Al-Qaida's on-line operations improved

CAIRO, June 25 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida has taken full advantage of modern communications, with video and audio posts to the Web and even online chats with a top leader hiding in Pakistan.

Since December, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's second in command, has received almost 2,000 communications, The Washington Post reports. He has responded to about one-fifth, including hostile inquiries.

One post, from an Egyptian radical, wanted to know if killing police officers is permissible. Zawahiri responded that police officers are infidels and, yes, can be killed.

As-Sahab, Arabic for "The Clouds," is in charge of al-Qaida's video and audio production. The studio's output has increased sharply, with 97 videos released last year, and become far more professional.

Experts say the security of the group's communications also is much better.

"In many, many ways, the damage has already been done," Evan F. Kohlmann, a consultant to the FBI, Scotland Yard and other agencies, told the Post. "It certainly would have been a lot easier if the U.S. government had taken this seriously back in 2004. Back then, these guys were looked upon as miscreants and cretins, like they were just Internet terrorists and not for real."