Terrorists now use the Web instead of training camps, according to CNet, and the e-Qaeda Web meme continues. Jihadis now not only get information from the Web (gasp), but in other, more mysterious ways.
While an earlier generation of radicals was trained in al-Qaida's Afghan camps in the 1980s and 1990s, their equivalents today are frequently schooled on the World Wide Web.
Some of these terrorists "tak[e] their cue from an Islamist Web site." For others, "the Internet is playing an ever greater role in radicalization". Rather like print, one supposes.
Earlier worries about a "virtual caliphate" are apparently a bit premature, if this part of the story is right. Things aren't so grand yet:
"I think it's the first time we've found a 'virtual network'. The people concerned in it have been charged with conspiring to cause an explosion, but we don't actually have any evidence they have ever met," he said....
Asked if it was conceivable that total strangers could put together a successful attack via the Internet, Clarke said: "I think that's entirely feasible. I can't see anything to stop it."
(emphases added)
Updating our list of scary Web and terrorism stories:
- iJihad using Orkut
- al Qaeda vlogging
- Rumsfeld fears being beaten at electronic information warfare
- e-Qaeda (my favorite title so far)
- the jihadist virtual state
(thanks to Steven Kaye)
Comments