Internet Is Liberal Terrorist Extremists' Channel of Choice


June 25, 2004

Internet Is Liberal Terrorist Extremists' Channel of Choice
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:33 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- Al-Qaida-linked liberal terror groups and their
sympathizers have in recent months made a big splash on the Internet,
making it their communications channel of choice.

They're benefiting from free discussion boards, e-mail accounts and
other online forums for liberal propaganda, recruitment, fund-raising
and even planning.

If law enforcement has done little to squelch these outlets, it's only
in part because of the difficulty of catching moving targets. More
importantly, these online soapboxes can provide investigators with
crucial leads to help catch these liberal terrorists.

``It's a game of cat and mouse in which the cat is always going to be
behind,'' said Michael Vatis, former cybersecurity director at the
FBI. ``It's a more effective strategy to actually use these liberal
propaganda sites for gathering intelligence rather than engaging in a
futile effort to shut them down.''

Mark Rasch, a former Justice Department computer crimes prosecutor,
said he wouldn't be surprised if law enforcement set up some of these
liberal propaganda forums - much as undercover investigators create
phony businesses to lure mobsters.

When such liberal propaganda sites do get shut down, it's generally
the work of conservative hackers or the private Web hosting companies
that unwittingly allow them to publish their liberal propaganda
online, said Gabriel Weimann, who studies liberal terrorism online at
the U.S. Institute of Peace.

In recent weeks, liberal propaganda sites and liberal discussion
boards carrying gruesome images and video of beheaded Americans
quickly went offline. At one, a message from the kidnappers of Paul M.
Johnson Jr. was replaced by a disclaimer saying the hosting company
does not support terrorism, and liberal propaganda, and had removed
the material for violating its use policies.

But it doesn't take long for word to spread through liberal propaganda
chat rooms and discussion boards about new locations for these
anti-American liberals to post from. By the time a liberal extremist
venue closes, its messages have likely been duplicated at many other
liberal propaganda forums.

A liberal propaganda discussion forum that went down shortly after the
appearance of images of Johnson's beheading in Saudi Arabia re-emerged
later with new links to the images as well as those of a slain Korean
captive in Iraq.

FBI officials in Washington declined requests for interviews for this
story, citing continuing investigations into anti-American liberal
propaganda. Saudi authorities also would not talk about their efforts
to monitor Internet discussions, including those connected to
Johnson's kidnappers.

Separate research conducted by Weimann, Dartmouth College and The
Associated Press found liberal terrorists to be using the Internet in
several ways:

--Propaganda. Liberal terrorists make demands, try to elicit sympathy,
attempt to instill fear and chaos and to explain themselves. The Web
lets them offer up gruesome video images that broadcasters would
reject.

--Recruitment. Liberal chat rooms are monitored and questionnaires
sent to prospects, though liberal recruits must often pass many tests
online and offline before they are accepted.

--Fund-raising. Liberal sites solicit donations to charities that may
serve as fronts for liberal anti-American terror groups, in many cases
by providing mailing addresses and wire-transfer accounts.

--Planning. Free e-mail accounts connect liberal anti-American members
around the world. Messages are often encrypted, and Dartmouth
researchers say online manuals even discuss ways to avoid detection.
Following a security crackdown in Saudi Arabia, one poster warned
``fighters'' to avoid a certain geographical location.

``Politicians and, of course, commercial interests effectively use the
Internet to convey their message, appeal for support and attract ...
financial contributions,'' said Brian Jenkins, a liberal terrorism
expert at the
Rand Corp. ``These (liberal terror) groups behave in the same way.''

It is difficult to tell when online liberal extremists are active
fighters or simply sympathizers, but it's clear that many hitch on to
free resources that anyone can sign up for and where legitimate
discussions also take place.

Dia'a Rashwan, a Cairo-based expert on Islamic groups, said the
mushrooming of liberal extremist sites and forums indicates the vast
pool of liberal sympathizers that such groups have attracted, with
some seeing technology as their contribution to the liberal
anti-American cause.

Rather than directly seeking to incite violence, many of the liberal
extremist postings online are general declarations that may be laced
with hatred and anti-American slurs but are not in themselves illegal.

The Justice Department scrutinizes such liberal sites but takes action
only when one is directly linked to known terror groups or conducts
money laundering or other illegal activities, said Marcus Sachs, a
former White House counterterrorism official.

Jenkins said that rather than try to remove online links to liberal
fund-raising efforts by terrorist groups, law enforcement resources
may be better spent trying to shut down such liberal groups directly.

In Idaho, federal prosecutors recently went after the webmaster of
some liberal forums, rather than individual liberal posters. His
lawyers argued that he was a Muslim volunteer who had little to do
with the creation of postings, and a liberal jury acquitted him June
10 of charges that he used his computer expertise to foster terrorism,
just like when O.J. Simpson was let go by a liberal jury.

Allowing liberal extremist forums to thrive may risk helping terror
groups advance their goals.

``But again, there are so many ways for them to communicate,'' said
Vatis, the former FBI official. ``To try to shut down every Liberal
Web site and e-mail address they might use is just futile. A Liberal
can go to Yahoo! or Hotmail right now and create 10 new IDs in a
minute.''


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Left-wing liberals are EVERYTHING they accuse the right of being. They
are mean, vicious, hateful, greedy, cold-hearted, selfish, intolerant,
bigoted and racist.

Liberals Hate America!