This entry is about the recent disappearance of many forums central to the online operations of the global jihad. But first, a little story...
A general once said of Information Operations:
"Just because it is non-kinetic does not mean that it is non-lethal."
A reporter asked me what the general meant, and I replied:
"If we convince an enemy that his best friend is really a spy working for us, that is non-kinetic.
If, based on that conviction, the enemy kills his best friend, that is lethal."
It appears as though al-Qaida may have just killed their best friend.
Ship after ship in the harbor has been scuttled, and the surviving rats are gathered aboard the few vessels that remain afloat.
The explanations provided heretofore regarding the disappearance of one site after the other are either mostly, or entirely, without foundation in fact. That goes for the mainstream media reports of hacking, the intelligence leaks of a covert operation to shut down sites, and the lame excuses offered up in official communiqués by the likes of al-Fajr (the latter evidently being too embarrassed to let the truth be known).
Despite not knowing what actually happened, the jihadis are starting to discuss countermeasures. In short, they want to use email, and set up email groups, and involve more of the brothers in spreading information. The discussion demonstrates that the current generation of jihadis have no idea how or why forums came to dominate the scene, and what it was that their predecessors did before the Age of Forums™. I could say more, but why? Better they should drown in confusion.
Follow the "More" link to view the OSC translation titled "Contingency Plan Presented To Maintain Internet Presence if Jihadist Sites Are Hacked".
"In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. "Praise be to God and prayers and peace be upon God's messenger, his family, his companions, and his supporters.Posted on 10 October 2008 @ 15:24"This is a subject that we have been discussing for nearly a year, but it was not discussed in total seriousness because of our engagement in media jihad matters and other important work. But now it has become clear to us how dangerous it is to postpone such an issue, especially in the current situation as we are experiencing the Crusader campaigns against us and what has been done to most of our major jihadist sites.
"We say, seeking God's support, that this subject came as a first solution and a contingency plan incase all the jihadist sites are struck. This plan has stages, according to the brothers, and it has levels of communication. We should start our subject by applying the following categories:
"A. information about guerilla war and how to implement it on the Internet;
"B. the first digital means for this war (email support);
"C. the second digital means for this war (email groups);
"D. the third digital means for this war (encrypted messenger);
"E. the fourth digital means for this war (advancement to the adjacent territories);
"F. the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet guerrilla war; and
"G. technical security preparations.
"We start, and God is our supporter, with the definitions.
"A. Definition of Guerilla War and its Implementation on the Internet
"Guerrilla warfare, as it is known to the mujahidin brothers and well-known to the American enemy, is a fierce war. In order for the picture to become clear, we first will explain the organized war and similarly we will understand the guerrilla war in more detail.
"The organized war consists of two armies or more, each army consisting of a structured package of financial support, fixed assets, huge locations, equipped bases, and a coherent and connected army in which the distance between their beginning and end is not vast. These organized armies are giant and strong and in case they are engaged in a war with their counterpart armies, the war must be face to face. In this case victory will be according to the measure of the people of this world, of course to those who have the following matters or are much stronger than the other:
"1. human density;
"2. military power(weapons);
"3. material and logistic support power, which will cover the power, mentioned previously;
"4. tactics and high-field studies; and
"5. high morale.
"With regard to guerrilla war, it is the opposite of what we mentioned, except for the last two points, as they are required in all wars. In the guerrilla war, you do not need a large number of fighters to face the huge regular army, even if you have the same numbers of individuals; this will not benefit you because you will not be able to receive the same firepower or the logistics power that they have. It is simply the war of the weak and it is also called the war of the fleas or the hit-and-run war. It is the same war that Abu Basir, may God be pleased with him, fought against Quraysh and he inflicted on them wounds and losses until they asked the prophet, prayers and peace be upon him, to take him to Al-Madinah.
"Now these standards will teach us some things and they are the following:
"1. Whenever the sites of the regular army increase, it become easy to strike them.
"2. Whenever the regular army increases in size, it becomes easier to strike them.
"3. When the numbers of members increases, it becomes more difficult to move them.
"4. When the firepower(weapons) increases, the number of deaths by the same weapons increases in the event it falls as booty into the hands of the enemy, especially as these weapons would not be used against their enemy, but will only be a burden on the backs of their soldiers because the enemy consists of 'guerillas' that have no centers and their areas are not known so that they can attack them frequently.
"5. When the logistical support increases, it will reach the same guerillas in the event they capture the booty.
"Someone might ask, what are you talking about, Brother Rih al-Ghubar? Why would a regular army carryall these things to the battlefield if the enemy will benefit from them?
"The answer is that the regular army cannot survive without them and they hope that they will be able to maintain these things, but it is very vulnerable to be seized by the guerillas.
"This is happening throughout the jihad territory in the world and this is what Shaykh Usama had advised the people of Iraq to do when America threatened to enter Iraq. His advice, may God protect him, was to leave the bases and centers and spread in the form of guerillas in the land and cities of Iraq.
"Now we will stop going further and we will start to talk about the heart of the matter and what relates to us on the Internet.
