Internet Haganah::Internet
Internet
| OSINT |
The Internet Haganah "Top Ten" list of jihadi forums, 19 July 2010
• "Mom, I'm in jail."
• "But why is the rum gone?!"
• Jihadi hackers brag of attack on Egyptian government site
• al-Shmukh Forum vs the Dogs of Intelligence
The administrator of the Ansar al-Mujahideen forum (Arabic), Faical Errai, has been arrested in Spain. He had a pretty good run: fought hard to establish the forum, rebuilt the forum after it was deleted by cyber criminals, and persevered even after it was revealed that the forum's database had fallen into the hands of the kuffar. See:
• La Audiencia Nacional decreta prisión provisional para el presunto 'yihadista' detenido en Alicante
and
• La Guardia Civil detiene en Alicante a un supuesto reclutador de Al Qaeda
A quote (europapress.es):
La operación comenzó a comienzos del mes de febrero de 2009, cuando se empezó a investigar la Red Ansar al Muyahideen, cuyos foros se han convertido en "uno de los diez foros yihadistas más influyentes y frecuentados de internet" y sirven como órgano de propaganda del Movimiento de la Yihad Global (MYG)
The jihadis seem to be having a hard time figuring out that when the forum has a single admin, and the admin is imprisoned, that's pretty much the end of the forum. Two examples regarding the recently retired Ansar al-Mujahideen (Arabic) forum:
Not surprisingly, they post the brag at the "Electronic Mujahideen" forum (AKA Majahden).
1. How does the CIA eavesdrop on communications
2. How to find listening devices and video cameras in your hotel room
• "Brothers, our Facebook pages have been martyred!"
• MEMRI report: YouTube - The Internet's Primary and Rapidly Expanding Jihadi Base - Part IV
• AQIM denies the Algerian government has infiltrated al-Andalus Media
• Chechen jihadis deny the Russians have acquired their database
• "Nidal Hassan: The Face of Successful"
• Secret jihadi code cracked
• No kidding...
The “Al-Andalus” Jihadi media institute, which serves as a mouthpiece for Al- Qaeda in the Maghreb, published a film titled “The Invasion of Al-Mansura”, as part of the series “In the Shadow of the Swords”. The film shows an Algerian Army vehicle being taken over and its occupants killed in an attack carried out by fighters from Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. The late publication of the video was due to the loss of the original copies during an ambush by the Algerian government forces, in which several Mujahideen were killed and the individual transporting the film was captured. The video clip states that there are many other videos documenting the activities of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb which were also lost. The clip criticizes the “false reports” spread by the Algerian media about the success of Algeria’s intelligence services in infiltrating the “Al-Andalus” Jihadi media institute, and in capturing the organization’s propaganda material.Summary of: http://www.shamikh1.net/vb/showthread.php?t=65610
and
Of course, they still haven't come up with a plausible explanation for how Doku's resignation statement got put into circulation.
See also:
• Medvedev says special operations in N Caucasus produce good results
and
• At Least 16 Die in Russian Raids
and
• Death toll in Russian raids mounts: 28 jihadis dead so far. [That is in addition to the numerous weapons caches that have been uncovered throughout the region. Two explanations: the FSB acquired a boatload of new intelligence when they got the Emir's laptop, or they are psychic.]
A post from those nice boys at al-Shabaab, al-Qaida's Somali branch:
• Will the last person to leave the al-Faloja forum...
• IO kills top Caucasus Emir?
• Jihadi forum posts about jihadi forums
• Drinking blood in the footsteps of Abu Dujana al-Khorasani
• A guide to the global jihad on Facebook
• Is it permissible to watch sitcoms?
• How the CIA recruits agents
...please turn out the lights?
Careful readers of this site will recall my characterization of the brief resignation of Doku Umarov as a Russian information operation.
The effect of the action was to force an assortment of Chechen leaders to rush to release statements - Doku had to rescind his resignation, and then the other emirs had to release statements acknowledging that he was still their leader.
And now?
Russians kill top Caucasus Emirate leader
Coincidence? Perhaps. But don't be too surprised if Movladi Udugov is unexpectedly "martyred" sometime soon.
NEXT!
No need to speculate about the continued importance of the forums to the aQ brethren:
• A call to arms
• Encourage more people to join and be active
• A farewell message from one 'abuhamza'
• Forum membership is now a crime in Algeria(?)
• The heroes of the Faloja forum
As represented by the operators of the e-Mujahideen (AKA Majahden) forum:
See also:
and
and
Internet
• Drama on the high seas - The tribulations of the S.S. Faloja
• "Are you ready for 9/11 times a thousand?!"
• Jihadi headcount?
• aQ {{hearts}} Tor
• GIMF gets involved in the Southeast Asian jihad
• On the lookout for jihadis in Israel?
• Yep.
OSINT
• The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center [15 Aug 2010]
• Either they killed two innocent guys... [15 Aug 2010]
• Friendship with Iran comes at a high price [15 Aug 2010]
On the evening of 12 August, 2010, a member of the al-Faloja forum management team announced that the site would shut down in one week's time, for reasons that were not made clear either then or subsequently.
By the 13th of August, a notice had been posted on the front page of the site announcing that the closure would occur in one day, rather than in one week.
On the evening of 14 August, 2010, another member of the Faloja management team announced that the site would not be shutting down after all. Again, the reasons for this were left unstated.
In the intervening 48 hours, both at Faloja, and at its likely successor, Shmukh, there occurred at least two dozen discussions related to the subject of the Faloja's closure. Many of these were highly personal and emotional - not unlike watching people on a sinking ship coming to grips with their impending doom. All these discussions speak to the critical importance of the forums to the rank-and-file of the global jihad - an importance that has at least as much to do with issues of identity, community, and psychology, than with the more operational or mechanistic uses of the forums.
I'll save speculation regarding the demise of Faloja for the day when the site actually dies. In the meantime there is the issue of how this drama will effect the ties between the members and the administrators on the one hand, and the administrators and the terrorist organizations they serve on the other hand.
The rank-and-file appear to fall into two camps - those who question the behavior of the management team, and those who view the management team as beyond reproach. The latter speak loudest, to such an extent that a quiet migration of the critics to other forums (e.g. Shmukh and Tahadi) seems likely.
The terrorist organizations and their assessment of the situation will be interesting to watch. On the one hand, to the extent that Faloja continues to operate and have a following, it will remain a useful place to distribute links to videos and other communications. However the unstable behavior on the management team would appear likely to tarnish Faloja's reputation and raise doubts about whether Faloja is a site one wants to partner with. All the more so after Faloja's bizarre response to the abortive first release of AQAP's Inspire magazine.
From a counter-terrorism perspective, these back-to-back self-inflicted wounds may be the best of all possible outcomes. Attacks on the forums - regardless of their source or nature - have the short-term effect of reinforcing in the minds of jihadis the importance of their sites and what they call 'the media jihad'. As it is, Faloja comes across as a forum run by people who have no regard for their members, for the importance of preserving their site's good name and reputation, or for the role they play in the global Islamic resistance movement. If one is a jihadi, how can you help but be dispirited?
Archives of discussions related to this incident follow.
Jihadis are big on wishful thinking. This is a good example of what I mean by that.
How many active and engaged jihadis are on the Arabic forums these days? This is as good an estimate as any:
