Category Archives: #StopIran

March, 2015, ISIS Posted Job Openings for Bomb-makers

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ISIS posts job ad for press officers, teachers and bomb makers

 

NYPost: ISIS is hiring.

A job advertisement has surfaced online aimed at supporters of the Islamic State who do not wish to fight on the front lines.

Omar Hussain, a British jihadist who fled the UK to join the Islamic State in Syria, has posted 10 positions that the terrorist organization is looking to fill.

Writing on behalf of the group under the name Abu Sa’eed Al-Britani, the devout ISIS member explains that while not wanting to be a soldier is a “sign of weak faith,” there is still much work to be done even if you’re afraid to kill or wage jihad, the Independent reports.

Number one on the list of available occupations is press officer, needed for the so-called ISIS “media center.” This “internal media” position would provide support from the masses as Western news outlets continue to release loads of “negative propaganda” against the group, Al-Britani said.

Another post that he said needed to be filled is the role of schoolteacher. This person would ultimately be in charge of instructing the “next generation … the correct Islamic teachings.”

“Imagine the reward in nurturing a child upon tawheed (oneness with God) and jihad (holy struggle)!” Al-Britani said. “All his efforts and deeds he does due to you teaching him will earn you huge rewards. And many of these children are the sons and daughters of Mujahedeen and martyrs.”

ISIS Forum Features Manual On How To Build Bombs, Blow Up Planes

A guide with detailed instructions about how to make bombs and sneak them past airport security is featured on a prominent forum

A manual explaining how to build bombs and slip them past airport security was posted on a main ISIS forum several months before the recent downing of a Russian passenger plane.

“Any security system, be it human or mechanical, has weak points that can be breached as long as you know their details and mechanisms,” said the guide, which Vocativ discovered using our deep web technology.

The manual was originally published in Al-Qaeda’s “Inspire” English-language magazine in December, then posted to the ISIS forum, in Arabic, in March. A forum administrator deliberately made the guide the lead post in a forum section dedicated to technical know-how for jihadists seeking to commit acts of violence. It remains unclear, however, if the manual was placed in the section’s top spot before or after the Metrojet plane came down over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday.

But as of Thursday, the guide was prominently positioned on the ISIS forum, and discussion about the manual was active — showing just how easy it is for ISIS-affiliated jihadists to access information about building and using homemade explosives to blow up an aircraft.

The guide is thorough, listing what is says are every measure and action needed to blow up a plane. It details how to make homemade explosives using acetone, potassium chlorate and other chemicals. It explains how to carry a bomb successfully through airport security, including past metal detectors, scent detectors and frisking and screening machines. It gives specifics about the “best” place to put a bomb on plane.

It also includes information about American, British and French airlines, and offers final instructions for jihadists after they board a plane with a bomb. “Relax, do not become tense,” it says. “At this stage you have achieved a great success even if the plane is not blown up.”

ISIS has insisted for days that it is responsible for taking down the Metrojet flight flying over the Sinai, killing all 224 people on board. It has not provided details on how it might have carried out such a devastating operation.

U.S. and British officials have said the aircraft may have been downed by an explosive device. On Thursday, Britain said there was a “significant possibility” that ISIS’ branch in Egypt was behind a suspected bomb attack, Reuters reported.

Senator Cruz Lights the Fuse Against Terrorism

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Cruz joins fight to label Muslim B’hood ‘terrorist organization’

Sen. Ted Cruz and several House Republicans are leading a new legislative effort aimed at compelling the U.S. government to label Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood a “foreign terrorist organization.”

“This bill recognizes the simple fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is a radical Islamic terrorist group,” Cruz said upon the introduction of his Senate version of the bill. “A number of our Muslim allies have taken this common sense step, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the [United Arab Emirates].”

“The group supports and stands behind numerous terrorist organizations that are responsible for acts of violence and aggression,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., the lead House sponsor. “It is time for Congress and the Department of State to recognize and sanction them as they deserve, as a foreign terrorist organization.”

The bill, the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, asks Secretary of State John Kerry to label the organization a foreign terrorist organization within 60 days, or to present a report to Congress detailing why he opted against doing so. Much more here. To read the proposed Senate legislation titled:   To require the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress on the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, and for other purposes.

 

Nearly 200 U.S. troops have been killed and nearly 1,000 injured by Iranian-made explosives in Iraq, according to new disclosures from a partially declassified report conducted by U.S. Central Command and described by sources to the Washington Free Beacon.

