Lawmakers decry US failure to stop 'jihadi websites'

US lawmakers Wednesday lamented their inability to shutter Internet websites set up by violent Islamist groups such as Al-Qaeda that aim to inspire, recruit and train would-be extremists.

"Can we? Yes. Will we? No," Representative Brad Sherman told AFP after a House hearing that sought to pin down a US strategy for the websites, referring to the possibility Congress could clamp down on extremists' online portals.

"It is more likely we will tie ourselves up in knots than we'll do anything useful," added Sherman, chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, which held the hearing.

He said bureaucratic wrangling and free speech advocates were the main obstacles to giving the US government legal tools to eliminate the sites.

Sherman lashed out during the hearing at popular video-sharing website YouTube for allowing Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to post videos with English subtitles that promotes a "jihadist ideology" from its own channel.

"I don't know how much money YouTube makes, how much its executives make, but they are endangering people throughout America for their own profit," he said.

"And it's not about (YouTube's) loyalty to the concept of the First Amendment, it's about their loyalty to money," he complained, referring to the US Constitution that protects freedom of expression.

Sherman also questioned whether US authorities should maintain the groups' online outlets to gather intelligence or simply eliminate them, asking if the United States is "going to be a polite country or safe country."

He concluded the United States was "manifestly unable to take down these sites through cyber attack because we are restrained by our own politeness."

Gregory McNeal, a law professor at California's Pepperdine University, testified before the hearing that there was "no concerted government effort to shut down jihadist websites" because there was no legal avenue that allows it.

McNeal later told AFP the biggest issue preventing US legislators from going after such sites was "civil liberties opposition groups that would see this as a threat to free speech."

The best way to take them down, McNeal said, was to go through blacklists maintained by the US Treasury and State Department for terrorist organizations, adding the approach would be difficult as authorities would have to verify the websites were maintained by those designated groups.

"The Supreme Court has never spoken on crime-facilitation speech... there's always a challenge between drawing the line between merely informative speech and speech that facilitates a crime with the intent of doing so," he said.

"Is it surmountable? No. Because unless there's a triggering event like an attack that was prompted by a video (on an extremist website), it's easier to keep the status quo. Sadly, we often wait for an attack before we take action."

The rise of extremist groups employing online media to attract followers and give tips on how to pursue jihad against Western targets was highlighted this year with the launch of an English-language Al-Qaeda magazine from AQAP -- removing the language barrier for non-Arabic speakers to the group's ideology.

The first edition of "Inspire" magazine in June ran articles such as one entitled "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom" and featured sleek pictures of Al-Qaeda leaders accompanied by sophisticated graphics.

Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said upon the magazine's launch that AQAP's effort was "unfortunately well done," and proof "Al-Qaeda and its affiliates have launched a direct appeal for Americans to launch small-scale attacks here at home."

McNeal on Wednesday told the hearing the only avenue for pursuing extremists online was to pressure the Internet service that hosts their websites, and hope they voluntarily remove them.

A Pennsylvania-based Web hosting service in July shut down a website used by some 70,000 bloggers after US law enforcement officials pointed out Al-Qaeda material on its platform.

Shedding light on limitations even for US-based sites, authorities waited for service BurstNET to take down their site Blogetery.com only after reviewing the offending post and determining the material violated the company's terms of use, which prohibited "terrorist propaganda" and bomb-making instructions.

The American Civil Liberties Union gave written testimony to the hearing on challenges posed by the cyber-revolution in protecting the Internet but urged that not only should the Internet remain a place of unfettered freedom and anonymity.

But it urged that Internet users' free speech and privacy rights be maintained.

"Not only is censorship inconsistent with American values, it also is counterproductive to preventing extremist violence. There are critical constitutional limits even when it comes to fighting the so-called 'war on terror' online," said Michael Macleod-Ball, ACLU Washington legislative office chief of staff.

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