Al Qaeda-linked Web sites number 5,600: researcher
by Ibtihal Hassan from Reuters
"Research shows there are more than 5,600 sites on the Internet promoting the ideology of al Qaeda," Khaled al-Faram told the Information Technology and National Security conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh. "There are some 900 news sites appearing every year, and despite the retreat of some media outlets specifically run by al Qaeda, extremist Web sites are constantly on the rise." ... This week the Saudi intelligence agency launched a Web site in an effort to open up to the public and change the negative perceptions of security services. People can send information anonymously to the site about any suspicious activity. "Mukhabarat" (intelligence) agencies are generally feared around the Arab world as tools of governments that abuse human rights. Saudi Arabian intelligence uses the name "Istikhbarat" partly to avoid the negative connotation of the traditional term.