Islamist Forum Participants Discuss Threat to Islamist Sites and Ways to Avoid Exposure On-Line
A recent discussion on an Islamist forum reflected Islamists' growing concern over the threat posed to their websites by Western intelligence agencies, and over the danger of exposure mujahideen face when online. Forum participants suggested various strategies for ensuring the circulation of Islamist materials and for protecting the Islamists' online anonymity.
The following are the main points of the discussion:
Addressing the issue of the threat to Islamist websites, one of the forum participants wrote: "We are all aware of the Zionist-Crusader campaign that has been launched against the Islamist websites... The most recent [manifestation of this campaign] is... the effort of American intelligence to completely eliminate websites that distribute communiqués [by the mujahideen] and films [documenting] attacks of the Iraqi resistance, or which encourage so-called terrorism.... As part of this campaign, [the Americans also] threaten TV networks that broadcast videos [documenting] attacks... or that report [Coalition] casualties not reported by the U.S. military."
To safeguard the distribution of jihad-related materials, the forum participants suggested posting them on multiple sites, both jihadist and non-jihadist, thus making them more difficult for U.S. authorities to remove. The participants compiled a list of suggested sites, and, in order to keep it out of the hands of non-Islamists, proposed that the list be posted on a special site and the URL sent to the mujahideen in private messages.
Regarding the danger of discovery by intelligence agencies, a participant wrote: "The various intelligence agencies have realized the significance of [the jihad websites and forums] and have seized upon them as an opportunity... to hunt down 'terrorists'... The [agencies] attempt to infiltrate the forums and plant their own [agents] in them, in order to [detect the terrorists] or in order to pressure the website owners into cooperating with them in this matter..."
Several suggestions were made for minimizing this danger, including tips on maintaining anonymity when posting and reading material and when communicating with other forum members. One writer, for example, reminded mujahideen that not all forum participants were authentic Islamists, so identifying information should never be revealed. Participants cited a number of messages posted on Islamist websites which they suspected of being "bait," surmising that the messages had been placed by agents posing as Islamists in an attempt to win the trust of forum participants, with the aim of getting them to cooperate with the agent offline and thus expose themselves.
Mujahideen were advised to be wary when posting jihad-related materials at Internet cafés, since "many of [these cafés] spy on their own customers, especially [those] with a Muslim appearance," and since their servers are insufficiently secure and easily accessed by intelligence agencies. They were also advised to avoid using Internet cafés near their homes.
Another recommendation was to provide false information when registering on jihad websites, since the servers of these websites could be hacked by intelligence agencies. It was pointed out that using the same user name and password on all Islamist websites could jeopardize the user's anonymity. Users were also advised to suspect every downloadable file being circulated on the forums, because some contained spyware.
The discussion also focused on common software and built-in computer tools to protect online anonymity. For example, members were advised to use proxy sites when accessing forums, to configure browsers to block "cookies," to empty the "Temporary Internet Files" and "History" folders each time they closed their browsers, and not to save encrypted pages to disk. They were further told to use anti-spyware programs and various other tools available to the general community of users.
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