to host massive files on the web using cybercrime, such as identity theft, to finance the purchase of websites to supplement what he was able to hack as he created a global online network in support of al-Qaeda in Iraq (although he operated out of London.) The laptop of one of his associates contained 37,000 stolen credit card numbers.[1]
For a perfect visual representation of how important all of these various efforts are to the insurgency in Iraq, there is the video posted in June 2007 where the central image is that of the speaker, urging those with the ability to do so to take up the effort, not to fight but to persuade in any way it is possible to do so. The image of a single speaker is flanked on one side by a weapon, and on the other by a laptop, also a weapon, just of another sort.[2] As Lieutenant Colonel Terry Guild put it simply, "[T]heir media infrastructure is quick, it's collaborative, it's virtual, it's global, it's technical, and it's getting better all the time."[3] How seriously is this effort taken? One of the leading authorities on terrorist uses of the Internet, Gabriel Weimann, quotes an al-Qaeda-affiliated website as posting this warning:
We strongly urge Muslim Internet professionals to spread and disseminate news and information about the Jihad through e-mail lists, discussion groups, and their own Websites. If you fail to do this, and our site closes down before you have done this, we may hold you to account before Allah on the Day of Judgment [4]
The Uncovered Body: What Makes Insurgent Videos "Propaganda?"
The press coverage of the fighting in Iraq has included periodic stories about insurgent use of web-based propaganda.[5] Distinct from news stories about terrorist use of the web as a general phenomenon in
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- ↑ Brian Krebs, "Terrorism's Hook Into Your Inbox: UK Case Shows Link Between Online Fraud and Jihadist Networks," Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, available from www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/05/AR2007070501153.html?referrer=emailarticle July 3, 2007.
- ↑ Global Islamic Media Front: Media Sword Campaign Defending the State of Islam, available from Lauramansfield.com.
- ↑ Guild.
- ↑ Weimann, Terror on the Internet, p. 66.
- ↑ See for example, "Behind Enemy Lines: Inside the Insurgency," ABC News: Nightline, February 14, 2006, available from Lexis-Nexis Academic, web.lexis-nexis.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/universe/document?_m=15e7e48b7027fb21ccd3fe52bf464b48&_docnum=9&wchp=dGLbVzb-zSkVA&_md5=b7530bbb317816b48fdc453cb32cf5b2; Glaser and Coll.
