A shadowy Internet world of prowling would-be terrorists is emerging,as the "Jihad Jane" case unfolds. While suspected terrorist Colleen LaRose awaits trial in Philadelphia, a "net posse" of civilians monitoring YouTube and extremist sites are tracking hundreds of other strange cases.
This is a parallel universe, the ugly side of the online revolution where few of us ever travel. Millions and millions of unmonitored Internet sites are floating out there, and YouTube uploads a mind-boggling 20 hours of unedited video every minute.
No free-thinking online traveler wants the Internet police to censor the world. As the Google-China battle escalates, we can see what broad censorship does to a repressed society. But it's worth pulling over to the sidelines to listen to the "net spies" or civilian monitors who are tuning in to terrorist sites to check out the crazies.
Deeply troubled "Jihad Jane," a lonely Pennsylvania woman, allegedly became increasingly violent in YouTube videos and fanatical postings. LaRose, 46, faces a four-count indictment, including charges of conspiring with jihadist fighters and pledging to commit murder in the name of a Muslim holy war. She pleaded not guilty to all counts in a federal court in Philadelphia.
A loosely organized band of perhaps a few hundred "net spies" or the "net posse" started noticing that LaRose seemed emboldened by the attention she was getting with her allegedly pro-terrorist rants. Besides JawaReport, other groups like Quoth the Raven and YouTube Smackdown Corps. monitored her for the past three years.
Since the "smackdown" movement started three years ago, organizers claim they have had more than 31,000 videos removed from the YouTube site and 695 users suspended. La Rose was among those whose account was suspended.
The "Jihad Jane" case is " just the tip of the iceberg," Rusty Shackleford, a pseudonym for a libertarian professor who created the terrorist-tracking blog JawaReport, says, "What is being done to stop this? Nothing. Just a few of us organized to flag the videos, some of which are taken down by YouTube, others are not. YouTube does precisely zero to police their site."
After seeing LaRose's pro-terrorist videos and statements last year (La Rose allegedly posted her support of Osama bin Laden and praised 9/ll), one blogger started tracking her. "I came to know her as a middle-aged sociopath woman desperate for love, lonely and isolated, with a deep hatred for the U.S.," the blogger told JawaReport.
But Shackleford at first didn't think she was dangerous:
I always thought she was just pathetic, stupid and perhaps a little crazy... She always came off on her YouTube pages as very immature. After I tracked her down and found out that 'Jihad Jane' was really Colleen La Rose and realized that she was a grown woman, I thought she was just "crazy." Doing bad things, supporting bad people, but not a threat to the level that she would be involved in a murder/terror plot.
I didn't take her seriously. Mostly, I made fun of her. I thought others were more dangerous, and since I do this part time and as a hobby, then I thought I had bigger fish to fry. However, the problem with some people is that pathetic and dangerous are not mutually exclusive.
In a federal indictment, LaRose is accused of attempting to murder a Swedish artist who depicted the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog. She traveled to Sweden in August carrying the American passport of her companion, which investigators say she stole and planned to give to a co-conspirator in a plot to kill artist Lars Vilks.
Law enforcement officials don't have the resources to monitor all the potential threats and are increasingly giving the online tipsters credit for following extremists. According to Shackleford:
Most of the eHadis are eHadis because they are cowards. So, no, I'm not all that worried. Occasionally you get one who really will follow through and become a terrorist - or try to. But most of them try and travel to Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan or Afghanistan. So, given all this I take reasonable precautions. Rusty is not my real name. I carry a gun.
In 2004 Shackleford started blogging. He soon, as he puts it, "came across the supporters of violent jihad." A Jawa follower founded the YouTube Smackdown group, after they noticed that site seemed extremely popular to would-be terrorists. When Iraqi Islamists beheaded an American named Nick Berg, Shackleford was livid - and that launched his personal war against the terrorists. He explained:
The video hit me on a visceral level. On an emotional level. I was enraged. It was like 9/11 all over again, only most Americans didn't see what our enemies were doing. And to make it worse, when I saw the reaction of many Muslims on the Web - I was really pissed off. They were laughing at Nick Berg's gruesome murder. Praising Abu Musab al Zarqawi for doing it. Zarqawi became a cult hero for them.