Yesterday, I blogged about the Moroccan suicide Jihadi who killed himself because he was not allowed to view Islamist webpages at the cybercafe where he exploded himself (sroll down for it). Today, reading the Counterterrorism blog, I found that:
According to news services, the attack was not aimed at the cybercafe. But two terrorists carrying explosive belts entered the cybercafe to surf the web. They were connected to a terrorism-linked site and the manager wanted to prevent them to do so.
When he approached one of the two terrorists, the suicide bomber decided to activate his bomb. Its accomplice fled but was stopped by Moroccan police. The most credible explanation for what happened last night is that the two terrorists wanted to consult Internet to receive their orders for an attack against another target.
So, are the Governments taking Online Jihad seriously? It's possible that they haven't because as MyPetJawa writes they have not been much more worried about this:
They are willing to view the cyber jihadis (occasionally, at least) as criminals. What they have not been willing to concede, to this point, is that they are armed illegal combatants.
While it may seem minor, it is an important distinction. Why? Because if the internet is 1) a field of battle and 2) propaganda on the internet is a weapon of war, then the strategy for confronting it must be military. The first rules of war are to 1) possess better weapons than the enemy and 2) control the battlespace.
As to point 1: is there really any doubt as to whether our geeks possess better internet skillz than the Islamists?
As to point 2: there has been no serious attempt to control the battlespace.
From CBS News:
"Without a doubt, the Internet is the single most important venue for the radicalization of Islamic youth," says Army Brigadier General John Custer, who is the is head of intelligence at central command, responsible for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Custer says he knows where the enemy finds an inexhaustible supply of suicide warriors. "I see 16, 17-year-olds who have been indoctrinated on the Internet turn up on the battlefield. We capture 'em, we kill 'em every day in Iraq, in Afghanistan," he says. .....
More about Jihad Online here. h/t MNM.
More on Jihad Monitor.org: Propaganda and terrorism on Internet.
There is an special report about Spain: "New indirect menace for Spain" (document in Spain, pdf) In it they are referring to the menace to Spain (about which I blogged here) and comment about how they work:
The Global Islamic Media Front is a virtual Jihadi platform whose characteristics are:
1.- It is a secondary source. It is not used by any group as a transmission channel for their contents. Normally, it uses material that has already been used by other sources, specially by As-Sahab, the authentic communication channel of Al-Qaida.
2.- It distributes its contents through some websites, especially [http: // cvc-online dot blogspot dot com] and [http: // gimlf dot wordpress dot com].
3.- It is not the first time the GIMF mentions Spain. They menaced Spain about Irak and later the Voice of the Caliphate again mentioned it when the journalist Taisyr Alouni was imprisoned on terrorism charges.
Also has blogged about this: Jeremayakovka, who comments about the Yahoo Page mentioned above about the Jihadis online.
In "Terrorspeak", General Custer warns: As this process matures you'll start to see the jihadist internet in English ... so that more and more Westerners can participate.
One jihadist recruiter preaches, in English: Our words are dead until we give them life with our blood.
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Yahoo ha puesto online una serie de videos sobre la llamada Jihad Online o Jihad en la web. La web define un nuevo campo de batalla en la que cada vez chicos más jóvenes, son reclutados para los atentados terroristas.
De hecho, el marroquí que hizo explotar su cinturón de explosivos, lo hizo porque el dueño del café no le permitió visitar páginas islamistas. EL cibercafé no era su objetivo: prueba de ello es que ni él ni su compañero explotaron antes su cinturón. Los expertos piensan que la razón del enfado fue que estaban intentando conectarse a la página en la que les iban a decir cuál era su objetivo.
El compañero, después de escaparse, fue detenido por la policía. Esperemos que Marruecos no lo suelte en otro perdón real como ya hizo con el suicida.
De modo que la pregunta es ¿están los gobiernos dedicando los recursos necesarios para contrarrestar este tipo de amenazas? Parece que no: hasta el momento, están más interesados en pillar a los culpables -es decir, después de cometido el delito- que en prevenir los posibles ataques, impidiendo la difusión de sus mensajes a través de los blogs y webs islamistas.
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