdishi, media commander in Al-JamaÂ’ah.

The list includes:

Wafa Sultan -- American Muslim psychologist who has spoken out against jihad, the silence of mainstream Muslims over terrorism, and the treatment of women in Islam. Sultan lives in the Los Angeles area.

Ahmad Subhi Mansur (Mansour)--a liberal Egyptian theologian condemned as an 'apostate' because he accepts only the Quran as authentic and rejects the sunnas. Mansur argues in his book "The Punishment of Apostasy" (out of print) that religious liberty is fundamental to Islam. Mansur's wife and children are also specifically threatened. Mansur live in the Virginia.

Adly Abadir -- Egyptian born Christian Coptic priest, exiled from Egypt and now living in Switzerland. Abadir is an outspoken advocate against the subjegation of Christians in Egypt and has testified before the U.S. Congress on the plight of Coptic minorities living under the thumb of Muslims.

Jamal Al-Banna-- moderate Egyptian theologian & brother of the founder of the Muslim Bortherhood who publicly disputes traditional Islamic teachings about the treatment of women & jihad, but like most Muslims justifies aggressiona against Jews. Al-Banna is probably under condemnation for his firm stance against dhimmitude and for freedom of religion and for his creation of the "Committee for the Defense of Victims of Terror-Fatwas"

Majdi Khalil-- American Muslim who has spoken out against terrorism and those that justify it in the Islamic world.

Hasan Ahmad Umar-- former President of the Egyptian Court of Appeals.

Muhammad ShaÂ’lan--- possibly the same Dr. Muhammed Sha'lan who is a professor of psychology at the oldest and most prestigious Islamic universty in the world, al Azhar.

Father Zakarias Butros-- Coptic priest living in Holland who runs a website devoted to standing up for Christians in Egypt, against attrocities committed by Muslims against Christians, and which invites Muslims to engage in dialogue.

SaÂ’d Al-Din Ibrahim-- liberal Egyptian human rights activist , board member of the Ibn Khaldun Center, and Professor of Sociology at the American University in Cairo. Ibrahim is a leading human rights activists who was arrested by the Egyptian government in 2000 to the applause of Islamists around the world. He is accused by Islamists of being a 'Zionist'.

Salah Muhsin--Egyptian who has spoken out against the Muslim Brotherhood.

Dr. Shakir Al-Nabulsi -- a Jordanian born liberal Muslim, chairman of the American Academic Association in Jordan, and co-signer of an anti-Islamist petition to the U.N calling for an end to the preaching of violence against apostates. Nabulsi now lives in Denver.

Al-Afif al-Akhdar--72 year old Tunisian born French secular Muslim. The Tunisian Islamic movement Al-Nahdha, issued a death fatwa against the him for his book "The Unknown in the Prophet's Life". In addition to exposing the hypocrisy of Muslims on terrorism, Akhdar has also been at the forefront of exposing the political motivations behind Muslim regimes using the Danish Mohammed cartoons to drum up anti-Western sentiment. More on Akhdar here.

Unknown targets-- if you know who these individuals are, please warn them that they may be the target of Muslim extremists!

America -- Nidal NaÂ’isah, Fatin Nur

Canada-- Uthman Muhammad Ali & his family.

Holland-- Nahid Mitwali

Italy--Khalid Hilal

Jordan--Umar Abu Rassa, Ramadan Abd AlRahman Ali

Syria--Samir Hasan Ibrahim

Egypt--Abd al Fattah Asakir, Muhammad Shibl, Muhammad Said al Mushtahari, Abd al-Latif SaÂ’id, Ayman Muhammad Abd Al Rahman, Walid Muhammad Abd al-Rahman, Taha Hilal, Isam Nafi, Ahmad ShaÂ’ban, Amru Ismail, Abd-Al-Karim Sulayman

If you know any of the above individuals, they should be immediately warned. We hope that law enforcement officials are already aware of the danger posed to these people and pray for their safety.

