Foreign Terrorist Organizations—Web Hosting

Hezbollah, as a recent Newsweek article describes,^[1] is far from an unsophisticated band of thugs. Besides their advanced weaponry, they also, apparently, know how to hijack ISP customers’ accounts.

Hezbollah operates the Al-Manar satellite television station, which briefly “got its video-streaming Web site connected to the Internet through an Austin company this week apparently by hacking into a customer’s equipment.”^[2] Austin-based Broadwing Communications “said it pulled the plug on the customer’s hijacked Internet link,” because it “concluded that [its] services were being used in violation of [its] Acceptable Use Policy.”^[3]

Broadwing is “cooperating with treasury department agents in their investigation of the perpetrators,” and the customer, whose site seems to have been unwittingly used, is “a small US cable broadcaster [which] is linked to a satellite provider it uses to distribute its programming.”^[4] The satellite provider had communication links to Lebanon, and what happened “was that the satellite provider erroneously connected a feed from Lebanon to Broadwing’s customer. The perpetrator came through the link, hijacked the customer’s equipment and launched Al-Manar onto the Internet.”^[5]

After Broadwing pulled the plug, Al-Manar “reappeared later in the week on a private cable line on Staten Island,” which also seems to have been a hacking attempt.^[6] It, too was shut down, but it popped back up in India, and “appears to have shut right back down."^[7] “In the cyberterrorism trade it is known as ‘whack-a-mole’—just like the old carnival game, Hizballah sites pop up, get whacked down and then pop up again somewhere else on the World Wide Web.”^[8]

Al-Manar has been designated a terrorist entity by the US Treasury Department, and thus it is illegal for any US company to do business with it.^[9] Hacking American services, therefore, is a way for Al-Manar to broadcast its signal because its stations have been bombed by the Israelis.^[10]

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[1] Kevin Peraino, Eye for an Eye, Newseeek (via msnbc.com), Aug. 14, 2006.
[2] Todd Bensman, Hezbollah Site Used Hijacked Computer, San Antonio Express-News, Aug. 4, 2006.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Hezbollah Hijacked Part of Broadwing’s Network, KXAN.com, Aug. 2, 2006.
[8] Hilary Hylton, Now Hizballah Hijacks the Internet, Time, Aug. 8, 2006.
[9] Bensman, supra note 2.
[10] Id.

Bojinka II or Something New?

Al-Qa’eda’s London plot now under intense investigation should come as a surprise to no one. It is not the first time and its failure may presage that it will not be the last. What may be the most impressive international terrorist the world had ever seen, Pakistan’s Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, has seen it all before. As he knows, the latest plot is nothing new.

Fresh from his terrorist debut as the mastermind of the New York World Trade Center’s first assault in February of 1993, Yousef had his eyes on something grand. Having earned his technical credentials at a small college in Wales and his terrorist bona fides training in Afghanistan, Yousef was a man to beat. Dispatched by his al-Qa’eda handlers to its burgeoning Abu Sayyaf affiliate born under the guise of Afghan-Soviet War alumnus Abdurajik Abubakr Janjalani,Yousef prepared his team for a wide array of terrorist activities. He wanted to assassinate President Bill Clinton, kidnap an American ambassador, and kill Pope John Paul II, but his ambitions did not end there. Yousef got together with a few other experienced terrorists like Adel Annon (likely his own brother using a nomme de guerre), Abdul Murad (old friend, WTC ’93 intellectual veteran), Mustafa Abu Zanaib (precise link unclear, but closely associated by way of various Da’awa activities), and Wali Khan Amin Shah (close friend who lost a few fingers in Afghan war) to hatch something grand.

11:43 AM, 11 December 1994. Sitting onboard Philippines Airline flight 434, a 24 year old Japanese engineer returning home to Tokyo from Cebu, was suddenly butterflied as a small but volatile nitroglycerine bomb hidden beneath his seat detonated. For Yousef, it was just a test for something broader, and it worked.

His team called it Project Bojinka, apparently Serbo-Croat for explosion. In a nutshell, it involved carrying onboard individual bottles disguised as contact lens solution filled with a stable form of nitroglycerine explosive –the active ingredient in TNT –wearing carefully rewired Casio wristwatches, a couple of 9-volt batteries, and a few cotton balls for stabilization. Once airborne, the pieces would be assembled in the plane lavatory and placed strategically onboard the plane. Targeted planes –some a dozen in number –would explode while flying over the high seas and populated U.S. cities. For Yousef, the key was to kill everyone onboard, all on American owned airlines, all in one day’s time, and with everyone watching

Meanwhile, buried in a modest mid-town Manila apartment, Yousef got to work. Unfortunately for him, in mixing some of the highly volatile chemicals, he made a mistake, igniting a small explosion. He ran, along with his closest associate, who was later arrested when he returned to retrieve Yousef’s forgotten laptop computer from which investigators learned of the plot.

