Update: Bin Laden associate warns of cyberattacks

Zardon · Nov 19, 2002, 07:03 PM

A London-based fundamentalist Islamic cleric with known ties to Osama bin Laden said al-Qaeda and various other fundamentalist Muslim groups around the world are actively planning to use the Internet as a weapon in their "defensive" jihad, or holy war, against the West.
In an exclusive interview Monday with Computerworld, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, founder of the London-based group Jama'at Al-Muhajirun and the spokesman for Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, said all types of technology, including the Internet, are being studied for use in the global jihad against the West.

"In a matter of time you will see attacks on the stock market," Bakri said, referring specifically to the markets in New York, London and Tokyo.

His comments represent the first time that a high-profile radical Muslim cleric with known links to bin Laden has spoken publicly about the use of cybertactics for offensive purposes.

Cyberterrorism experts offered mixed views of whether such attacks could, or would, be carried out. But they stressed that the threat should not be dismissed lightly.

Vince Cannistraro, the former chief of counterterrorism at the CIA, called Bakri a "fire breather" with no special insight into al-Qaeda operations or plans. However, Cannistraro said that a number of Islamists, some of them close to al-Qaeda, have developed expertise in computer science.

"And some are well schooled in how to carry out cyberattacks," he said. "We know from material retrieved from [al-Qaeda] camps in Afghanistan that this is true. But their expertise seems mostly dedicated to communicating securely among al-Qaeda cells. Cyberattacks would probably render them less secure by focusing attention on their location."

According to Bakri, a Syrian-born Muslim cleric whom the FBI and British intelligence have tied to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers and others seeking flight training in the U.S., Islam justifies the use of "all types of technologies" in the defense of Muslim lands, including psychological and economic weapons "or a weapon of mass destruction."

Jihad groups around the world are very active on the Internet, Bakri said, speaking from a cell phone near his north London office. And while his group, Jama'at Al-Muhajirun, is primarily focused on supporting the political goals of Al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups, Bakri said the military wings of these various groups are also using and studying the Internet for their own operations.

"That is what al-Qaeda is skillful with," said Bakri. "I would not be surprised if tomorrow I hear of a big economic collapse because of somebody attacking the main technical systems in big companies," he said, referring to an ongoing threat of an attack.

Michael Caloyannides, a senior fellow at Mitretek Systems Inc., in Falls Church, Va., and a former CIA scientist, said the skills required to launch a strategic cyberattack with devastating economic consequences are far different from what terrorist groups have focused on in the past. However, the Internet remains "very vulnerable" to serious disruptions, including those focusing on domain name servers, border gateway protocol routers and various single points of failure, said Caloyannides.

"While the Internet was originally designed and configured to be survivable, its transformation to a commercial entity has caused it to become economically efficient at the expense of no longer being anywhere near as survivable," said Caloyannides.

He said any such attack launched by al-Qaeda or in direct support of al-Qaeda could have a significant impact on the Bush administration's war on terrorism. In particular, Caloyannides warned of potentially dire consequences for any nation that knowingly allows such an attack to be launched from systems and networks within its borders. "Any country that allows its territory to be used for a massive Internet attack on the U.S. may want to think twice of the likely consequences," he said.

In April, the CIA sent an analysis paper to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence outlining the cyberthreat posed by international terrorist groups, particularly al-Qaeda.

"Cyberwarfare attacks against our critical infrastructure systems will become an increasingly viable option for terrorists as they become more familiar with these targets and the technologies required to attack them," the CIA paper stated. "Various terrorist groups, including al-Qa'ida [sic] and Hizballah, are becoming more adept at using the Internet and computer technologies. These groups have both the intentions and the desire to develop some of the cyberskills necessary to forge an effective cyber attack modus operandi."

To date, al-Qaeda's cybercapabilities have been the subject of much debate. Most Internet security professionals have doubted such groups' interest in cybertactics on the grounds that physical bombings and other forms of attack provide the fear and bloodshed that al-Qaeda is looking for. However, in recent statements made by bin Laden, the terror leader has shown a clear desire to inflict catastrophic damage on the U.S. economy as a way to force the U.S. to withdraw its military forces from Afghanistan and to curtail its support for Israel.

