Al Qaeda's Internet Savvy in Doubt

World | Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 6:35:48 pm PDT

Kudos to Rusty Shackleford and Aaron Weisburd for scaring the jihadis enough to make the mainstream media notice: Web problems hit release of al Qaeda 9/11 video.

Some suspected they had been targeted by hackers. India’s Hindustan Times pointed the finger at intelligence websites that track militant sites on the Internet, which responded in tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Rusty Shackleford of My Pet Jawa (www.mypetjawa.mu.nu) denied his web group was behind any cyber-attack on the websites. “But if I was responsible I’d deny it,” he said.

Aaron Weisburd of www.internet-haganah.com wrote: “The actual reasons for this are not known to me (and I would say that even if I actually knew what was going on).”

When less popular Islamist websites managed to post links to the video — which includes a “last will” recording by one of the September 11 hijackers — downloaders noted that the password given to them was wrong.

This further delayed the release and unnerved al Qaeda sympathizers, one of whom wrote: “May God bless you my brothers, but the password is wrong.”

Reuters’ correspondents sure are plugged into the jihadis’ thought waves, aren’t they?