Uncovering the plot sparked a massive worldwide effort to quickly and effectively search thousands of jumbo jets all over the world –no one knew if some of the bombs might have made their way to the target despite the bust. They checked underneath seats, in the luggage compartments, in bathrooms, everywhere. Luckily, it appears they had stopped it just in time. This history is important to al-Qa’eda. As we know, whether in New York or Pakistan, their operators often maintain a marked inclination to continue an operation until they get it right. It should come as no surprise that some would like to pick up on Yousef’s plans.

Despite this history though, some analysts have suggested that the present situation is born from the so-called “second wave” of self-starters, inspired by the milieu of bin Ladinism though divorced from its central activities. If true, this would be extremely significant. In the past, al-Qa’eda self-starters have resorted to much lower profile, far less sophisticated operations, born from training acquired through primitive do-it-yourself manuals and an ambition ignited by the general political, social, and religious environment they experience. This tendency toward simplistic operations has led many experts to conclude that the so-called “second wave” is less of a threat than the media would have the world believe. Not true if this most recent plot turns out to be self-starter.

But some indications suggest that this may not be self-starter at all. For one, the complexity of simultaneously attacking nine distinct targets is difficult to pull off. Those involved in the Madrid train bombings astonished the world when they became the very first terrorist group in the world to detonate ten bombs simultaneously before. And although they certainly remained more independent than most al-Qa’eda operators, they had help. The likelihood of a truly independent cell moving against so many targets, especially on Western airlines in the post-9/11 world with its enhanced security apparatus, seems low. Such an operation would require extensive patience and training. An estimated 3,000 British citizens have found their way into Afghan terrorist training facilities, where some limited explosives training may have been conducted, but al-Qa’eda’s traditional training pattern indicates a willingness to provide particularly specialized training only in the presence of an establish plot, thus making any such operation no longer self-starter in character. What’s more, were the fact that British authorities have apparently arrested some twenty-four individuals in connection with the scheme taken as an indication of its scope, it seems all the more unlikely that any internally ignited group of discontents would be capable of radicalizing such a large number of individuals without professional assistance. As with any joint venture, large operations tend to require professional operators.

Were Yousef’s Bojinka plot used by the present alleged terrorists as the model, his explosives were highly complex devices learned after pouring over a plethora of books he stole from various libraries around the world. Yousef’s men bought sulphuric acid, nitric acid, acetone, silver azide, and nitrobenzene to create an undetectable form of nitroglycerine –the explosive element in TNT.

Notably though, the trademark of Yousef’s device was converting Casio wristwatches into effective timers. He had no aspiration to die a martyr, shaheed. Presently though, authorities appear not to be concerned with watches. This seems to indicate the possibility that it may have been a martyrdom operation, rather than a Yousef-styled Bojinka II –who needs a timer when one plans to set it off himself?

The process of indoctrination for suicide terrorists is long, difficult, and traditionally rife with barriers. Many Palestinian cells are known to have their soon-to-be suiciders lay for hours in the graveyard, prepared to embrace their own death, faced with a devil’s advocate assigned to question the recruit’s inner commitment to the cause. Only the most committed become the chosen ones to die.

No doubt, martyrdom is a practice apparently embraced by some self-starters, but the number required to carry out an operation as significant as the one now uncovered is unlikely to have undergone the difficult psychological tribulations necessary, in the absence of careful indoctrination. Do-it-yourself manuals are unlikely to be enough.

Lacking the requisite technical sophistication and psychological indoctrination on its own, one must assume some role for the al-Qa’eda central authority; a truth which recalls the days of Bojinka and again reiterates the continued force of the group’s post-9/11 existence.

Terrorism Crimes—Trans-Atlantic Plot, New Strategy, and Egyptian Students

Terrorism is back in the headlines in a major way today as British law enforcement authorities have arrested 21 people who are alleged to be part of a massive plot to “simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading to the United States using explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage.”^[1] All liquids have been banned on trans-Atlantic flights,^[2] and even some domestic flights have banned liquids.

According to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, “the terrorists planned to use liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common products and set them off with detonators disguised as electronic devices.”^[3] According to two US counterterrorism officials, United Airlines, American Airlines, and Continental Airlines were the targets of the plot, specifically, “flights to major airports in New York, Washington, and California.”^[4]

There are few other details about the arrests, such as just how close the plot was to being carried out and who the suspects are, though US officials are quick to point out that it has the hallmark of an Al Qaeda plot.^[5]

