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HSPI Commentary Series "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE A-TEAM OF TERRORISM? A BRIEF ASSESSMENT OF HIZBALLAH AND IRAN’S ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARD CORPS" HSPI Commentary 24 February 23, 2012 by A. Aaron Weisburd SNIPPET: "Since at least May 2011, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) - operating through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliated organizations1 – seems to have been engaged in a high-risk, high-profile, and not entirely successful campaign to murder perceived enemies of the régime of Ayatollah Khamenei." SNIPPET: "Has the world become generally less hospitable to these kinds of operations? It is possible that the difficulties...

Quote: homeland.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-jihadist-use-social-media-how-prevent-terrorism-and-preserve-innovation Subcommittee Hearing: Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence | 311 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 | Dec 6, 2011 2:00pm On Tuesday, December 6, 2011 the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will hold a hearing entitled "Jihadist Use of Social Media - How to Prevent Terrorism and Preserve Innovation." The Committee will meet at 2:00 p.m. in 311 Cannon House Office Building. Witnesses Mr. Evan F. Kohlmann Flashpoint Global Partners Mr. William McCants Analyst Analyst for the Center for Naval...

SNIPPET: "In July, the British government warned that Al Qaeda’s exploitation of social networking websites is on the rise." SNIPPET: "The massive and multifarious network of websites and social media has presented a challenge to authorities in trying to combat it. Additionally, civil liberty concerns have conflicted with government efforts to spy on communications. Reducing terrorist activity on social media sites has been particularly difficult because users have adopted new forms of communication to conform with the new formats. Many Arabic speakers on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites use Arabizi, a form of colloquial Arabic written in the Latin...

SNIPPET: "There are some good reasons for allowing at least a few jihadi forums to operate." SNIPPET: "However, there are limits to our ability to exploit all the intelligence opportunities a forum may present. To put it another way, jihadi forums contribute to future terrorism in ways that are unpredictable and/or beyond our ability to control. This would be the view held by those other government agencies who prefer to seek out and destroy forums and to take down forum activists. For my part, I can live with keeping online those forums we have sufficient access to monitor and resources...

SNIPPET: "TERRE HAUTE — The announcement this week of an Islamic terror plot to wage attacks in Europe came as little surprise to Aaron Weisburd. He’s been monitoring jihadi websites since 2002, and is a field instructor for the West Point Academy, traveling around the nation to teach law enforcement about terrorism and jihad, or holy war. On Wednesday, Weisburd was one of the featured speakers at the International Crime, Media and Popular Culture Studies Conference, hosted by Conference Chairman Frank Wilson and Indiana State University’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice." SNIPPET: "He created a blog of terrorist website...

ARTICLE SNIPPET (Google Translation): SNIPPET: "Month 30,000 Readers One of the most famous heads of the scene is Aaron Weisburd. The programmer and web developer created the Network, "Internet Haganah" (http://internet-haganah.com/haganah/). The historical model "Haganah" was a Zionist underground paramilitary organization in Palestine during the British Mandate from 1920 to 1948th Weisburd began in 2002 from his office in Carbondale, Illinois, from the bustle of the Islamists in To pursue the Internet. Meanwhile he is working with professionals who voluntarily contribute their knowledge, whether as a Middle East expert, Arabic translator, consultant or techies from Silicon Valley. The website has...

SNIPPET: "What he learned, he reports in a press note, is that terrorists need steady reinforcement of their ideology, need to share their outrage and need a sense of community. They get all three quickly, economically and incognito on the Internet." SNIPPET: "Inspired by activists such as A. Aaron Weisburd, a citizen in Carbondale, Ill., who has infiltrated and brought down jihadi terrorist Web sites, and aware that a young hacker (cyber name Irhabi007) became the voice of al-Qaeda online from his London apartment, Mr. Abbott has created a novel that will keep you up at night." SNIPPET: "Jeff Abbott...

SNIPPET: "Today, I received two emails from an Elly Kilroy on behalf of WLUML, asking me to “please immediately remove the link to Women Living Under Muslim Laws from your list of recommended websites; we do not want to be associated with you in any way.” The email reads as follows: “Dear Phyllis, Please could you remove the link to Women Living under Muslim Laws from your list of Recommended Websites; we are more than uncomfortable about being in the same list as names such as Daniel Pipes, Melanie Phillips and Internet Haganah to name just a few. We are...

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Successful counter-terrorism can be described as a non-event. Nothing happens because we are successful in identifying people who are intent on committing an act or acts of terrorism, and manage to somehow intervene to prevent them from doing so. When we fail to identify and focus our efforts on the right people, however, bad things happen."