Session AB1: Session Name
February XX, Time
Online Jihad
Abstract:
In the past year, terrorists have made increasing use of the Internet. Insurgent attacks in Iraq and terrorist attacks in other parts of the world are often followed with postings of claims of responsibility, descriptions of details of operations, and occasionally videos of the attacks or biographies and interviews with the “martyrs” who execute them. Supporters worldwide offer back feedback, praise, and sometimes criticism. Analyses of international politics and radical Islamist strategy are also offered up by terrorist groups, radical Sheikhs, and supporters, allowing an insight into the world view, beliefs, and strategies of this movement. Discussion boards fill with advice and justifications – both religious and strategic – of striking various targets. Most recently, these message boards have also begun to cache considerable instructional materials for terrorist arts from bomb making to assassination, and show signs of providing forums for zealous but inexperienced aspiring Jihadists to receive advice from more practiced, knowledgeable counterparts.
Leaders and visionaries among the international al-Qaeda and Mujahideen movement have seen their traditional, secure communication lines disrupted by the Global War on Terror and will, therefore, turn increasingly to the Internet as a way to disseminate inspiration, ideology, and possibly even instruction to entrepreneurial cells with terrorist ambitions. Online comments from supporters and statements from visionaries reveal that al-Qaeda and its followers have elevated what is called the “Online Jihad” to almost an equal level of importance with physical world activities in support of terrorism.
This presentation will serve as a progress report for the online Jihad, evaluating al-Qaeda’s success in using the Internet to further global strategy and the operational objectives of ideological propagation, recruitment, indoctrination, training, and the execution of attacks. The shortcomings of al-Qaeda’s online Jihad will be discussed equally with its achievements, as well as the potential for future advancement of online Jihadist activities. Frank discussion of possible methods to thwart al-Qaeda’s presence online will be welcomed at the end of the presentation.
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Rebecca Givner-Forbes is an intelligence analyst at the Terrorism Research Center. She focuses on terrorist groups sourced
in the Arab world and Middle Eastern regional security in general. Her work includes translation and analysis of al-Qaeda
and other terrorist statements and Arabic media. She graduated cum laude from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
at Georgetown University with a major in International Politics, concentrating in International Security. She studied Arabic
at Georgetown and in Cairo, Egypt and Damascus, Syria. Previously, Rebecca worked at the National US-Arab Chamber of
Commerce as an Arab-world business and economics analyst.