"There are millions of Muslims around the world involved in hacking the Pentagon and Israeli government sites," said Bakri. "The struggle will continue," he said, referring to the millions of young bin Laden supporters who are now studying computer science as a way to support the cause.

"I believe that Osama bin Laden has earned his leadership and most [Muslim students] who are graduating in computer science and computer programming and IT technology are supporting Osama bin Laden," Bakri said.

"I would advise those who doubt al-Qaeda's interest in cyberweapons to take Osama bin Laden very seriously," he said. "The third letter from Osama bin Laden a few months ago was clearly addressing using the technology in order to destroy the economy of the capitalist states.

"This is a matter that is very clear, and Osama bin Laden must be taken very seriously."

The threat alone may be part of the attack. Steven Aftergood, a defense and intelligence analyst at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said statements such as Bakri's are "themselves a crude form of information warfare," intended to incite, alarm and confuse. "They need to be viewed dispassionately in that light," said Aftergood.

"There is always room for improvement in information systems security," he said. "And it would be prudent to take the existence of an adversarial threat seriously." DAN VERTON

Zardon · Nov 19, 2002, 07:04 PM

Born in 1958 in Syria, Islamist Sheikh Omar bin Bakri Muhammad was recruited as a young man by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood movement and participated in its revolt against then-Syrian President Hafez Assad. As a result, he was expelled from Syria and moved to Beirut, Lebanon.
In Beirut, Bakri joined Sheikh Khalil Al-Mat and the local branch of Hizb Al-Tahrir. In 1983, he took the alias of Omar Fustuk and settled in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he established Al-Muhajirun as a front for the Hizb Al-Tahrir in the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Muhajirun now has offices in Britain, France, Germany, Pakistan and the U.S.

Bakri became a legal resident of Britain in 1993, and in March 1996 he applied for citizenship.

Between 1994 and 1998, Bakri gave speeches at Islamist rallies in London's Trafalgar Square and Wembley Stadium. He also founded the Al-Khilafa publishing house in London and serves as a judge in the Shari'a, or Islamic Law, Court of the U.K. Bakri also claims to be the spokesman of the International Islamic Front, the political wing of the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, led by Osama bin Laden. Bakri has also stated that he has actively sought recruits for other groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and various liberation movements in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Prior to last year's Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an FBI memo written by agent Kenneth Williams and e-mailed to the FBI's Washington headquarters on July 10, 2001, noted a connection between Middle Eastern men in Phoenix-area flight schools and Bakri's London-based Al-Muhajirun.

The sheikh has also been involved with issuing a fatwa -- an Islamic call to action -- that cited airports as one of several legitimate attack targets in the U.S., as well as another fatwa that called for the assassination of Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.

Scoop · Nov 20, 2002, 12:12 AM

Why cant people just get on in life? I just wish they would just get on with there own lifes and stop messing with others. A lot of inocent people (the Jo Publics) are getting hurt over all this shite and I for one think its totally bloody wrong and usless. Just let us get on with our lifes and = our govts should let you get on with yours.

Regards and Peace to all

Scoop

ShoeHornOPlenty · Nov 20, 2002, 12:34 AM

You know ever since 9/11/01 we keep reading and hearing about all these planned attacks, things are going to happen, Britney Spears will stop lip syncing, Duke Nukem Forever will come out, the world is coming to an end, and I would have to say that while its great these things are being told to the public, I would wager that the majority of them are nothing more than BS made up to get attention.

d3athsh3ad · Nov 20, 2002, 06:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zardon
Born in 1958 in Syria, Islamist Sheikh Omar bin Bakri Muhammad was recruited as a young man by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood movement and Blah, blah, blah /end google news feed

Please don't concern yourself over a self-publicist sub-sect of Islam leader. He is of no importance other than helping people gain illegal entry to the UK. This weekend three African Moslems where detained for planning a gas attack on the London Underground as you probably know. MI6 [where James Bond would work if he were real] have had to deal with terrorists like the IRA killing 100's of Britons (Irish, English, Scots, Welsh and all).
The attempted assination of our entire Government has been tried twice very recently; most clearly in 1984 "Mrs Thatcher and her Cabinet escaped the blast, but it left five people dead and 34 injured " (source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/301223.stm).

