Friday, October 12, 2001

The Web Has Made Terrorist Groups More Dangerous, Scholar Says By JEN LIN-LIU Singapore The World Wide Web has made terrorist groups more dangerous and more effective, according to Shyam Tekwani, an assistant professor of journalism at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. For example, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam -- known for terrorist tactics in a nearly two-decade-old war against Sri Lanka -- rely on the Web to spread propaganda, connect to the Tamil diaspora, and solicit donations, he says. Mr. Tekwani says that the Tigers of Tamil's Web sites use features such as a quote by Mahatma Gandhi and a smiling portrait of their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, to make their cause seem to be one of justice. One of the sites also allows viewers to send virtual postcards of a Tamil hero. Data from the postcards are used to generate a database of names that the Tigers of Tamil will use later to solicit donations. Mr. Tekwani recently presented a paper on his research at an Internet conference in Singapore for academics in Asia and America, just three days after last month's attacks on the United States. One participant, Thomas A. Hollihan, associate dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, calls his work "courageous." "Professor Tekwani put himself at some risk to go out and meet with these terrorists," says Mr. Hollihan. Mr. Tekwani began following the Tigers of Tamil in 1983, while he was a journalist for an Indian magazine. He was sympathetic to their cause in the beginning. But after witnessing the violence they inflicted ("I've watched them play football with the brains of a soldier," he says) and their renewal of violence after a 1987 peace accord, he concluded that their mission is one of terror. Mr. Tekwani will continue his research next year as a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University, in Scotland. He is widening his study to include other groups, including Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and the Taliban, both of which he began examining earlier this year. One recent Taliban Web site resembled an early version of a Tigers of Tamil site, says Mr. Tekwani. It was abruptly shut down around September 15, he says. The Taliban Web site "looked really primitive," says Mr. Tekwani. "They're not in the same league as the Tigers of Tamil." Another group that Mr. Tekwani wants to study is the Abu Sayyaf rebels, Muslim militants in the Philippines known for killing several tourists in the past year. Four times this year, Mr. Tekwani traveled to the small Philippine island where Abu Sayyaf is supposedly based, searching for the group. "I'm curious what their media strategy is," he says, adding that he hasn't had success reaching the group -- yet. "I'm putting my name out there. I've left my business card. I think within the next one or two visits, I'll get to meet them." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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