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conflict. It is a protracted politico-military struggle designed to weaken
government control and legitimacy while increasing insurgent control.
Political power is the central issue in an insurgency.” 92
Further, an insurgency has as its goal “to mobilize human and material
resources in order to form an alternative to the state.” 93 The real hidden danger
of the Internet is its high-speed connection that can spread an insurgency’s
ideological and theoretical philosophy almost without time, space, or financial
limitations. This offers the insurgent the capability to speed up the formation of
a base of support (mobilizing those human and material resources with long
inbred grievances) and to create an alternative to the state’s ideology. The
Internet thus helps insurgents weaken government control and legitimacy,
thereby subverting local authorities just as the definition of insurgency requires.
This article describes how the Internet enables insurgents to mobilize a
base of support, expand their influence, and potentially conduct guerilla warfare
on the Internet. The continuing stream of insurgents flowing into Iraq today,
perhaps, best reflects the Internet’s success in these areas.
Context
While they continue to focus on physical and barbaric actions that
induce terror (such as improvised explosive devices [IEDs], car bombs,
hostage-taking, etc.), today’s insurgents are also savvy and informed. They are
adept at using Internet information and other media sources against us,
replaying the attacks over the net to reinforce success and multiply the effects
of attacks. Insurgents understand the importance of supporting virtual activities
that potentially can mobilize thousands of people. For most American security
specialists, the primary threat associated with the Internet remains
cyberterrorism, which involves the destruction (physical action) of networks
through the use of electrons or other devices. This fact is reflected in the West
in the number of university and military courses dedicated to the theory of
cyberterrorism. No such courses are available on cyberplanning or
cybermentality or cyberexploitation of the masses.
Insurgents in the Information Age are capable of overcoming most of
the limiting constraints imposed by media outlets during the Industrial Age.
Today, according to Gabriel Weimann of the US Institute of Peace, there are
more than 4,000 insurgent and terrorist websites. 94 The huge number of
92 FMI 3-07.22, Counterinsurgency Operations, August 2004, p. 1-1, used with
permission of the authors.
93 Ibid.
94 Lawrence Wright, p. 50.
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