"Most of the War Cabinet, including John Major, ducked when they heard the first mortar bomb explode in the Downing Street garden just 50 yards away. "It seemed a good thing to do," said one official." - (source - http://www.guardiancentury.co.uk/199...112631,00.html)

And up until 1999 the great Irish American's were donating money to Noriad - recognised by the UN as part of the IRA.

I won't even go into other areas of US funded terrorism, I'm just glad that my wife, three year old child and I surived the 1996 3,000lb3,000lb bomb in Manchester.

Please remeber all those whom have died just because someone else thinks that's a way of sorting an arguement.

Nov 19, 2002, 07:03 PM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 177	Update: Bin Laden associate warns of cyberattacks A London-based fundamentalist Islamic cleric with known ties to Osama bin Laden said al-Qaeda and various other fundamentalist Muslim groups around the world are actively planning to use the Internet as a weapon in their "defensive" jihad, or holy war, against the West. In an exclusive interview Monday with Computerworld, Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, founder of the London-based group Jama'at Al-Muhajirun and the spokesman for Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, said all types of technology, including the Internet, are being studied for use in the global jihad against the West. "In a matter of time you will see attacks on the stock market," Bakri said, referring specifically to the markets in New York, London and Tokyo. His comments represent the first time that a high-profile radical Muslim cleric with known links to bin Laden has spoken publicly about the use of cybertactics for offensive purposes. Cyberterrorism experts offered mixed views of whether such attacks could, or would, be carried out. But they stressed that the threat should not be dismissed lightly. Vince Cannistraro, the former chief of counterterrorism at the CIA, called Bakri a "fire breather" with no special insight into al-Qaeda operations or plans. However, Cannistraro said that a number of Islamists, some of them close to al-Qaeda, have developed expertise in computer science. "And some are well schooled in how to carry out cyberattacks," he said. "We know from material retrieved from [al-Qaeda] camps in Afghanistan that this is true. But their expertise seems mostly dedicated to communicating securely among al-Qaeda cells. Cyberattacks would probably render them less secure by focusing attention on their location." According to Bakri, a Syrian-born Muslim cleric whom the FBI and British intelligence have tied to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers and others seeking flight training in the U.S., Islam justifies the use of "all types of technologies" in the defense of Muslim lands, including psychological and economic weapons "or a weapon of mass destruction." Jihad groups around the world are very active on the Internet, Bakri said, speaking from a cell phone near his north London office. And while his group, Jama'at Al-Muhajirun, is primarily focused on supporting the political goals of Al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups, Bakri said the military wings of these various groups are also using and studying the Internet for their own operations. "That is what al-Qaeda is skillful with," said Bakri. "I would not be surprised if tomorrow I hear of a big economic collapse because of somebody attacking the main technical systems in big companies," he said, referring to an ongoing threat of an attack. Michael Caloyannides, a senior fellow at Mitretek Systems Inc., in Falls Church, Va., and a former CIA scientist, said the skills required to launch a strategic cyberattack with devastating economic consequences are far different from what terrorist groups have focused on in the past. However, the Internet remains "very vulnerable" to serious disruptions, including those focusing on domain name servers, border gateway protocol routers and various single points of failure, said Caloyannides. "While the Internet was originally designed and configured to be survivable, its transformation to a commercial entity has caused it to become economically efficient at the expense of no longer being anywhere near as survivable," said Caloyannides. He said any such attack launched by al-Qaeda or in direct support of al-Qaeda could have a significant impact on the Bush administration's war on terrorism. In particular, Caloyannides warned of potentially dire consequences for any nation that knowingly allows such an attack to be launched from systems and networks within its borders. "Any country that allows its territory to be used for a massive Internet attack on the U.S. may want to think twice of the likely consequences," he said. In April, the CIA sent an analysis paper to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence outlining the cyberthreat posed by international terrorist groups, particularly al-Qaeda. "Cyberwarfare attacks against our critical infrastructure systems will become an increasingly viable option for terrorists as they become more familiar with these targets and the technologies required to attack them," the CIA paper stated. "Various terrorist groups, including al-Qa'ida [sic] and Hizballah, are becoming more adept at using the Internet and computer technologies. These groups have both the intentions and the desire to develop some of the cyberskills necessary to forge an effective cyber attack modus operandi." To date, al-Qaeda's cybercapabilities have been the subject of much debate. Most Internet security professionals have doubted such groups' interest in cybertactics on the grounds that physical bombings and other forms of attack provide the fear and bloodshed that al-Qaeda is looking for. However, in recent statements made by bin Laden, the terror leader has shown a clear desire to inflict catastrophic damage on the U.S. economy as a way to force the U.S. to withdraw its military forces from Afghanistan and to curtail its support for Israel. "There are millions of Muslims around the world involved in hacking the Pentagon and Israeli government sites," said Bakri. "The struggle will continue," he said, referring to the millions of young bin Laden supporters who are now studying computer science as a way to support the cause. "I believe that Osama bin Laden has earned his leadership and most [Muslim students] who are graduating in computer science and computer programming and IT technology are supporting Osama bin Laden," Bakri said. "I would advise those who doubt al-Qaeda's interest in cyberweapons to take Osama bin Laden very seriously," he said. "The third letter from Osama bin Laden a few months ago was clearly addressing using the technology in order to destroy the economy of the capitalist states. "This is a matter that is very clear, and Osama bin Laden must be taken very seriously." The threat alone may be part of the attack. Steven Aftergood, a defense and intelligence analyst at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said statements such as Bakri's are "themselves a crude form of information warfare," intended to incite, alarm and confuse. "They need to be viewed dispassionately in that light," said Aftergood. "There is always room for improvement in information systems security," he said. "And it would be prudent to take the existence of an adversarial threat seriously." DAN VERTON

