On May 10, 2008 Ekhlaas member mohanad57 posted a link to Encyclopedia of Modern U.S. Military Weapons in pdf format. Like most illicit material shared by Jihadis, the link takes you to an independent file sharing site (in this case, rapidshare.com). This keeps the forum managers from getting in trouble, reduces bandwidth consumption, ensures that files can be shared rapidly, and makes the links temporary. For all you jihadologists out there: If there is a download you want on a Jihadi forum, get it immediately–the link will stop working in a few days.
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I would add that Internet Archive (IA) — a US government supported “public library” — has been one of the only reliable, persistent hosting sites for jihadi material. Commercial sites are probably trying to avoid the liability. IA, on the other hand, has been fighting FBI NSL requests for user data, and just last week won.
So books become “Jihadi Material” once Jihadists read them? I mean, that book is on the shelf at Barnes & Noble, I browsed past it not more than 4 days ago…is the Military section of Barnes & Noble a hotbed of Jihadi material, too? There were great books on improvised weapons and survival skills, all written in English by white people…just like the Encyclopedia of Modern US Military Weapons.
(Which is already out of date.)
Justin, I didn’t say the encyclopedia was “Jihadi Material.” I said it was illicit–they are distributing a pdf of the book, which is illegal. The same would apply if they were distributing Harry Potter in this manner.
Would you agree that “illicit” is very much a secondary consideration to “convenient”? A PDF is a much more mobile and distributable format — the fact it’s illegal is an afterthought.