The Internet Killed the Terrorist

The article goes on to say: "Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian reputed to be one of the founders of the terrorist network, used a middleman to contact Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi as the 24-year-old man hatched a plot to use homemade backpack bombs, perhaps on the city's mass transit system, the two intelligence officials said."

The AP says intelligence officials declined to discuss the nature of the contact or whether al-Yazid contacted Zazi to offer simple encouragement or help with the bombing plot prosecutors say Zazi was pursuing.

The email from my colleage included the question "if we can contact him why can't we bring him to justice"? The answer is simple, but complex.

We can't find him. We know where he is, but we can't find him.

Sounds crazy, but locating an enemy in the era of the email and the internet is nearly impossible.

But there is one way to eliminate them -- that very same internet. I'll explain in a moment.

Mike Hayden, former CIA director said once, "in the Cold War we knew where our enemies were, but it was hard to kill them. In the war against terrorists, it's easy to kill them, but we don't know where they are."

As I was contemplating the answer to this question, the words of Doug Wankle, Managing partner with Spectre group in Afghanistan popped into my mind. When I asked him why corrupt Afghan politicians can't be brought to justice, he responded, "how many decades did we know that John Gotti was a major criminal here in this country and yet it took us decades literally before we got the evidence to do what was necessary? Until we got that he was able to walk in society."

So I think answer to my colleague's question (why can't we bring him to justice?) is probably two-fold.

First reason, communication between al Qaida operatives is so complex that it takes months to unravel their real names, where they are located and what they may be planning; the leaks that allegedly compromised the Zazi investigation set back the roll-up tremendously. That's one reason why we can't bring him to justice. Another reason is that death has no sting for the most of these hard core al Qaida terrorists.

So how do you get rid of a guy like Yazid? The internet!

It looks like more and more people are beginning to reject the backwards mentality al Qaida and the Taliban espouse. Why, because they've been exposed to the truth via the web. Many people are becoming educated and coming to the realization that signing up to be a foot soldier for al Qaida or the Taliban does not liberate them from Western oppression.

What it does is make them targets, while guys like Yazid call the shots in relative comfort.