Terror on the Internet Online Press Kit

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Terror on the Internet highlights key findings from Gabriel Weimann’s eight-year research project to monitor terrorist use of the Internet. Back in 1998, there were just twelve known terrorist Web sites. But, as the author quickly learned, terrorist organizations were fast discovering that the Internet could be a pivotal communications tool. By early 2006, the number of terrorist Web sites alone had climbed to an astonishing 4,800.

Research for this project was conducted in four continents and called for expertise in more than twenty languages and numerous dialects commonly used on terrorist Web sites. The findings were brought together in an extensive database containing graphics, texts, and individual analyses. Often, the project required the researchers to "lurk" in terrorist forums and Web sites and then rush to download material that would be removed within minutes.

The scope of Weimann’s work was further broadened by information culled from interviews with officials and agents from different countries, organizations, and security forces about their use of counterterrorism measures on the Net.

The United States Institute of Peace invited Weimann to Washington, D.C., in 2003 as a senior fellow in USIP’s Jennings Randolph Fellowship program (View Gabriel Weimann's Senior Fellow Project Report). It was here that Weimann had the opportunity to refine and expand his research into a book. During his fellowship and as part of the development of his book, Weimann authored two special reports, "www.terror.net: How Modern Terrorists Use the Internet" and "Cyberterrorism: How Real Is the Threat?" When made available online, these reports generated more hits than any previous publication from USIP.

About the Author

Gabriel Weimann is a professor of communication at the University of Haifa, Israel, and a former senior fellow at USIP. A prolific analyst of terrorism and the mass media, his publications include over one hundred scientific articles and five books, among them Communicating Unreality: Mass Media and Reconstruction of Realities and The Theater of Terror: The Mass Media and International Terrorism. Weimann has been a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, Hofstra University, Lehigh University (USA), University of Mainz (Germany), Carleton University (Canada), and the National University of Singapore. He has received numerous grants and awards from organizations such as the Fulbright Foundation, the Canadian Israel Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, the German National Research Foundation (D.F.G.), the Sasakawa Foundation, and USIP.