Sunday, July 31, 2005

The cyber-war on terror

Via Bizblogger, here’s an article from the UK Times about Al-Qaeda web sites blinking out of existence:

Over the past fortnight Israeli intelligence agents have noticed something distinctly odd happening on the internet. One by one, Al-Qaeda’s affiliated websites have vanished until only a handful remain, write Uzi Mahnaimi and Alex Pell.
Someone has cut the line of communication between the spiritual leaders of international terrorism and their supporters. Since 9/11 the websites have been the main links to disseminate propaganda and information.
Although normally I’m a free speech nut, I applaud this tactic. Why give the Islamofascists access to wicked Western technology to spread their hatred, or worse, coordinate actions among terror cells? Let’em use smoke signals or something.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't fret. This isn't a free speech issue -- people can say anything they want on the net. It's more of a secrecy issue -- they want to use the net for clandestine communication. But the net is an open medium, so to use it runs the risk of exposure. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies should be able to follow whatever leads are out there. It's reassuring that they are tracking the terrorists' communications. This is one of those philosophical questions, distinguishing between the right of individual free speech versus the right of others to hold the speaker accountable.