Al-Qaeda publishes magazine on the Net
Date: February 14, 2004Source: ITNews Australia
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Al-Qaeda has published the third menacing edition of its online magazine al Battar Camp, offering counsel to would-be terrorists on everything from physical fitness to weapons training.
"A group of right-thinking youth have gathered together to prepare this issue," say authors who claim to be al-Qaeda's military committee in the Arabian peninsula.
"This is the time for jihad and preparation. In the time of the Mongol invasion, it didn't help the residents of Baghdad that most of them were clerics and educators."
Diplomats and counter-terrorism experts say the online magazine is the latest evidence that al-Qaeda is using the anonymity and global reach of the internet both to reach new recruits and send messages to sleeper cells.
"Just as the fax machine served a critical role in the dissemination of early pro-bin Laden propaganda in the Saudi kingdom during the early 1990s, the internet has become a primary means of communication for al-Qaeda," said Evan Kohlmann, a senior terrorism analyst at the Investigative Project, a Washington-based counter-terrorism think-tank.
One article in the Arabic-language manual, which recommends physical fitness and gives advice on training schedules and exercise, was written by Sheikh Yousef al-Ayyiri, a former bodyguard to Osama bin Laden and an al-Qaeda chief in Saudi Arabia who was killed last year in a clash with Saudi security forces.
Al Battar was an alias used by al-Ayyiri which means "Cutting Edge" in Arabic.
"Al-Ayyiri was the emir of several terrorist training camps hidden in Saudi Arabia, and also the webmaster of al-Neda - the one-time headquarters for al-Qaeda on the internet," Mr Kohlmann said.
"He was the first member of a new generation of highly dangerous and skilled cyber-terrorists."
That the magazine has been launched since his death, experts add, is a sign that his deputies have learned the tricks of his trade. Other contributors include Seif al Adl, al-Qaeda's security chief, who continues a series on security, and Abdel Aziz al Muqrin, the No 1 suspect on the Saudi terrorist list, who discusses guerilla warfare.
Western diplomats based in the Middle East worry that sites like the al Battar Camp and online chat sites may be used to pass instructions to terror cells, but say the authorities still lack the recourses to track the internet properly.
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