The “war” against terrorism has never been very organized, and “early this summer, a new strategy for combating terrorism … arrived on President Bush’s desk.”^[6] This National Implementation Plan was written “by officials at the National Counterterrorism Center,” and its goal in its 160 pages is to “bring[] order and direction of the fight against terrorism.^[7] According to the US comptroller general, more than $430 billion has been spent on “overseas military and diplomatic counterterrorism operations,” and while White House officials say that the expenditures and the expansion of counter-terror efforts domestically have produced an environment in which there has been no attack on US soil since 2001, “critics say that after nearly five years, the fight against terrorism often seems like a chaotic work in progress.”^[8] A senior FBI official has said that the “FBI operated on the assumption that ‘al-Qaeda was The Sopranos, with a boss, an underboss, the consiglieri and the captains who ran the cells,’”^[9] which is a philosophy that somewhat still exists as—publicly, at least—the FBI says that terrorist organizations are somewhat analogous to organized crime syndicates. The National Implementation Plan seems to be calling for what many people said was necessary at the very beginning of the War on Terrorism, namely less focus on military actions, and more diplomacy and law enforcement approaches.^[10] This will be a difficult approach, because the United States has a Vice President who has said that terrorism is not a law enforcement issue.^[11] As seen today, however, law enforcement seems to have thwarted an attack, something that military power would likely be unable to have accomplished without the loss of life.

Finally, an update on the 11 missing Egyptian students: it seems that three of them have been located. One of the students was arrested in Minneapolis, and two others turned themselves in to police in Manville, New Jersey.^[12] There have been no apparent ties to terrorist or criminal activity revealed, but it’s a testament to the diminished stature of the United States in the eyes of the world that the family of one of the missing students is concerned that the United States might torture them if they are located because of the heightened fears surrounding the UK’s terrorism arrests today.^[13]

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[1] Danica Kirka, Foiled Plot Brings New Security, Delays, AP (via Yahoo!), Aug. 10, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Karen DeYoung, A Fight Against Terrorism—and Disorganization, Wash. Post, Aug. 9, 2006.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] See our post on April 19.
[12] Dan Eggen et al., 3 Visiting Egyptian Students Held; 8 Missing, Aug. 10, 2006.
[13] Maggie Michael, Families: Egyptians May Have Sought Work, AP (via Seattle Post-Intelligencer), Aug. 10, 2006.

McNabb in the News (08-09-06)

Senior Principal Douglas McNabb has been quoted in Arkansas’s The Morning News regarding the former vice chairman of Wal-Mart, Tom Coughlin.

Judge Dawson ordered the plea agreement to be sealed and any comment would have to come from his office, Cromwell said.

Douglas McNabb is a well-known … attorney specializing in high-profile, white-collar federal crime cases. Both he and [Wayne State University professor Peter] Henning said it was unusual for a plea agreement to be sealed.

“That means there’s something in there they don’t want you to see — typically, because it contains information that would perhaps impede government investigation of others,” McNabb said.^[1]

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[1] Anita French, Coughlin Faces Sentencing Friday, The Morning News, Aug. 9, 2006.

FBI Alert—Missing Egyptians

Even though there are no known ties to terrorist organizations, the FBI has “issued an urgent nationwide alert for 11 Egyptian students who entered the United States last week but failed to show up for their courses at Montana State University.”^[1] According to the FBI, the 11 Egyptians arrived at JFK airport in New York on July 29, and disappeared; they are apparently in the United States “illegally” and are “wanted for questioning.”^[2]

At least, that’s what one report states. Another report states that the 11 individuals arrived with six other people, and they arrived “with valid visas.”^[3] They were scheduled to attend “a monthlong program on English language instruction and US history and culture.”^[4]

There are other discrepancies in the reporting. While one report states that ICE has declined to make their names public,^[5] another report lists their names.^[6]

Montana State University’s vice provost for international education, Norm Peterson, thinks that “these students decided they wanted to use their time in other ways, connected to being in New York, rather than Montana,” and that the parents of the students have not contacted the university about their missing children, which suggests to the school that the parents “apparently know where the young men are.”^[7] When the 11 failed to show up for class, the University tried repeatedly to contact them, and then ultimately reported them to the SEVIS federal database on foreign students.^[8]

SEVIS is the acronym for Student and Exchange Visitor Information System.^[9] It is used to “track and monitor schools and programs, students, exchange visitors and their dependents throughout the duration of approved participation within the US education system.”^[10] There are, as of December 31, 2005, 591,403 foreign students registered and enrolled in class.^[11] 59% of them are from Asia, 13% from Europe, 7% from North America, 6% from Africa, 5% from South America, 5% from the Middle East, 3% from the Caribbean, and only 1% each from Central America and Oceania.^[12] Most students are enrolled in business or engineering classes.^[13]

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[1] FBI Alert: 11 Egyptians Missing from Montana, KLTV, Aug. 8, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Mark Sherman, Authorities Looking for 11 Egyptian Students in US, AP (via KATU), Aug. 8, 2006.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] See KLTV, supra note 1.
[7] Gail Schontzler, MSU Exchange Students Missing in America, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Aug. 7, 2006.
[8] Id.
[9] ICE, International Students: Student and Exchange Visitor Program, last visited Aug. 8, 2006.
[10] Id.
[11] ICE, International Students: SEVIS By the Numbers—Student Count, last visited Aug. 8, 2006.
[12] Id., Students by Geographic Region, last visited Aug. 8, 2006.
[13] Id., Students by Level of Education and Course of Study, last visited Aug. 8, 2006.