10 July 2004 - Arkansas Highway Department website serving jihadi downloads
It appears that Terrorist 007, an individual who appears to be in the United States and who professes to be one of Al Qaeda's mujahadeen, has hijacked yet another website, this one belonging to the Arkansas State Department of Highways and Transportation.
Earlier this evening, 007 posted a group of links of audio and video files on the Arabic language forum of the Ansar al Sunnah Supporters.
The files, which have had limited distribution to date because of their heavy bandwidth demand, link to an FTP server at www.ahtd.state.ar.us
Authorities have been notified.
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“Daleel” and “Terrorist 007”
Analysts at the Northeast Intelligence Network have uncovered a surprising array of email addresses on American servers, belonging to known terrorists, ranging from low level operatives of dubious authenticity such as “Daleel” and “Terrorist 007,” to those who are known to be well placed in the Al Qaeda hierarchy such as Abu Osama Al Otaibi and the Jihad Falcon.
Within the past few days, one of our analysts received an email from Abu Mus’ad al Zarqawi, who used his Hotmail account to communicate. A quick check of the IP address showed that Zarqawi was dialing in to the internet through an IP address assigned to the Telephone Company of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Most of the terrorists have email addresses on either Hotmail.com or Yahoo.com, and are quite open about posting these email addresses publicly. They even answer these emails, apparently without any concern over being intercepted.
A quick check of the IP addresses shows that these terrorists log in from all over the world. Many log in directly from the Middle East, most often Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian territories, Iran, and Egypt. A surprising number log in from Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, Canada, and even the United States.
While some of these may be proxy servers, many of them in fact reflect dial-up accounts and internet cafes in the various countries. These freemail providers, selected because of the anonymity that a throwaway email account provides, are advertiser supported – by AMERICAN advertisers.
It is not unusual to see an ad for a major US retailer sponsoring an email that calls for violence against the US. Sometimes it is cause for amusement; an email with a picture of an Iraqi teenaged insurgent and a Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher prominently featured an advertisement for an internet pharmacy selling Cialis, a competitor to Viagra.
An email arrived earlier today through Yahoo mail promoting violence to Americans that was prominently sponsored by Equifax. The use of these services by Al Qaeda and its followers appears to be the worst kept secret in the world these days. The fact that the email addresses, and the Yahoogroups used by Al Qaeda operatives continue to function despite the fact that they are in clear violation not only of the Terms of Service, but also of federal law, is something that is called into question on a regular basis. Various theories abound. “The FBI/CIA/Interpol/ (insert your anti terror agency here) is watching and monitoring these groups and people” seems to be the most popular. Yet in the meantime, the groups continue to function, and provide communications essential for Al Qaeda leaders to maintain command and control of the various terror cells.
Al Qaeda’s online training manual, Al Battar, is quite clear about this. It explicitly instructs its readers on how to obtain throwaway email addresses, and how to maintain operational and personal security while communicating on the internet.
There is no question after reading these publications that the internet plays a key role in the planning and execution of terror attacks throughout the world. In the meantime, stockholders of major corporations, and consumers who use the products of these corporations, may wish to consider asking some tough questions, such as: “Are you with us or against us? Why are your advertising dollars used to facilitate terrorism?” Laura Mansfield is the Associate Director and Senior Investigative Analyst of the Northeast Intelligence Network.