"Now that we clarified in general and in a simple way the concept of guerrilla warfare and regular armies, we will apply it to situation on the Internet. On the Internet we find that the forums are fixed positions that represent the front lines in the fighting arena, and these fixed fronts have many strengths and weaknesses and their locations have been identified by the enemy, although it did not identify them easily. After the (enemy) identifies the locations, they will try to strike this site to sever the power of this front.
"Regarding the guerrilla war on the Internet, it will deplete the enemy's power as each member of the jihadist forums could become a hub that spreads on the Internet's vast mountain range, even if they dream they could not reach all the brothers who are estimated in the thousands unless God wishes so.
"The battle on the Internet will start with a new strategy that carries the same concept of the guerrilla warfare that we have mentioned. The hit and run will start from our side and the enemy will be exhausted by the continuation of the media jihad without being able to identify the video source or the release, and they will not be able to strike it as they used to do in the forums.
"Our fight against the enemy will shift to a quality and forced operation on God's enemies like what happened to them in Afghanistan after 2001, as terrorism as they call it was stationed in the mountains of Tora Bora, and after they struck Afghanistan and those beloved mountains, the guerillas of Shaykh Usama, may God protect him, spread throughout the world and the ideology moved to every front. They are now in Iraq, Palestine, the Arab Maghreb, Chechnya, Somalia, and the Arab Peninsula and they still remain in Afghanistan.
"And by striking the jihadist sites, they are harming themselves and God will delude them and the energy that is in this blessed land will move around the world and accordingly, the truth we have will reach these masses on the Internet. Meanwhile the brothers will arrange their papers and re-open their jihad forums once again, and we will return to them.
"B. The First Digital Means of This War (Email Support)
"This is a priority for the brothers, who are following the events and viewing videos without thinking to participate or share their opinion and their media support. Furthermore, it is very important for every brother to be registered in them so that he will not be isolated from the news in case all the forums are suddenly cut off, and through it we could deliver the announcements of the opening of forums, their new links, the means adopted, or the new required work.
"We advise all the brothers to start creating new private emails on Yahoo and register them immediately with the media support, but the brothers should observe important matters, which means using safe proxies that have been tried. This will be explained in detail under the technical preparation for war section.
"C. The Second Digital Means for This War (Email Groups)
"After we create new emails, taking into consideration complete technical security, we will form an email group for the participating groups among the brothers and (web)administrators. The division will be for more than one section; the cadre brothers and those in charge of the media, who are 100 percent trustworthy. Those whom no one doubts and might be known personally will form a group, exchange emails, and have a corresponding group for every message they receive. They should communicate about the important matters keeping in view the use of safe proxies and excel in its use. Then, the other section is the participating brothers and the administrators who will form another group that will correspond, discuss new issues, and receive the new releases from each other.
"It is not required that every member be registered in your email list, but it is sufficient to register some of them. Every group corresponds with the list they have, and the news will spread quickly. It will be nice to add into the emails some emails ofother people (smile).
"D. The Third Digital Means of This War (the Encrypted Messenger)
"After we create a new email and list it with the media support and register it in the messaging group, there is an advanced step which is the encrypted messenger that accepts the proxy. Every brother should download it and add the brothers who are in the members list and in the same previous divisions. The cadres have a messenger group and the members and administrates have an encrypted messenger. They correspond through emails and it is possible to debate through the messenger by opening chat rooms created by us for the brothers.
"E. The Fourth Digital Means for the War (Advancement in Adjacent Territories)
"In the meantime, when we lose the beloved centers we will be thirsty to participate and no doubt we will surf the Internet so that we can enter some small villages and large cities and look into features of sites neighboring our beloved lost sites. When we find a land and the city of a suitable neighboring forum, we will forward it to all the brothers that are listed in the email group, telling them about the location and coordinate of the new forum, so that all the brothers go there and discuss our regular subjects exactly as we do here. We respond to each other and share some of our concerns and reconcile with each other and not pay attention to the words of those who oppose us if they exist. We will open their land and erase the darkness with the light of guidance and we will find new faces that will join us to expand the circle.
"In case we are expelled we will register again once, twice, and three times. In case they are not good and they completely block us, we will be able to strike their forums through some of the martyr hacker brothers and leave to the nearest forum. I expect most of the small forums with members of less than a thousand or more will be happy when thousands of members join them with vitality and continuous postings.
"F. The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Internet Guerrilla War
"There is no doubt every human action has inadequacies, negatives, and positives. Here we will discuss the pros and cons of the plan we have reached.
"The Negatives
"1. The significance of decentralization: this matter is placed at the top of the list because it is very dangerous if not addressed and managed in a very cohesive manner with a little effort from the administration in the forums, God help them, on this. In this inactiveness, most of the brothers might get tired and disappear and fade, since there is no communication in the forum as before and there are not many topics and responses. Some of the brothers might also burden us by their random behavior as each one would do what he wants without regulation or deterrence as we do not have the privilege of supervising in editing the responses and copying or erasing the topics or others.
