Terrorists Take Recruitment Efforts Online

Scott Pelley On The Use Of The Internet To Recruit Jihadists

(CBS)  Recently the Bush administration acknowledged that al Qaeda is reorganized and gaining strength. As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, that’s been possible, since the fall of Afghanistan, through the explosive growth of al Qaeda on the Internet. Last week, word spread on the web that Vice President Cheney was in Afghanistan. In hours the base where he was staying was bombed. It’s not clear the bomber was targeting the vice president, but U.S. Intelligence noted the coincidence.

It is certain that virtual reality is doing real damage with intelligence, recruiting, fund raising and the spread of Islamic extremism. This assault may start with bytes, not bullets, but American generals will tell you, it’s a hot war all the same on a battlefield called "jihad.com."

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"Without a doubt, the Internet is the single most important venue for the radicalization of Islamic youth," says Army Brigadier General John Custer, who is the is head of intelligence at central command, responsible for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Custer says he knows where the enemy finds an inexhaustible supply of suicide warriors. "I see 16, 17-year-olds who have been indoctrinated on the Internet turn up on the battlefield. We capture 'em, we kill 'em every day in Iraq, in Afghanistan," he says.

Asked if the Internet is training up new battalions of those young people, Custer tells Pelley, "It's a self-fulfilling prophesy that’s exactly what the jihadist Internet is there to do."

And this, Custer told 60 Minutes, is just how they do it. "You start off with a site that looks like current news in Iraq. With a single click, you're at a active jihad attack site. The real meat of the jihad Web site, Jihad Internet. Beheadings, bombings, and blood. You can see humvees blown up. You can see American bodies drug through the street. You can see small arms attacks. Anything you might want in an attack video. Next link will take you to a motivational site, where mortar operatives, suicide bombers, are pictured in heaven. You can you see their farewell speeches. Another click and you're at a site where you can download scripted talking points that validate you have religious justification for mass murder," he explains.

"It's ironic, isn't it, this whole idea of martyrs living forever. Turns out to be true," Pelley remarks.

"It is," Custer remarks. "Every martyr craves immortality. And on the Internet, they can have it."

The number of Internet sites has exploded since 9/11. It’s estimated there are 5,000 today. Custer says anyone watching them could actually believe the U.S. is on the run.

"It's a war of perceptions. They understand the power of the Internet. They don't have to win in the tactical battlefield. They never will. No platoon has ever been defeated in Afghanistan or Iraq. But, it doesn't matter. It's irrelevant," Custer says.

That’s what Abu Musab al Zarqawi understood when he used the Internet to promote himself as head of al Qaeda in Iraq.

"When Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a street thug, beheaded an American businessman he became a rock star over night," Custer says.

"Nicholas Berg was beheaded just to provide material for broadcast," Pelley remarks.

"Exactly, Custer agrees. "The same with American contractor's bodies in Fallujah in April of '04. The same is Daniel Pearl havin' his throat slit havin' a gun put to his head. The power of the Internet is unbelievable."

That power is so menacing, General Custer wouldn’t say anything at all about how the U.S. is fighting the Jihadi Internet online. But 60 Minutes found other Americans who have started their own counter attack. Aaron Weisburd joined the battle from his home in Illinois.

"I'm in Carbondale. In the middle of middle America. Waging war against them. It makes a very small world. What works in a cave in Afghanistan, you know, works in a living room in Carbondale," Weisburd says.

Weisburd was so angered by what he saw on the Web that he quit his job as a programmer and now spends every day attacking extremist websites.

His goal is to mess with them online. "Absolutely. In as many different ways as I can," he says.

And he says he's "sowing seeds of distrust."

Weisburd cooperates with the FBI, Homeland Security and British police, all of whom know him as unrelenting. He blows the whistle on the Web sites and asks Internet providers to take them down. He says he’s helped shut down nearly a thousand.

[egroegennud]

I am a typical American citizen who has access to the internet from my home computer. I am ready and willing to serve my country as a member of a cyber militia who, if only instructed how to proceed, could help my country attack the enemy on-line.Where is the leadership that could guide us all to take part in something such as this?

[log_out]

You alredy lose the war. Its matter of time and you will retreat from Iraq. Then you will turn the world in a new cold war.
The US will be never the negotiator of peace. You have only power to force some country's to talk about negotiation. It's your foreign police, that build an image of the evil war machinery in the minds of main public, in the east. And that i mean Europe too. Don't buy that thinks, that politicians said about war on terrorism and war on Iraq, they tried to be diplomatic. Ask the public in the Europe, what's they oppinion about US.
Will you be so stupid and negotiote with evil(US)? - You are asking that the people in the middle east.
Will you be so stupid to negotiote with terrorists?
- It's the same qeustion like that before, but its adressed to US site.

