Analysis: Al-Qaida in chat rooms

The German government wants to spend roughly $165 million over the next three years to combat Internet-related terrorism activities, in the wake of an arrest of a terror suspect who used the Web to disseminate al-Qaida videos.

It was last week’s biggest news in Germany: Police Tuesday near Osnabrueck, in western Germany, arrested a 36-year-old terrorism suspect, identified only as Ibrahim R., after they had searched his apartment and computer.

. . .Police had surveyed him for more than a year and found that he downloaded and disseminated audio and video messages by al-Qaida bosses Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Officials said he likely didn’t have direct contacts to al-Qaida, but what he shared with the terror network was a profound hatred against the United States and the West, hatred that he discharged onto the Web.

Rolf Tophoven, a German terrorism expert, recently told United Press International that the Internet, used for “propaganda and inciting purposes,” has become the Islamists’ most important recruitment tool.

If this man had been arrested in America, the ACLU would be springing into action to defend his “free speech” rights.

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