Terrorists increasingly turn to Internet

LONDON, June 24 (UPI) -- The British government is taking steps to address the growing prominence of al-Qaida and other Islamic extremists who use the Internet to devise terror plots.

Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported that Omar Bakri Mohammad -- who was banned last year from the United Kingdom and now lives in Lebanon -- recently held a Web cast lamenting Britain's decision to grant knighthood to controversial writer Salman Rushdie. Many Muslims have subsequently been urged by Britain to protect Rushdie's knighthood.

As part of an investigation, the Telegraph monitored several extremist Web sites and found their prominence to be on a sharp rise.

Ed Husain -- a London-born former jihadi who gave up the militancy and is now a doctoral candidate -- sent out a warning about extremists using the Internet to network and share enthusiasm for terror and future plots.

"There is an unchallenged, unreported Islamist underworld in the (United Kingdom) in which talk of jihad, bombings, stabbings, killings and executions is usual," he said.

Dominic Whiteman, director of Vigil -- a privately funded intelligence group -- said many terrorists depend very heavily upon the Internet.

"It is not a coincidence that the rise of the internet and al-Qaida were simultaneous," he said. "The internet is al-Qaida's oxygen."