Al Qaeda Internet Terror Fortresses
A variety of global intelligence and press sources have reported that Al Qaeda has in the last few weeks circulated a 100 page manual for use by it’s operatives to create the world’s most state of the art internet terrorist fortresses; websites which allow Al Qaeda to plan attacks, create weapons, recruit new members, create recruiting and propaganda videos via a complete online film school including a thorough tutorial on posting the products onto the websites once the cell or individual has produced it, post all manner of undetectable messages, email undetectable messages, perfectly detect whether or not the website/fortress has been breached and by whom, and utilize password technology possibly unsurpassed by our own. These websites are rapidly becoming Al Qaeda’s principal combat operations centers, their global network of Combat Outposts. They are becoming it’s operational heart.
A key to the manual are the impenetrable security techniques which will now allow all followers to plan, recruit and operate on the web without fear of bringing the law down on their heads. Countless thousands of active and aspiring followers will now be able to greatly expand their operations. What the highest paid and most technologically powerful criminals in America can’t do, Al Qaeda now can. And this manual is the execution of their mission to make their mastery of the internet available to the most lowly of terror acolyte. Far too many terrorists were too afraid to operate at their highest state of abilities, because to do so of course required the resources of the internet. This manual is designed to free them up to operate at top capacity. In the manual, Al Qaeda assures its followers that they can now operate on the web without any risk.
Interestingly, the manual has been determined to originate from the town of Dammam in Saudi Arabia. It is believed that top members of the Saudi tech community participated in the creation of the technology and techniques behind Al Qaeda’s new online combat outposts.
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Pat,
No offense, but I smell bullshit here. After I make a few points, I’ll give you a rant to remember. (I agree with your concern.) And I’ve explained certain terms in paranthesis for people who need it.
1. No doubt these f***ers have the desire and the means to create a robust online communication network.
2. No doubt terrorists already have all sorts of crazy computer communication capabilities currently, with so much information that our intelligence services can’t translate all they intercept.
3. No doubt they’re working on something, and circulating 100 pages memos.
But here’s where I think this shit gets hyperbolic:
-What the f*** is an internet fortress? I mean, sure, this could be the first one, but…
-It doesn’t take a village to help jihadists make their own videos. This must be from the “jihad for dummies” section of the memo.
-Terrorists have been sending information without sending emails for a while; I read almost a year ago that they have email accounts and type up drafts, and then share their user name and password instead of pushing the send button. I’m talking Hotmail style.
-Our password technology is indeed worthless. Government cryptogear is not.
-American criminals know better than to use the internet to communicate. (It’s called an E-trail.)
-Technology networks take a lot of time to establish. Example: why haven’t any of the biggest billion-dollar software companies been able to touch Google’s unbelievable power? (Google’s big idea is to make search engine listing automated: computers go out and catalogue the websites instead of humans, if you didn’t know. It started with just two college dudes.) Simple: Google had a head start.
-Technology is fragile: Internet Explorer crashes just about every time I use it. These f***ers will be calling terrortech support pretty often, I think.
-The more centralized something is, the easier it is to bring it down.
So, with those reservations aside:
Like I alluded to above, the number one difficulty our intelligence services have with E-Qaeda is translation of not only their messages, but their actual code. Programming languages depend on real languages; how many patriotic Arab-software-savvy geeks do you know who are eligible for a Top Secret clearance?
An EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon launched by terrorists would seriously f*** up our shit; it’d take years to rebuild to where we were, while they cruised by.
As for their supposed “undetectability”: if they have figured out how to post their information as images, then they’re very clever. (Familiar with the “type exactly what you see in the box” email registration game?) It’s easy to program a computer to search text. Scanning an image to read Arabic text is something computers will have a much harder time with. (If this is indeed the case, as I’m typing out of my ass right now.)
We should be worried about E-Qaeda and its growing sophistication, but I was already worried about it from reasons you can infer from above.
Now here comes the rant.
I cannot fucking believe that the United States, which birthed the internet in the 70’s, which has been at the forefront of software technology since its inception, which is by far the largest devourer of capital in the history of the world, which has the most brilliant technology minds ever residing in it, is getting beaten at our own game by a bunch of cave-living cellphone jockeys.
