Over the last few weeks, Al Qaida has sought to recruit experts in Internet and cellular phone technology. On Feb. 19, the so-called Global Islamic Media Front posted a call on the Internet for experts in photography by mobile phone and video camera to "spy on the enemy and expose his ignominy and shame, for us to publish to the masses."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has proposed a new government media network that could initiate and respond to events across the globe 24 hours a day. Rumsfeld said such a network would confront Al Qaida and its efforts to manipulate the Western media.

Rumsfeld said Al Qaida has been trying to manipulate the U.S. media to ensure an American military withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq. The efforts, he said, include exploitation of the Internet.

"Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaida have media committees," Rumsfeld said. "They meet, they figure out how to manipulate the news in New York City and the United States of America and London and Paris. We clearly have a responsibility for carrying the message of what it is we're doing 24 hours a day."

Kimmitt said in an appearance to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 22 that the military would increasingly focus on understanding and foiling Al Qaida's use of the Internet. He said the effort was part of what he termed the "long war" of Central Command against Middle East-based Islamic insurgency groups.

Officials said Central Command has advised that Al Qaida confront a multi-agency effort designed to locate the organization's vulnerable points. They said the effort would include the use of the Internet and international financial institutions to relay orders and funding throughout the world.

"The first principle that we operate under is this notion that it takes a network to defeat a network," Kimmitt said. "I'm not certain that you want the military attacking the Internet. I don't think you want the Air Force going against the terrorist financing units."

Officials said the effort would include the Pentagon, State Department, military, Treasury Department, FBI and the intelligence community. They said the U.S. campaign would be bolstered by cooperation from Arab and Islamic states, particularly in efforts to deny haven to Al Qaida.

"While the mujahideen can claim success in manipulating the new internet media to their benefit -- an advantage gained from their starting point as a struggle for ideas and their early consciousness of the Internet as an open, poorly regulated battleground in this struggle -- the failure to make propaganda gains on the main media continues to hamper their efforts at general radicalization," the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation said in a report.

While it's promising that we now at least recognize the problem and are formulating plans to combat Al-Qaeda's Internet sanctuary and techical advantage, I'm not so sure that the "Washington-based Jamestown Foundation" is up to speed on the issue of Al Qaeda's failure to make propaganda gains on the main media and how such failure continues to hamper their efforts at general radicalization. Apparently the Jamestown Foundation never heard of the New York Times, The Washington Post, and the majority of the mainstream media that has taken on the full time job of providing propaganda and support to our enemy. Rumsfeld is right on target about Al Qaeda's ability to "manipulate the news in New York City and the United States of America and London and Paris."

Of course it's easy for them when they have such willing participants as our mainstream media!

Related topic: Scooping the mainstream media