WASHINGTON—A just released U.S. Institute of Peace report exposes the dangers posed by terrorists' use of the Internet. In www.terror.net: How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet, Institute Senior Fellow Gabriel Weimann discloses how terrorist organizations and their supporters maintain hundreds of web sites that take advantage of the unregulated, anonymous, and easily accessible nature of the Internet to reach large and varied audiences worldwide.

Weimann examines eight different ways that terrorists exploit the Internet including for such uses as coordination, information sharing, networking, fundraising, recruitment, training, information gathering, data mining, and psychological warfare. A professor of communication at Haifa University in Israel, Weimann draws upon specific examples culled from his extensive exploration of the World Wide Web over the last six years. He concludes by calling upon the political, intelligence, and academic communities to shift their focus from studying the exaggerated threat of cyberterrorism to monitoring routine terrorist activities on the Internet. He, however, discourages any draconian measures to restrict Internet access arguing that "if. . . we circumscribe our own freedom to use the Internet, then we hand the terrorist a victory and deal democracy a blow."

Journalists interested in interviewing Gabriel Weimann, or in receiving copies of the report, should contact Kay King, director of congressional and public affairs, by phone at (202) 429-3824 or by e-mail at kking@usip.org. The complete report is also available online.