Where in the fuck is Bill Gates, richest man on the earth? He’s funding gay rights litigation, he’s funding 3rd world abortions because he thinks overpopulation is a problem (it isn’t), he’s giving every African “a condom on every dick, a vaccuum in every fetus.” He’s talking about making a car that doesn’t crash, and now Volvo’s beep when you’re about to hit something so you don’t even need to open your eyes any more to drive. Great.
Where are those l33t haxxors (elite hackers) who gleefully rubbed themselves with peanut butter when they brought down Yahoo!, Amazon, etc., all in the same day? They need to get their dicks out of the Jif and start smashing AllahAkbar.com. Seriously, why spray graffiti when you can tear down the Berlin Wall? The skills of the hacker community are limitless; I have no suggestions on how to recruit them, but if they could be brought in, E-Qaeda would be… brought to an end.
We should detonate a small EMP over Damman immediately just on principle. No civilian casualties!
Where in the FUCK are our CIA/FBI/DHS techwarriors? Do they exist?
My blood boils when I think about this shit. There is hope, but I don’t think it lies with government agencies. It lies with the hackers, it lies with the software companies, it lies with the internet geniuses. I have a few suggestions on recruiting these unlikely helpers:
1. Offer a billion dollars to the hacker who can bring this fortress down.
2. Create a softwarfare-only defense contracter with a billion dollars a year to play with.
3. Offer a billion dollars to the first software company that can write a program that can search an image for Arabic text and translate it.
Sounds like a lot of money? It isn’t. And how better could our tax dollars be put to work?
Sorry about the length. I hope it was worth the read, whoever’s still with me.
March 18th, 2007 at 10:49 pmOne more thing: all information on the internet has to have a physical server. Servers are traceable if we can intercept the traffic somehow. If they’re found a way to have a redundant servers (kind of like bit-torrent, I guess), they’re very clever indeed.
Clever, but not unbeatable. A missile could destroy the main server, and a virus could disable the redundant servers while mining the computers for intelligence. Breaking into the network would be the hard part.
March 18th, 2007 at 11:06 pmForgive me, the Gates quote should have read:
“A condom on every cock; a vaccuum in every vagina.”
Good night, you princes of mane, you kings of New Jersey.
March 18th, 2007 at 11:17 pmRumsfeld:
Very good: the text is indeed being hidden in images. A detail that was left out.
March 19th, 2007 at 1:26 amFortress? Is anyone else aware that we let them run all their little websites and pages; everything from media hosts to recruiting forums? We bug and monitor EVERYTHING. Not to mention spread disinformation and screw with their explosive mixing and bomb-building instructions.
Should we completely shut them down on the internet (like we did with their satelite phones) they’ll just find a new communications medium. This way, we get valuable intelligence and our enemies are kept guessing at our true capabilities.
March 19th, 2007 at 7:24 amRummy47 - I had forgotten to assign this post to Pat. I edited your comment to point to Pat.
But I agree with you. We easily have what it takes to shut down “E-Qaeda”. And starkc did bring up a good point. Maybe we allow them to do this, so we can monitor their activity.
As far as the technology for a computer to read the coloring differences that could possibly define text in a image… sounds pretty hard to pull off. But with a billion dollar budget… I’m sure someone can pull it off. And Gates can take all his money and shove it up his corn hole.
March 19th, 2007 at 9:00 amstark, no doubt we do intercept a great deal of their communications, but such interception is by nature reactive. A step ahead is all they need to pull something off. Furthermore, if we are able to translate everything we intercept in a timely fashion, it’s news to me.
Information warfare has been around for thousands of years. Letting them talk and spreading disinformation are good ideas, but the terrorists are clearly still able to carry out attacks. I can’t think of any reason to let them communicate if we could shut them down–lulling them into a false sense of jihad seems pretty worthless.
As for them finding another way to communicate… there are only so many ways you can transmit electronic information. Code-breaking is the real issue here, I think. But there is no computer that cannot be hacked.
You’ll excuse me if my conservative nature limits the faith I put in our government’s ability to monitor this shit.
