Al- Qaeda's Web of Terror (using internet sites Orkut and MySpace)

[RedEarth]

March 10, 2006 -- When they raided what they had been told was "Al Qaeda's command center" in a remote compound in South Waziristan's Shakai valley in June 2004, Pakistani special forces made a surprising discovery.

In a secret basement, the officers collected a treasure trove of computer equipment, including several laptops, printers and CD burners, as well as advanced video equipment.

While this discovery provided Pakistani and American counter-terrorism officials with a unique insight into al Qaeda's operations after 9/11, it only confirmed what they already knew about the organization's heavy reliance on modern information technology and, more specifically, the Internet.


After relying heavily on fixed — and thus vulnerable — Web sites until early 2002, al Qaeda quickly switched to hiding its online operations within more legitimate bulletin boards and Internet sites offering free upload services or connecting through such popular social network sites as Orkut and MySpace.


http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1706430&page=1

[Newsjock]

1. Ergo, Rupert Murdoch supports al-Qaida

since he owns MySpace now.

[meegbear]

2. And guess who owns MySpace.com?

In July, 2005, Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News and its parent company, News Corp., bought MySpace.com. An article in today's (January 8, 2005) London Independent, Get out of MySpace, bloggers rage at Murdoch, says that, "Angry members of MySpace, the personal file-sharing website for young adults, are accusing Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation of censoring their postings and blocking their access to rival sites."

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/08/rupert_murdoch_having_trouble_playing_his_games_at_myspacecom.php

[Felix Mala]

3. Have any of you tried to look at any myspace.com posts?

You have to be under 20 to comprehend them. First, screetching anti-music plays when you first open a site and then you're treated to wall-to-wall copy that is the same color of the dark photo in the background. Then the video of an idiot breaking his leg on a skateboard starts looping you get long lists of movies and tv shows you've never heard of before.

I don't see how terrorists could use them, let alone sexual predators.

[kaygore]

4. OK, so now this gives THEM an excuse of controlling the Internet

Right?!?

[nomo]

5. No one could have predicted this!

Al-Qaeda uses the INTERNET??? Say it ain't so! We're all doomed!

"Surprising discovery" my ass.

[soleft]

6. don't you mean internets?

[WhiteTara]

7. demonizing the internet so that they

can control it. Beware, red herring.

[oblivious]

8. Gosh, al-qaeda really has a handle on modern technology - the Internet!!!

Thank God counterterrorism officials discovered this. This is really getting scary. If they can do this, who knows what they are capable of!! And they have "advanced video equipment". So that's why the last Zawahari video was so much clearer than the grainy Osama videos. We're doomed. Doomed. We're so vulnerable!