Cyber Jihad for Dummies
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Jeff There are others who believe that these sites are a treasure trove of cyber intelligence, counter intelligence and potential infiltration and espionage. With the reduction in security discussed above, the ability to infiltrate the sites should theoretically become easier. Becoming a ‘jihadi’, learning their ways and gathering, processing, analyzing and disseminating intelligence is viewed as key elements in the prevention of further physical acts and as a potential method for access to more senior jihadists.
Who funds these jihadis? What resources do they have at their disposal?
It is not so much as who as it is what and how. They rely on donations that they may say are earmarked for the plight of the Palestinians but really make their way to jihadist groups. They are also involved with the illegal acquisition of credit cards as part of standard cybercrime activities. For the most part, I believe their funding comes in large part from drug sales. From opium and heroin that comes from Afghanistan (90% of the world’s opium) to the trafficking in pharmaceutical drugs, jihadis use the concept of taqiyya to justify what would normally be considered illegal with respect to Islam. Taqiyya as I had learned it a couple of decades back is:
Readiness to express superficial agreement (Taqiyya)
i) the concept of Taqiyya (تقية - 'fear, guard against', also taghiyeh) refers to a dispensation allowing believers to conceal their faith when under threat, persecution or compulsion. The word "al-Taqiyya" literally means: "Concealing or disguising one's beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions, and/or strategies at a time of imminent danger, whether now or later in time, to save oneself from physical and/or mental injury."
ii) Fleeting amiability
iii) Superficial assent
iv) Conceal true situation
v) Hide true feelings
vi) Simulated, external agreement, not necessarily genuine
vii) External conformity with ethical demands
This concept has been ‘newly’ discovered by Hollywood as referenced in ‘Body of Lies’ and ‘Traitor.’ The meaning has been stretched by the Taliban, al-Qa’eda and the jihadis to mean that is pretty much okay to do anything in life that is against the kufaar or the infidels. The means to an end is justified under the concept of taqiyya and since the drugs are intended for the infidel, it is okay to manufacture, traffic and profit from them.
Since heroin is such a huge moneymaker, many seemingly legitimate businessmen, princes and sheiks partake in the sale and distribution of the drug. Taking routes out of Afghanistan by air, sea and over land, the heroin trade is big business that fills the pockets of many all the while funding jihadist and terrorist activities. In 2009, according to U.N. estimates, the opiate trade accounted for $2.3 billion of the Afghan economy, or about 19 percent of the country’s GDP. That is just within Afghanistan and does not include the monies being made once it leaves the confines of the country.
How much are we to blame for what's going on? In the movie Peacemaker, there was a dialog between Col. Tom Devoe and a member of his team -
Ken: Colonel, the guy you bagged is Dr. Amir Teraki, Pakistani. PhD in Astrophysics, educated at Harvard.
Col. Devoe: That's right, people. We educated half the world's terrorists.
Is that true in the real world?
Jeff The use of our infrastructure against us is a key component to some of their biggest successes. For years and continuing today, students from many countries are sent here funded by other than above board means or intent. Whether knowingly funded by a nation-state intelligence service or funded through a nation-state program that eventually employs the repatriating student in activities that target the West, these actions are standard methods if expanding brainshare for nefarious purposes. I lived and worked in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia back in the late eighties and found that nearly all of the Saudi’s with which I worked had attended at least one year at the University of Tampa, just a stone’s throw away from USCENTCOM and MacDill AFB. Not to pick on the Saudis but the chart shows historical trending of students in the US with a low after 9/11 but significant upward trends as the memories fade.
From education in our colleges and universities to the extensive training received by the US during the Soviet-Afghan war of the 80’s, we tend to continue to educate in various ways those who in turn wish to do us harm.
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