March 19th, 2007 at 9:58 amWe do intercept and dissemate information quickly (in a “timely fashion”). Even if they did come up with some kind of “Cyber-Fortress” nothing is impenetrable for very long. European castles stood for hundreds of years in Romania and the Balkans; until the Ottoman’s showed up with cannons.
Being that western nations have vastly greater resource pools that even the largest terrorist networks; it stands to reason that we can upgrade our stuff while cracking theirs faster.
Ex.
We can track terrorist bigwigs by email, cellular and satelite phone, etc. But they can’t shoot our own missles at us.
Ex.
If they were still able to effeectivly operate internationally; the Heathrow plot probobly would have succeeded.
I take it in good (well founded *wink*) faith that we are far ahead of them, and are fully able to not only monitor, but to edit and terminate at will; whatever we so please.
March 19th, 2007 at 12:55 pmTerminate at will, I like the sound of that.
So, to be clear, you’re saying that our government allows terrorists to recruit new members and distribute propaganda via the internet? That blows my fucking mind.
If we “own” electronic communication, how do terrorists in Iraq get it done? Randomness? Person to person communications? Carrier pigeons?
March 19th, 2007 at 1:54 pmNice rant Rummy47…IIIIII liked it.
If we blow a cloud of graphite (from a BLU-114/B) over northwestern Pakistan maybe it’ll short out all their little plans.
But then some Fwench libtard will probably petition Belgium to send EUrinal geeks over to help them reboot.
March 19th, 2007 at 2:04 pmRummy,
First, I want to be clear that I am being purposfully ambiguous.
Nearly of their real recruiting is done at mosques and religious schools, and through otherwise personal contact. The recruiting done on the internet is primarily just to pique interest, and as it’s the internet, it’s safe to assume that many if not most “m4rtyrboi911″s are insecure but adventureous kids.
And some things are difficult to control. There are literally unlimited frequiencies availible to anyone with basic knowledge in data transmission (such as radio and cellular) and although we have the technology (much of it concentrated in the 1st and 193rd Special Operations Wings of the USAF and Pennsylvania ANG respectively) but we only have so much of it. We can’t control 100% of all information in the world, not that we aren’t trying to develop such capabilities, I’m sure we are. I digress.
They communicate in Iraq using any number of means. We can’t cover the entire world, 24/7, at 100% vigilance. It’s simply not feasible. But we are doing the best job we can with what we have to work with, of that I can assure you.
March 19th, 2007 at 2:27 pmRoguewarrior,
March 19th, 2007 at 2:32 pmBlackout bombs are expensive and dificult to use effectivly. Most of the power in those tribal areas comes small personal generators. They lack infastructure (thus their status as a “Developing” Nation; an Annex 2 I believe) reflects. They smply don’t have enough good targets such as large transformer and power stations on which an attack against our enemies would be effective.
stark,
I’m crystal clear on your ambiguity. And clearly, you know a helluva lot more than I do about all this, and I believe you. Respect.
Pat’s original post was a little hard to believe, yet somewhat grounded, and I came at it from my perspective. I think we should be reasonably concerned about all this stuff and we should be doing something about it actively. Not to pee on your car, but your post above did say, “We bug and monitor EVERYTHING,” and now, “We can’t cover the entire world, 24/7, at 100% vigilance.”
So I think we actually all agree with each other on this: there is reason to be concerned about E-Qaeda, even though we’ve got an eye on them and can pee in their coffee whenever we like.
Is ESCHELON still around, or is that so 70’s?
March 19th, 2007 at 3:05 pmNevermind.
March 19th, 2007 at 3:06 pmThe “EVERYTHING” was an exaggeration. A figure of speech.
We do agree though. Thanks for the benefit of the doubt. And by the way, Echelon isn’t that old, but was given to the UN a few years ago. Probobly because it was obsolete.
March 20th, 2007 at 5:25 amWasn’t Echelon enacted by Clinton? Bush gets slammed for “wiretapping American’s phones and email”.
March 20th, 2007 at 9:23 amI stumbled onto a European Parliament 2004 report on ESCHELON, it’s pretty funny. 200 pages of “we don’t know what the fuck we’re talking about, but let’s talk about it anyway.”
