WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- Expertise, expense and anonymity are the draws for anti-American extremists to farm out their Web operations to U.S. Internet firms to run them, analysts say.
Intelligence officials and private experts list dozens of instances in which Islamic militants used U.S. Internet firms -- known for reliable service and virtual anonymity -- for getting their anti-American message to a virtual audience, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
"The relatively cheap expense and high quality of U.S. servers seems to attract jihadists," said Rita Katz, co-founder of Site Intelligence Group, a private company that monitors communications of Muslim extremist groups.
Representatives of two prominent U.S. Internet firms told the Post their policies bar the airing of violent or hateful messages and that they act quickly to shut down any site that violates the rules.
Militants' use of U.S. Web hosts prompt occasional disputes between the United States and its allies as well as debates over whether it's better to shut down the sites once they're discovered or allow them to operate for intelligence-gathering, the newspaper said.
"You can learn a lot from the enemy by watching them chat online," said Martin Libicki, a senior policy analyst at the non-profit Rand Corp.
