Uncle Tim flagged it up cos of the thing about laundering cash. If the experts are so clearly mistaken, then why are they even experts? You know like when Stalin was developing his nuclear bombs, and if the scientists were too slow or made mistakes, he'd sack them or sling them into a gulag and promote the next person who came along calling themselves a nuclear scientists, and in the end he was left with just a bunch of bullshitters who knew nothing about nuclear physics.
Is this what we've done with counter-terrorism and security in the UK, we have to rely on idiots now?
Anyhoo, after reading the original article, I'm somewhat puzzled...
Computer experts in al-Qaeda have created an "online University of Jihad" that is recruiting and training potential terrorists in Britain without them having to risk travelling to camps in Pakistan.
...
Terry Prattar, a specialist in counter-terrorism with Jane's Strategic Advisory Services, said: "Al-Qaeda want to create a University of Jihad on line, both in a spiritual and financial sense.
Do Al-Qaeda have this online university or not? Do they just want to have it, or do they actually have it?
And furthermore, imagine in your head an 'online university'. Its not so easy cos most folk are familiar with real life universities, drunken students and folk with books and laptops hurrying into lectures, end of term exams and fancying the girl who sits a few rows in front.
This idea of an online university, it could be anything. A page with a list of links to video sharing sites. Or even an email with the links. Or maybe zip file with txt files and video clips. Surely that can't count as being an 'online university' there has to be end of year exams or some kind of certification system.
I reckon its bullshit.
Remember the Jolly Roger's cookbook. The floppy disc of anarchist txt files, how to make bombs, mantraps and phone phreaking, that got passed around school in 1993, until some kid in the year below printed out a copy and his mum found it. This Al-Qaeda 'online university' is the same thing. If whitey does it you're an anarchist or a schoolkid, if a muslim does it they're a terrorist.
Its up there with the 'Lyrical Terrorist' who would have just been a Manic Street Preachers fan if she was ten years younger and didn't wear a burqa.
Hmm, also, I'm somewhat sceptical of this Terry Prattar chap, the counter-terrorism specialist, does he even exist?
Baffling. That Prattar chap has only ever said one noteworthy thing (if you go by Google).
ReplyDeleteThere is a sort of online university in the UK already (although it's part of an existing university). Google for Ultraversity. It's an entirely online degree, except for the ceremony at the end.
With that said, I doubt ol' Alkayeeder are going to bother setting up a University for people that're going to blow themselves up. What need do they have for degrees? Lunacy.