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What the Terrorists Have in Mind

(New York Times) Daniel Benjamin and Gabriel Weimann - Today, the central forum for the terrorists' discourse is not covert phone communications but the Internet, where Islamist Web sites and chat rooms are filled with evaluations of current events, discussions of strategy, and elaborations of jihadist ideology. Radicals who were downcast in 2002 about the rapid defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan now feel exuberant about the global situation and, above all, the events in Iraq. Moreover, the radicals see themselves as gaining ground in their effort to convince other Muslims around the world that jihad is a religiously required military obligation. Daniel Benjamin was a director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff under President Bill Clinton. Gabriel Weimann is professor of communications at the University of Haifa in Israel.
2004-10-29 00:00:00
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