Survey identifies 'problematic' Web sites

LOS ANGELES, July 17 (UPI) -- The Internet serves as "a digital propaganda outpost for terrorists and extremist groups worldwide" according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which has issued a report identifying thousands of "problematic" Web sites that promote terror and -- in some cases -- serve as enrollment centers for suicide bombers.

The center, an international Jewish human rights organization headquartered in Los Angeles, works with Internet experts in Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, New York, Paris and Toronto to examine more than 25,000 Web sites each month. It presented its latest findings Wednesday to an audience of law enforcement professionals, government officials, educators, parents and news organizations.

"Digital Hate 2002" is a CD-ROM compilation of Internet hate sites -- many of which feature animated hate games, Neo-Nazi online identity theft and other examples of what Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the center, called transnational hate.

In an interview with United Press International, Cooper said most of the ideas being expressed at the sites are not new, but the increasing use of Internet technology to spread the ideas is troublesome.

"There's no new hate online," said Cooper, "but we see the technology being embraced, utilized by terrorist and hate groups."

Cooper said Internet sites can be potent tools in the war for "the hearts and minds" of people in the Arab and Muslim world.

"The Internet lends itself to promoting the big lie," he said. "The poll numbers are shocking in the Arab world. Majorities think the Israelis did it (the Sept. 11 terrorist attack) or the Americans did it to themselves."

Cooper said many of the Web sites listed in "Digital Hate 2002" are very sophisticated sites that can compete with more legitimate sites in terms of the "look and feel" of legitimacy.

"We have a whole section on rewriting history," said Cooper.

One site, apparently devoted to Martin Luther King, turns out to be a diatribe against the late civil rights leader.

"This is a site where students using (the search engine) Google can go to research essays for school projects," said Cooper. "It takes a while for adults to figure out the site is put together by Stormfront, a Neo-Nazi organization."

Cooper said "Digital Hate 2002" lists racist Web sites linked to Maxime Brunerie, the neo-Nazi who was arrested on June 14, Bastille Day, after his failed attempt to assassinate French President Jacques Chirac. The suspect was allegedly acting alone, but Cooper said Brunerie's Internet activities provided the "context" for his alleged crime.

"This individual, by his own admission, was very involved in the Internet," said Cooper. "Many of the most recent and deadly hate crimes in the U.S. have involved more or less lone wolf individuals who have visited hate sites online."

Cooper said researchers found two Web sites where visitors could sign up for suicide bombing missions, and several sites that featured hate games.

In one game, visitors get to attack African immigrants. Another allows players to manage a concentration camp and gas minorities.

A game called "Ethnic Cleansing" allows players to go off on a virtual shooing spree against non-white people. "KABOOM" allows a player to score points by blowing up people in a pedestrian setting.

Asked whether the games might be no more than sick humor, Cooper said that is possible, but even if that is the case, they are still damaging.

"We don't say there are 3,300 'hate' sites," said Cooper. "We say 'problematic' because you can have a 17-year-old kid posting online with no ideology. 'KABOOM' is made by an American -- not an Arab, not a Jew. Yeah, he's a jerk. He's an idiot. But the impact of his game is devastating."

Cooper said that before the Internet, the creator of that game might be able to impress "10 of his friends," but now the game resonates across the World Wide Web.

"If we found that game, it means someone else found it before us," said Cooper.

The report also listed details of marketing schemes for music CDs, books, videos and T-shirts that promote hate.

So far, "Digital Hate 2002" has been presented to the United Nations, Scotland Yard, the French Interior Ministry, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and anti-terrorism officials meeting in Berlin, Germany.

Cooper said it is almost impossible to get a handle on growth trends in the use of the Internet to promote hate and terrorism, even though the Wiesenthal conducts a similar survey each year.

"Last year there were 2,500 sites," he said. "So you say it went up by 1,000. But not really. Many of those sites are gone. It's a very difficult graph to chart."