iraq

BBC: US Fights Fresh Abu Ghraib Images: August 13, 2005

"US civil liberties groups have launched a lawsuit to force the release of 87 pictures and four videos showing abuse at Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad. Earlier images sparked worldwide condemnation and resulted in charges against a number of soldiers. The US argues the rest should stay hidden to avoid helping the insurgents. It is “probable that al-Qaeda and other groups will seize upon these images and videos as grist for their propaganda mill,” the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Richard Myers, argues in court papers. Releasing the images could also incite violence against US troops, he says. The first step to abandoning practices that are repugnant to our laws and national ideals is to bring them into the sunshine And he says the images would be detrimental to the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan. Gen Myers’ arguments were contained in court documents filed on 21 July but only recently unsealed. The Pentagon stepped up its campaign with a later request, submitted on Friday, for certain material to be kept from the public domain. ‘Accountability’ The civil liberties groups have submitted counter-arguments by a retired US army colonel, Michael Pheneger, who insists the public good would be served by publication of the images."
[BBC]

Al Qaeda's In Cyberspace: August, 2005

“...al Qaeda has become the first guerrilla movement in history to migrate from physical space to cyberspace. With laptops and DVDs, in secret hideouts and at neighborhood Internet cafes, young code-writing jihadists have sought to replicate the training, communication, planning and preaching facilities they lost in Afghanistan with countless new locations on the Internet. Al Qaeda suicide bombers and ambush units in Iraq routinely depend on the Web for training and tactical support, relying on the Internet's anonymity and flexibility to operate with near impunity in cyberspace. [...]

In Afghanistan, the Taliban banned television and even toothbrushes as forbidden modern innovations. Yet al Qaeda, led by educated and privileged gadget hounds, adapted early and enthusiastically to the technologies of globalization, and its Arab volunteers managed to evade the Taliban's screen-smashing technology police. [...] bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, have fallen well behind their younger followers worldwide. The two still make speeches that must be recorded in a makeshift studio and couriered at considerable risk to al-Jazeera or other satellite stations, as with Zawahiri's message broadcast last week. Their younger adherents have moved on to Web sites and the production of short videos with shock appeal that can be distributed to millions instantly via the Internet. Many online videos seek to replicate the Afghan training experience. An al Qaeda video library discovered on the Web and obtained by The Washington Post from an experienced researcher showed in a series of high-quality training films shot in Afghanistan how to conduct a roadside assassination, raid a house, shoot a rocket-propelled grenade, blow up a car, attack a village, destroy a bridge and fire an SA-7 surface-to-air missile. During a practice hostage-taking, the filmmakers chuckled as trainees herded men and women into a room, screaming in English, ”Move! Move!“ [...]

Until recently, al Qaeda's use of the Web appeared to be centered on communications: preaching, recruitment, community-building and broad incitement. But there is increasing evidence that al Qaeda and its offshoots are also using the Internet for tactical purposes, especially for training new adherents.”
[Washington Post]