The number of U.S. deaths resulting from Iranian terrorism were revealed for the first time on Wednesday by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) during a hearing focusing on the Obama administration’s failure to prosecute terrorists directly responsible for the deaths of Americans.

At least 196 U.S. service members fighting in Iraq were killed directly as a result of Iranian-made explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, according to Cruz and congressional sources familiar with Centcom’s mostly classified report.

The deaths took place between 2003 and 2011. The Iranian explosive devices wounded another 861 U.S. soldiers, and a total of 1,534 attacks were carried out on U.S. military members over this period, according to sources familiar with the report, which was provided to Cruz’s office.

The explosive devices are a “hallmark weapon” of Iran’s Quds force, a paramilitary group that operates outside of Iran’s borders, according to sources familiar with the report. It has been determined that only Iranian-backed operatives use these weapons in Iraq.

U.S. military leaders disclosed in testimony before the Senate that Iranian terror activities have claimed the lives of around 500 U.S. soldiers, which accounts for at least 14 percent of all American casualties in Iraq from 2003 to 2011.

“That blood is on Iran’s hands,” Cruz said Wednesday afternoon during a hearing on the Obama administration’s decision to not prosecute terrorists who have murdered American citizens and troops abroad.

“Iran has been and still is at war with the U.S.,” Cruz said. “Yet despite the slaughter and maiming of an untold number of America citizens … the U.S. government has rather shockingly failed time and time again to fulfill its sovereign duty to obtain justice for its citizens. Our government has failed terror victims in a number of ways.”

Palestinian terrorists, many of them supported by Iran, have killed more than 53 Americans. The Department of Justice has not prosecuted a single person, Cruz said.

Those testifying at the hearing said they were alarmed by the government’s hesitation to prosecute terror cases.

“The greatest pain that victims and their families have is watching another incident take place, watching another death,” said Aegis Industries CEO Kenneth Stethem, whose brother, Robert, was killed during the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight by Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists.

“I would like to know if the administration has asked Iran if they’re still at jihad,” Stethem said, adding that separating Iran from terrorism is “like separating light from a flame and heat from a fire.”

“Is it sound policy to give money to a terrorist nation that is at war with us?” Stethem asked, referring to the more than $150 billion in cash assets that will be released to Iran as a result of the recent nuclear accord.

Stethem also said he was concerned by the Obama administration’s failure to hold Iran accountable for recent violations of the accord, which include the testing of ballistic missiles.

“I’d just like to see some accountability,” he said. “And Congress must do it because the administration isn’t.”

Daniel Miller, a victim of Hamas terrorism, recalled how suicide bombers destroyed the Jerusalem café that he and his friends were dining at.

Miller said that he and other victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism attempted to sue the Islamic Republic. After winning more than $70 million in damages, the U.S. government stepped in to argue on Iran’s behalf.

“I expected a battle from Iran” to get the money legally owed, Miller said. “What I didn’t expect was the battle we faced from my own government.”

Lawyers from the Department of Justice filed a brief during one legal processing to protect Iran from having to pay the victims.

“On one side [of the courtroom] was my legal team representing victims of terrorism, and on the other side was the U.S. sitting with its newfound ally Iran,” Miller said.

He also said Obama administration “cares more about protecting Iranian assets than protecting its own terror victims.”

Cruz called the story “disgusting,” “shameful,” and “unacceptable.”

Others at the hearing criticized the Obama administration for interceding in a legal case in which American victims of Palestinian terrorists were awarded billions of dollars in damages. The administration argued in an unprecedented briefing to the court earlier this year that this money should not be paid out to the victims because it would financially cripple the Palestinian government.

 

Iran: Death to America, Back ‘Atcha’ Iran

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 Iran’s hardliners mark hostage anniversary with ‘infiltration’ warning

Reuters: Thousands of Iranians rallied to celebrate the anniversary of the 1979 hostage-taking at the U.S. embassy on Wednesday, as hardliners alleged Western “infiltration” following a landmark nuclear deal with world powers.

President Hassan Rouhani, however, in remarks highlighting division between moderates and hardliners, criticised the arrest of at least two journalists, the latest in a series of detentions also including dissident writers and artists.

“We should not arrest people without reason, making up cases against them and say they are a part of an infiltration network,” Rouhani told a cabinet meeting.

Demonstrators gathered in front of the abandoned U.S. Embassy in Tehran chanting “death to America” and urging Iran’s foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, Mohammad Javad Zarif, “Don’t trust the Americans.”

