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| Terror Networks |
| 'Dark Web' tool seeks online terrorists... |
| 2007-11-11 |
| TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - The quivering images and militant writings are frightening: an exploding Humvee blankets passing cars with dust; a lab technician makes explosives, step by step; hatred oozes from "A guide to kill Americans in Saudi Arabia." Hello, calling Mr. Bush Tens of thousands of Web pages are now devoted to terrorist propaganda designed to attract followers. On the surface, the messages and videos reveal little about their creators. But programmers and writers leave digital clues: the greetings and other words they choose, their punctuation and syntax, and the way they code multimedia attachments and Web links. Researchers at the University of Arizona are developing a tool that uses these clues to automate the analysis of online jihadism. The Dark Web project aims to scour Web sites, forums and chat rooms to find the Internet's most prolific and influential jihadists and learn how they reel in adherents. Lab director Hsinchun Chen hopes Dark Web will crimp what he calls "al-Qaida University on the Web," the mass of Web sites where potential terrorists learn their trade, from making explosives to planning attacks. Experts said they are not aware of any comparable effort, though some said the project may have only limited applications. The project in the university's Artificial Intelligence Lab will not identify people outside cyberspace "because that involves civil liberties," Chen said, preferring to let law enforcement and intelligence analysts take over from there. Instead, it will help identify messages with the same author and reveal links that aren't obvious. "Our tool will help them ID the high-risk, Chen said a few agencies are on the verge of using some of his team's techniques but he wouldn't name the agencies. Former FBI counterterror chief Dale Watson, who noted that terrorist Web sites and communications are now analyzed manually, said the ability to sort through so much data electronically "would be a great asset in the fight against terrorism." |
| Posted by:Icerigger |
| #5 there is a more generalized assessment of the threat of Fixed that for you BS. Islam itself calls for deception like this. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-11-11 18:50 |
| #4 The National Intelligence Estimate, an unclassified document available on the DNI website, clearly identifies radical islam and Al Qu'ida as the greatest threat to the US. Along with AQ there is a more generalized assessment of the threat of radical Islamists and Jihadi's. Given that none of these dangerous people are hidden in a Presbyterian Retreat, and that we have limited resources, it seems reasonable to look among the Muslims first. Of course this is profiling, but the fault for forcing us to do this is those in the Muslim community who do not identify the radicals among them! Fear, or sympathy would seem to be the two motives. Neither reflect well on Muslims. The CAIR crap is just the one-trick playbook of calling anything involving scrutiny of Muslims as racist. Enough of the BS.... I do not intend to let someone use a WMD on my children, rgrandchildren and my countrymen ... so if I have to profile and be a racist in CAIR's eyes to protect them, so be it! My regard for CAIR's opinion isn't very large to begin with... |
| Posted by: No More BS 2007-11-11 18:33 |
| #3 Hint to CAIR. Our fellow humans are on to you too. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-11-11 18:29 |
| #2 Oooooh -- data mining. Kewl! ;-) And it's academic researchers, not the government. So there, CAIR! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-11-11 17:50 |
| #1 This tool is a violation of privacy and other rights, and also racial profiling. Clear grounds for lucrative lawsuits. |
| Posted by: CAIR 2007-11-11 17:01 |