ESCHELON (correct me if I’m wrong) is/was a electronic surveillance program, with the quietly declared objective of intercepting any and all electronic communications we want to, all over the world, at any time. But it isn’t new, and if we did indeed give it to the UN, they probably use it for ordering pizzas.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:30 amJust to throw my $.02 in…
When you talk of E-Qaeda putting their information into pictures I believe you are thinking that they just scan their messages and post them as pictures, hoping to bypass any computers scanning for text. Well, they may be doing that, but what I believe the reference is, is much more crafty.
I believe that what they are doing is a computer-crypto trick where their are able to embed their text messages in the actual code for the image itself. It’s called steganography. You take a simple picture, use a computer program to type your message, put in a password and the program puts the text directly into the computer code for the picture. A user on the other end, loads the picture into his copy of the steganography program, types in a password, and is able to extract the text message. If you look at the “clean” image and the one with the text encrypted into the file, they are virtually identical.
Now imagine trying to develop software that not only searches the internet for photos, but then tries to run a crypto program to scrub the photo file to see if it contains information hidden within the file, and then finally attempts to hack the password in order to unlock the information contained in the stenography enabled photo file. I believe that it would be a huge techno challenge to sift through all the chaff day after day looking for those files throughout the internet.
Look to http://www.jjtc.com/stegdoc/steg1995.html to read up on how it works, because I’m not smart enough to explain it. However, I have played around with one of the programs listed in the paper, and I can say that it actually worked quite well.
Anyway, that’s what I thought when reading the above conversation.
March 20th, 2007 at 3:56 pmThis is far less technical than what you are discussing but as a side note I will let those who are interested browse the MEMRI files to see a concerted effort by jihadi’s to infiltrate websites such as this and spread anti-war fervor. The jihadis are told to impersonate americans and to speak only in political secular terms. No religious rhetoric.
see http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD150807
March 20th, 2007 at 8:20 pmSpeaking of propaganda videos, get on Liveleak and, under the Iraq and Afghanistan categories, about half of them are shitty clips made by terrorists.
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:49 pmCensorship wins…….dont listen to anyone who wishes to voice alternatives to war.
March 23rd, 2007 at 7:35 pmAll tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent — Thomas Jefferson –
March 23rd, 2007 at 7:40 pmval
the only alternative to this war is subjugation to islam a view that Thomas jefferson decided to counter when he went against his predecessor, john adams, policy of appeasing muslims by paying tribute to terrorrists who killed our citizens and enslaved the rest. Jefferson decided that he would place all the money that would normally go to bribes into miltary force against islamic terrroist in north africa . and guess what?, the tribute payments ceased and the muslims stopped hijacking our ships.
Basically we opened up a can of whoop ass on thew enemy and it took them years to recover. Muslims will never stop making war because muhammed incites them to do this until “no one but Allah has the right to be worshipped” This is not a time to be weak and welcome our annihilation.
March 29th, 2007 at 6:08 pmhttp://static.flickr.com/61/209371208_daf5d337d3.jpg?v=0
March 31st, 2007 at 8:28 pmVal is that you in the picture? what exactly is the point of such poetic words? Who exactly are the innocent people we speak of. The victims of 9/11, the iraqi people who are not with the terrorists? the afghani people? I listen to anti war-activists like you all the time and alls you come up with is slogans(like bush lied , soldiers died) but no logical argument.
I have asked people like yourself to prove my theory about islam wrong, and no one will take the lead. why? because liberals to this day refuse to educate themselves about islamic history of r the countless texts often quoted by the jihadi’s themselves.
for liberals, it seems , the only alternative to war, is our annihilation and subseqent subjugation to dictates of Shariah. Unfortunately for you, since the time of Thomas Jefferson, we have decided to fight tyranny in order to subdue it, rather than pretend we can negotiate with terrorists!
April 2nd, 2007 at 11:45 pmhey val,
go to you tube and see the perspective of an iraqi imam that just might blow you away(figuratively speaking)
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Jamal+AlDin&search=Search
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:42 pmThe program to set up the Fortress web site is a Western program, and it can be beat.
Anyone have the link to this 100 page memo?
Gerald
June 16th, 2007 at 7:32 pm