UPDATE: Patrick from Clarity and Resolve in an e-mail points me to this story. Apparently, the threat was e-mailed directly to those who have been targetted, so I was wrong when I earlier stated that the threat had been posted on the internet.

Asharq Alawsat:

Dr. Wafa Sultan, who lives in California , pointed out that the source of the latest threat differed from the dozens she had previously received because it was made by a group and not an individual. She expressed fear for her life as the message included personal information about the recipients, as well as the names of some of their spouses and children. Sultan vowed to inform the U.S authorities of the email and seek their protection.

For his part, Dr, Shakir Nabulsi, a resident of Denver, Colorado, said he was not afraid of the threat as he had received several others before and refused to be frightened by terrorists.

Refusing to bow to the demands of terrorists, Dr. Ahmad Subhi Mansour, who lives I Virginia, said he would take the threat seriously and indicated the message was probably originated in Egypt .

The Islamic thinker Jamal al Banna, brother of the Hssan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Bortherhood, denied any knowledge of the organization calling itself “Supporters of God’s Messenger”, which included his name in a list of 31 supporters. He described its threat as “nonsense” and said the authors were “Satan’s soldiers”.

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Google News Promoting Terrorist Media

Al Manor is designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a terrorist organization. Why then does Google News use al Manor as a "news" source? If al Qaeda had a "news" arm, would Google News carry that as well? And by promoting al Manor on their website, isn't Google in violation of federal law?

As Daveed Gartenstein-Ross says over at the Counterterrorism blog:

Reasonable minds can differ about the relative merits of MichelleMalkin.com, Little Green Footballs and Democratic Underground for inclusion in Google News [and I would add, The Jawa Report]. But the inclusion of al-Manar -- itself a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, and known for its unrelenting support of terror against Americans and Israelis -- is simply indefensible.
Indeed.

Update: In a roundabout way (via Blogfather Charles, and Blogsister Michelle) I find this excellent post at Atlas Shrugs discussing the ins and outs of it.

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Wait 'Til Your Blogfather Gets Home, Young Man (Updated with response from Rusty)

I must disagree with the good Dr. Shackleford on his assessment of the importance of the cyber-jihad.

While I have no issue with American hackers being paid to take down jihadist sites and forums, I don't believe that it's an imperative to winning this war. I did a post back during the Cartoon Jihad wherein I pooh-poohed the reaction of people to the MSM's failure to print them, because all of us had already seen them. By us I meant blogs, and those who frequent them. A nice commenter reminded me of the total number of people who don't get news from blogs. Healthy slap in the face, that was.

Yes, the internet is a tool used to recruit terrorists, but it's just a tool. Recruitment of Islamic terrorists was going along just fine before the internet became a household tool. The Marine barracks in Beirut was bombed when the internet was in its infancy.

Rusty wrote:

If we cannot win the cyber war, we cannot win our war against Muslim ideologues bent on creating the Islamic utopia by any means necessary.
We've defeated [insert utopian ideology here] bent on creating their visions of our world by any means necessary, all long before the internet was created.

Mohammed had no internet, and now 1.2 billion people on this Earth are forbidden to gaze upon his visage. Saladin had no internet, and it didn't stop him from kicking Crusader ass. The mujahadeen in Afghanistan had no internet, and they stomped the Soviets.

Hacking jihadi websites doesn't stop madrassas being built in Eastern Europe. Hacking jihadi websites doesn't stop imams preaching on Fridays. Hacking jihadi websites doesn't do any more good than jihadis hacking our websites. They, like us, will just put them up somewhere else.

Hacking sites may even be counter-productive. We, the great unwashed, have no true idea of what our government's capabilities are. Most of that stuff is classified. If hackers start disabling jihad sites, who knows what information they would be depriving us of.

So I disagree with my blogfather. The best way to deal with jihadis is not to hack their websites, it's far more simple than that.

