Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

lxii • INTRODUCTIONTHE GROWING TERRORIST THEATER OF OPERATIONS:THE INTERNETPerhaps the most glaring gap in the introduction to our first editionwas the lack of any discussion of the role of the Internet in the changingface of terrorism. In the second edition we discussed the use of theInternet for recruitment and propaganda, for the waging of “netwar”campaigns, and also as a means for cyber-warfare attacks on targets. Inthis edition we note the interplay of Internet capabilities, intelligence,and “emergent intelligence,” both for terrorist actors and for counterterrorismprofessionals.Certainly the Internet provides terrorists at the outset with an expandingcapability to engage in what could be called “electronic unarmed propaganda.”A web page, for example, gives a terrorist group of three, thirty,or three hundred the ability to publish its manifesto through the anonymityof cyberspace. Perhaps even more significant, the Internet provides themeans by which various terrorist groups can maintain their security via theanonymity of cyberspace but increasingly have the ability and opportunitiesto coordinate operations with highly diverse groups that may share ageneral strategic goal of destabilizing a city, a country, or a region.More significant is the fact that the Internet enables terrorists toengage in what is called “netwar.” In so doing they are now evolvinginto self-contained, “free-floating cells” that can engage in concerted attacks,but which may remain essentially free from the need for externalsupport, be it state or non–state sponsored. As such, groups will continueto be increasingly difficult to identify, since many may be smallwith no track record, and also difficult to penetrate, since they are notpart of a larger organization that can be placed under surveillance bytechnical intelligence or infiltrated by a hostile intelligence service. Inthe past it was understood that even the most sophisticated techniquesof technical collection could not monitor the person-to-person discussionof two terrorists in a safe house in Beirut or Tokyo. It will continueto be a daunting technological task to separate “the noise from the signal”in the cacophony of cyberspace. Already the global war on terrorismhas raised controversies over the need of governments to eavesdropand to monitor Internet and telephone communications over the rightsof privacy of ordinary individuals.While concerns have been voiced over the development of a socalledcyberterrorism, this term is too general for analysis. As was