{"id":14290,"date":"2009-12-16T02:03:16","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T09:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalterroralert.com\/?p=14290"},"modified":"2009-12-16T23:42:16","modified_gmt":"2009-12-17T06:42:16","slug":"internet-proves-to-be-fertile-ground-for-jihadist-recruitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalterroralert.com\/internet-proves-to-be-fertile-ground-for-jihadist-recruitment\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet Proves To Be Fertile Ground For Jihadist Recruitment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An excellent Op-ed by Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times, “www.jihad.com”.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s not fool ourselves. Whatever threat the real Afghanistan poses to U.S. national security, the \u201cVirtual Afghanistan\u201d now poses just as big a threat. The Virtual Afghanistan is the network of hundreds of jihadist Web sites that inspire, train, educate and recruit young Muslims to engage in jihad against America and the West. Whatever surge we do in the real Afghanistan has no chance of being a self-sustaining success, unless there is a parallel surge \u2014 by Arab and Muslim political and religious leaders \u2014 against those who promote violent jihadism on the ground in Muslim lands and online in the Virtual Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Last week, five men from northern Virginia were arrested in Pakistan, where they went, they told Pakistani police, to join the jihad against U.S. troops in Afghanistan. They first made contact with two extremist organizations in Pakistan by e-mail in August. As The Washington Post reported on Sunday: \u201c \u2018Online recruiting has exponentially increased, with Facebook, YouTube and the increasing sophistication of people online,\u2019 a high-ranking Department of Homeland Security official said. …<\/p>\n