Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has hacked into Al Qaida websites as
part of an online war with the Islamic insurgency movement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced.

“A couple of weeks ago, Al Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen began an
advertising campaign on key tribal web sites bragging about killing
Americans and trying to recruit new supporters,” Clinton said. “Within 48 hours, our team plastered the same sites with altered versions of the ads that showed the toll Al Qaida attacks have taken on the Yemeni people.”

In an address at the U.S. Special Operations Command on May 23, Ms. Clinton said the State Department attacks have threatened Al Qaida’s credibility. She said Al Qaida forums were already debating the information posted by U.S. hackers, particularly on Al Qaida attacks on Muslim civilians.

“And we can tell that our efforts are starting to have an impact,
because we monitor the extremists venting their frustration and asking their
supporters not to believe everything they read on the Internet,” Ms. Clinton
said.

Officials said the State Department has launched the inter-agency Center
for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, meant to scour the web for Al
Qaida propaganda and recruitment sites. They said the new center has been
drawing on specialists in Arabic, Somali and Urdu from the U.S. intelligence
community, Defense Department and Special Operations Forces.

“We know we need to do a better job contesting the online space, media
websites and forums where Al Qaida and its affiliates spread their
propaganda and recruit followers,” Ms. Clinton said. “The nerve center in
Washington is linking up to military and civilian teams around the world and
serving as a force multiplier for our embassies’ communications efforts.
Together, we are working to pre-empt, discredit, and outmaneuver extremist
propagandists.”

Officials said the State Department was working with other government
agencies to identify and hack Al Qaida sites in an effort to disrupt morale. The officials said the focus was on Al Qaida’s network in Yemen, called Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and deemed the greatest insurgency threat to the United States.

Ms. Clinton said the main goal of the inter-agency unit was to disrupt Al
Qaida recruitment over the web. She said recruitment sustains operations by
Al Qaida and its affiliates, and enable them to rebound even after the loss
of their commanders.

“What sustains Al Qaida and its terrorist affiliates is the steady flow
of new recruits,” Ms. Clinton said. “They replace the terrorists you kill or
capture so that they can plan new attacks. This is not about winning a
popularity contest, but it is a simple fact that achieving our objectives is
easier with more friends and fewer enemies.”

Ms. Clinton said the State Department trains nearly 7,000 police,
prosecutors, and counter-insurgency officials from more than 60 countries,
including Yemen and Pakistan. She said Washington was working with
non-governmental organizations to stop the spread of Al Qaida doctrine in
villages, prisons and schools.

“As the threat from Al Qaida becomes more diffuse and distributed,
shifting from the core to the affiliates, it is even more important to forge
close ties with the governments and communities on the front lines and to
help build up their counter-terrorism capacity,” Ms. Clinton said.

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