Kill them all, let Allah sort 'em out. It's hard to access Ummah.com when you're dead.

And before you spit in my face in the comments, "Kill them all" does not refer to all Muslims, just the jihadis. And yes, Improbulus Maximus, "Kill them all" does refer to all Muslims, not just jihadis. And no, Background Noise, I really don't mean all Muslims, just jihadis. There, have I covered my ass?

Rusty responds--the bitch slap! Ahhh, finally a debate! A debate, a debate, my kingdom for a debate!

Okay, how to respond? Since most of my posts are tongue in cheek, focus on lipstick lesbians, or are devoted to calling people names, it isn't easy slamming on the brakes and putting on the academic helmut so quickly. But here goes.

What Vinnie has just done is a classic example of not understanding two very important points and because he misses those points, is arguing against a straw man.

1) Probabalistic relationships are different than cause-effect relationships.

Contrary to what you were taught in both physics and logic, not all cause-effect relationships are direct. No one is arguing here that the internet causes terror, only that the increase in jihadi activity online has led to an increase in a) sympathy for terrorists which gives them room to hide among the civilian populations of the world b) recruitment of terrorists.

Thus, decreasing online terror activity will certainly decrease support for terrorism worldwide and therefore terrorist acts worldwide.

2) An effect often has multiple causes.

Before the internet there was jihad and after the internet there will be jihad, thus jihad must not be caused by internet. True enough, but the internet is a cause today if not the cause.

Wars are fought on many fronts and in many different ways simultaneously. So far, we have not even begun to fight the front that is cyberspace. My argument has never been that if we win this front we will win the war on terror, my argument is that if we wish to win the war on terror we must also win the cyber war.

Winning the cyber war will not mean we will win the war on terror, but it will certainly help. However, if we do not win the cyber war we cannot win the war on terror. It is a necessary condition for winning, but not the only condition.

Why? Wars are won when the enemy believes there is no hope for victory. When fighting an army, a nation, or even an organized resistance group, killing/capturing most of them or taking control of key physical territory usually serves as sufficient grounds for resistance to fall. But because in assymetrical and decentralized warfare beating individual cells is not enough to win, an atmosphere must be created in which enemy combatants have no hope of winning and therefore lay down their arms.

There are several other erroneous points Vinnie makes--such as not understanding the differences between Saladin's or Mohammed's very centralized armies and decentralized cells of terrorists--but I'll skip to the most important one.

The argument, if I understand it correctly, is that taking down terror websites is impossible since terrorists will just find new web space and new sites will pop up. That is, we should not wage war against the cyber jihadis because we cannot win it.

I'm sorry, but that just doesn't fly. How do we know we can't win it if we've never even attempted to fight it? Further, I would argue, effectively fighting the cyber war is actually much simpler than most understand. Since the vast majority of cyber jihadi activity only come from a handful of websites, taking out the most popular ones will drastically reduce the power of terrorists to shape the opinions of Muslims around the world.

We do not need to take down every jihadi website, we only need to take down the most popular ones. This could be accomplished today if we put our mind to it. That's right, today.

And, when the jihadis move to another website, we can follow them. Then take down that website. And the next. And the next.

Last, if you think taking down a few hundred websites is hard, how hard do you think it will be to find and kill a few hundred thousand jihadis? Impossible.

Vinnie:

I still don't see how this is a necessary condition to winning the war. To me, a necessary condition would be, say, removing the mullahs from power in Iran.

Hacking jihad websites is more like H/I fire in my opinion.

So...could you elaborate on that for me?

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April 10, 2006

Countering the Cyber Jihad: Cyber Privateering Part II

It's time we took the cyber jihad seriously. It has become obvious that the U.S. government is ill equippied to deal with the problem If we cannot win the cyber war, we cannot win our war against Muslim ideologues bent on creating the Islamic utopia by any means necessary.

Why is the U.S. government unable to respond adequately to the cyber jihad?

a) They are still in law enforcement mode.

