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Asked how he would describe what he does, Weisburd tells Pelley, "Part of it is, you know, rodeo clown, essentially. I jump into the ring and make the bulls angry and they come after me. And I do that to good effect. That's my own particular expertise, if you will."

"Tell me about that," Pelley says.

"Well, the Irhabi 007 case comes to mind. I simply publicized what he was saying, made fun of him, called him out and it worked," Weisburd says.

Irhabi 007 was the networking genius who helped al Qaeda regroup online after the U.S. forced them out of Afghanistan. With an ego to match, he was a legend in his own mind.

This is the kind of thing Irhabi 007 made possible for al Qaeda, posting videos long before it was common on YouTube.

"Well, he solved problems. They had content distribution. They had problems moving large files, he solved that problem," Weisburd explains.

He solved it by hacking into computers around the world and using them to store and share terrorist files. He even got into a computer system owned by the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

The Arkansas terror files were discovered and removed. And in 2005, so was Irhabi 007. Scotland Yard, raided a London house in a terrorism case involving credit card fraud. They arrested a 22-year-old Moroccan named Younis Tsouli. Later they discovered Tsouli was Terrorist 007. The network administrator was off line, but his network is still pulling recruits into jihad.

"If you want to go wage jihad, you've got to let them know that there's a jihad going on and lead them to believe that this is something they want to be involved in. And so these videos are essentially, you know, all recruitment films, you know, join the army, seen wonderful places, kill people," Weisburd says.

"I don't think anyone knew that the Internet is going to become so important," says Rita Katz, who has made cyber war her business.

In a secret location, somewhere in the U.S., she runs the Site Institute, a private firm hired by the U.S. government and major corporations to monitor terrorist activities on the Web – activities like those in chat rooms where thousands of Internet surfers meet online.

How does she infiltrate these chat rooms?

"You pretend to be one of them. You try to convince them that you are part of this community. And that's how you do it. And you communicate with them online," Katz explains.

She logged onto a jihadi site for 60 Minutes to demonstrate how many people were online. One forum had 17,869 members.

Katz’s Arabic speaking staff has invented jihadi personalities who are part of the conversation in terror chat rooms. Online, sometimes they see terror operations in the making.

"It happened just in April that one of the most important members of the forum was going to commit his suicide operation. He posed a message saying 'This is the last time I’m communicating with you my turn had arrived.' And to us it was an indication that’s he's going on his suicide operation," Katz recalls.

Asked if they ever saw him again online, Katz says, "We were able to track down his IP address, meaning identify the location that he was signing with his computer and contacted the authorities in his jurisdiction and they actually arrested him as he was boarding a plane to Afghanistan."

How can a Web site convince someone to kill themselves? Well, part of the inspiration comes from Abu Musab al Suri. A 49-year-old Syrian, a sort of warrior-philosopher, he is among the most important teachers of global jihad.

"His message is, 'Let's understand what kind of a jihad we want. And, he basically laid down the strategy of al Qaeda," Katz explains.

He laid it down in his 1,600 page encyclopedia, “The Call For Global Islamic Resistance," which he wrote while running a training camp in Afghanistan.

"It's all about guerilla warfare, who to target, what kind of bomb, you know, how you set up your target," Katz explains.

Al Suri videotaped 15 hours of lectures. He urges students to study bomb making and calls for killing on a grand scale. He’s a powerful influence on the Web today, even though he’s been in U.S. Custody since 2005.

Produced By Harry Radliffe
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