The public is the negotiator, which forces politicians to make some decisions. And you haven't the public favor's.

[alreadyknown]

You Tube has tons of these recruiting videos. It has been a major tool of usage for these Jihadist recruiters. Why 60 min hasn't said more about the site is beyond my comprehension considering that CBS has an account with You Tube. I'm sure their contributors are there as well. 60 min could have done a better job of letting the public know this.

We who are at You Tube, battle these Jihadists on a daily basis. Here's just 1 example of a recruiting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGoq6fUK4HU

And no matter how many times it's flagged, You Tube still does not remove this trash. Yet, they will allow even more garbage such as inflammatory vids against Christianity, but when it comes to inflammation against Islam, "Heaven Forbid", those videos are immediately yanked at the Muslim's request.

[alreadyknown]

You Tube has tons of these recruiting videos. It has been a major tool of usage for these Jihadist recruiters. Why 60 min hasn't said more about the site is beyond my comprehension considering that CBS has an account with You Tube. I'm sure their contributors are there as well. 60 min could have done a better job of letting the public know this.

We who are at You Tube, battle these Jihadists on a daily basis. Here's just 1 example of a recruiting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGoq6fUK4HU

And no matter how many times it's flagged, You Tube still does not remove this trash. Yet, they will allow even more garbage such as inflammatory vids against Christianity, but when it comes to inflammation against Islam, "Heaven Forbid", those videos are immediately yanked at the Muslim's request.

[alreadyknown]

You Tube has tons of these recruiting videos. It has been a major tool of usage for these Jihadist recruiters. Why 60 min hasn't said more about the site is beyond my comprehension considering that CBS has an account with You Tube. I'm sure their contributors are there as well. 60 min could have done a better job of letting the public know this.

We who are at You Tube battle these Jihadist on a daily basis. Here's just 1 example of a recruiting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGoq6fUK4HU

And no matter how many times it's flagged, You Tube still does not remove this trash. Yet, they will allow even more garbage such as inflammatory vids against Christianity, but when it comes to inflammation against Islam, "Heaven Forbid", those videos are immediately yanked at the Muslim's request.

[tor123-2009]

So our Army Gen. John finally figured out we've been SWIFT-BOATED by the enemy not only on the ground or green zone but in cyberspace. AMAZING. He could have called Karl Rowe or the ranch to get that formula from Mr. Bush or his VP side show...or call their favorite TV station (FOX) or simple consult with the White House staff in touch with the religious right. Mr. Bill...the sky is falling...And the beat goes on...See you at the trillion dollar war budget mark... celebration... to toast our great churning money machine economy providing the engine to pay for Mr. Bush's next folly.

[mikegeorge24]

The Military invented the Internet. See Hobbes internet time line:

http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/

If an organization is doing something illegal online, as with child pornography, the crime is investigated, and the guilty parties are arrested and tried in a court of law. Then they go to jail.

Likewise if a website is in fact one of these Jihadist sites, the FBI, with all of the resources of the Federal Government at its beckoned command, could be infiltrating the culprits--getting inside these organizations the Military is complaining about--and then taking the appropriate actions to bring the members to justice.

This is what is wrong with the Republican Neocon viewpoint that all solutions in the war on terror are military, when we should indeed be using every means at our disposal; diplomatic, CIA, technological, and especially law enforcement and the judicial system.

Complaining that the Internet and HTML are somehow by nature at fault is dangerous. And this fear mongering coming from the military of a country founded by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin? Once our rights are surrendered they will not be returned us so easily.

[pjoegoowy]

On a related subject & perhaps as a followup, I wish 60 Minutes would cover this. Google:
"60 minutes" Pallywood

[riangi]

The elite's attack on the Internet continues.... what else is new?

God forbid commoners should actually be able to "freely" communicate with each other. Oh my god, then we just may gain influence over the public domain. That would be just horrible, as the public domain is the exclusive domain of the capital class, for only they have the knowledge and intelligence to "run" society. We're just stupid commoners who at best only know how to follow orders. The Internet is therefore a weapon against ourselves and we are just too dumb to understand that.

Give me a break!

We've finally got a weapon that gives us a hope in hell that we can push back these parasites and their political puppets... and dammit, we are going to use it to our own advantage!

[bartgoode]

I thought ONINE RECRUITMENT was a problem when they started showing commercials for GOARMY.COM! And those commercials where guys climb rocks, fight dragons and then turns into a Marine! -- Thousands of young men being told Military service is cool and finacially beneficial -- then they wind up sitting in their own feces at Walter Reed Hospital. For all their evil, JIhadists at least tell their guys the truth. Military service will kill you. -- WE make it sound as if American Service is a manly picnic where you see the world and get great benefits.

To me they're both despicable.

[notblue]

All anyone has to do is frequent these comment areas to know this article is true.

