Posted on 12/31/2007 3:05:43 AM PST by jveritas
.... Joseph Shahda is waging a do-it-yourself war on terrorism that is proving very successful at frustrating his targets. Not to mention the federal government.
...Because he is not shy about the campaign he is waging, the terrorists now know his name, his face, and—because the press has mentioned it—that he lives somewhere near Boston. They talk endlessly of wanting to slay him, this Crusader, this Christian dog...
Since July, Shahda has shut down more than 50 jihadi websites whose message is worldwide Islamic fundamentalism and whose means is an online education in bomb-making……
...Shahda says censoring these sites is in the government’s best interest, because it stops the spread of propaganda and know-how for carrying out terrorist acts, many people in the federal government itself disagree. A Pentagon spokeswoman says, “We glean a lot of information from these sites.” An FBI spokeswoman says the same. Adds James Forest, the director of terrorism studies at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, “We’re not going to know the minds of the enemy unless we have a window into their perspectives.”....
Shahda points now to a spot in the top right corner of the Gateway’s monitor. Imagine this computer screen, he says, as the entirety of the Internet, and this spot as the terrorist the government wants. The government spends a year trying to find him online. Meanwhile the terrorist, this tiny spot, is launching new sites, filling the computer screen with big “Death to America” headlines and videos of how to slit a throat or make a mustard gas explosive. And even if investigators get lucky, even if the terrorist reveals his position and is arrested, his legacy lives on, on this computer screen, forever. Now, how many more terrorists does that create?....
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/click_click_boom/
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonmagazine.com ...
When studying the terrorist websites and forums one should weigh the balance between shutting it down or keeping it up. I strongly believe, in fact I am absolutely sure, that the grave danger caused by these terrorist forums far outweigh any intelligence value or other matters that can be obtained from them. Even if there is a proof of capturing dozens of terrorists because of these forums still these forums are causing much more damage of being kept up than any positive achievement that may be presented by monitoring them.
You may be aware of terrorist leader Zawahiri latest speech where he dedicated a good portion of his speech to the so called “Jihadi Media” and their extreme importance in serving the Jihadi cause according to him. What is the “Jihadi Media”? it is the terrorist forums, terrorist websites, and terrorist blogs. If our enemy 2nd in command is telling the world about the extreme importance of the terrorist internet for their terrorist cause then the only effective way to deal with it is to shut it down. In the battlefield our troops destroy the terrorists when they see them and we should do the same for the terrorist enemy on the internet battlefield, destroy their forums and websites.
I have been getting personal death threats from terrorists against me but I am not afraid at all. If they kill me then I would have died for a very noble cause which is fighting a very important aspect of islamic terrorism their internet forums and websites. To tell you the truth, I am much more afraid by the very hostile reaction of some people in the government toward my work, it is scary and very disappointing. The last thing I expected is to have some government employees trying to intimidate me.
My important questions are how will some people in the government live with the thought that more terrorists are recruited everyday on terrorist forums and despite that they decide to keep the sites open for reasons that amount to nothing compared to the terrible damage done by these forums? How can the government break its own laws that prohibit the publications of materials to build bombs, explosives, and other acts of violent terrorist materials by keeping these terrorist forums up?
Anyway, I hope that the government will shut down these terrorist websites and forums very soon which I thought it has been agreed to do so in the October 2007 report “National Strategy For Homeland Security” as released by the White House http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeland/nshs/NSHS.pdf (page 29).
That is very troublesome, my friend.
It is indeed my FRiend.
I think you are doing a great service, and one that we should be promoting strongly.
Thank you for your efforts.
Thanks again for the work you’ve done for us. God bless you.
Thank you very much. I am deeply troubled by the government way of handling the terrorist forums.
So am I. And it is just one of a number of things I wonder about.
Not only should these forums be slapped down as soon as they appear, more efforts should be made to positively identify the persons who write them and actively discourage them. And I do mean ACTIVELY discourage them.
What about this don’t they understand? Cut and dry to me. They should study the site as much as they can and then shut it down immediately.
Except that in nearly all cases, all the people attracted to it, sometimes even the actual computer and physical address can be easily determined. These sites act as honeypots, and if they are all closed down, the Government will have to run some themselves.
If H! gets elected, this very FR site will serve as a valuable source of people who need IRS Audits, for example.
They can do that in a day or two. Then shut it down. Besides, more will pop-up sooner or later.
Interesting!
Continue to do what you do. Eventually a pattern will emerge, showing which providers will shut down these sites and which will not. Creating an environment that is hostile to this type of message is an important element in winning the information war. We can win militarily, but the US gov. has badly bungled the information fight.
Keep pushing.
If it’s any consolation there ARE some White Hat fellas out there doing a job for freedom.
Prayers up for your continued safety, Joseph.
I'd LIKE to be shocked, but I think it has been this way for awhile. There are many who think the US government knew beforehand about the Murrah Building bombing in OKC. Certainly, there was a lot of activity near the building in the days before. I think they might well have known it was planned, but not exactly when--I'm betting they thought they could monitor things and learn more. Alas, a lot of lives were lost while they waited to act. Will that be the case again? Wouldn't surprise me.
Happy New Year.
The most infamous internet terrorist was called Irhabi 007 where the British and the US government spent over 2 years trying to track him on the internet. As the end he was captured not because they determined his house address from his IP address, they were not able to do so, but because they captured two other terrorist in Bosnia who happened to have his contact numbers.
We love to think that we have super spies and some incredible tools to catch terrorists but unfortunately it is not the case.
Most excellent point.
ping
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