Internet Jihad

Artikel des Economist, der einen guten Überblick darüber gibt, wie Terroristen das Internet heute für sich nutzen:

The ease and cheapness of processing words, pictures, sound and video has brought the era not only of the citizen-journalist but also the terrorist-journalist. Al-Qaeda now sends out regular “news bulletins” with a masked man in a studio recounting events from the many fronts of jihad, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya or Palestine. Jihadi ticker-tape feeds provide running updates on the number of Americans killed (about ten times more than the Pentagon’s death toll).

Battlefield footage of American Humvees being blown up to shouts of “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Great) appear on the internet within minutes of the attacks taking place. The most popular scenes are often compiled into films with musical soundtracks of male choirs performing songs such as “Caravans of Martyrs”. Jihadists have even released a computer video game, “Night of Bush Capturing”, in which participants play at shooting American soldiers and President George Bush. Inevitably, experts say, jihadists have also started to create “residents” in the virtual world of Second Life.

Die Innovationsfreude und Kreativität der Terroristen ist erschreckend, betrachtet man den Kenntnisstand in westlichen Ministerien. Wenn der Staat angesichts solcher Gefahren wirklich dauerhaft handlungsfähig bleiben will, ist er wohl auf die Mithilfe kundiger Bürger angewiesen, statt sich selbst zu amputieren. Anonyme Strukturen ermöglichen es heute zumindest noch Einsichten in Planung und Denkstrukturen des islamistischen Terrors zu gewinnen. Ziehen sich die Terroristen aus diesen Bereichen des Netzes verstärkt zurück, scheint für den Kampf gegen den Terror in der momentanen Entwicklung mehr verloren als gewonnen:

But the very anonymity that the internet affords jihadists can also work against them; it lets police and intelligence agencies enter the jihadists‘ world without being identified. Many postings to web forums are filled with (rightly) paranoid postings about who is watching. A lengthy posting on a Syrian jihadi site in 2005, entitled “Advice to Brothers Seeking Jihad in Iraq”, said raw recruits offering only “enthusiasm or impetuousness or love of martyrdom” were no longer wanted. Instead, the mujahideen needed money and experienced fighters, but they should not assume that the smuggling routes through Syria were safe. It advocated communicating in secret through trusted sources in mosques rather than on the internet, noting that “this forum, like the others, is under…surveillance; any information is obviously not secret, so any individuals you meet and correspond with on the forums cannot be trusted at all.”

Contributors to jihadi web sites are regularly told not to divulge secrets. When news of Irhabi007’s arrest emerged last year, some of the postings stressed the need for greater caution online. One of these, signed by “Badr17”, gave the warning “Trust in Allah, but tie your camel.”