But there are real people, in real space, maintaining what is, in effect, al-Qaeda's I.T. department. Last October, the most important member of that group so far -- the man who has been called "the Godfather of cyber-terrorism" -- was arrested. He is a 22-year-old Muslim immigrant to Great Britain named Younis Tsouli.

On that cold autumn morning, police raided the West London flat where Tsouli lived and worked, and arrested him. As they entered, Tsouli was reportedly putting the finishing touches on a Web page titled "You Bomb It." On his hard drive, police said they found a video of how to make a car bomb, and another showing several locations in Washington, D.C. Tsouli, now residing in Belmarsh Prison in England, is expected to go on trial in January, along with two other young Muslim immigrants arrested at the same time.

The three suspects were reportedly discovered at least in part as the result of intelligence obtained in previous busts in Sarajevo and Denmark. In the Sarajevo arrest, more than 40 pounds of plastic explosives and a suicide-bomb belt were reportedly found, as well as plans pointing to bombing attacks in Europe and the U.S.

Although he may have been part of those cells, Tsouli was not your ordinary terrorist. By all indications, it appears that he was the most visible al-Qaeda Internet operative so far, better known by his screen name: Irhabi007.

Radar brought pinpoint tracking to the age of centralized warfare. By contrast, the Internet, in this distributed age, is helping to decentralize warfare. And like many decentralized franchises, al-Qaeda has come to use the World Wide Web for marketing, distribution, research, fund raising, recruiting, and, on occasion, operations.

Marketing Terrorism

But, at first, the Internet was only a means for al-Qaeda to distribute its equivalent of brochures. "Initially, before 9/11, [al-Qaeda] appeared to be using the Net primarily as a marketing tool," says Ned Moran, an intelligence analyst at the Terrorism Research Center outside Washington, D.C. He cites a Web site called Almeda.com as a key promoter of radical Islam.

Shortly after 9/11, Almeda.com and others were attacked by unknown hackers and shut down. It was about the time that al-Qaeda was being pushed out of Afghanistan, and the Internet became a perfect communications mechanism for what was now a terrorist organization on the move. (continued...)

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