Private Investigation Leads to Swiss Cyberterror Arrests
As a result of a month-long private cyberterrorism investigation conducted by Globalterroralert.com and reported on exclusively in the Swiss journal Die Weltwoche, Swiss police in Geneva have announced the arrest of two North Africans in connection with the fraudulent use of a University of Geneva computer lab in disseminating jihad propaganda videos and "inciting racial hatred." Neither of the unnamed pair--a 27-year old Moroccan and a 41-year old Algerian--were legal citizens of Switzerland. According a statement from Swiss police, "these individuals were observed using computers at the University of Geneva, over several months, for websurfing and visiting... violent extremist sites." In order to gain access to the computer lab, the two men had stolen the access code of a former student who had inadvertently left theirs available on a public access terminal.
Though the two men have denied uploading any material and have insisted that they were only "curious", digital forensic evidence archived by Globalterroralert.com indicates that, over the space of at least three months, a user in the same computer lab at the University of Geneva uploaded thousands of megabytes of Al-Qaida-related multimedia to various free Internet servers for other militants around the world to download--including recent audio recordings from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the testimony of a Saudi Al-Qaida member who escaped from Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, and the latest video of UBL deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri concerning the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan.
This case should serve as an example of how silently gathering information on cyberterrorists who choose to "camp out" in "Western cyberspace" and using that information to track and detain human operators can often be a more efficient approach than merely shutting down their prolific websites. Just as the Internet can be a "Wild West" for savvy cyberterrorists like the notorious Irhaby 007, it can also be a "Venus Fly Trap" for other, less-sophisticated online personalities.
Posted by Evan Kohlmann at 04:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBack (4)
http://counterterror.typepad.com/
I don't know what made my son become suicide bomber
THE father of Yorkshire suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer has spoken for the first time about the "terrible act" his son committed on July 7.
(snip)
Mr Tanweer, in his first interview since the terror attacks, said: "All the bombings and killings were awful. Only the group of four (bombers) or God alone knows why they carried out this terrible act."
He does not know how his son – who looked upon Osama bin Laden as his hero – could have become a terrorist.
(snip)
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1238053
***Memo to Mr. Tanweer: The above is a CLUE.