I have argued with myself for a long time whether it is better to shut down the terrorist websites or to keep it up for intelligence value. At the end I concluded that these websites and forums are doing far more harm to US national security and that of the whole world that any "little" ( I emphasize on "little") intelligence value it can give in particular personal information about some terrorist or particular information about coming terrorist attacks. It is very rare that such information can be found on these terrorist websites/forums and require a lot of luck to catch it if of course they are being monitored 24/7 a require hundreds if not thousands of Arabic speaking people monitoring it. In the meanwhile, and until you get the little intelligence, these forums and websites are serving a the main recruiting tool for the terrorists and not only recruiting but also teach them how to conduct terrorist attacks. Therefore, we are far better off shutting it down than keeping it up.
PS: Some people who are advocating keeping these terrorist websites up are making profit from it by charing consulting fees on what is going on these websites.
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>>>Some people who are advocating keeping these terrorist websites up are making profit from it by charing consulting fees on what is going on these websites<<<
As well as independent counter terrorism sites.
My favorite marketing expression, “give a headache, sell an aspirin”.
Thank you for your efforts, jveritas.
By Yassin Musharbash
On July 19 'jveritas' called out on the internet to shut down those pro-terror websites he had identified. His idea was simple: make the hosting companies block the sites by writing massive amounts of complaint letters. It worked, too - somewhat.
For about a month now a small earthquake has reigned on the Jihadist internet. Close to a dozen (by my own count) have already fallen victim to it. The Qaida friendly discussion forum "The Paradise" is closed the last I knew. The site where 'claims of responsibility' letters are made public, the 'World News Network', is a cyber ruin. The English language terrorist-blog, 'Global Islamist Media Front', exists no more.
The mass extinction began in the second half of July. A certain 'jveritas' started it all with an appeal on freerebublic.com, a meeting place for internet activists, news junkies, and as it seems, solid to rightwing conservative US Patriots: "We need to try to shutdown every known terrorist website to send a shocking message to the Islamic terrorists and to deal them a psychological blow", proposed 'jveritas'.
Said. Done - after all, the method that 'jveritas' chose was quite simple: since many of these websites were hosted by US-American companies, his comrades-in-arms should complain to them. For this purpose he published a list with URLs of pro Jihad websites, with the accompanying IP addresses of the provider or host. 'jveritas' even had pre-formulated complaint letters. He quickly found many helpers, who happily commented they were finally able to do something themselves about terrorists. The forum, in which they exchange ideas, now has a volume of up to 143 pages. After a few days came the first news of success: "Good work! Another site down!", came the word over "The Paradise" on about July 20.
Other activists see the iniative as a mistake
Not much is known about the organizer 'jveritas'. He (or she?) didn't make an email address public. 'jveritas' does seem to master Arabic: it's certain that for years terror related documents from Iraq have been translated into English under that web name. Every American who knows Arabic must help to fight the terrorists, demands 'jveritas'. Under his posts is the signature: "God protect our brave troops and President Bush."
For years there have been internet activists that battle the Jihadist websites: either by informing the providers and hosts about their customers, or by shutting down the sites by hacking or by 'denial-of-service' attacks. From one of the pioneers in this area, the group "Internet Haganah", the iniative started by 'jveritas' harvested only a sniff and a shriveled up nose: bottom line is that the effort is a mistake because it forces the terrorists to seek out other means of communication that aren't nearly so useful for us as the (discussion) forums are.
With that, "Internet Haganah" continues the old debate: should one battle and shutdown terror glorifying websites at all costs, or use them as sources of information? At least the intelligence services, on this side as well as the other side of the Atlantic, tend, after initial uncertainty, towards reading along.
The move into the more impenetrable realms of the internet won't take place all too quickly, however. So far, all terror websites that have been shut down have been resurrected, at least the most important ones, and most merely under a new address or on a new server. Two of the sites attacked by 'jveritas' and Co. are online again, as well. The full-scale attack on the cyber Jihad: it shall remain as an episode only .
Translation by longjack
For the record, I think every one of them that gets taken down is a victory for our side. Take it underground? What are they going to do, discuss jihad and recruit via hand-carried messages?