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2 Not for your average
jihadi By Abdul Hameed Bakier
Al-Fajr Information Center, a jihadist
organization, recently published the February
issue of Technical Mujahid, a magazine released
once every two months that is available online.
The release marks the second issue of the
publication. Various jihadist websites have posted
links to different locations to download the
publication, that way stifling any attempts by
outside forces to remove the document from the
Web.
According to the editor-in-chief of
Technical Mujahid, Abu al-Mothanna al-Najdi, the
objectives of the magazine are to eradicate
the
phobia and anxiety suffered by those who refrain
from participating in jihad because they
erroneously believe that intelligence services are
monitoring their every move.
Additionally,
the publication aims to spread a sense of
security, vigilance and self-confidence, in a
scientific way, among members of jihadist forums
by educating them in jihadist propaganda and
enhancing their knowledge of field operations. To
achieve these objectives, the magazine is
organized into six sections of technical training
that are aimed at helping the mujahideen carry out
certain tasks.
Section 1: Covert
communications Secure communications, a
significant and important tool for any underground
group, is the first training subject in the
magazine, authored by Abi Musab al-Jazayri "the
Algerian". It starts with a brief historical
account of the evolution of secret communications
from the use of secret ink to Morse code to binary
256-bit and 2,048-bit encoding.
Then
Jazayri launches into the body of his training
article with "the thing that scares the FBI [US
Federal Bureau of Investigation] the most is the
use of secret communication techniques, by
jihadis, known as the concealment science". The
training article outlines steganography, which is
the art of hidden messages; steganalysis, the art
of detecting hidden messages; and the merits of
hiding data in innocuous-looking images.
Jazayri appears to be an expert on the
subject judging from the details he includes, such
as image pixels, mathematical equations to prevent
distortions in pictures used to hide data, and the
disadvantages of encryption software available on
the market, such as Ezstego, S-Tools and Hide and
Seek, which can all be easily deciphered using
hexadecimal editors.
He explains that a
good program to use is the "Secrets of the
Mujahideen" software application because it is a
dual system that hides encrypted data in a picture
and compresses the files to nullify steganalysis
methods. He then provides an example of hiding 20
communiques of the Islamic Army in Iraq in a
100-by-50-pixel picture.
His example
highlights the necessity of applying steganalysis
before choosing a picture to hide data. Jazayri
concludes the training by warning jihadis not to
use ineffective encryption programs in their
secret communications, reiterating that the best
encryption uses multiple concealment techniques
such as compression, encoding and concealment or
uses communication-engineering techniques such as
Spread Spectrum.
Section 2: Designing
jihadi websites from A-Z The second
section, prepared by Abu Dojaina al-Makki, simply
explains the steps of designing websites and
uploading them to the Internet via a host company.
There is nothing unusual about this
training except that the writer recommends hiring
foreign website host companies because Arabic
companies are incompetent, have "attitude"
problems, and break down frequently. To jihadis,
experience in website development is important
since the Web is one of their key communication
venues across various theaters of conflict. It
also provides a recruitment opportunity for
jihadist operations.
Section 3: Smart
weapons, short-range missiles The training
magazine recommends two types of short-range
shoulder-fired missiles for the jihadis as the
most appropriate anti-aircraft weapons: the
US-made Stinger and the Russian-made Igla
missiles.
Abi al-Harith al-Dilaimi, the
writer of the smart-weapons section, includes many
details about the specifications of the missiles,
operating manuals, and the electronic heat-seeking
control systems of the missiles. The section is
very thorough and even includes illustrations.
Dilaimi does not fail to brag about the
recent downing of US aircraft using these
missiles, saying, "The best example we can give
about these missiles is the downing of 10
helicopters in one month in Iraq, such as the
Apache, Black Hawk, Chinook and even an F-16
fighter jet that was shot down in al-Karma area
west of Baghdad by the Islamic State of Iraq
Mujahideen in cooperation with the Mujahideen Army
on November 27, 2006."
Furthermore, the
training touches on the types of supersonic
aircraft, helicopters and slow military cargo
planes and missile countermeasures employed by
these aircraft, such as heat flares that can throw
heat-seeking missiles off course and infra-red
missile-repelling systems. The Russian-made Igla
is an exception, as it has a nitrogen-cooled
heat-seeking system capable of resisting the heat
flares and identifying the real target among the
decoy targets.
The section also includes
Igla and Stinger specification lists and a table
of the English equivalents of the technical terms
used in Arabic. Dilaimi ends the training with a
note saying, "We would like to assert that the
mujahideen have [proved] skillful use of [this]
weaponry by inflicting heavy loses on the
colonizing US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Section 4: The secrets of the
mujahideen Also mentioned in other
jihadist publications, "Secrets of the Mujahideen"
is a computer program for Internet communications.
According to the security section of the Global
Islamic Media
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