The U.S. embassy was sacked by students in the early days of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The ensuing U.S. hostage crisis lasted 444 days and Washington and Tehran have yet to restore diplomatic ties.

Some protesters dragged a coffin marked “Obama” through the street while others carrying long balloons representing Iran’s latest ballistic missile, which was tested in October in defiance of a United Nations ban.

It is about time to terminate the Iran nuclear agreement and to declare a new adversarial front against Iran. The reasons are countless, one reason is above and the other is below.

U.S. Officials: Iranian Cyber-Attacks, Arrest of Americans May Be Linked

by TheTower.org Staff |

U.S. officials believe that the increasing number of hacking attacks carried out this past month by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) against American government personnel may be linked to the arrests of American-Iranian citizens by the regime, The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) Thursday.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, has routinely conducted cyberwarfare against American government agencies for years. But the U.S. officials said there has been a surge in such attacks coinciding with the arrest last month of Siamak Namazi, an energy industry executive and business consultant who has pushed for stronger U.S.-Iranian economic and diplomatic ties.

Obama administration personnel are among a larger group of people who have had their computer systems hacked in recent weeks, including journalists and academics, the officials said. Those attacked in the administration included officials working at the State Department’s Office of Iranian Affairs and its Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.

“U.S. officials were among many who were targeted by recent cyberattacks,” said an administration official, adding that the U.S. is still investigating possible links to the Namazi case. “U.S. officials believe some of the more recent attacks may be linked to reports of detained dual citizens and others.”

At the time of his arrest, the IRGC seized Namazi’s computer.

According to the Journal, friends and associates of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian were similarly targeted following his arrest last year.

Associates of Namazi say that the IRGC, which is believed to be responsible for his arrest and which reports directly to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is using the cyber-attacks to help “build a false espionage case” against him.

Last month, the Journal reported that a cyber-security company, Dell Secureworks, had identified a scheme where Iranian hackers had set up false LinkedIn accounts in order to learn sensitive information from the defense and telecommunications sectors. In August, it was reported that Iran was targeting political dissidents living abroad with cyber-attacks.

Earlier this year, The New York Times revealed that the United States had enlisted the help of its allies, including Britain and Israel, to confront the escalating Iranian cyber-attacks.

A report released in 2014 by cyber-security firm Cylance highlighted Iran’s growing cyber-terror capabilities, including “bone-chilling evidence” that its hackers had taken control of gates and security systems at airports in South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

Iran’s cyber-attacks are not just directed at other countries and individuals abroad, but also its own citizens. Massive attacks on Iranian Google accounts were detected prior to the presidential election two years ago as part of a broader crackdown on dissent.

In Iran Has Built an Army of Cyber-Proxies, published in the August 2015 issue of The Tower Magazine, Jordan Brunner examined how Iran became one of the world’s leading forces in cyber-warfare:

Iran is adept at building terrorist and other illicit networks around the world. Its cyber-capabilities are no different. It uses the inexpensive method of training and collaborating with proxies in the art of cyber-war. It may also have collaborated with North Korea, which infamously attacked Sony in response to the film The Interview. It is possible that Iran assisted North Korea in developing the cyber-capability necessary to carry out the Sony hack. While acknowledging that there is no definite proof of this, Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies raised the question in The Tower earlier this year.

More importantly, Iran is sponsoring the cyber-capabilities of terrorist organizations in Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria. The first indication of this was from Hezbollah. The group’s cyber-activity came to the attention of the U.S. in early 2008, and it has only become more powerful in cyberspace since then. An attack that had “all the markings” of a campaign orchestrated by Hezbollah was carried out against Israeli businesses in 2012.

Lebanon’s neighbor, Syria, is home to the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), which employs cyber-warfare in support of the Assad regime. There are rumors that indicate it is trained and financed by Iran. The SEA’s mission is to embarrass media organizations in the West that publicize the atrocities of the Assad regime, as well as track down and monitor the activities of Syrian rebels. It has been very successful at both. The SEA has attacked media outlets such as The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Financial Times, Forbes, and others. It has also hacked the software of companies like Dell, Microsoft, Ferrari, and even the humanitarian program UNICEF.

The group has carried out its most devastating cyber-attacks against the Syrian opposition, often using the anonymity of online platforms to its advantage. For example, its hackers pose as girls in order to lure opposition fighters into giving up seemingly harmless information that can lead to lethal crackdowns. The SEA’s sophisticated use of cyberspace developed in a very short time, and it is reasonable to infer that this was due to Iranian training. Iran has long supported the ruling Assad regime in Syria and would be happy to support those who support him.

