Actual Al-Queda Attack Orders or Some Idiot Just Goofing Around?

alt.tv.lexx

[Hellmouth]

Saw these two messages on the Usenet Group: alt.tv.lexx.

Subject: Ghassan Muhammad: Al Queda will destroy the infidels (next attack on Buy Nothing Day) Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 08:16:36 GMT From: annihilator-7@erlenstar.demon.co.uk Organization: Al Queda Newsgroups: alt.tv.lexx

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Ghassan Muhammad, allah be praised, here are your orders:

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Subject: Abdel Ali AL-Shouli: Al Queda will destroy the infidels (next attack on Buy Nothing Day) Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 22:09:10 GMT From: annihilator-3@erlenstar.demon.co.uk Organization: Al Queda Newsgroups: alt.tv.lexx

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Abdel Ali AL-Shouli, allah be praised, here are your orders:

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[Hellmouth]

Wondering whether they could be real or just some idiot in England goofing around.

Here's the Path of one of the messages:

Path: mindspring!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!newsfeed2.earthlink.net!newsfeed.earthlink.net!newsfeed.news2me.com!nntp1.phx1.gblx.net!nntp.gblx.net!nntp.gblx.net!news.hgc.com.hk!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!newsfeeds.sol.net!newspump.sol.net!newsfeeds.sol.net!news.execpc.com!newspeer.sol.net!news.noc.cabal.int!news-out.riddles.org.uk.POSTED!annihilator!not-for-mail

[Recovering_Democrat]

Why not call the FBI and ask who you can forward this message to?? They may be able to decrypt or debunk it.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

I saw 'em on news://alt.rec.bicycles.* I imagine everyone on Usenet has seen them.

[Dan Day]

Wondering whether they could be real or just some idiot in England goofing around.

I vote for "some idiot goofing around".

No terrorist cell savvy enough to communicate with encrypted PGP messages would be stupid enough to put a plaintext header on the message saying, "we're muslim terrorists and we're attacking on such-and-such a day".

Instead, they'd just put all their info in the encrypted message itself and post it as an unmarked block of ciphertext. To alert the recipients they could either use an agreed-upon keyword in the header (something perfectly innocuous, like "platypus"), or simply have the receivers attempt to decrypt every message in the newsgroup -- only the ones intended for them would decrypt successfully using their code keys.

A prankster, on the other hand, would need to put enough "teaser" info in the header to get people riled up and wondering what's in the ciphertext (probably a recipe for pumpkin pie). Simply posting ciphertext alone wouldn't draw any interest at all, and would not meet the hoaxer's desire to get people stirred up.

[Hazzardgate]

That exact message is on every single newsgroup on Google I've looked at today.

[snarkpup]

Saw these two messages on the Usenet Group: alt.tv.lexx. ...

It'll all be over when Al-Qaeda gets nanotechnology. Under the direction of their Supreme Bio-Vizier, the entire mass of our universe will be converted into Osama drones.

[dinodino]

Sounds like bullsh!t to me.

[aristeides]

Well, real terrorists might have a reason to conduct a spoof: like to observe the reaction.

[DannyTN]

I vote for an idiot goofing around too.

Debka picked up a message from usenet on Monday that said it was "zero hour" and news would occur at 6:20 hours. Nothing happened.


Of course, it could be disinformation. But I think, Al Quaida has been rendered more impotent that the governments are letting on. Their last note worthy attack was in Bali, a Muslim country.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Their last note worthy attack was in Bali, a Muslim country.

Bali is a Hindu enclave in a Muslim country (Indonesia).

http://www.bali-paradise.com/bali/religion.html

[Our man in washington]

Well, we can't be sure if this is real. I think we should close off all our borders, evict all noncitizen Muslims, and kill all Al-Qaeda members we can find.

We should also let Saudi Arabia know that we are very disappointed with their financing of Al Qaeda. Their financing is making the war more difficult, so we have to divert funds from other defense needs. For example, we have a missle that is designed to hit Bagdhad, but could accidentally hit the oil fields in Saudi Arabia by mistake. We'd love to free up some money and fix it, of course, but that wealthy Al Qaeda is just proving too darned expensive at the moment.

We would do these things as a precaution, of course. Can't be too careful!

[Huck]

FWIW, I did a google on Buy Nothing Day. In the US, that's Friday. In the UK it's Saturday. Looks like some left wing anarchist garbage.

[DannyTN]

Oh, sorry for any offense I've given Bali.

Still the point, is that it has been over a year and there has not been any follow up attacks overseas of significance as Osama promised. It's been smaller stupid self-defeating things like attacking French Tankers and Russian theaters, even as those countries were giving us trouble at the UN.

[aristeides]

FWIW, I did a google on Buy Nothing Day. In the US, that's Friday. In the UK it's Saturday. Looks like some left wing anarchist garbage.

Evidence of cooperation between anarchists and Islamofascists?