Terrorists Take Fight to Cyberspace
Congress told terrorists use Internet to train and recruit followers.
May 3, 2007 — -- Congress heard sobering testimony Thursday that the Internet is proving to be a powerful medium to spread violent Islamist extremism.
A terrorism expert, Army Lt. Col. Joseph Felter, testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee that al Qaeda "would not be possible without the pervasiveness of Internet accessibility and the capability it offers al Qaeda's thought-leaders to define the way disillusioned youth think about the world."
Felter may have surprised the senators when he said, "The most important thought leaders … are not Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri."
Instead, he said, they are scholars and ideologues that most Americans have never heard of.
Spanish authorities investigating the Madrid train bombings found more than 50 electronic books on the hard drives of the bombers' computers.
The authors tracked closely with the list that American authorities had compiled of the most influential jihad writers. Their words are sent around the world on the Internet.
Another witness, Frank Cilluffo, who heads the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, said, "Cyberspace is now the battlefield, and the war is one of ideas. The real time, two-way dialogue of chat rooms has taken the fight global, enabling extremist ideas to be shared, take root, be affirmed and spread exponentially."
Cilluffo added, "Internet chat rooms are now supplementing and replacing mosques, community centers and coffee shops as venues for recruitment and radicalization by terrorist groups like al Qaeda."
The senators heard that over time terrorists have changed the way they use the Internet.
Initially, it was to communicate with one another about upcoming operations. But after the events of 9/11, security forces around the world improved their ability to search for such plans on the Internet.
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