Al Qaeda uses Web sites to draw recruits, spread propaganda
By Neil Doyle
Published September 11, 2003
LONDON - Al Qaeda has begun a massive recruitment drive for
volunteers to wage war against America and Western-friendly governments
in Iraq, Central Asia and throughout the Middle East.
Osama bin Laden’s network has also published three electronic-books
on its new Web site: two that detail its tactics and intentions in Saudi
Arabia and Iraq, and a handbook called “The 39 Steps to Jihad.”
The latest publicity drive kicked into high gear yesterday, the eve
of the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, with a series of
taped messages from bin Laden and a top lieutenant.
An audiotape purportedly from bin Laden’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri,
urged Muslims to “devour the Americans as lions do and bury them in the
graveyard of Iraq.”
It was aired on the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, along with
what was said to be new video footage of bin Laden and al-Zawahri
together.
A voice said to be bin Laden’s, in a separate audiotape, praised the
suicide hijackers who flew planes into New York’s World Trade Center,
the Pentagon in Washington and a field in Pennsylvania.
One of the recent Internet books about the May Riyadh bombings, was
authored by Sheik Yousef al-Ayyeri, a close friend of bin Laden.
It confirms for the first time that al Qaeda has been conducting
operations inside Iraq.
It says: “The number [of those who carried out the bombings]
reported by the press is inaccurate. Some of them who were not
predestined for martyrdom continue to cause losses to the enemies of
Allah, the Americans, in Iraq, and carried out acts of heroism there.
…”
The book goes on to implore supporters to rally to the cause and
says more personnel are needed on the ground: "Jihad is what they need
more than anything else, except food and water.
“Although the al Qaeda organization fights to defend the [Islamic]
nation, it does not fight on the nation’s behalf; therefore, anyone who
cannot join al Qaeda is not exempt from the obligation of jihad [until]
he has done everything possible to search for jihad and did not succeed
in joining any of its fronts. …”
Though this Web site has been offline since its operator, al-Ayyeri,
a close friend of bin Laden, was killed in a shootout with police in
Saudi Arabia in June, other al Qaeda-linked sites are not hard to find.
One group that no longer feels the need to conceal its intentions is
Hizb ut-Tahrir (HUT), which is using a series of six primary Web sites
based in the United States, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and
Pakistan to attract volunteers to fight in Iraq.
The group shares al Qaeda’s ultimate goal of establishing a global
Islamic dictatorship, called a caliphate, and it claims to have
established a base in Iraq three months ago.
Its call to jihad - titled “Annihilate the Fourth Crusade” - says:
"Is it not a great shame that the armies of America and Britain are
mobilized to commit aggression upon Muslim countries, one after another,
whilst the armies of the Muslims lie dormant in their barracks, watching
the shedding of Muslim blood?
"Your previous generations, O Muslims, triumphed in the opening of
lands and spread justice worldwide. Should you not go forth like them,
following their footsteps, and annihilate the new crusaders?
“Let the armies move to help the Muslims in Iraq for they seek your
help.”
Based in Britain and claiming to be active in 40 countries, a recent
Heritage Foundation report described the group as an “emerging threat to
U.S. interests.”
The group has been banned in Germany and many other countries for
its extreme views and is listed as a terrorist organization in Russia.
In June, Russia’s Federal Security Service, the successor to the
KGB, arrested 51 HUT members in a raid in Moscow and recovered a cache
of weapons and explosives.
The group’s founding leader is the radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri
Muhammad, who now heads a hard-line Islamic group in Britain called Al
Muhajiroun, which has been dubbed the “north London Taliban.”
Muhammad is a key supporter of bin Laden and regularly shares
platforms at meetings with Abu Hamza al-Masri, a fellow cleric who is
wanted as a terrorist suspect in the United States.
The group is active in 30 British cities and its members often boast
about their recruitment activity. It is known in the intelligence
community to be a prime supplier of foreign recruits to al Qaeda.
“Sure, [the Al Muhajiroun] are a major recruiter for terrorists. It
is common knowledge among counterterrorism operatives and agents that
they are a front for bin Laden,” said a U.S. government security and
defense analyst.
“There are clear al Qaeda ties by way of religious, criminal and
foreign mujahideen links. Al Muhajiroun, being the bin Laden front in
the UK, essentially connects all the dots.”
Since the U.S.-led war on terrorism began after the September 11,
2001, attacks, militant Islamic groups have been turning to the Internet
increasingly to disseminate propaganda, recruitment material and raise
funds.
Web discussion forums and Hotmail-type e-mail accounts that require
no proof of identification offer a good degree of security for the
terrorists.
Comment: It is a well known fact that Hizb Ut Tahrir is an Islamic political party which is working in the Islamic lands to re-establish the Khilafah using non-violent means to achieve their objectives, so why then is the American media trying to link Hizb ut Tahrir with terrorism and violence? Also are the muslims who oppose capitalism and call for the Islamic State on the internet and in many other places terrorists ? Well according to this report Yes. This article shows the fear which many capitalists have that their ideology is finished and the muslims are calling for the return of Islam
