The NEFA Foundation - Featured Documents

Featured Documents - Cyberterror

[4/26/09]			Taliban: "Why Are the Americans Closing Down Jihadi Media?” The NEFA Foundation has obtained a new communiqué from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban) assailing purported American efforts to shut down Taliban web sites and radio stations. On April 18, 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that “the Obama administration is starting a broad effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and Web sites to intimidate civilians and plan attacks…As part of the classified effort, American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam the unlicensed radio stations in Pakistan's lawless regions on the Afghanistan border that Taliban fighters use to broadcast threats and decrees. U.S. personnel are also trying to block the Pakistani chat rooms and Web sites that are part of the country's burgeoning extremist underground.” In response, the Taliban asserted that the Americans "for the past four to five years have made widespread and continuous efforts to silence and foil these websites and stations." Moreover, according to the Taliban, "The Americans should feel really ashamed that despite their huge material strength and superiority they are [so] afraid of a few local Internet sites and FM radio stations, which cannot operate outside a 20 km radius, that the Pentagon intervenes and regards these limited and few sources as a great threat."

[4/9/09]			Jihad Website Financing 101 The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a new post from online jihadi discussion forums about how to finance jihad-related websites without being "ensnared" in a trap by law enforcement: “If you [have] not gotten arrested yet, that does not mean you are not being monitored, and if your use of the electronic payments method has not brought you woes, then that does not mean it is safe...And the brothers missed these principles before, so it caused crises to the electronic Jihad...Here, we will learn from the previous generation, and we'll correct some of the meanings regarding the methods of electronic payments they had followed.” For example, according to the author, "do not ever pay through a credit card connected to you in any way, however distant or hard to trace the connection was.”

[10/11/08]			Al-Fajr Center Announces Shuttering of Three Top Jihad Web Forums The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated an Arabic-language statement from the Al-Fajr Media Center—the official online logistical network responsible for disseminating messages from various Al-Qaida military factions—announcing the sudden closure of three of the top Internet discussion forums currently used by Al-Qaida: Al-Ekhlaas, Al-Firdaws, and Al-Boraq. According to the Al-Fajr Center, the chat forums were shuttered “for technical reasons” and not—as reported in “the apostate media”—because “the offices of these websites had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Indeed, since when have jihadi websites had permanent offices?” The statement also warned that the three Internet forums will likely remain offline for some time, and that former users should be careful to avoid fraudulent efforts by “untrustworthy sources” to prematurely resurrect them: “If the source of the link is not an official announcement from the [Al-Fajr Media] Center, then it has no credibility."

[9/16/08]			Al-Yaqin Media Center Interview with an Al-Qaida "Soldier" On September 12, an interview with an Al-Qaida “soldier”, conducted by the Al-Yaqin Media Center, was posted on a jihadist website. In the interview, the “soldier” warns of the presence of sleeper cells in the U.S. and notes that “Texas is in our sight!” He adds, "We in the Al-Qa'ida organization know the rule that states 'fight your enemy with the weapon he fears, not with the weapon you fear.' What our enemy fears the most are two matters: A. a chemical-biological-radiological nuclear strike; and B. a strike targeting the infrastructure of the energy industry!” The NEFA Foundation is releasing a translation of the interview.

[4/15/06]			Al-Hesbah Announces Arrest of Administrator The Al-Hesbah network media forum has released their sixth official public statement announcing the arrest of a chief web administrator known as Abu Musab al-Mohtaseb. According to the document, "He was arrested... for spreading truth… The crusaders realized the importance of the threat posed by the Islamic media forums that uncovered their lies and stood in the way of their campaigns of misinformation and deception... due to several recent developments, [Al-Hesbah]’s administrators decided to reopen the network... taking all the precautions they can, in order to reassume their media role."

[4/11/06]			IAI Calls for Resurrection of the Al-Hesbah Forum The Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI)--a prominent Sunni insurgent faction based in central Iraq--has released a statement citing the importance of "jihadi media" work. According to the statement, "the Al-Hesbah network forum... strengthens the mujahideen and includes uplifting and delightful news about their operations. [Those of us] in the Islamic Army of Iraq… feel that the administrators of the Al-Hesbah network are so sincere in their dealing with the jihadi organizations that they have become the subject of envy. This is precisely why we ask blessed Allah to enable the administrators of this website to resume their informational jihad as soon as possible."

[8/20/04]			Zarqawi Website Taken Over by Pro-U.S. Hackers The official website of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the Tawheed wal-Jihad Movement has been taken over by a hackers group calling itself "TeaMz UsA." The site has been the source of several videos depicting the murder of foreign hostages held in the central Sunni region of Iraq, audio recordings of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other Tawheed wal-Jihad leaders, and Zarqawi's new jihad propaganda video, "The Winds of Triumph."

[8/9/04]			Trail in U.K. Cyber-Jihad Case Leads to London, Connecticut, N.J. The investigation of British Internet jihad supporter Babar Ahmad by federal authorities in Connecticut appears to have led to several other suspects within the U.S. who were aiding Ahmad in providing material support to designated international terrorist organizations. One of the men, New Jersey computer engineer Mazen Mokhtar, has recently served as an outspoken leader at Masjid al-Huda in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

[7/27/04]			Islamic Militants Claim Hacking Attack on U.S. Army Computer System Islamic militants claim to have hacked into a U.S. Army computer system based in South Korea. The militants were able to seize control of the system in June 2004, but “did not seek to [immediately] destroy the system… in order to spy on them.” To prove the veracity of these claims, the hackers produced a screenshot of the Windows desktop from the hijacked military computer, along with several files covertly downloaded from the system.