Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda ({{lang-ar|???????}}, al-Q??idah; "the foundation" or "the base") is the name given to an international Islamic fundamentalist campaign comprised of independent and collaborative cells that all profess the same cause of reducing outside influence upon Islamic affairs. Though al-Qaeda is philosophically heterogeneous, prominent members of the movement are considered to have Salafi beliefs. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8524679

Internet activities

In the wake of its evacuation from Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and its successors have migrated online to escape detection in an atmosphere of increased international vigilance. As a result, the organization?s use of the Internet has grown more sophisticated, encompassing financing, recruitment, networking, mobilization, publicity, as well as information dissemination, gathering, and sharing. More than other terrorist organizations, al-Qaeda has embraced the Web for these purposes. For example, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi?s al-Qaeda movement in Iraq regularly releases short videos glorifying the activity of jihadist suicide bombers. This growing range of multimedia content includes terrorist training clips, stills of victims about to be murdered, testimonials of suicide bombers, and epic-themed videos with high production values that romanticize participation in jihad through stylized portraits of mosques and stirring musical scores. A website associated with al-Qaeda, for example, posted a video of a man named Nick Berg being decapitated in Iraq. Other decapitation videos and pictures, including those of Paul Johnson, Kim Sun-il, and Daniel Pearl, were first posted onto jihadist websites.

Related Topics:
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - Iraq - Nick Berg - Paul Johnson - Kim Sun-il - Daniel Pearl

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With the rise of ?locally rooted, globally inspired? terrorists, counterterrorism experts are currently studying how al-Qaeda is using the Internet ? through websites, chat rooms, discussion forums, instant messaging, and so on ? to inspire a worldwide network of support. The July 7, 2005 bombers, some of whom were well integrated into their local communities, are an example of such ?globally inspired? terrorists, and they reportedly used the Internet to plan and coordinate, but the Internet?s precise role in the process of radicalization is not thoroughly understood. A group called the Secret Organization of al-Qaeda in Europe has claimed responsibility for these London attacks on a militant Islamist website ? another popular use of the Internet by terrorists seeking publicity.

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The publicity opportunities offered by the Internet have been particularly exploited by al-Qaeda. In December 2004, for example, bin Laden released an audio message by posting it directly to a website, rather than sending a copy to al-Jazeera as he had done in the past. Some analysts speculated that he did this to be certain it would be available unedited, out of fear that his criticism of Saudi Arabia ? which was much more vehement than usual in this speech, lasting over an hour ? might be edited out by al-Jazeera editors worried about offending the touchy Saudi royal family.

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In the past, Alneda.com and Jehad.net were perhaps the most significant of al-Qaeda websites. Alneda was initially taken down by an American, but the operators resisted by shifting the site to various servers and strategically changing content. The US is currently attempting to extradite an IT specialist, Babar Ahmad, from the UK, who is the creator of various English language al-Qaeda websites such as Azzam.com.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/07/AR2005080700890.htmlhttp://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ct/Press2004/20041006.html Ahmad's extradition is opposed by various British Muslim organizations, such the Muslim Association of Britain.

Related Topics:
Alneda.com - Jehad.net - Muslim Association of Britain

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Finally, at a mid-2005 presentation for US government terrorism analysts, Dennis Pluchinsky called the global jihadist movement ?Web-directed,? and former CIA deputy director John E. McLaughlin has also said it is now primarily driven today by ?ideology and the Internet.?

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