In recent months, a group called the Yemen Cyber Army (YCA) has arisen, hacking into systems that belong to Saudi Arabia. The YCA supports the Houthi militia, which is fighting the Yemenite government and the Saudis; the Houthis are, in turn, supported by Iran. Thus far, the YCA has attacked Saudi Arabia’s Foreign, Interior, and Defense Ministries. They have also hacked the website of the Saudi-owned newspaper Al-Hayat. Messages from the group indicate that they are sponsored by Iran, and might even be entirely composed of Iranians.

Meet Zac Petkansas, Hillary’s Comm Director

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Sheesh, does anyone do background checks? Oh never mind, she is behind the ‘ban the box’ program just like Obama is. That means don’t do criminal background check.

Anyway, this guy is a real prize.

A senior communications official that just joined the Hillary Clinton campaign has an interesting criminal history:

The new head of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “rapid response” team has a skeleton in his own closet: a 2013 arrest for drug possession.

Zac Petkanas, who was hired just days ago for the senior post on the Clinton camp’s communications team, was arrested at an Atlanta hospital at 4:55 a.m. Aug. 17, 2013, and charged with possessing methamphetamines, according to a police report.

A nurse who searched Petkanas while he was being admitted to the Grady Hospital found two “small baggies of a controlled substance [in] the right back pocket of the accused,” according to the report.

It isn’t known why Petkanas went to the hospital at the pre-dawn hour.

No further court documents are available, and it wasn’t clear how the case was resolved.

He was working for the Nevada Democratic Party at the time of the bust.

His drug history aside, conservatives should be encouraged that Clinton hired someone from the Wendy Davis campaign. Davis became a national hero for her abortion filibuster, and there was hope that her national celebrity and good looks would make her a real challenger in deep red Texas, where Democrats have been attempting to make inroads for the last several years. She failed miserably, and the Washington Post characterized it as beset by “staggering internal dysfunction.”

He is not bashful either when it comes to his timeline on Twitter.

He also worked for Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Georgia Senator, Sam Nunn I her failed attempt at a run for U.S. Senate.

 

There is much more…. Hat tip to Heavy:

Zac Petkanas, zac petkanas meth, hillary clinton meth

The newly hired director of rapid response for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was arrested for possession of methamphetamine in 2013, the New York Post reports.

Zac Petkanas, 30, was hired by Clinton’s campaign as part of an overhaul of its communications staff, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

Petkanas was arrested in August 2013 after he was found to be in possession of drugs at an Atlanta hospital, the Post reports.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Petkanas Completed a Pre-Trial Program & Went to Rehab

Zac Petkanas

Petkanas was arrested on August 17, 2013, at Grady Hospital in Atlanta after a nurse found “two small bags” of methamphetamine in his pocket, according to a police report obtained by the Post. Petkanas had been admitted to the hospital for an unknown reason at 4:55 a.m. He was working for the Nevada Democratic party at the time.

The drug possession charge against Petkanas was eventually dropped after he completed a pre-trial diversion program, the Clinton campaign told the New York Post. He also attended a voluntary rehab program in New York.

2. He ‘Has Made a Full Recovery’ in the Years After His Arrest

Zac Petkanas

The Clinton campaign told the New York Post that the rehab program in his home state of New York helped Petkanas get clean.

“This was a bad choice that he of course regrets,” campaign spokesman Brian Fallon told the Post. “But the matter is resolved and he has made a full recovery in the years since. We are very glad to have him on our team.”

3. He Has Worked for Senator Harry Reid, Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Wendy Davis & Media Matters

Petkanas is a veteran of several campaigns, and has most recently worked for Media Matters.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Petkanas was working for as the vice president of communications at Media Matters, a job he started in January, before he was hired by the Clinton campaign.

Petkanas previously was the deputy campaign manager for Wendy Davis when she ran for governor in Texas in 2014. Prior to that, Petkanas worked in the office of Senator Harry Reid, D-Nevada, from 2011 to 2013 as a senior communications advisor, and as director of communications for his campaign from 2010 to 2011.

