Al-Qaida winning Web war, U.S. told
Analysis finds terrorists savvy in online recruiting
By MIMI HALL
USA Today
WASHINGTON — Government and community leaders aren't doing enough to counter multimedia-savvy terrorists from using flashy Web sites, provocative video games, hip-hop music and gruesome images of bloodied Muslim children to recruit young people online, according to a new report that says the Internet may be al-Qaida's most powerful frontier.
"There's only one side on the battlefield, and it isn't us," said Frank Cilluffo, director of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute, who will testify on the group's Internet-Facilitated Radicalization report in the Senate today. "We've created this global village — the Internet — without a police department."
The report found that terrorist organizations are becoming more sophisticated in their effort to recruit, train and raise money over the Internet. Such groups also are becoming better at avoiding detection, the report says.
"The Internet is a weapon in the hands of our extremist enemies," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which investigates ways to combat radicalization at prisons, universities and on the Internet.
Among Web-based tactics terrorists use, according to the report:
• Hacking into legitimate Web sites and posting training manuals deep in subdirectories where no one is likely to notice them.
• Developing video games that spread "a simple but seemingly compelling message: Islam is under attack, and young Muslims have a personal duty to fight."
• Using hip-hop and rap musicians "whose catchy, melodic messages contain calls to violence."
U.S. audience targeted
The content is typically developed abroad, but it is being placed on U.S. servers and is targeting domestic audiences, Cilluffo said.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said terrorists also "can consult Web sites to learn techniques for shooting down helicopters, watch videos of hostage beheadings, read letters left by suicide bombers or listen to messages from militant leaders."
The report says national leaders need to develop a compelling "counter-narrative" that the "West is not engaged in a battle against Islam," hire more intelligence officers to infiltrate chat rooms and foster better relations with Muslims.
For now, the report says, "a nation that gave rise to Silicon Valley, Hollywood and Madison Avenue" has been "outplayed in the realm of ideas, effectively communicated in the new media."
Analysis finds terrorists savvy in online recruiting
By MIMI HALL
USA Today
WASHINGTON — Government and community leaders aren't doing enough to counter multimedia-savvy terrorists from using flashy Web sites, provocative video games, hip-hop music and gruesome images of bloodied Muslim children to recruit young people online, according to a new report that says the Internet may be al-Qaida's most powerful frontier.
"There's only one side on the battlefield, and it isn't us," said Frank Cilluffo, director of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute, who will testify on the group's Internet-Facilitated Radicalization report in the Senate today. "We've created this global village — the Internet — without a police department."
"The Internet is a weapon in the hands of our extremist enemies," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which investigates ways to combat radicalization at prisons, universities and on the Internet.
Among Web-based tactics terrorists use, according to the report:
• Hacking into legitimate Web sites and posting training manuals deep in subdirectories where no one is likely to notice them.
• Developing video games that spread "a simple but seemingly compelling message: Islam is under attack, and young Muslims have a personal duty to fight."
• Using hip-hop and rap musicians "whose catchy, melodic messages contain calls to violence."
U.S. audience targeted
The content is typically developed abroad, but it is being placed on U.S. servers and is targeting domestic audiences, Cilluffo said.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said terrorists also "can consult Web sites to learn techniques for shooting down helicopters, watch videos of hostage beheadings, read letters left by suicide bombers or listen to messages from militant leaders."
The report says national leaders need to develop a compelling "counter-narrative" that the "West is not engaged in a battle against Islam," hire more intelligence officers to infiltrate chat rooms and foster better relations with Muslims.
For now, the report says, "a nation that gave rise to Silicon Valley, Hollywood and Madison Avenue" has been "outplayed in the realm of ideas, effectively communicated in the new media."
