Edition: U.S. | Arabic | Set Pref
September 4, 2008
Posted: 1142 GMT

LONDON, England – Last Friday saw three men appear at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court in London charged in connection with an alleged threat against the British Prime Minister.

One of the men, Ishaq Kanmi, is accused of being a member of al Qaeda and of seeking the “elimination” of Gordon Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair. The alleged threat was made on the Internet in a posting in January this year.

It’s the latest terrorism case in Europe that has originated from individuals posting stuff on the Web. In March, an Austrian man and his wife were given prison sentences for making a video threatening attacks on Austria and Germany. It was uploaded onto a well-known extremist Web site.

Coincidentally, we learned last week that this case will be re-tried after Austria’s highest court ruled the convictions were unsafe. It said the jury had not been presented with enough information to properly consider the charges.

That’s a matter for the Austrians to work out, just as it remains to be seen what will become of the three British men who appeared in court on Friday. Any trial will likely take place next year.

But there’s a bigger issue here. If prosecutors in several countries are finding material on Web sites they don’t like, and feel confident enough to bring charges against the alleged perpetrators, then why don’t they move to have the Web sites themselves shut down?

Earlier this year, Britain’s Home Secretary appeared to signal a new tougher stance. “The internet is not a no-go area for Government,” Jacqui Smith told a conference in London. “Where there is illegal material on the net I want it removed,” she said.

So what’s the problem? Why aren’t these Web sites being pulled?

For three good reasons, says Gabriel Weimann, a professor at Haifa University and author of “Terror on the Internet.”

Firstly, if you close a site down it will just spring back at another address, often within hours. The hosting companies that store a Web site’s information and facilitate traffic in and out of it number in the hundreds. There’s always somewhere else to go.

Secondly, extremist Web sites are popular with spooks. They provide useful information about terrorist motives, about the weapons with which they’re training, and about the target groups for propaganda. They also offer the opportunity to disrupt and “drive wedges” between the ideologues. It’s not hard to gain access to these sites, pass oneself off as a fellow traveler and start asking questions and posting material.

Finally, there are civil liberty concerns. Look at the way Chinese officials routinely brand Web sites as “terrorist” and close them down, says Weimann. Western democracies just can’t operate in so heavy-handed a manner.

So, that’s it then. It can’t be done and it shouldn’t be done.

Well, Glen Jenvey for one strongly disagrees. He’s one of a number of people who have been tracking extremists on the Net for years. For him, it’s a moral issue.

He points out that most of these Web sites are hosted by American companies. How can it be right, he asks, that these same companies are making money from Web sites that post videos showing U.S. soldiers getting blown up in Iraq or Afghanistan?

Jenvey believes these companies are as guilty as the people who post the videos and should be penalised. Faced with the threat of a $50,000 fine, he says, those companies would soon start to police themselves more carefully and refuse to host extremist Web sites.

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mysterion   September 9th, 2008 2138 GMT

Isn’t it obvious that every possible opponent of the “New Roman Empire” is to be stopped to avoid the possibility that the public, that is kept as “dumm” as they are able to do,could ake up and become aware of the” New Roman Enslavery “.That shows that the ones behind the scene that are enfolding the next step in the script that eventually leads to “Roman world domination” or as G.Orwell called it 1984.This book was a warning,but to not be endangered by the information he had he wrote it in a fantasy -style .book,are some kind of arrogant ,corrupt,dogminds,that believe that with the help of old knowledge that came via the pharisian from the old priests of baal or moloch,that requires human sacrifice to gain power.For ages they have tried to cover up our real position in human evolution by holding back technology for the public ,that could make us independent from the industries, like free electricity a.o.Imagine what we could do when energy could be transmitted .When some one gives you a call on your cellphone he could at the same time transmit the energy that is requiered for your phone to be able to pick up the call .no more batteries. That is an invention ,that is at least older than 2000 years.But you get it,to be able to make profit,and to make it “eternal” the try simply to take our right on freedom ,education,work, etc. ,away .As a slave you have to do what they say (production of addictive goods for the profits),to buy what they say these products,and to registrate in order to be able to stay in control.To Make the crowds manipulatible,they start to hunt for what eventually would be a natural reaction ,and a human right as well,namely a revolte against the oppressors.Therefor they have first started to hunt “escaped slaves” (terrorists ,freedom fighters) to make the populations afraid of what actually could safe them,and slowly prepared their operation together with propaganda that is only visible on the background,in newspapers and T.V,In allmost all tv programs you find the same propaganda elements as used in Germany 1930-1945. Or the Roman Empire ,the very origie of fascism or in modern terms “Neo-conservativism”.Only modernizid and and added with psychological research. The very same psychology, that they use to manipulate a possible costumer with commercials. And they decide what the media is telling you and which information you are aloud toget on the internet.If you think that they created the internet to bring all information to the public you are so wrong,it was created to control the population and as a propaganda channel to bring the masses in overenthousiastic hypnosis of patriotism in the sense of national-socialism ,and also to be in control of the information -streams,and to delay our technological evolution .Also the cry for patriotisme as in the last 8 years has elements of the Germans in WWII,by recalling the same phrase again and again people are being hynotized(mass-hysteria).When you have the eyes to see it ,and the ears to hear it…….You can’t miss it!

mysterion   September 9th, 2008 2153 GMT

So my conclusion about the web is:Democracy means constitutional freedom of speech,so to forbid certain controversial websides is fascime .That’s not just my opinion,its how it is.Why should we let ourselves been patronized by this narrowmindedness of the industrial leaders who are,in fact the ones that have a good reason to be afraid for “escaped slaves”!

Rob   September 12th, 2008 154 GMT

Sounds like you have quite a ‘manifesto’ in the works mysterion.

I hope the rest of it doesn’t look like one giant wall of text.

I believe that websites should be subject to all laws concerning obscenity, and in a time of war, restricted if their content amounts to treasonable activity.

Shut them down in the US. Sure they will go somewhere else (probably Russia) but that’s not the point. Nobody in the US has a right to profit from those who kill our soldiers, but also kill the innocent on purpose.

Val   September 12th, 2008 435 GMT

mysterion, your words are exactly what I would filter out - senseless spewing of hateful nonsense. You revealed yourself in your first sentence - so you are no mystery. Civilization would do quite well without that extreme ideology.

mark   September 16th, 2008 242 GMT

As a human race in a whole, we need to police or filter out ( what ever you want to call it ) the web to keep out any sites that would seek to kill or harm any-body or glorifie the act of it no matter what race or nationality. And no company should make profit from the showing of any-one or any soldier being killed or harmed , have we lost our way so bad that money is more important than morals and self respect ?

Loki   September 17th, 2008 1728 GMT

I think that its a shame that people want to control the internet. Its the closet thing any human has to freedom of speech. I understand that they want to stop sites that show this kind of stuff, but where do you stop? Oh watching youtube can be used for instructions on bad stuff ban!!! that website has anti-western culture people. ban!!!! it would never stop

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Paula Newton and Andrew CareyNews and observations on the threats to international security and the challenges posed by terrorism to societies around the world. By CNN's International Security Correspondent, Paula Newton, and International Security Producer, Andrew Carey. From breaking news to background stories, from serious analysis to casual asides, if we think it's interesting we'll post it here.

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