4. He Got His Start in Politics Volunteering for Howard Dean’s Presidential Campaign

 

Petkanas graduated from George Washington University in 2007. His first job, according to his LinkedIn profile, was as a scheduler and new media assistant for Rep. Hilda Solis, of California. He also worked as press secretary for the House Committee on Rules from 2007 to 2008, and then as the communications director for Ann Kirkpatrick’s Arizona congressional campaign in 2008.

He returned to Washington, D.C. in 2009 as the communications director for Pennsylvania Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper.

Petkanas told The Hill in 2009 he volunteered for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign as a college freshman.

5. He Left Behind a Career as an Opera Singer to Enter Politics

Petkanas sang arias as a professional boy soprano, he told The Hill in 2009. He spent one year at Boston University in its music school before transferring to George Washington University to pursue a career in politics.

He played a young Scrooge for two seasons in the Madison Square Garden theater’s A Christmas Carol, had a boy soprano role in an opera in North Carolina and even went international, in a leading role as a boy soprano in an opera in Italy.

He also had a brief role on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, when he was 8.

“I had to go hug this woman — that was my direction,” he told The Hill. “I was 8 years old. I had my own dressing room.”

Telegram App Moves Terror Money Globally

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Mixing the good with the bad. Founderscode.com has previously posted about Telegram, the phone app, where Islamic State was using it for communications due to end to end encryption. Today, TRAC Insight took a deeper dive. A recommendation to smart phone users, think twice about using this app.

TRAC Insight: Massive Migration to Telegram, the new Jihadist Destination

October 30, 2015 from TRAC Insight
Submitted by

Veryan Khan
Brian Watts
Bethany Rudibaugh
Cat Cooper

 

Introduction

The roller coaster of social media suspensions and removed jihadi content is well documented. However, the jihadis’ struggle to keep up with the relentless suspensions and removal of jihadi social media content, may have finally run its course. The new frontier of jihadi communication is taking place on a recently launched tool, in a messaging platform that has revolutionized the social media sphere, and at least for now put an end to any watchdog oversight.

This TRAC project does not merely document that many groups have shifted to Telegram, it describes how they operate on Telegram.  The following report is divided into three sections:

  • Jihadi Infrastructure on Telegram,
  • Money Transferring on Telegram, and
  • Cross Section of TRAC’s Telegram Archives.
The New Virtual Underground Railroad

Telegram was created as a free, encrypted, messaging application that guarantees both privacy and never to delete accounts. On September 22, 2015, Telegram introduced a new feature, called “channels”  – it is this new feature that has been enthusiastically embraced by many militant groups, becoming an underground railroad for distributing and archiving jihadi propaganda materials. Moreover, Telegram’s chat feature continues to be essential to both the recruiting and money moving activities.

For More on TRAC Insight: Adaptation Strategies in the Islamic State Twitter War

For More on TRAC Insight: Google Plus- Hidden Passage to Recruitment

Not a Fad

Though TRAC has seen sporadic attempts to jump to other social media platforms by many different militant groups worldwide, we have good reasons to believe this is an actual resettlement — a grassroots movement to shift communication styles. The usual pattern of initial attempts to transit from a mainstream social media outlet like Twitter, to another social media platform for covert communications is: initial patchy use; followed by a dropping off of content; then, ultimately becoming a “back-channel” for propaganda when all other media outlets are unavailable for one reason or another. This current migration to Telegram looks nothing like the past attempts to move from the more mainstream social media platforms like Twitter.  The sheer scale and momentum of the Telegram migration is hard to fathom. The force of the numbers using Telegram channels is staggering, watching hundreds of new members in an hours’ time; thousands coming on in over a few days is commonplace for many channels.

Membership in Elite Messaging: Telegram Channels

Since it went live on August 14, 2013, the messaging application Telegram has seen major success, both among ordinary users as well as jihadis; but it wasn’t until their launch of “channels” in September 2015, that TRAC began to witness a massive migration from other social media sites, most notably Twitter.

Advantages
  • Channels work like Twitter on steroids, you become a member, and then you are automatically updated anytime a new item appears on a channel. No need to check it every minute of the day; it simply pings you when new information is available. Only the channel administrator can post to the channel but as a user you can forward any message they post to any one of your contacts. Administrators of one channel can also forward content from a channel they visit to the one they administer.
  • Since many people were already using Telegram as a messaging application, the proliferation of messages on channels spreads like a virus. Often you will see a channel that has very few members but the posted messages will have 1,000s of views.
  • Any medium of any file size can be included in a channel message and then downloaded from by channel visitors or users, avoiding pesky YouTube or Just Paste It deletions. You do not have to join a channel to access messages or download content.
  • Telegram is nimble in use; one can ‘be on-the-go’ so to speak and access their account in many different ways. Telegram can be loaded to your mobile device or used as an application on your laptop or can simply be seen on the internet from any type of browser.  One can also log into all points of access simultaneously.

