US government hacked al-Qaeda websites
Baku, May 24 (AZERTAC). US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US was successful in hacking Yemeni tribal websites, replacing al-Qaeda propaganda with altered versions showing the damage the terrorist group has done to the Yemeni people. Speaking at a conference of US and international special commanders, Clinton said cyber intelligence experts were able to take down pages extolling the murder of Americans and substitute them with pages describing the toll al-Qaeda attacks have taken on Yemenis. She noted that the extremists responded by telling supporters not to believe everything they see on the Internet. Clinton said it was all part of a larger, multi-pronged effort to combat the spread of extremist propaganda. “Together, they will work to pre-empt, discredit and outmaneuver extremist propaganda,” she stressed. The cyber-attack was launched by the Center for Strategic Counter-Terrorism Communications, a group of specialists, diplomats and intelligence analysts from different agencies housed at the State Department. Their prime task is to prowl the Internet and social media to prevent al-Qaeda`s recruitment of new members. Although the US regularly conducts attacks on extremist websites, it rarely acknowledges them, making Clinton`s speech a somewhat rare occasion. Most of the attacks, unlike the latest one, are carried out by the Pentagon`s US Cyber Command. The US and Yemen are also continuing their fight against the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda offline. The militant organization was able to gain control of the southern provinces of Yemen last year, when the country was immersed in a civil war between supporters and opponents of then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Since Saleh`s resignation in February, the country has been run by Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has sought to restore the government`s control over the restive southern provinces and has been assisted by the US, with both countries conducting air strikes in the region on a regular basis.
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