[benzacharia]

For those who wish to join the fight against islamic jihad, Aaron can be reached at "internet-haganah DOT org" OR "LittleGreenFootballs DOT com" his nic is "Aaron".

[obiquital]

I love how they use American inventions to claim that America is evil and that America should be destroyed. Don't they realize that they could not get their message out without America having invented these things? The telephone, the computer, the internet, using electricity. Everyone uses it and America made it possible.

[rohink-2009]

Thank you Jetslags

[jetlagsa]

bluestardad-you think the arabs will settle their differences and live in peace??just spent 16 years there and here's a big news update: it won't happen, now or ever, without democracy. where do you live? fantasyland?democracy paired with capitalism is still the best form of government to date. if you have a better and PROVEN method, let us all know.democracy forces education, which in turn brings knowledge and then low and behold, TOLERANCE.i know the arabs very well and i can assure you there will be no working it out among themselves without democracy. they have had a couple thousand years to work it out and i haven't seen any permanent peace achieved.
do you realize they have one of the lowest book translation rates on the planet?if you don't translate all that intellectual wisdom from the free world, you are stuck with ignorance, in perpetuity.have you ever wondered why the culture that brought us the first alphabet and early intellectual thought, doesn't produce anything but oil now?what stopped them? it is backward radical religion and dictatorships.
you better get down on your knees and pray that america does not pull out. that democracy succeeds. otherwise your grandkids will be wearing thawbs and speaking arabic.
democracy is our only hope that our kids and grandkids will be safe and free here.

[grumpas]

Lieber1881 You are the one ignoring the truth!!!!! Israel is like the US they have squandered a lot of good will over the years by behaving very badly! By proving to the world they aren't the innocent nation they claim to be! They took the damned country away from the Palestinian's in 1948 and now they are whining because they have suicide bombers! Well....dah!!!! What did they expect....the Palestinian's to love them for the gesture????? We all know who the enemy is...it's al quaeda!!! It's to bad George Bush didn't know who it was when he invaded Iraq! Maybe he could have saved lives and billions in wasted tax dollars by fighting al quaeda insteading of wasting his time on Iraq! I have a damned clear picture of who and what the problem in the middle east is! I for one am fed up with having to take care of Israel so they can survive as a nation! If they can't do it by themselves then so be it! But, it's time for us to start worrying about our own survival not Israel's!

[neojoker]

Yes, they can weed out those mangy speakeasy *** offenders, but Al Queda blantantly recruiting on the net is just too much for them. It's all just a contrived freak show, for our benefit and manipulation.

[crater7]

THERE IS A PLUS SIDE TO THIS STORY. IF THE TERRORIST, CAN RECRUIT ON THE WEB, THIS ADMINISTRATION SHOULD BE SMART ENOUGH (YOU THINK) TO USE THESE SITES, AS A TOOL TO GO UNDER COVER BY POSING AS A POSSIBLE RECRUIT. MAYBE SOME OF THE FOLKS WHO WRITE THESE COMMENTS ON THIS SITE WOULD GLADLY VOLUNTEER TO INFILTRATE THESE ORGANIZATIONS. MOST ALL HAVE A VERY GOOD LINE OF BULL SH** .

[inventagod]

The religo-nazis on this board are frothing at the mouth, hoping to spread their rabid self-loathing to each other. You are completely missing the point of the news story while you are engaging in the mad-dog back-biting and whining. My guess is the p*ssing and moaning will continue until the Bu$h administration shuts down the internet in the name of 'freedom', and then it will be too late...

[lieber1881]

Aaaaah,

Isn't it nice that Jew-haters like Bluestarbigot - who had described himself as a former US Army officer - yeah, right, and Cmmwyrd - or whatever the Islamonazi's name is come right out of the woodwork when it comes to Al Qaeda - and presumably their support for the scum.

Let's blame it on Israel and Dem Jooz, not those who were responsible for 9/11 or the beheadings, or the Madrid and London and Bali and Kenya bombings, nor the slavery and slaughter in the Sudan. Bluestarbigot, if he were truly an Army officer - and he might be, is a traitor if he can't figure out who the real enemy is.

But the Jooz are such a convienent scapegoat. Pity the poor Palestinians and never mind they behave worst than innocent animals. The Joozs are at fault.

Let me tell you this - outside of the Judenrats out there, guys like Soros who was a Nazi Collaborator during the Holocaust, or Howard Zinn who regrets bombing Nazis during WWII but has never expressed regret for being a Stalinist, it is devout Jews - and Christians trying to save us all from the beheadings, from the hajibis, from Sharia.

It is a shame that under a coward like Olmert, Israel isn't the same as it once was. Otherwise, I can also assure you that we wouldn't have to worry about Al Qaeda or Iran. Bigot and his traitor friends aren't even fit to shine the shoes of guys like Wolfowitz, Feith or Perle.