TRAC’s Archive

TRAC has archived 200+ major, mainstream jihadi channels. While many of the channels have Islamic State affiliations, there are an increasing number of channels from other major players in the global jihadi world. From al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) to Ansar al-Sharia in Libya (ASL) to Jaysh al-Islam, the rate of membership escalation for each discrete channel is staggering. Within a week’s time, one single Islamic State channel went from 5,000 members to well over 10,000 members. Though it is unclear if what is commonly referred to as “the ISIS fan club” will migrate to Telegram, what is clear is that the hard core disseminators already have.

Jihadi Infrastructure

Nearly half the channels TRAC has archived belong to the Islamic State. Many of them have thousands of members, who seem to regularly access the posted message; messages in these channels get at many as 6,000 views in real time. Therefore, the Islamic State channels are the best example of how jihadis are currently using (and will continue to develop) Telegram as both an operational theater, and as a repository. The Islamic State has begun to create channel infrastructure and templates for each type of content in at least 12 different languages. The notorious Nashir (alternative: Nasher) distribution network has the most distinct matrix within Telegram. Languages include: Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Kurdish, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu.

Planning for the Future

There is also evidence that the Islamic State considers Telegram a permanent part of its future. Their most popular website for video distribution, ISDARAT, has five distinct Telegram channels, each with a corresponding new website that contains different content, tailor-made to its Telegram channel. ISDARAT is well-known and its website is constantly shut down by authorities or vigilante attacks. Thousands of twitter profiles include one version or another of the oft-changing URL. With Telegram’s promise of permanence, and the ability to transfer any type of file via a channel, ISDARAT no longer needs to play hide and seek with its followers.

Protected Repository

Telegram is not just a tool for file sharing but rather it has become “the protected repository” of resources for the Islamic State. The images that follow include the info page for Khilafah News, which shows the number of shared media resources available, as well as a page of both the video and file listings for that channel.

Click to Enlarge
Click to enlarge                             Click to enlarge                      Click to enlarge 

Screen shots (above): Khilafah New’s Telegram feed nearly one month after establishment. As of 28 October 2015: 1,875 photos shared; 71 video files; 130 data files; 14 voice messages; 816 shared links.

For More on TRAC INSIGHT: Media Outlets of Islamic State

Creation and Background

Image: Screen shot of Telegram’s features, note look very much like Monopoly characters.

The Brothers Durov

Telegram was created by two Russian brothers, Pavel and Nikolai Durov. Pavel is the financial and visionary figure of the company, while Nikolai specializes in the technical and programming aspects. However, Telegram’s website states that the company is actually based in Berlin and holds no geographical or litigious ties to Russia.[1]

The company describes Telegram as an application that serves as a fusion between text messaging and sending e-mails. This is not to say that Telegram offers an e-mail component, rather that the design of the application is one that blends the functions of text messages and e-mails.[2] Furthermore, Telegram is a free service and currently operates as a nonprofit company. It is financed by Pavel Durov’s fund Digital Fortress.[3]

Security

Privacy and security are Telegram’s primary attraction to potential users and are a key reason for its widespread adoption. The company has been seemingly effective in riding the wave of privacy scares following Edward Snowden’s revelations regarding government encroachment on privacy. Notably, Pavel Durov publicly offered Snowden a job, an offer he declined.[4]

For More on Three Insider Leaks

Privacy

Telegram’s website highlights the services’ stance on internet privacy. It states, “At Telegram we think that the two most important components of internet privacy should be:

  1. Protecting your private conversations from snooping third parties, such as officials, employers, etc.
  2. Protecting your personal data from third parties, such as marketers, advertisers, etc.”[5]
Keeping Russian Eyes Off

Pavel Durov later echoed these sentiments when he stated that the prime motivation for creating Telegram was to establish a means of communicating that cannot be accessed by “the Russian security agencies.”[6] It is important to note that Telegram’s target market is a generation that grew up on social media and who currently have a heightened awareness of privacy issues.

