-Caveat Lector-
U.S. intelligence has discovered dozens of Islamist Web sites, such
as the one above, where Al Qaeda uses covert forms of
communication to direct its agents
Hiding (and Seeking) Messages on the Web
Al Qaeda uses the Web as a communications network
By Colin Soloway, Rod Nordland and Barbie Nadeau
NEWSWEEK
June 17 issue — One day last October, an intelligence-community
analyst noticed something strange about a radical Islamist Web site
she had been monitoring for several months. A previously open,
innocuous part of the site was suddenly blocked. She checked her
notes, found the old address for the link and typed it in—to find an
otherwise empty page commanding in Arabic, MISSIONARIES
ATTACK!
OTHER “HIDDEN” PAGES ON the site included seemingly
nonsensical phrases and quotations from the Qur’an—coded
instructions for Qaeda operatives and their supporters. U.S.
intelligence discovered Al Qaeda uses the Web as a
communications network. Analysts believe Al Qaeda uses
prearranged phrases and symbols to direct its agents. An icon of an
AK-47 can appear next to a photo of Osama bin Laden facing one
direction one day, and another direction the next. Colors of icons
can change as well. Messages can be hidden on pages inside sites
with no links to them, or placed openly in chat rooms. The
messages and patterns of symbols are given to analysts at the CIA
and National Security Agency to decipher.
The operators of these sites, working from Pakistan, Malaysia,
Indonesia, the gulf states and Britain, are sophisticated in their
computer tradecraft. “These guys are no fools,” says an intelligence
source.
Much of the intelligence from the sites comes from “traffic
analysis.” Analysts say they have seen “surges” in traffic since 9-11,
in many cases prior to attempted attacks. “There was a surge about
the time [shoe-bomber] Richard Reid got on the plane,” says one
analyst. “We would get surges, and then you would hear about
people who were stopped.”
For more direct communication, Al Qaeda uses commercially
available encryption software or hides messages inside graphics
files by a process known as steganography. “They are giving
strategic direction to their supporters by using the Web [and] using
[cryptographic software] to transmit e-mail messages,” says a British
intelligence source.
While encrypted communications keep the content of
messages secret, they attract the attention of intelligence services,
which track the messages to their source and recipient; meanwhile,
much of the Web communications are hidden in the mass of
unrelated “chatter” on radical Web sites. “The genius of this method
is that they are hiding in plain sight,” says the analyst. “It’s three
jigsaw puzzles mixed up in one box, when you’re only interested in
one of them.”
Some of the most valuable intelligence gleaned from the sites
has been the connection between Islamic charities and Qaeda fund-
raising operations. Analysts found the same bank-account numbers
listed in Islamic humanitarian appeals on sites raising funds for jihad
against the enemies of Islam. Several U.S.-based Islamic “charities”
have been shut down thanks to the analysts’ discovery of this fund-
raising scam.
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