Posted on 08/07/2003 6:23:25 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Internet message boards run by Yahoo and Lycos are becoming a popular avenue for Islamic holy warriors searching the globe for a jihad in which to offer their lives to Allah as "martyrs."
Terrorism experts and intelligence officials say the online forums, hosted in the United Kingdom, offer a relatively secure method for recruits logging in from cybercafes and home computers to connect with jihad leaders, reported Wired magazine.
"Dear Brothers, I have already succeeded with the grace of Allah and his help, to go to Kurdistan for jihad through one of the brothers in this forum," wrote Abu Thur, a computer programmer in Malaysia on an Arabic-language message board hosted by Lycos, according to Wired.
"Praise be to Allah," he said in a June 6 message. "I have fought there, by the grace of God and his bounty. But martyrdom was not granted to me, and therefore I ask Allah to give me more lifetime and to make my deeds good.
"I ask anyone who has the capacity to organize for me to go to another jihad front to correspond with me," he said.
Message-board activity by Islamic extremists has skyrocketed, particularly since governments have begun to restrict al-Qaida-related websites, according to a Washington, D.C, group that tracks Arabic-language terrorist groups' use of the Internet.
"It's not only the message boards, but it's the number of message boards, that's alarming," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, or Search for International Terrorist Entities, according to Wired.
"If there was one a year ago on two or three websites, today there are literally hundreds of them. And they are very dangerous," said Katz. "They are very important for delivering al-Qaida's communications. And there are more and more of them every day. I started giving up trying to keep track of them all."
An Egyptian based in Malaysia named Asad Allah posted a message on the "Jihad Echo" message board, hoping to link with fellow fighters, Wired reported.
"I told myself that if I am already here (in Malaysia), I might as well fulfill my jihad, far away from the Egyptian authorities," he wrote. But "I failed to contact or get to know someone who might help me with fulfilling jihad here. Should I go back?" to Egypt, he asks.
Katz noted message boards often are observed opening up after an al-Qaida-related site is shut down, Wired said.
"It's hard to get a handle on," a U.S. counterterrorism official requesting anonymity told the hi-tech magazine. "The number of militants who have cut their teeth in Afghanistan and places like Bosnia and Chechnya is so huge. Al-Qaida's problem is not lack of trained personnel, but the lack of central coordination. And these message boards … give them a basically anonymous command-and-control tool."
Robert Baer, a former CIA operative, said al-Qaida is continually reshaping itself.
"Before Iraq, it was all based in places like Afghanistan and Lebanon, and now all of a sudden, we have a holy war in Iraq, so the battlefield is changing every day and so do the people," he told Wired.
Katz said the boards offer a window into the world of Islamic militants.
After the May 12 suicide-bomb attack on foreigners in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that killed 29 people, message boards were flooded with praise for the perpetrators, according to Wired.
A posting on a Saudi portal, referring to one of the alleged attack planners, said: "I ask from kind Allah that he will forgive Yusuf al-Airy and will accept him as part of the devoted Martyrs, and will rest him in peace in his paradise above."
"When I read these boards, it's very distressing," Katz told Wire. "The level of hatred towards Americans … is very high."
How does one "start" giving up? Either you give up or you don't. It's like being "slightly" pregnant, I suppose.
Did he finish giving up?
--Boris
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.