ABC News – “terrorists use social networking sites”

Shock. Horror. According to Alexis Debat, writing for ABC News in America, al Qaeda have started “using legitimate bulletin boards and Internet sites offering free upload services or connecting through such popular social network sites as Orkut and MySpace.” (link credit SearchEngineJournal) Debat, a Senior Research Fellow at George Washington University’s – I kid you not – Homeland Security Policy Institute, says this method is called “parasiting”. The article continues to reveal, much to the shock of many readers no doubt, that:

“According to Pakistani intelligence sources, the use of free and anonymous e-mail services such as Yahoo! or Hotmail by al Qaeda operatives is widespread.”

and…

“al Qaeda’s operatives speak in code words which makes it impossible for any outsider to understand their true content if they have not penetrated the organization already.”

So suspected al Qaeda operatives are sending each other email using free web based email, just like the webmail used by the vast majority of email users around the world, AND they use emoticons and text speak! Earth shattering analysis from ABC News and the great minds at the Homeland Security Policy Institute…