Al Qaeda's Webmasters Wage a Cyber Jihad

July 15, 2004 -- Below a stark black banner featuring a medieval sword and the Muslim proclamation of faith, the caption on the Web site was terse and chilling.

"The tape recording of the execution of the Korean hostage," it said in Arabic script.

Below were links to a graphic video clip hosted on a variety of sites around the world — many of them "piggybacked" without their owners' consent. Four photographs gave a preview of what was on the clip: the beheading of a South Korean contractor in Iraq last month.

The Internet has increasingly become a means for al Qaeda and its affiliates to publicize their actions and broaden their support base. Difficult — or impossible — for governments to regulate, the Internet offers a way for terrorist groups to transmit their message on their own terms, directly to their potential supporters.

Josh Devon, a senior analyst at the SITE Institute — a Washington, D.C.-based terrorism research group that monitors the Web — believes that by its very nature, the Internet complements al Qaeda's modus operandi.

"The Internet in many ways parallels al Qaeda operations," says Devon. "Like the Internet, al Qaeda is a loose, decentralized, network of independently operating cells."

The decentralized nature of the Web makes it hard to track or block terrorists' postings. Once a video has surfaced, it proliferates across the Web, with users sending links to the video's latest locations via message boards, chat rooms and e-mail. Even established pro-terror Web sites hop from URL to URL, apparently trying to keep one step ahead of authorities who might close them down. Sympathizers who post messages to the sites' chat rooms use pseudonyms that conceal their identity.

Read more about al Qaeda sites' "piggybacking."