comment by Jerry Gordon

No sooner we post a piece on Senator Lieberman’s recent report on “Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat,” of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee then his staff releases a letter calling for Google to take down al Qaeda terrorist content on YouTube. As we have suggested that our government do that in innumerable posts and articles, we applaud the Committee for taking this initiative.

Our colleague Joseph Shahda had the following comments on the Lieberman letter to Goggle:

In the last three years cyberspace terrorists have been using Youtube, Google videos, LiveLeak and other similar free video hosting website to post hundreds if not thousands of terrorist videos that include attacks on our US troops, attacks on civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and barbaric videos such as beheading of people. In the last few months there has been an ongoing project on the two largest internet terrorist forums Ekhlaas and Al Hesbah about creating Al Qaeda channel on YouTube. Although YouTube has shut down many of these terrorist videos there are still hundreds of them that remain operational and dozens of new ones are posted everyday. YouTube, LiveLeak and Google videos should have a special and very effective process to immediately eliminate the terrorist videos posted on their servers and should be a separate process from the one they use now to flag any type of unwanted videos because taking terrorist videos down must be one of their priorities.

Having taken this important first step with Google, we trust that the Committee will not lose sight of the necessity of closing down official Hezbollah and Somali al Qaeda terrorist websites hosted by Internet Service Providers here in America.

YouTube Videos Are Produced by Al Qaeda and Other Terror Organizations

Videos Show Attacks on U.S. Soldiers, Civilians

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Monday called on Google to remove Internet video content produced by terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda. The videos – readily available on YouTube –show assassinations, deaths of U.S. soldiers and civilians, weapons training, incendiary speeches by al-Qaeda leadership, and other material intended to encourage violence against the West.

The videos are branded with Al-Qaeda logos – a practice detailed in a recent bipartisan Committee staff report entitled “Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat.” These production logos are easily recognizable, making it easy for Google to remove them from its Internet sites. Lieberman called on Google to enforce its own community standards against videos that show gratuitous violence or people getting “hurt, attacked, or humiliated.”

“Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training,” the Senator said in his letter. “YouTube also, unwittingly, permits Islamist terrorist groups to maintain an active, pervasive, and amplified voice, despite military setbacks or successful operations by the law enforcement and intelligence communities…

“Protecting our citizens from terrorist attacks is a top priority for our government. The private sector can help us do that. By taking action to curtail the use of YouTube to disseminate the goals and methods of those who wish to kill innocent civilians, Google will make a singularly important contribution to this important national effort.”

Following is a copy of the letter:

May 19, 2008

Dr. Eric Schmidt

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Google, Inc.

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View, CA 94043

Dear Dr. Schmidt:

YouTube is being used to share videos produced by al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups. The purpose of this letter is to request that Google implement its own policy against this offensive material, remove these videos from YouTube, and prevent them from reappearing.

Today, Islamist terrorist organizations rely extensively on the Internet to attract supporters and advance their cause. The framework for much of this Internet campaign is described in a bipartisan staff report released last week by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (“Committee”), which I am privileged to chair, titled Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat. The report explains, in part, how al-Qaeda created and manages a multi-tiered online media operation that produces content intended to enlist followers in countries all over the world, including the United States. Central to this media campaign is the branding of content with an icon or logo to guarantee authenticity that the content was produced by al-Qaeda or allied organizations like al-Qaeda in Iraq, Ansar al-Islam (a.k.a Ansar al-Sunnah) or al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb. All of these groups have been designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) by the Department of State.

Searches on YouTube return dozens of videos branded with an icon or logo identifying the videos as the work of one of these Islamist terrorist organizations. A great majority of these videos document horrific attacks on American soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan. Others provide weapons training, speeches by al-Qaeda leadership, and general material intended to radicalize potential recruits.

In other words, Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training – activities that are all essential to terrorist activity. According to testimony received by our Committee, the online content produced by al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist organizations can play a significant role in the process of radicalization, the end point of which is the planning and execution of a terrorist attack. YouTube also, unwittingly, permits Islamist terrorist groups to maintain an active, pervasive, and amplified voice, despite military setbacks or successful operations by the law enforcement and intelligence communities.

YouTube posts “community guidelines” for users to follow, but it does not appear that the company is enforcing these guidelines to the extent they would apply to this content. For example, the community guidelines state that “[g]raphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked, or humiliated, don’t post it.” Many of the videos produced by one of the production arms of al-Qaeda show attacks on U.S. forces in which American soldiers are injured and, in some cases, killed. Nevertheless, those videos remain available for viewing on YouTube. At the same time, the guidelines do not prohibit the posting of content that can be readily identified as produced by al-Qaeda or another FTO.

I ask you, therefore, to immediately remove content produced by Islamist terrorist organizations from YouTube. This should be a straightforward task since so many of the Islamist terrorist organizations brand their material with logos or icons identifying their provenance. In addition, please explain what changes Google plans to make to the YouTube community guidelines to address violent extremist material and how Google plans to enforce those guidelines to prevent the content from reappearing.

Protecting our citizens from terrorist attacks is a top priority for our government. The private sector can help us do that. By taking action to curtail the use of YouTube to disseminate the goals and methods of those who wish to kill innocent civilians, Google will make a singularly important contribution to this important national effort.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this critical matter and I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Joseph I. Lieberman (ID-CT)

Chairman, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs