Americas...:Al-Qaeda Plots Attacks on Covert Online Forums

Home
- Middle East
  - Lebanon
  - Syria
  - Bahrain
  - Palestine
  - Zionist Entity
  - Yemen
  - Saudi Arabia
  - Iraq
  - More from Middle East
- Americas
- Asia-Pacific
  - Iran
  - Pakistan
  - Afghanistan
  - Koreas
  - India
  - China
  - More from Asian States
- Africa
  - Sudan
  - Egypt
  - Libya
  - Tunisia
  - Algeria
  - More from Africa
- Europe
  - United Kingdom
  - Russia
  - Turkey
  - France
  - Germany
  - Spain
  - Greece
  - Italy
  - More from Europe
ISLAMIC RESISTANCE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
Voices
Ten Day Dawn
The Biggest Crime
Martyr Leaders

Local Editor

In secretive chat rooms and on encrypted Internet message boards, al-Qaeda fighters have been planning and coordinating attacks.

The unspecified threat by the al-Qaeda leaders Ayman al-Zawahri and his chief lieutenant in Yemen, Nasser al-Wahishi, prompted a quick reaction by the US administration to protect nationals in North Africa and the Middle East.

The forums are said to use a multilayered subterfuge to pass messages from couriers to tech-savvy underlings to attackers, according to the Associated Press.

Extremists have used online forums to share information and have developed systems that blend encryption programs with anonymity software to hide their tracks.

These groups' technology, according to the Associated Press, may now be so sophisticated and secretive that many communications avoid detection by National Security Agency programs that were designed to uncover terror plots.

Quoting a US intelligence official, the AP reported that the unspecified threat that prompted the closure of 19 US embassies and consulates in several countries in North Africa and the Middle East for over a week was discussed in an online forum joined by many extremist groups.

One of the officials believed the threat began with a message from al-Wahishi to al-Zawahri which aimed at al-Zawahri's approval to launch attacks. Al-Zawahri then sent a response that was shared on the covert online forum.

After the NSA programs were exposed in June by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, extremist websites began urging followers to also use software that would hide their Internet protocol addresses and prevent them from being tracked online.

Source: Associated Press, edited by website team