[Infowarrior] - Chertoff warns of Web of terrorism

[Richard Forno]

Chertoff warns of Web of terrorism
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published March 15, 2007
http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20070314-110450-2830r

Radical Islamists are using the Internet to recruit homegrown terrorists in
the U.S., Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate panel
yesterday.
    "I don't think it's necessary to send radical recruiters into the United
States, and I think there's a risk to doing that," Mr. Chertoff told the
Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
    "But I have no question about the fact that [Osama] bin Laden and [Ayman
al-Zawahiri] and others like them quite consciously use the media, including
the Internet, as a recruiting tool," Mr. Chertoff said. "In terms of
recruiting, I would say that the principal way to enter the U.S. is through
the Internet."
    The committee yesterday expanded its investigation into the
radicalization of inmates in U.S. prisons to include Internet and other
media recruitment and the threat of growing Islamic radicalism in the U.S.
    "The department's own Homeland Security Advisory Council in a recent
report called radical Islam the most significant terrorist threat to the
homeland today, said that it is spreading, and predicted that the number and
magnitude of attacks on the United States will increase," said Sen. Joe
Lieberman, Connecticut independent and committee chairman.
    "Assuming for a moment that there is some validity to the notion that
there is a growing divide occurring here, one possible cause clearly is the
use of the Internet to promote the terrorists' dark age and hateful vision.
It gives their multimedia campaigns of alienation and violence a global
reach, including right into American homes and offices," Mr. Lieberman said.
    "We all want to make sure that our imaginations do not fail us again as
we counter the possibility of this new threat of Islamist extremist and
terrorist groups within our own country," Mr. Lieberman said.
    The committee is examining what Mr. Lieberman called "extremist
propaganda" on the Internet and other "nodes" where radicalization may be
occurring, including universities and mosques.
    "We do know that universities and madrassas can be sites for
radicalization," Mr. Chertoff said.
    Mr. Chertoff said the solution to reducing recruitment is to involve the
local and ethnic communities rather than "monitoring people's religious
activities."
    "I'm not advocating a heavy federal footprint on this," Mr. Chertoff
said.
    Rep. Bill Shuster, Pennsylvania Republican, last week introduced
legislation to urge video-trading Web sites like YouTube.com to remove jihad
propaganda videos, calling such sites "a new battleground on the Internet."
    Mr. Shuster says the sites support terrorist fundraising and help
distribute propaganda, as well as recruit and train future terrorists.
    "I doubt that the American public in World War II would have accepted
the major media outlets of the time distributing Nazi propaganda at face
value," Mr. Shuster said. "Times have changed, media has evolved, but the
fact remains -- terrorists hope their supporters see these videos and are
encouraged to attack Western interests."
    "These videos aid the enemy, and they must be confronted," Mr. Shuster
said.
    Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican and ranking member of the panel,
initiated the committee investigation as the chairman last year with the
focus on prisons, and said they have unearthed "examples of radical
recruiters, where radical imams were going into the prisons and trying to
convert and radicalize."
    Mr. Chertoff agreed and said, "The presence of a radical imam is
probably more dangerous because it's a more dynamic recruiting environment."