We’re having a lot of fun with the spat between Denmark and Canada over Hans Island, which introduced international conflict via Google Ads to the world, but here’s a reminder that online media are a real part of the real war:

Over the past fortnight Israeli intelligence agents have noticed something distinctly odd happening on the internet. One by one, Al-Qaeda’s affiliated websites have vanished until only a handful remain, write Uzi Mahnaimi and Alex Pell.

Someone has cut the line of communication between the spiritual leaders of international terrorism and their supporters. Since 9/11 the websites have been the main links to disseminate propaganda and information.

The Israelis detect the hand of British intelligence, determined to torpedo the websites after the London attacks of July 7.

Our only question — why did it take nearly four years after 9/11 to do this, and why is it the Brits, and not the Americans, doing it? Please don’t tell me that we had some sort of compunction about shutting down jihadist sites …

This entry was posted on Monday, August 1st, 2005 at 11:18 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.