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This new cyber-battlefield is allowing
al-Qaeda and other groups to stay "several steps ahead" of the
U.S.-led war on terrorism, a senior U.S. law enforcement
official says.
Most of the information on the Web sites
is written in Arabic and encrypted, or scrambled. The
encrypted data is then hidden in digital photographs, which
makes it difficult, if not impossible, to find or read,
officials say. The groups regularly change the addresses of
their Web sites to confound officials.
"Under the present circumstances of the
global war against terrorism, the Internet has become a vital
tool and, obviously, an easy one to exploit," says terrorism
analyst Reuven Paz of the International Policy Institute for
Counter-Terrorism, an independent think tank based in
Herzliya, Israel. It's "the most efficient way (for
terrorists) to spread their message on a daily basis."
U.S. officials have little doubt that
al-Qaeda and other militant groups are using the Web to set up
terrorist attacks against the United States. They tell USA
TODAY that Abu Zubaydah, 30, a Palestinian who was arrested in
Pakistan last March and is suspected of being bin Laden's
operations chief, used a Web site to plan the Sept. 11 attacks
and to communicate with the terrorists who hijacked jets and
flew them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Earlier this year, officials say, they
found nearly 2,300 encrypted messages and data files in a
password-protected section of an Islamic Web site that had
been downloaded onto Zubaydah's computer. The messages began
in May 2000, peaked in August 2001 and stopped Sept. 9, two
days before the attacks, officials say. They declined to
identify the Web site.
Volume of messages doubles
Lately, al-Qaeda operatives have been
sending hundreds of encrypted messages that have been hidden
in files on digital photographs on the auction site eBay.com.
Most of the messages have been sent from Internet cafes in
Pakistan and public libraries throughout the world. An eBay
spokesperson did not return phone calls.
The volume of the messages has nearly
doubled in the past month, indicating to some U.S.
intelligence officials that al-Qaeda is planning another
attack.
Tuesday, al-Qaeda spokesman Suliman Abu
Ghaith told an Arabic newspaper that the group's suicide
militants were "ready and impatient" to attack U.S. targets in
America and around the world.
Since Sept. 11, the FBI, CIA and National
Security Agency say they have hired dozens more
Arabic-speaking analysts and mathematicians to interpret and
decode the information on the Web sites.
They add that there's little they can do
to stop the terrorist groups from using the Web to
communicate. There are no laws directly regulating the sites
or preventing them from operating. Instead, officials must
persuade the companies that host the sites to shut them down.
But as soon as a terrorist site is taken off one Web server,
it often appears on another, officials say.
In the past five weeks, al-Qaeda's Arabic
Web site, alneda.com, has emerged on three different servers,
in Malaysia, Texas and Michigan. The site was eventually
removed from the servers after the Web hosting companies,
which say they often don't screen or translate the sites,
received complaints from the public and law enforcement
agencies. U. S. officials are expecting the site, which began
operating in January, to re-emerge soon.
"The U.S. enemy, unable to gain the upper
hand over the mujahedin on the battlefield, has since Sept. 11
been trying to gag the world media," said a statement posted
on alneda.com last week. "The more the United States tries to
stifle freedom of expression, the more determined we will
become to break the silence. America will lose the media war,
too."
Hatred, hidden messages
There are dozens of suspected terrorist
Web sites, many of which were started after the U.S.-led war
on terrorism began last fall. Most of the Web sites are
written in Arabic. All carry statements that express hatred
for the United States and its allies and fatwas, or
religious rulings, that call on militant Muslims to kill
Americans and attack U.S. interests. USA TODAY examined many
of the sites and had the information there translated from
Arabic into English. Among the most prominent sites:
- Azzam.com, a site that U.S. officials believe is linked
with al-Qaeda, is urging Muslims to travel to Pakistan and
Afghanistan to fight "the Jewish-backed American Crusaders,"
or U.S. soldiers. It gives such travelers tips on how to
avoid raising suspicions of employers, diplomats and police.
"If you are working, either resign from
your job and take a year off or request unpaid leave from
your employer. Many large companies offer unpaid leave to
their employees for periods ranging from two months to one
year. That way you can fulfill your obligation (of jihad)
and not have to give up your job," the site says.
