Al-Qaeda's Growing Online Offensive

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U.S. intelligence officials and analysts still know very little about the network's inner workings. But over time, it has taken over the dissemination of online propaganda for scores of radical Islamist groups. In addition to as-Sahab, it distributes material for al-Qaeda affiliates in Iraq, Somalia, North Africa and Yemen, as well as for the Taliban and other militant groups. Many of the videos ultimately are subtitled in English as well as German, Italian, French, Pashto, Turkish and other languages.

Al-Fajr is heavily decentralized, with its webmasters generally unaware of one another's true identities for security reasons, intelligence analysts said. It also has separate "brigades" devoted to hacking, multimedia, cybersecurity and distribution.

The network receives propaganda material from individual terrorist groups and then posts it online. Each release is announced on popular Islamist Web forums, where thousands of members are encouraged to copy the videos and redistribute them on other sites.

The Web forums are password-protected and highly regulated. In certain sections, only high-ranking moderators have the authority to post material -- such as bulletins announcing a new bin Laden video. As a result, al-Fajr and others can quickly spot fake material, ensuring that the propaganda maintains a high level of reliability and consistency, analysts said.

"By controlling that content, al-Fajr Center can make sure everybody who is getting that information knows they're getting it from an authentic source," said Josh Devon, senior analyst at the SITE Intelligence Group, a private firm that monitors Islamist terrorist groups online and serves as a consultant to U.S. and foreign government agencies. "It'd be extremely difficult for the CIA or another intelligence agency to introduce credible and effective counterpropaganda."

Al-Fajr is extremely security-conscious, Devon said. It distributes a manual called the "Technical Mujahid," which advises how to cover electronic footprints and avoid infiltration.

Devon and other analysts said al-Fajr may have had security weaknesses in its early days but is well protected now. It is designed so that new webmasters can be recruited to replace others if necessary.

"Even if you arrested 20 people, the long-term effects would be minimal," he said. "You could disrupt things and create some chaos, but it'd only be a temporary measure. There'd be a pool of over 50,000 other people to draw from to take their spot."

Some U.S. lawmakers are trying to attack the distribution system anyway.

Last month, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, wrote to Google officials, urging them to take down YouTube videos produced by al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. YouTube said that it pulled some videos but that others targeted by Lieberman were not violent or did not qualify as "hate speech."

Other officials said such an approach was unlikely to be effective because the videos are so widespread and can resurface almost immediately on other sites.

"Initially, that was reflexively the first option people came to -- 'Let's not let Osama bin Laden speak' or 'Let's not let the extremists on the Internet,' " the senior U.S. counterterrorism official said. "I don't think that's possible. Yes, we could go around shutting down Web sites, but it doesn't really work as a strategic weapon against al-Qaeda."