Does The Internet Help In Promoting Terrorism In Any Form?
It is generally expected that terrorism is the use of violent or intimidating accidents to people or property. But despite of what most people think terrorism is not really about mass murder. The primary goal of a terrorist attack is to strike fear and panic in the minds of ordinary citizens. It is all about psychological impact rather than the physical damage. And when the targeted population responds with hysteria its behavior becomes irrational and so the preparators get a return on their physical attack. For example In Madrid train bombing in 2004, just three days before the national elections, the fear and anger that the Spanish population experienced resulted that the ruling party lost power in the elections. (Keith B. Richburg,Washington Post Foreign Service,October 17, 2004)
Most terrorist organizations think three moves ahead. They are resourceful and formidable opponents. Most terrorist organizations do extensive planning and have geopolitical ambitions. They do a lot of calculations and understand the fundamentals of the human psychology. They know how to manipulate people and to provoke countries. When we recognize this fact, the terrorist loses its mystic and we start look at them from pragmatic perspective.
Terrorism is not something new. The term terrorism evolved during the phase of the French revolution known as the reign of terror. From 1793 to 1794 one faction of the revolution used violet methods to rid out traders and spread terror throughout the country. In just six weeks more than thousands people were guillotined in Paris alone.( Frank E. Smitha,2009)
Throughout history few places in the world have been untouched by terrorism.
In September 1972 as the world watched the Olympic game in Munich, Germany, the Palestinian terrorist group black September try to force Israel to release two hundred prisoners by taking eleven Israeli athletics hostage in the Olympic Village. The terrorists killed nine hostages during the German government rescue attempt.
In December 1988, a bomb exploded on Pan American Airline flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. All two hundred and fifty nine people on board were killed. No one claimed responsibility, however years later two Libyan intelligence agents were convicted.
September 11, 2001 was the deadliest terrorist attack in history. Osama bin Laden, terrorist organization al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial jets. Two of the planes were flown into the world trade center, another into the Pentagon and the last plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Over eighty different nations were attacked and killed without warning, shocking the civilized world.
These are among them more shocking attacks. (US Dept of State,2003)
Today assassinations, hijackings and bombings are common terrorist tactics. And by attracting attention to the media especially internet and television terrorists now are able to reach a wider audience. There is Non-Stop media exposure and this allows people to follow the events minute by minute. Media is not alone in this, terrorist can and do exploit the Internet because It is a powerful tool to share information through online message boards and chat rooms, coordinate attacks, spread propaganda, raise funds and recruitment. Internet can spread misinformation and fear very quickly over a large portion of the population. The scarier and crazier the story the faster it spreads and the more the website earns from advertising revenues. So this kind of misinformation builds the hype and further reinforces the psychological intentions of the terrorist organizations. Anyone who uses the Internet is available to online radicalization. Young people in particular are in risk of radicalization due to regular use to the Internet. Here are some recent examples of conviction.
” Ibrahim was convicted when intending to commit a terrorist attack in July, 2009 for planning to construct and improvise explosive device. He spent hours watching training materials in Internet which included videos of suicide bombers and instructions on how to make explosive devices, when arrested he was on the process of planning an attack,”- Jayne Snelgrove, Head of the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit(CITRU) (Association of Chief Police Officers [ACPO], May 16, 2011)
It is also important to remember that you do not need a computer to access the Internet, the Internet can be accessed in a number of ways from mobile phones game consoles.
The first duty of any government is to protect the nation to keep them safe from invasion of terrorism. But in the world where communications are increasingly complex.
“Monitoring those who with do at home become ever more difficult. today governments try to give the security services greater than before to monitor the Internet. If anyone is concerned about someone in a website who may be willing to commit terrorist acts they should speech to someone they trust such as a police officer, teacher or a doctor,”-Robert Stephan (Critical Infrastructure Protection Specialist, May 6, 2013)
In the United Kingdom a web page is available to encourage people to take action against unacceptable violet extremism. This web page highlight for people what they can do about sites that may be offensive but not necessarily illegal. Information about what people believe are illegal sites can be submitted anonymously to the CTIRU via this page.
References
Madrid Attacks May Have Targeted Election
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38817-2004Oct16.html)
Building Intelligence to Fight Terrorism
(http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2003/09/intelligence-steinberg)
What is Terrorism?
(http://www.terrorism-research.com/)
Terrorism: A War Without Borders
(http://history.state.gov/education/modules/terrorism-intro)
Counter-terrorism chief discusses the role of technology in reporting extremism
(www.computerweekly.com)
THE CHALLENGE OF PROTECTING MASS GATHERINGS IN A POST-9/11 WORLD
(http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-110hhrg44652/html/CHRG-110hhrg44652.htm)
(http://www.policeoracle.com/)
(https://www.gov.uk/)
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