ISLAMABAD — Osama bin Laden cut himself off from direct access to the
Internet during his final years in Pakistan as he attempted to elude
the CIA. But the terror group he founded has been able to seize the
power of the Web to spawn an army of online followers who will prolong
al-Qaida's war against the West long after his demise.
Al-Qaida's technological evolution illustrates how much the group has changed since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and why it has flourished despite America's decade-long quest to crush it, using everything from drone strikes in Pakistan to secret prisons in Eastern Europe where bin Laden's lieutenants were interrogated.
The U.S. scored its biggest victory in that war on
May 2, when U.S. Navy SEALs shot and killed the 54-year-old terror
leader during a daring late-night helicopter raid not far from
Pakistan's capital.
His death was undoubtedly a blow to al-Qaida, but the group's diffuse, virtual network lives on in militant chatrooms and on social media sites like Facebook and YouTube, where supporters carry forward bin Laden's message and plan the kind of bloody attacks that were his hallmark.
"While bin Laden's death has certainly been lamented within the jihadist community, al-Qaida's copious media over the past 10 years have ensured that bin Laden's videos, speeches, and ideas will continue to incite jihadists all over the world," said Rita Katz, head of the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group that monitors Islamic militant messages online.
Unlike its Afghan Taliban allies, who banned television when they were in power, al-Qaida has never rejected modern technology and recognized the importance of an online presence before Sept. 11. But its early efforts were fairly rudimentary. Since then, the group and its affiliates have exploited the Internet to rally and connect supporters, and are very quick to adopt new technology.
Al-Qaida's media production arm, As-Sahab, now produces videos that look like professionally edited documentaries or television news broadcasts that are distributed by Al-Fajr, the group's online media organization, to major militant websites. The videos, which often contain flashy computer graphics, are then uploaded to scores of other sites by al-Qaida supporters.
"Despite extensive counterterrorism success against the group responsible for 9/11, the al-Qaida 'brand' now resonates with an increasingly diverse (though still narrow) cross-section of Muslims around the world," said a recent report by the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Al-Qaida's technological evolution illustrates how much the group has changed since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and why it has flourished despite America's decade-long quest to crush it, using everything from drone strikes in Pakistan to secret prisons in Eastern Europe where bin Laden's lieutenants were interrogated.
as-Sahab via AP Television News, File, Associated Press
FILE- This file image released by al-Qaida's media unit as-Sahab
and taken from a militant Web site shows an undated photo of Osama bin
Laden as part of an audiotaped speech posted late Wednesday, March 19,
2008. Osama bin Laden cut himself off from basic communications like
phone and Internet during his final years in Pakistan as he attempted to
elude the CIA. But the terror group he founded did just the opposite,
seizing the power of the Web to spawn an army of online followers who
will continue al-Qaida's war against the West long after his demise.
His death was undoubtedly a blow to al-Qaida, but the group's diffuse, virtual network lives on in militant chatrooms and on social media sites like Facebook and YouTube, where supporters carry forward bin Laden's message and plan the kind of bloody attacks that were his hallmark.
"While bin Laden's death has certainly been lamented within the jihadist community, al-Qaida's copious media over the past 10 years have ensured that bin Laden's videos, speeches, and ideas will continue to incite jihadists all over the world," said Rita Katz, head of the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group that monitors Islamic militant messages online.
Unlike its Afghan Taliban allies, who banned television when they were in power, al-Qaida has never rejected modern technology and recognized the importance of an online presence before Sept. 11. But its early efforts were fairly rudimentary. Since then, the group and its affiliates have exploited the Internet to rally and connect supporters, and are very quick to adopt new technology.
Al-Qaida's media production arm, As-Sahab, now produces videos that look like professionally edited documentaries or television news broadcasts that are distributed by Al-Fajr, the group's online media organization, to major militant websites. The videos, which often contain flashy computer graphics, are then uploaded to scores of other sites by al-Qaida supporters.
"Despite extensive counterterrorism success against the group responsible for 9/11, the al-Qaida 'brand' now resonates with an increasingly diverse (though still narrow) cross-section of Muslims around the world," said a recent report by the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.