Soon the internet

I keep wondering when we'll be denied communication via the internet. Maybe soon.

Al-Qaeda has issued a chilling new call to arms to recruits who remain undetected by security agencies. In a terrorist manual published on the internet, Osama bin Laden says: 'After Iraq and Afghanistan will come the Crusader invasion of Saudi Arabia. All fighters all over the world must be ready.'

The manual has been masterminded by Saif al-Adel, the organisation's third most senior man and the only terrorist other than bin Laden and his partner Ayman al-Zawahiri to have a $25 million reward on his head.

It is directed at new volunteers who are 'below the radar' of counter-terrorist authorities and who cannot break cover to undergo formal training in terrorist techniques.

...The manual is an internal al-Qaeda document and will be of enormous interest to security agencies. The fact that al-Adel, a former special forces colonel in the Egyptian army, has risked discovery to publish it is an indication of its importance.

'Though it shows that we have taken down a lot of the training infrastructure and made it hard for [al-Qaeda] to operate, it is very worrying in that it implies that there are a lot of recruits around who we have yet to pick up,' one British senior police counter-terrorist officer said.

In the manual, bin Laden calls on the recruits to be cautious in their operations, given the counter-terrorist surveillance efforts against them. He says that all those Muslims living in the lands occupied by the unbelievers should study the manual and be prepared to act.

The appearance of the manual - the January issue of what promises to be a monthly publication - is a major boost to al-Qaeda's propaganda effort.  article

On the other hand, how do you know who's who and who's pretending to be whom? When I was in the bookstore the other day, a book jumped out and came home with me: See No Evil by ex-CIA operative Robert Baer. It's just a confirmation that the average citizen has no way of knowing who works for what cause.

What a mess.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.