by A. Aaron Weisburd
Many kinds of training can be engaged in or implemented by terrorists and the organizations they support. Most of this training involves ideological indoctrination, strategic and tactical considerations of target selection, and methods for organizing a terrorist cell, planning, and carrying out an attack.
The manufacture of explosives is the one element of terrorist tradecraft that is difficult to teach online. This is so, not as a result of any limitation inherent to the Internet, but due to real-world factors.
A terrorist who enrolls himself in a self-training program will require opportunity, self-discipline, intelligence, courage, luck, and information.
The Internet can be a source of good information regarding explosives manufacture.
In order to successfully complete his course of study, our would-be terrorist will need the opportunity - not to mention the good sense - to make and test explosives repeatedly so that he may be assured they will actually function as desired when the time comes. Explosives are loud. In any area that is densely populated this activity is liable to draw unwanted attention and bring with it an increased risk of exposure. Conversely, failure to adequately test one's student project prior to an operation can result in spectacular failure.
At any moment the "semester" may come to a dramatic end in the form of a "work accident" which prematurely sends the aspiring terrorist(s) off to meet their maker. Even if the apprentice bomb-maker is both lucky and has the opportunity to test his work without being noticed, and the good fortune to have selected good information to guide his efforts, he may well lack the discipline necessary to complete this or any other course of self-instruction.
No amount of opportunity, self-discipline, intelligence, courage, and luck will make up for the absence of good information, and in this regard the Internet may be expected to play a vital role in the successful training of a jihadist or any other individual inclined to the most extreme forms of political violence.
That all said, we now refer you to the following two articles, one which overstates the threat posed by terrorist use of the Internet, and the other of which understates that threat.
The Internet is a communications medium, a theatre of operations, a technology. These are details that we need to be mindful of. What matters, however, is people: who they are, where they are, their motivations, and the opportunities they have to do harm.
1. Report: Terrorists cannot train online
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- The Internet is useful to Islamic terror groups for propaganda and recruitment, but it cannot be used for terrorist military training, says a U.S. report.The Austin, Texas-based private sector intelligence company Stratfor says in an analysis that some experts overstate the importance of the Internet.
"Although the Internet has been a great enabler for grassroots (terrorist) cells to spread their ideology and recruit new acolytes, some things are incredibly difficult to accomplish online -- namely, absorbing the technical information and tradecraft of terrorism and applying it to a real-world situation, particularly in a hostile environment," reads the analysis, published last week.
"The application of technical skills (bomb-making, targeting, and deployment) often requires subtle and complex abilities that one cannot perfect simply by reading about them," says the analysis, adding it is "quite difficult to follow written instructions and build a perfectly functioning improvised explosive device from scratch; as with any scientific endeavor, trial and error and testing in the real world usually are required.
"Bomb-making is a talent best learned from an experienced teacher," it concludes.
The analysis adds that "tradecraft -- those intuitive skills needed to sustain secrecy and operations in a hostile environment" -- is another set of skills hard to acquire online.
2. Terrorists to use virtual worlds to train
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Second Life-type virtual worlds hidden on botnets of hacker-controlled computers could be used by terrorists as a place to meet and train, say two experts.Posted on 22 December 2007 @ 16:29In an analysis on the Counter-Terrorism Blog, former British Special Branch policeman Roderick Jones and innovation expert Michael Schrage, who advises the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, note that terror groups tend to be "early adopters of new technologies -- especially if they're cheap and easy to acquire."
Provocatively, the two argue that such technologies might eventually eliminate the need for terrorist training camps altogether.
"Geographically dispersed terrorist groups could easily come together to learn the complex technical tradecraft of terror, such as bomb making … within a virtual environment."
Such virtual worlds could be built using commercial software, and be housed on botnets -- networks of compromised personal computers that, all unbeknownst to their owners, are controlled by hackers.
"Untraceably cheap and disposable 'just-in-time' virtual worlds that fuse the benefits of virtual worlds like Second Life with the criminal effectiveness of zombie bot-nets are inevitable," argue the two authors.
"The barriers to creating such a world are being constantly reduced as companies are beginning to provide the tools for creating DIY worlds. Virtual worlds require a relatively small software interface, which sits over a number of dispersed servers that host the world. Bot-nets could act as temporary servers."