"2. The spearhead(sisters): it is no secret to any brother who has delved deeply in the sea of media jihad that the spearhead of the media and the potential capabilities lay with the participating sisters, as one of them represents 10 men in their efforts, responses, editing, and other great things that we men do not pay attention to or get tired of because we are engaged in other things or duties that we seek, which we use as excuses for ourselves. And of course this female element I named the spearhead because they deserve it and we cannot underestimate them or give up on them because they are the spearhead on the non-believers and a light to the monotheists through their effort and potential. This spear could support and can kill us if we mishandle it. In the situations we mentioned and the previous means, the participation of the sisters in the contingency plan, emails, and messengers will be very dangerous and a great strife for us and them. No one is safe from the strife if they get involved in the emails. So those who have sick hearts do not get a chance; the solution is to create a special group for women as we have formed a special group for the cadres and we should create channels between us through some of the sisters through their brothers or husbands through which we can send information between the groups. Also in the messenger, they should have their private communications and we should have our private communications and those who have a brother or a husband should circulate the news between the two parties. There is no harm in everyone participating in the open forums, and the participation takes place there as we are doing now in our forums.
"The Positives
"1. In case they strike Al-Hisbah website and the rest of the forums, our movement will not be paralyzed and we will not lose our numbers or the communication among us, and this step will be the contingency plan.
"2. Instead of being only on our forums, the truth will spread to many parts of the Internet, to many forums, to many of the emails that we added to our groups that are already open to the public and many specialized people whose emails we have sought and added to our correspondence list.
"3. The enemy will not be able to stop this massive human network, especially in the event that it expands. The matter will not be dependent on the Al-Hisbah forum or the Al-Ikhlas forum if the enemy strikes and everything stops. As soon as the data that is downloaded from there reaches one person, it will spread in the throughout the Internet.
"4. There will be no focus on the cadre brothers since we will not centralize emails and the messenger, where one brother will receive the releases and then publish for the rest. Every brother will be linked to a number of brothers as a cell or a cell that is linked to another cell and so on, until we form thousands of cells and the unknown leader is lost among us and the enemy will not know who is the first one receiving and publishing the video.
"G. Technical Security Preparations
"This point is simple. It is a safe proxy recommended by a brother in the administration of Al-Hisbah and Al-Ikhlas and it includes the encrypted browser and the encrypted messenger.
"I have these things and we are preparing many of the brothers to master and use it and participate with us in the invading Internet jihad brigades. I will now stop from putting links and explaining the program here until I present it to the brothers in the administration to get the approval and recognition of the things that we discussed, may God destine good in them.
"May God bless you all my brethren and we expect your responses and participation with your opinions and corrections of the things about which I might have been mistaken or the addition of your ideas to develop this idea until we come up with a great conclusion, which will drive the enemies of God and their tyrant quislings, who will perish soon, crazy.
"Praise be to God and by your grace we testify that there is no god except You and we repent to You. Peace and prayers be upon you."
A summary of responses by some of the participants follows:
One poster stated that "this is very good article and we hope to see it implemented as soon as possible, as most of the participating brothers are not doing enough and do not anticipate the potential they have." He also stated that Al-Ikhlas and Al-Boraq are closed and "we advise the brothers to be cautious and follow the latest events because when we open Al-Boraq, we will issue an official statement."
The original poster responded saying that everyone should provide their opinion about the subject so that "we can reach a decision through which we can make a decision that we actually implement before we are struck once again, and thus we despair for a few weeks awaiting the return of the forums." He also wrote that he is" surprised by the negligence of such an important matter. I have not found a single criticism of this subject, although I know it has many defects, and so I decided to criticize it so I can return to provide solutions for it. I will begin criticizing from the point of view of the cadres first, as it is the most important. The cadres say: 'We think that your idea is a complete failure because of many important and dangerous reasons that might lead us to destroy what we built in the previous years of building a reference to Al-Qa'ida in the Internet. Your idea of a giant network composed of a series of brothers spread around the world will make control over the issues impossible'."
He continues: "I acknowledge what you say, but that does not mean we ignore the seriousness of the subject and we must put forth some solutions as follows:
"1. This stage should not continue for more than two weeks, which is the duration of the contingency plan. We should hold on to the members, not lose them, and give them hope during this time. No statements or videos should be released during this critical stage.
"2. If there is insistence on publishing during the contingency period, we say that email support is the way and anything that comes out from somewhere else is not recommended."
A third poster says: "It is really a genius idea. If it is implemented, it will be like a nuclear explosion upon the Internet that would be impossible to control by the enemy as every individual will be divided into different people and so on. The matter requires a solid ground and a new working way for the Al-Fajr Media Center. The Al-Fajr Media Center should try to win over some global media organizations, especially as huge military and political gains are coming our way, which will create competition among the media mediums. The benefit of joining with some of the global media organizations is their containment so they will not publish propaganda against our media, especially as the American pressure will decline after the fall of Bush and the entry of America into the myriad of economic, military, political, diplomatic, and social problems that will make it be contained within itself in the near future."
Another forum participant wrote: "I just want to advise that you should create an email at Gmail not at Yahoo or Hotmail, as Gmail provides an excellent capacity for emails."
