BRIEFS

JIHADI STATEMENT EXTOLS VIRTUES OF THE INTERNET

A September 13 statement in the Islamist forums demonstrated jihadi awareness of the attempts by Western governments to impede their use of the internet as an operational tool. The statement was allegedly authored by the Ministry of Information of the Islamic State of Iraq, and it claimed that “the attempts to destroy jihadi websites and the fierce crusader warfare against anything related to jihadi media…is but evidence of the great failure and defeat faced by the crusade against the Muslim countries.” The statement then proceeds to extol the virtues of the internet in how it has assisted the jihadi mission. The report states, “Praise be to God who made…the supervisors of the jihadi forums a tool to aggravate the enemies of God and to support the religion of God in this era…Praise be to God for [the mujahideen’s] great efforts in triggering a jihad awakening among the children of the ummah. How great [are the] fingers which sit behind the computer screens, day and night, awaiting a statement or releasing a production for their mujahideen brothers in the forums.”

THAI ARMY CHIEF CLAIMS PEACE MAY BE GENERATION AWAY

Thailand’s outgoing army chief, General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, warned at his farewell ceremony that “it may be another generation” before the country’s southern insurgency is brought to an end (Bangkok Post, September 15). The general explained that the government’s intelligence capabilities had to be increased since that was a serious weak point in their attempts to combat the violence in the deep south. The insurgency, which began in January 2004, has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people, with no end to the violence in sight.