WASHINGTON — Despite its military superiority, the United States has failed to stop Al
Qaida's growing exploitation of the Internet as the group's primary means of
recruitment, information and financing.
"Its use of the Internet is interesting," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt,
deputy director for policy and plans at Central Command. "It uses the
Internet to recruit, to train, to proselytize, in some methods to hand out
orders and instructions. It uses it for financing. It uses it to show its
latest videos to the world."
While he singled out no U.S. successes in thwarting Al Qaida's low-overhead exploitation of the Internet, a global networking resource made possible the Pentagon, Kimmitt was not ready to throw in the towel, Middle East Newsline reported.
"While we find it to be particularly clever, we don't find it to be
invincible, and we will continue to defeat it," Kimmitt said.
Over the last few weeks, Al Qaida has sought to recruit experts in
Internet and cellular phone technology. On Feb. 19, the so-called Global
Islamic Media Front posted a call on the Internet for experts in photography
by mobile phone and video camera to "spy on the enemy and expose his
ignominy and shame, for us to publish to the masses."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has proposed a new government media
network that could initiate and respond to events across the globe 24 hours
a day. Rumsfeld said such a network would confront Al Qaida and its efforts
to manipulate the Western media.
Rumsfeld said Al Qaida has been trying to manipulate the U.S. media to
ensure an American military withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq. The
efforts, he said, include exploitation of the Internet.
"Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaida have media committees," Rumsfeld said.
"They meet, they figure out how to manipulate the news in New York City and
the United States of America and London and Paris. We clearly have a
responsibility for carrying the message of what it is we're doing 24 hours a
day."
Kimmitt said in an appearance to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 22
that the military would increasingly focus on understanding and foiling Al
Qaida's use of the Internet. He said the effort was part of what he termed
the "long war" of Central Command against Middle East-based Islamic
insurgency groups.
Officials said Central Command has advised that Al Qaida confront a
multi-agency effort designed to locate the organization's vulnerable points.
They said the effort would include the use of the Internet and international
financial institutions to relay orders and funding throughout the world.
"The first principle that we operate under is this notion that it takes
a network to defeat a network," Kimmitt said. "I'm not certain that you want
the military attacking the Internet. I don't think you want the Air Force
going against the terrorist financing units."
Officials said the effort would include the Pentagon, State Department,
military, Treasury Department, FBI and the intelligence community. They said
the U.S. campaign would be bolstered by cooperation from Arab and Islamic
states, particularly in efforts to deny haven to Al Qaida.
"While the mujahideen can claim success in manipulating the new internet
media to their benefit — an advantage gained from their starting point as a
struggle for ideas and their early consciousness of the Internet as an open,
poorly regulated battleground in this struggle — the failure to make
propaganda gains on the main media continues to hamper their efforts at
general radicalization," the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation said in a
report.