Nov 19, 2002, 07:04 PM	Thread Starter #2
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 177	Omar Bakri Muhammad: Bin Laden's man in London Born in 1958 in Syria, Islamist Sheikh Omar bin Bakri Muhammad was recruited as a young man by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood movement and participated in its revolt against then-Syrian President Hafez Assad. As a result, he was expelled from Syria and moved to Beirut, Lebanon. In Beirut, Bakri joined Sheikh Khalil Al-Mat and the local branch of Hizb Al-Tahrir. In 1983, he took the alias of Omar Fustuk and settled in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he established Al-Muhajirun as a front for the Hizb Al-Tahrir in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Muhajirun now has offices in Britain, France, Germany, Pakistan and the U.S. Bakri became a legal resident of Britain in 1993, and in March 1996 he applied for citizenship. Between 1994 and 1998, Bakri gave speeches at Islamist rallies in London's Trafalgar Square and Wembley Stadium. He also founded the Al-Khilafa publishing house in London and serves as a judge in the Shari'a, or Islamic Law, Court of the U.K. Bakri also claims to be the spokesman of the International Islamic Front, the political wing of the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, led by Osama bin Laden. Bakri has also stated that he has actively sought recruits for other groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and various liberation movements in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Prior to last year's Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an FBI memo written by agent Kenneth Williams and e-mailed to the FBI's Washington headquarters on July 10, 2001, noted a connection between Middle Eastern men in Phoenix-area flight schools and Bakri's London-based Al-Muhajirun. The sheikh has also been involved with issuing a fatwa -- an Islamic call to action -- that cited airports as one of several legitimate attack targets in the U.S., as well as another fatwa that called for the assassination of Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.

Nov 20, 2002, 12:12 AM	#3
Scoop DriverHeaven Alcoholic Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Round the corner from the chip shop and over the pond... Posts: 182 Rep Power: 0	scoop Why cant people just get on in life? I just wish they would just get on with there own lifes and stop messing with others. A lot of inocent people (the Jo Publics) are getting hurt over all this shite and I for one think its totally bloody wrong and usless. Just let us get on with our lifes and = our govts should let you get on with yours. Regards and Peace to all Scoop Last edited by Scoop; Nov 20, 2002 at 12:18 AM.

Nov 20, 2002, 12:34 AM	#4
ShoeHornOPlenty DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Whole Lotta Talkin You know ever since 9/11/01 we keep reading and hearing about all these planned attacks, things are going to happen, Britney Spears will stop lip syncing, Duke Nukem Forever will come out, the world is coming to an end, and I would have to say that while its great these things are being told to the public, I would wager that the majority of them are nothing more than BS made up to get attention.