Also see Monday's article in the Post: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/07/AR2005080700890.html -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Politech] Terrorists reportedly use the Internet as new "base ofoperations" [fs] Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 18:50:08 -0400 From: Paul Levy <plevy@private> To: <declan@private> In fact, I understand that they also use the Earth's atmosphere to sustain their lives. Gotta do something about that....... Paul Alan Levy Public Citizen Litigation Group 1600 - 20th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 588-1000 http://www.citizen.org/litigation -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Politech] Terrorists reportedly use the Internet as new "base of operations" [fs] Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 12:07:09 -0500 From: Jon Lebkowsky <jonl@private> Organization: Polycot To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private> References: <42F7897D.3020109@private> http://www.weblogsky.com/archives/000549.html [Below also noted by John Fleck. --Declan] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Other points about the Post story on eQaeda Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 15:56:51 -0400 From: George Smith <70743.1711@private> To: declan@private Declan: >From today's Secrecy & Government Bulletin, by Steven Aftergood: TERRORISTS, THE INTERNET AND THE BETALUMINIUM THREAT "Terrorists Turn to the Web as Base of Operations," a Washington Post headline declared in a front-page, above-the-fold story on August 7. "Among other things, al Qaeda and its offshoots are building a massive and dynamic online library of training materials," the Post reported, and offered sample documents from this library on its own web site. But contrary to the Post story line, the cited library materials suggest a startling lack of technical competence. Unfortunately, the Post did not critically examine the materials that it presented. The Post story's uncertain grasp of the underlying science was signalled early on when it twice mistakenly referred to a virus as the cause of pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague is caused by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis, not by a virus. A page excerpted by the Post online from "The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook" purported to explain how to manufacture "betaluminium poison." But there is no such thing as betaluminium poison. (The word appears to be a corruption of "botulinum"). Nor would the proffered production method -- combining fresh horse manure, meat, grain and water in a sealed jar -- yield much more than a stinky mess. "The first time I saw [the Mujahideen Poisons Handbook]," said chemist George Smith of GlobalSecurity.org, "I thought it must be a hoax." "Careful examination of the document shows that it is crammed with errors, seemingly the work of someone with little discernible sense, profoundly ignorant of the nature of simple compounds and incompetent in even minor [laboratory] procedures," Dr. Smith wrote in National Security Notes in March 2004: http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/nsn/nsn-040304.htm In short, the Mujahideen Poisons Handbook that was excerpted on the Washington Post web site indicates something nearly the opposite of what the Post article on terrorist use of the internet claimed to show. "The 'Poisons Handbook' is an example of someone professing to know what he is doing on poisons who profoundly and obviously does not know what he is doing," Dr. Smith said. If the Poisons Handbook is indeed representative of the "massive and dynamic online library of training materials" offered by jihadists, then that is good news for public safety and security. The Washington Post, the best of newspapers, is far from alone in succumbing to, and propagating, exaggerated threat assessments. There seems to be a powerful temptation to believe that terrorists are everywhere and, aided by "the internet," capable of everything. It is a temptation that needs to be confronted and thought through. ======= George -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Politech] Terrorists reportedly use the Internet as new "base of operations" [fs] Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 09:54:22 -0700 From: TAO1 <TAO1@private> To: politech@private, Declan McCullagh <declan@private> References: <42F7897D.3020109@private> Right ... and think of all the knowledge online about the life cycle of mold, bed bugs, lice, cockroaches and other disease and death spreading vermin which cause damage to human bodies and property ...... BIOTERRORISM. Tao "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name." Tao Te Ching -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Politech] Terrorists reportedly use the Internet as new "base of operations" [fs] Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 16:18:39 -0700 From: Jim Warren <jwarren@private> To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private>, Dave Farber <dave@private> References: <42F7897D.3020109@private> >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/05/AR2005080501138_pf.html > >Terrorists Turn to the Web as Base of Operations > >By Steve Coll and Susan B. Glasser >Washington Post Staff Writers >Sunday, August 7, 2005; A01 >... > "every second al Qaeda member carrying a laptop computer along with >a Kalashnikov" >... > al Qaeda has become the first guerrilla movement in history to >migrate from physical space to cyberspace. ... young code-writing >jihadists have sought to replicate the training, communication, >planning and preaching facilities they lost in Afghanistan with >countless new locations on the Internet. >... SHAME on the Wash Post! While true, this is nothing more than fear-mongering horse-puckey! It's equivalent to breathlessly reporting how terrible-awful-dangerous it is that the terrorists are using cars and trucks ... or cell phones ... or any other modern technology ... certainly including essentially ALL of their arms, ammunition, etc., which come -- directly or indirectly -- from the "First World" arms-makers who are reaping such monumental profits from these conflicts. (Note that the terrorists most-surely do NOT manufacture their own machine-guns, shell casings, RPGs, or for that matter, ANY of the cell-phones that they modify and use to remotely trigger bombs.) Where are the high-profile mass-media stories about THESE terrorists' technologies?! --jim _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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