Internet Jihad Update, showing once again that the global jihadists are not anti-technology or anti-modern, and make sophisticated use of the Internet to further their goals. Their struggle is not against modern society, but against non-Muslim, non-Sharia society. “Crafts website hacked by terrorists,” from the Boston Globe, with thanks to Twostellas:
A plumber who loves glass etching, Andrew Roberge had crafts to sell. His son, Mike, knew Web design. Carriage House Glass is the marriage of their talents, an online catalog of sandblasted vases and goblets that “caters to those who love beautiful and unique gifts,” the site proclaims.
But the website, which they started four years ago, offered more than just beautiful baubles, specialists in terrorism say. The site contained hidden files filled with the radical writings of a top aide to Osama bin Laden, including “The International Islamic Resistance Call,” Abu Musab al-Suri’s 1,600-page manifesto advocating jihad.
The website was hacked a year ago by followers of Suri, a Syrian-born Al Qaeda leader, who turned the Roberge’s labor of love into an online reading room for aspiring mujahadeen, the specialists said. The revelation came as a shock to the Roberges, who said they had no idea that Islamic extremists had intruded on their website.
“We got hacked! Unbelievable!” exclaimed Mike Roberge, when told last week of the hidden content on his site.
His startled father added, “Believe me, I wouldn’t let this [expletive] get on my site. I don’t need that. I don’t need none of that. I’m a firm believer in minding my own business.”
Very well, but it’s time for all Americans to stop minding their own business and realize what is at stake in this present conflict.
The father and son from Lawrence, Mass., vowed to delete the postings and replace them with images of eagles and American flags, “something wicked patriotic,” Mike Roberge said.
A link to the hidden files on the website was circulated on bulletin boards frequented by Muslim extremists for a year, said Jarret Brachman, director of research at the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
Regular visitors to www.carriagehouseglass.com could never see the hidden material, specialists said. Only visitors who knew the address of the pages inside could access the cache of downloadable Arabic writings, and see the flash animation featuring the Kaaba, the black stone cube that Muslims face when they pray in Mecca.
Brachman and other researchers had been aware of the files, but said the intrusion onto the site was not unusual in the burgeoning world of online Islamic extremism….
FBI spokeswoman Gail A. Marcinkiewicz declined to comment on whether the agency knew of the website or was monitoring it. She said the FBI would investigate a website only if it directly advocated violence. Specialists said Suri’s writings advocate violence, but Marcinkiewicz said, “unless …. there’s something very urgent in that paper, it’s not that we wouldn’t take a look at it, it’s just that we have to prioritize. There’s no quick and easy answer here.”
Yes, we have to make sure we’re not late for our next CAIR sensitivity training seminar. After that, if there’s time, we may look into this.