Researcher Says Social Networks Link Terrorists

An anonymous reader writes "At the International Conference on Cyber Security 2009 in New York, Evan Kohlmann, a senior investigator and private consultant for Global Terror Alert, claimed that a new breed of terrorists are using online forums to recruit people who align themselves with the mission of Al Qaeda, creating global networks of would-be terrorists."

The Late, Great Zarkman Was Not Impressed

[aquatone282]

The Zarkman [typepad.com] was not impressed with the quality of recruits and supporters garnered through the interwebs. . .

Other links

[Joce640k]

The networks also link the exact same people to well adjusted, middle aged Caucasians.

Weirdly enough, this positive influence doesn't seem to be mentioned in the study.

Re:FUD

[the_fat_kid]

oh, you can count on the USENET getting the FUD cannon.
Where do you think the terrorists get their kiddie porn.

Wouldn't you take the opposite approach?

[khasim]

Infiltrating these recruiter networks to sow confusion and discord, as suggested in TFA, would be highly effective to curtail recruitment in an anonymous environment where little trust exists to begin with.

Wouldn't you take the opposite approach and encourage trust in your fake user ... and then use the logs to track the IP addresses of the other participants ... and then tap (legally) their phones ... and find the people who have real connections with real terrorist organizations and crack THEM?

This is the kind of intel that our government doesn't get anymore.

And it would be a LOT more effective and efficient then simply trawling through random phone conversations.

Re:Prison System...

[dargaud]

3 quotes for you:

Convicts register their religious affiliation when they're processed into prison. And about 99.5% of the huge U.S.A. prison population consists of inmates who identified themselves as members of religious denominations." -- Gene M. Kasmar.

"In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies." -- From 'Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies' a study published in the (peer-reviewed) Journal of Society and Religion, 2008.

"When I was young I used to pray for a bike. Then I realized that God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness." -- Dan Gadino.

So how about we instead teach those criminals _not_ to use god as an excuse or as a way to get forgiveness ? Maybe if they figured out they have only their current life they'll decide to make better use of it. One can dream.

minority report ..

[rs232]

What good is freedom of expression if there is no freedom of response. So-called democratic states attempt to suppress descent on social networks by painting them as havens for terrorists. It's curious as both the capitalists and the communists are dead scared of people talking to each other, without the moderating influence of some state-run or private-enterprise owned media.

Yoani Sanchez and her blogging comrades are now the targets of the Castro regime's [motherjones.com] censors--and police.

Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication!

[apathy maybe]

Dra åt helvete, jag hatar dig.

(For those not in the know, the Danes once controlled most of Scandinavia. And they must never forget that they were once an imperialist power. They must therefore tread softly when talking to other people. Even though it was years and years ago. It still counts. Bloody imperialists. (I'm not making this up, there is still a guilt complex among some Danes about this.))