End-to-End Encryption

The application boasts about its end-to-end encryption and the fact that its programming is not veiled, but is open-source and available to users. Telegram is so confident in its encryption that it has offered $300,000 rewards to the first individual to crack the encryption.[7] In an interview with TechCrunch, Pavel Durov stated that the encryption has not been cracked, but a developer received $100,000 for discovering a significant vulnerability.[8] Nevertheless, skeptics state it is only a matter of time before Telegram’s encryption system is breached.

User Information is Stored

Telegram provides an environment that is genuinely respectful of the user’s privacy, as opposed to other major social media and internet services such as Facebook and Google. Telegram posits that merely offering users options to make their posts or information “private” does not mean that the information itself, which is shared through given service, is protected. Conversely, Telegram argues that many sites use these methods to quell users’ privacy concerns, but user information is stored, “mined” for targeted advertising and remains prone to being shared with third parties.[9]

Self-Destruct Feature

The “self-destruct” option is particularly useful for those who move around a lot and forget passwords or have limited use of the internet for long periods of time. There are privacy settings for each individual account that can either set messages to self-destruct after a certain period of time (see Secret Chat below) or accounts to self-destruct after chosen periods of inactivity.

Channels

On September 22, 2015, Telegram announced channels as a way for users to “broadcast” their postings to a wide audience.[10] Prior to adding channels, Telegram served groups of up to 200 people using a broadcast feature to share information. Although Telegram is adding functionality to channels, it appears that the biggest attractions of the channel feature has been its feature of having an unlimited number of members, as well as non-member access to channel content.

Not surprisingly, the channel feature has become quite popular with jihadis. Although Telegram is still technically a messaging application, channels allow users to produce and share content with ever-growing audiences.

Downloads

The messaging only version of Telegram was enormously popular in the Middle East.  In December 2013, merely four months after Telegram’s launch, it was reported that users in the Middle East downloaded Telegram over 100,000 times in one day. This surge dwarfed previous Telegram downloads in the Middle East that had been approximately 2,000 per day.[11] Clearly not all of its earlier users in the Middle East were jihadis, especially since the militant and political ecosystem of the region is vastly different today than it was at the end of 2013. Nevertheless, the it has proven to be very attractive as an outlet for jihadi propaganda.

Promoting your Channel

Many of the larger jihadi channels have attracted thousands of members, and the view count for each message suggests some channels are visited more by non-members than by members. At least three channels have well over 10,000 members. Back on Twitter, Twitter account holders are pushing their followers to Telegram – they tweet and retweet information about how to get the Telegram app and which channels to join. Others on Twitter have implored their followers to join their Telegram channels. They rarely state that they are motivated by their next, imminent suspension.  But for followers who repeatedly search for “shout-outs” that point them to the new accounts of their favorite jihadis, the reason to switch to Telegram is apparent.

An Islamic State Nashir channel posted an infographic on how to spread material from a channel.

The image announced: “To support the channel, do not copy published material but follow these steps:

  1. Choose the desired post
  2. Press ‘Forward’
  3. Then choose the future recipient”

Transferring Funds

A Virtual Hawala System

Secret Chats

It has always been possible to transfer funds via text message – by using services that just require a person to establish their identity and provide a transaction number. Telegram makes that type of exchange more appealing because the encryption and self-destruct features of the “Secret Chat” limit access to the information. And for even more anonymity, bitcoin and other crypto-currencies don’t even require that an individual establish there identity.

Untraceable

Law enforcement agencies have been emphasizing the potential for bitcoin to be used in all manner of criminal enterprises. But in the US, by obtaining a warrant, they are typically able to get data from unencrypted conversations. Telegram has asserted that they will not comply with such warrants – that private conversations are private. However, even if Telegram changes its policy to allow warrant access, the Secret Chat function deletes any information passed via the self destruct feature making it the virtual Hawala system of Telegram.

For More on Cyber Crime Nexus: Liberty Reserve, Freedom Hosting and Silk Road

For More on Concealment Practices Among Cybercriminals & Terrorists

Using ‘Bots’

In addition to transactions that involve merely exchanging information, there are bots designed to facilitate the actual transfer of crypto-currency. The most publicized is Julia – an app dependent bot developed by GetGems to move funds to and from Coinbase accounts (Coinbase is a bitcoin “bank”).

The Telebit Bot

Another well-established bot – that operates entirely within Telegram – is Telebit. It is accessed by searching Telegram to find the bot (by entering “telebit” in the search box, then selecting @Telebit (Telebit Sender). The result looks like an empty chat, but as shown in the following images, sending the message “help” produces all of the information needed to access all the Telebit functions.