Unless an internet website is breaking the law, no action is taken by the government. However, if we are in a war, then the normal rules do not apply. We cannot treat terrorist forces on the web as if they were simply exercising some Constitutional right of free speech. If this is a war, then fight it like one. If you can kill your enemies in war, then certainly censoring them is justified.

b) Intelligence agencies lack the institutional know-how to fight the online jihad.

Traditionally, intelligence agencies such as the NSA and CIA have been the information gathering arm of the U.S. government. Such intelligence is used by other agencies to act. They may monitor jihadi websites, but they obviously are not acting on their information.

Occasionally they do act, but when they do --such as with the arrest of Irhabi 007--they are in law enforcement mode. Irhabi 007 was charged with a crime, but if using the internet to wage war upon your own country is a crime, then doesn't this reveal the underlying problem of not treating this as a war?

c) The military lacks the tools to fight the internet jihad.

If this is war then it is the military--not the intelligence agencies such as the CIA and NSA, and not the law enforcement agencies such as the FBI -- that ought to be fighting it. The military is great at doing a lot of things, but taking down websites is not one of them. Even if we could identify each and every web server which hosts terror websites, the solution is not bombing the webhosts. For the most part, companies either are not aware that terrorists use their services or they do not care because there are no real consequences to doing business with the online jihadis.

The solution? There is no government solution. The only people really equipped to counter the online threat are hackers themselves. These cyber pirates have the necessary knowlege, tools, and experience in infiltrating and taking down websites. With minimum investment in equipment, with the assurance that they will not be prosecuted for activities which are normally considered illegal, and with the promise of a reward for each website taken down, these cyber pirates would be turned into cyber privateers. There skills which are normally deemed socially unacceptable, can be used to the advantage of winning the long war against militant Islam.

I will be posting on cyber-privateering from time to time. Stay tuned!

Michael B. Kraft at the Counteterrorism blog has some notes on Professor Gabriel Weimann's new book Terror on the Internet:

Prof. Weimann also describes various efforts by private groups or individuals to take down the web sites of terrorists –and the back and forth efforts between Israelis and Palestinians or their supporters to take down each other’s websites. He also discusses the efforts, largely futile, by governments to deprive terrorist groups of service providers because they jump to other providers or conceal their origin.

Hoffman emphasized another side of the coin—the need to take the offense as well as play defense. He said the United States and friendly governments should do more to make use of the internet get across reliable news and counter what he called the ”parallel world” in which terrorists and their supporters receive distorted perspectives and rumors on their web sites.

This may take more nimbleness and sophistication than US Government public diplomacy efforts have shown in recent years. But it is time to act and think outside the conventional box and should be given high priority. [READ THE REST]

To effectively counter the cyber jihad, it will take much more than public diplomacy. I will have more on this in the future.

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April 03, 2006

Aqsa Martyrs Commander Killed

(Gaza City) Sources report that the top al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades Commander, Raed Abayat, has been killed by Israeli Defense Forces. Very good news, in my estimation, because any time the heart of a terrorist stops beating, the world is a better place.

From ArabNews.com:

Witnesses said that the Israeli troops backed by tanks stormed into Beit Sahour town early yesterday morning and surrounded a building in the town where the top commander and his assistant were hiding. They added that a short exchange of fire between the commander and the Israeli soldiers resulted in the killing of Aqsa commander and the arrest of his assistant who was injured in the exchange of fire.

Medical sources confirmed the death of the commander and identified him as Raed Abayat, 31.

Israeli security sources said that the troops noticed two Palestinians hiding in a house in the town and called on them to surrender but when they spotted Abayat toting a rifle, they opened fire at him. The sources added that Abayat was wanted by Israel for five years for his involvement in the murder of Israelis.

A BBC report indicates that the Israeli troops tried to arrest Abayat but he refused and provoked a gunfight. And lost.

From Interested-Participant.

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