On the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the major jihadist web forums appear to be the target of a coordinated attack. The two most important websites have been taken down: Al-Falluja is not working at all, and on Shumukh Al-Islam all links just lead to a statement from the forum saying that "the enemies of Allah" are trying to "silence the voice of truth." Al-Shura is also offline. The Ansar Al-Mujahideen forum was down temporarily, but has managed to return and lash out at the "worshippers of Satan" supposedly behind the coordinated attack. The other forums appear to be operating as usual.
The attack on these websites came together with the announcement of the purported return of Al-Ekhlaas, a major jihadist forum that was taken down one year ago. The statement was posted on the revived Al-Ekhlaas in the name of Al-Fajr, the jihadist media distribution company that handles Al-Qaeda productions, among others; it was reposted by individuals on other forums, such as Ansar Al-Mujahideen. The statement described the forum's return as "a Ramadan gift from Sheikh Osama bin Laden."
The statement announcing the return of Al-Ekhlaas
The renewed Al-Ekhlaas forum is in fact operating, and it contains content from before the crash and recognizes old usernames and passwords. The consensus on the forums, however, is that it has been revived by an intelligence agency in an attempt to gather information on online jihadists. Commentators have pointed out supposed inconsistencies in the Arabic of the new Al-Ekhlaas, such as basic grammatical errors, and have written that its IP is in California.
Normally when someone issues a fake communiqué in the name of Al-Fajr, it issues a disclaimer that it is not the one who sent it. [1] The problem is that Al-Fajr's lines of communication are down, since it only distributes directly to Al-Falluja and Shumukh Al-Islam. (It is possible that this was known to whoever is attacking the forums. If the new Al-Ekhlaas is bogus, it may have been launched only after the other two forums were taken down in order to prevent Al-Fajr from responding). A moderator on the Shabakat Al-Mujahideen Al-Iliktroniyya forum, however, claims that he has received word from Al-Fajr by way of a third party that the new Al-Ekhlaas is bogus.
Al-Ekhlaas has responded testily to these doubts, writing that it was "the infidels" who were impugning the forum. But at the moment it appears that it is on the losing side of the battle for credibility.
With or without Al-Ekhlaas, the attacks on the jihadist forums may so far be considered a success. If an Al-Qaeda 9/11 release exists, its distribution has been blocked (for now at least). More importantly, if both Al-Falluja and Shumukh Al-Islam remain down, Al-Fajr will have been "flushed out": it will have to seek alternative avenues of distribution, and in so doing will risk danger of detection. But it is not uncommon for these forums to go down temporarily; it remains to be seen whether the current disruption is of a more serious nature.
Endnote:
[1] For an example, see MEMRI JTTM, Fake Communique Roils Jihadi Online Media, June 25, 2009.
