Bluetooth Technology
While the Internet is important because of its global reach, where the al-Qaeda is concerned, it is smartphones that serve as the primary means of communication and publicity. Al-Qaeda’s digital research and development arm, known as the Fariq Jawwal Al-Ansar (FJA), has been coming up with advanced methods using the latest technology to share its message more effectively (Gold, 2011). One such method is the use of Bluetooth technology to distribute digital magazines to smartphone users in Middle Eastern countries. The purpose is to spread propaganda among its sympathisers and recruit new members.
Reproduced from: wikimedia.org
Developed in 1994 as a wireless replacement for RS-232 data cables by two Ericsson researchers, Bluetooth is a short-range Personal Area Network (PAN) with a maximum transmission range of 100 m (using a Class 1 100mW transmitter). While most smartphones operate as Class 2 (2.5mW) or Class 3 (1.0mW) Bluetooth devices, effective over a much smaller range of 5-10m, they can receive a Class 1 Bluetooth signal up to 100m. Such transmissions are very difficult for law enforcement agents to detect, making Bluetooth an ideal broadcast mechanism for the terrorists.
The manner in which Bluetooth is used in Arab nations makes this possible. Unlike users in other parts of the world who switch on Bluetooth only when seeking to pair their smartphone with another device, many young people in Arab nations leave their Bluetooth feature discoverable all the time. Because of the strict societal controls imposed on young people when it comes to meeting and interacting with the opposite sex, they turn to technology like Bluetooth to make new friends and find love. Seeing an opportunity, the al-Qaeda now uses high-powered Class 1 Bluetooth transmitters to distribute digital magazines to smartphone users. By all accounts, these magazines are well-designed, containing graphic images of the terrorists’ exploits over the past decade. Some examples are the video footage of the 9/11 plane-bombing of the Twin Towers, as well as ritual beheadings of Western hostages captured by jihadists. These magazines can easily go viral, with smartphone users utilising Bluetooth to transmit them to other like-minded individuals (Gold, 2011).
A-Qaeda is using Bluetooth to spread digital magazines in a viral way, person to person.
Although Bluetooth is an effective means of getting the message out, changing people’s ideas and attitudes is another matter. While young people may be eager to view the magazine and subsequently pass it on to others, they do so out of curiosity, given that content such as videos of beheadings cannot be accessed online nor viewed on television. Youngsters are generally not supportive of the jihad movement, though there will always be a few who become radicalised as result.