U.S. officials say azzam.com contains
encrypted messages in its pictures and texts — a practice
known as steganography. They say the hidden messages contain
instructions for al-Qaeda's next terrorist attacks.
Mathematicians and other experts at the National Security
Agency at Fort Meade, Md., are using supercomputers to try
to break the encryption codes and thwart the attacks.
At least one known al-Qaeda operative
has accessed the site, European officials say. German
intelligence agencies, which broke into the site last fall,
found an e-mail address for Said Bahaji, a suspected member
of the al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany, that planned parts
of the Sept. 11 attacks. Bahaji, who was last seen in
Germany, has since disappeared.
- Almuhajiroun.com, an English-language Web site also
linked to al-Qaeda, urges sympathizers to assassinate
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. The Web site, which
pictures Musharraf, refers to him as "the American puppet."
It calls U.S. troops in Pakistan and Afghanistan "soldiers
of Satan."
"The punishment of those who wage war
against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in
the land is only this: that they should be murdered or
crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on
opposite sides or they should be imprisoned," the site says
in apparent reference to Musharraf.
- Qassam.net, a site U.S. officials believe is linked to
the militant Muslim group Hamas, is appealing for donations
to purchase AK-47 rifles, dynamite and bullets "to assist
the cause of jihad and resistance until the (Israeli)
occupation is eliminated and Muslim Palestine is liberated."
It recommends donations of $3 per bullet, $100 per kilogram
(2.2 pounds) of dynamite, $2,000 for a Kalashnikov assault
rifle and $12,000 for a rocket-propelled grenade.
Donors are asked to send an e-mail to
an address on the Web site. Recently, they received a
response telling them to transfer money to "Ahmed Mohammed
Ali, Elbatech Bank, account no.: 38926/9/510 Arab bank —
Gaza branch — Palestine." The account name and number appear
to change every 48 to 72 hours. "Dear Donor: Please tell us
the field in which you prefer your money to be spent on such
as: martyrdom attacks; buying weapons for the mujahadeen;
training the youth; or inventing and developing missiles,
mortars (and) explosives," the e-mail said.
U.S. officials say they are monitoring
the site, which is hosted by an American company, to see who
is using it to donate to Hamas. They say they intend to
prosecute those Americans who contribute.
Until the site was taken down,
alneda.com carried a warning from Abu Ghaith saying the
United States should "fasten its seat belt" and prepare for
more terrorist attacks. The site, which featured the words
"No pride without jihad," also contained encrypted
information that directed al-Qaeda members to a more secure
site where instructions for attacks were given, U.S.
officials say.
Other Internet sites, including
jihadunspun.net, offer a 36-minute video of bin Laden,
with four minutes of previously unaired footage; pictures of
President Bush with his head in the sights of a gun; and other
propaganda.
Not all the Islamic Web sites are calling
for a jihad against the United States. The alsaha.com site has
hosted chat rooms where members criticize bin Laden and
al-Qaeda for their misuse of Islam. "(Bin Laden) is a disgrace
to our religion and has made a mockery of everything we
believe," said one comment posted on alsaha.com. "He is not an
Islamist; he is a terrorist who deserves to be killed. God
bless and protect America!"
Easy to set up
It's easy for terrorists to set up a Web
site, officials and experts say.
In the case of alneda.com, al-Qaeda
members used a made-up name, "The Center for Islamic Studies
and Research," a bogus street address in Venezuela and a free
Hotmail e-mail account to contact a Web hosting company in
Malaysia called Emerge Systems, U.S. intelligence officials
say. The group then wired $87 to a Malaysian bank to pay for
the cost of the Web site for a year.
"Internet communications have become the
main communications system among al-Qaeda around the world
because it's safer, easier and more anonymous if they take the
right precautions, and I think they're doing that," former CIA
counterterrorism chief Vince Cannistraro says.
But al-Qaeda operatives now are urging
their members to use caution. Just before alneda.com was
pulled off its server, it warned its members that the site was
probably being monitored by the FBI, CIA and Customs Service.
It promised to e-mail members the new address of the Web site
once it was in operation. It also told them they could find
the address in chat rooms on other terror sites, such as
Hamas' qassam.net.
"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 Web sites," says a statement on azzam.com. "The more
Web sites, the better it is for us. We must make the Internet
our
tool." |
