Internet Interests

Terrorism and Chat Rooms

Prior to September 11th, 2001 we discovered that terrorists had been using chat rooms and online discussion groups for collaborating. Carefully coded messages, left in selected chat rooms, were used by terrorists and this activity may still be going on today.

There are literally thousands of chat rooms on the Internet and many of them now deal specifically with the issue of terrorism. In some cases, there are even chat-rooms who share sympathy for the victims and yet spout anti-Americanism at the same time! The diversity of topics being discussed offers ample opportunities for terrorists to sneak in their hidden comments without easy detection.

Monitoring terrorist entries in these chat-rooms is a responsibility that belongs to not only the owners of these chat rooms; it should also be the responsibility of everyone who visits chat rooms. It is incumbent upon all of us, as good citizens, to be vigilant for these types of messages and to report them as soon as they are discovered or suspected. Visitor participation in monitoring chat room content is what helped to uncover this situation in the first place.

Accountability is perhaps the more difficult challenge related to uncovering terrorist activity in chat rooms. Not all chat rooms require a visitor to log in and locating a visitor by the Internet address they used when they posted the suspicious content is virtually impossible if it didn’t come from a fixed IP address. Naturally, anyone can lie about the information they provide when they setup a chat room login profile, but at least it gives us an opportunity to start with something to work with. There are many problems with placing accountability on chat room contributors and enforcing any level of accountability takes away from the anonymity that is such a popular aspect of chat rooms.

Mismanagement of chat rooms and discussion groups can allow terrorist messages to be exchanged without restriction. However, messages are only one form of communication being used in chat rooms. Owners also need to be vigilant for other forms of terrorist communication being used within their chat rooms.

Encrypted terrorist messages are being hidden in images that are being uploaded to chat rooms as was admitted by Ahmed Jabril, spokesman for the militant group Hezbollah in London. This means that an image that you may have on your desktop right now could contain encrypted terrorist plans and you wouldn’t even know about it. They are hidden using free encryption Internet programs set up by privacy advocacy groups.

Free speech gives terrorists the right to post their messages anonymously. Free choice gives the rest of us the right to be vigilant and to report suspicious activity. Freedom from terrorism is the right of all humanity. Catching terrorists who are using chat rooms is not going to be an easy task and just because we might stop it today does not mean that it will never be tried again or that we should ever stop watching for it.

Respectfully submitted by Steve Duell
SFBA Chapter Webmaster
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