   

Creating Bots

Telegram encourages individuals to create new bots and there are already quite a few of these fund-transfer bots. The following Tweet is from the creator of another Telegram bot, who has developed a way to transfer the bitcoin value of phone minutes via a Telegram chat.

Numerous Outlets for Asset Transfer on Telegram

There are undoubtedly numerous other bots and informal fund transfer systems operating on Telegram. The use of Telegram and other messaging applications to transfer funds (and other assets of value) is expected to be a rapidly changing environment that will require constant monitoring. TRAC will provide regular updates regarding the rapid adoption of Telegram, as well as changes in the way it is utilized in support of terrorist communication and operations.

Cross Section of TRAC’s Archive

TRAC’s archive is consistently expanding, the 200+ channels have an estimated 150,000 ever-increasing total membership levels. The following is a cross-section of some of the more interesting accounts from the archive.

Image: 07 October 2015, Screen shot of Tweet advertising AQAP’s Telegram channel.

Must Be Directed to Channel Addresses

Its very important to note that Telegram channels are not easy to just “stumble upon,” account names are case sensitive and there is no autofill function to help one search for channels. Jihadis have been passing Telegram channel “addresses” so to speak a number of ways, advertising on Twitter accounts, advertising on specific Blogs like https://ansarukhilafah.wordpress.com/news-sources/, or advertising on specific websites like ISDARAT (mentioned above in Infrastructure section). Because Telegram was already widely used as an encrypted messaging application, it can be assumed that direct messaging was the initial way to spread new channel accounts. Like Twitter, the hash tag #function is operational on Telegram but the hashtags only work if you already subscribe to a channel.

Telegram Channel

Affiliation

Membership 10.29.2015

Icons
IS_new_2 IS 9,904
IS_new IS 3,310
a3maqagency IS 10,672
nasherislamicstate IS – Arabic 11,195
Is_news_ru IS – Russian 2,410
nashirislamicstateDE IS – German 401
nashirislamicstateBN IS – Bengali 240
nashirislamicstateINA IS – Indonesian 1,451
nashirislamicstateEN IS – English 1,264
nasherislamicstateFR IS – French 424  
nashirislamicstateKURDI IS – Kurdish 111  
nashirislamicstateIT IS – Italian 4
nashierislamicstateBOS IS – Bosnian 275
nasherislamicstateTR IS – Turkish 287
nashirislamicstateUR IS – Urdu 15  
isyemen IS – Yemen 858  
ICA_ES IS – Hacking 847  
DabiQ IS 3,337
isdarat_News IS 786
isdarat1 IS 2,709
isdarat_is IS  521
isdaraty IS 615
isdarat_islamicstate IS 1,319
KhilafahNews IS 1,787
FURSANUpload IS 3,349
Nashr4k IS 1,112
azalkelafa11 IS 1,895
DarAlislam IS 1,015
AQAPTV AQAP 2,760
Rayareporter ASL 726
allewaa6 FSA 25
AlnasarArmy Al-Nasar Army 185
jaishalislam01 Jaysh al-Islam 2,047
GIMF_Channel AQ aligned 1,072
doaat Varied 6,369
JihadnewsCh Varied 6,579
mujahednews Varied 2,203
almonaseronn Detainees 3,009
sawtaljihad Varied 1,370  
KhilafahTree IS 1,093

 

[1] https://telegram.org/faq (Access Date: October 21, 2015).

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/technology/once-celebrated-in-russia-programmer-pavel-durov-chooses-exile.html?_r=0)

[5] https://telegram.org/faq (Access Date: October 21, 2015).

[5] http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/24/telegram-saw-8m-downloads-after-whatsapp-got-acquired/ (Access Date: October 21, 2015).

[6] https://telegram.org/crypto_contest (Access Date: October 21, 2015).

[7] http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/24/telegram-saw-8m-downloads-after-whatsapp-got-acquired/ (Access Date: October 21, 2015); https://telegram.org/blog/crowdsourcing-a-more-secure-future (Access Date: October 21, 2015).

[8] [8] https://telegram.org/faq (Access Date: October 21, 2015).

[9] https://twitter.com/telegram/status/646268856684707840 (Access Date: October 21, 2015).

[10] http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/27/meet-telegram-a-secure-messaging-app-from-the-founders-of-vk-russias-largest-social-network/ (Access Date: October 21, 2015).

[11] https://news.bitcoin.com/getgems-joining-telebit-bringing/ (Access Date: October 28, 2015)