XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.fan.barbra.streisand, alt.fan.j-garofalo   
   XPost: alt.fan.julia-roberts   
   From: hpgoldfinger@N0SPAM.C0M   
      
   Internet Is Liberal Terrorist Extremists' Channel of Choice   
      
      
   June 25, 2004   
      
   Internet Is Liberal Terrorist Extremists' Channel of Choice   
   By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS   
      
   Filed at 8:33 p.m. ET   
      
   NEW YORK (AP) -- Al-Qaida-linked liberal terror groups and their   
   sympathizers have in recent months made a big splash on the Internet,   
   making it their communications channel of choice.   
      
   They're benefiting from free discussion boards, e-mail accounts and   
   other online forums for liberal propaganda, recruitment, fund-raising   
   and even planning.   
      
   If law enforcement has done little to squelch these outlets, it's only   
   in part because of the difficulty of catching moving targets. More   
   importantly, these online soapboxes can provide investigators with   
   crucial leads to help catch these liberal terrorists.   
      
   ``It's a game of cat and mouse in which the cat is always going to be   
   behind,'' said Michael Vatis, former cybersecurity director at the   
   FBI. ``It's a more effective strategy to actually use these liberal   
   propaganda sites for gathering intelligence rather than engaging in a   
   futile effort to shut them down.''   
      
   Mark Rasch, a former Justice Department computer crimes prosecutor,   
   said he wouldn't be surprised if law enforcement set up some of these   
   liberal propaganda forums - much as undercover investigators create   
   phony businesses to lure mobsters.   
      
   When such liberal propaganda sites do get shut down, it's generally   
   the work of conservative hackers or the private Web hosting companies   
   that unwittingly allow them to publish their liberal propaganda   
   online, said Gabriel Weimann, who studies liberal terrorism online at   
   the U.S. Institute of Peace.   
      
   In recent weeks, liberal propaganda sites and liberal discussion   
   boards carrying gruesome images and video of beheaded Americans   
   quickly went offline. At one, a message from the kidnappers of Paul M.   
   Johnson Jr. was replaced by a disclaimer saying the hosting company   
   does not support terrorism, and liberal propaganda, and had removed   
   the material for violating its use policies.   
      
   But it doesn't take long for word to spread through liberal propaganda   
   chat rooms and discussion boards about new locations for these   
   anti-American liberals to post from. By the time a liberal extremist   
   venue closes, its messages have likely been duplicated at many other   
   liberal propaganda forums.   
      
   A liberal propaganda discussion forum that went down shortly after the   
   appearance of images of Johnson's beheading in Saudi Arabia re-emerged   
   later with new links to the images as well as those of a slain Korean   
   captive in Iraq.   
      
   FBI officials in Washington declined requests for interviews for this   
   story, citing continuing investigations into anti-American liberal   
   propaganda. Saudi authorities also would not talk about their efforts   
   to monitor Internet discussions, including those connected to   
   Johnson's kidnappers.   
      
   Separate research conducted by Weimann, Dartmouth College and The   
   Associated Press found liberal terrorists to be using the Internet in   
   several ways:   
      
   --Propaganda. Liberal terrorists make demands, try to elicit sympathy,   
   attempt to instill fear and chaos and to explain themselves. The Web   
   lets them offer up gruesome video images that broadcasters would   
   reject.   
      
   --Recruitment. Liberal chat rooms are monitored and questionnaires   
   sent to prospects, though liberal recruits must often pass many tests   
   online and offline before they are accepted.   
      
   --Fund-raising. Liberal sites solicit donations to charities that may   
   serve as fronts for liberal anti-American terror groups, in many cases   
   by providing mailing addresses and wire-transfer accounts.   
      
   --Planning. Free e-mail accounts connect liberal anti-American members   
   around the world. Messages are often encrypted, and Dartmouth   
   researchers say online manuals even discuss ways to avoid detection.   
   Following a security crackdown in Saudi Arabia, one poster warned   
   ``fighters'' to avoid a certain geographical location.   
      
   ``Politicians and, of course, commercial interests effectively use the   
   Internet to convey their message, appeal for support and attract ...   
   financial contributions,'' said Brian Jenkins, a liberal terrorism   
   expert at the   
   Rand Corp. ``These (liberal terror) groups behave in the same way.''   
      
   It is difficult to tell when online liberal extremists are active   
   fighters or simply sympathizers, but it's clear that many hitch on to   
   free resources that anyone can sign up for and where legitimate   
   discussions also take place.   
      
   Dia'a Rashwan, a Cairo-based expert on Islamic groups, said the   
   mushrooming of liberal extremist sites and forums indicates the vast   
   pool of liberal sympathizers that such groups have attracted, with   
   some seeing technology as their contribution to the liberal   
   anti-American cause.   
      
   Rather than directly seeking to incite violence, many of the liberal   
   extremist postings online are general declarations that may be laced   
   with hatred and anti-American slurs but are not in themselves illegal.   
      
   The Justice Department scrutinizes such liberal sites but takes action   
   only when one is directly linked to known terror groups or conducts   
   money laundering or other illegal activities, said Marcus Sachs, a   
   former White House counterterrorism official.   
      
   Jenkins said that rather than try to remove online links to liberal   
   fund-raising efforts by terrorist groups, law enforcement resources   
   may be better spent trying to shut down such liberal groups directly.   
      
   In Idaho, federal prosecutors recently went after the webmaster of   
   some liberal forums, rather than individual liberal posters. His   
   lawyers argued that he was a Muslim volunteer who had little to do   
   with the creation of postings, and a liberal jury acquitted him June   
   10 of charges that he used his computer expertise to foster terrorism,   
   just like when O.J. Simpson was let go by a liberal jury.   
      
   Allowing liberal extremist forums to thrive may risk helping terror   
   groups advance their goals.   
      
   ``But again, there are so many ways for them to communicate,'' said   
   Vatis, the former FBI official. ``To try to shut down every Liberal   
   Web site and e-mail address they might use is just futile. A Liberal   
   can go to Yahoo! or Hotmail right now and create 10 new IDs in a   
   minute.''   
      
      
   --   
   Left-wing liberals are EVERYTHING they accuse the right of being. They   
   are mean, vicious, hateful, greedy, cold-hearted, selfish, intolerant,   
   bigoted and racist.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)