MSNBC article on encrypted Islamic web pages

P.J. Ponder ponder at freenet.tlh.fl.us
Tue Jun 11 18:43:01 EDT 2002


http://www.msnbc.com/news/764107.asp

Hiding (and Seeking) Messages on the Web
Al Qaeda uses the Web as a communications network

By Colin Soloway, Rod Nordland and Barbie Nadeau
NEWSWEEK   June 17 issue
One day last October, an intelligence-community analyst noticed something
strange about a radical Islamist Web site she had been monitoring for
several months. A previously open, innocuous part of the site was suddenly
blocked. She checked her notes, found the old address for the link and
typed it in to find an otherwise empty page commanding in Arabic,
MISSIONARIES ATTACK!
OTHER HIDDEN PAGES ON the site included seemingly nonsensical phrases and
quotations from the Qur’an coded instructions for Qaeda operatives and
their supporters. U.S. intelligence discovered Al Qaeda uses the Web as a
communications network. Analysts believe Al Qaeda uses prearranged phrases
and symbols to direct its agents. An icon of an AK-47 can appear next to a
photo of Osama bin Laden facing one direction one day, and another
direction the next. Colors of icons can change as well. Messages can be
hidden on pages inside sites with no links to them, or placed openly in
chat rooms. The messages and patterns of symbols are given to analysts at
the CIA and National Security Agency to decipher.

(con't)


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