Terrorists out in the open; CQU study finds extensive use of the web among international terrorist groups Terrorist groups that use the Internet as a means of transmitting propaganda, raising cash, recruiting new members and communicating with their activists have been identified by two researchers at Central Queensland University.

A study by CQU Professor Alan Knight and post-graduate researcher Kasun Ubayasiri reveals five of 33 groups listed by the US State Department as "foreign terrorist organizations" which operate extensive websites.

Professor Knight believes their use of the Internet has abolished journalists' monopoly of international news. "Before the net, radical groups were largely restricted to low circulation newspapers, which could be easily censored or suppressed," he said.

"Now terrorist groups communicate in the open and maintain technically sophisticated web sites which sell t-shirts, videos and books, have interactive games and even offer animation and music," he said.

The groups Knight and Ubayasiri identified are: Hizballah - the party of God: A Radical Shia group formed in Lebanon (1982) that became the first terrorist organisation to use suicide bombers in the truck bomb attacks of the US embassy and marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 (US Department of State, 1999).

Kahane Chai, Kahane Lives: Organization's stated goal is to restore the biblical state of Israel. Essentially founded by radical Israeli-American rabbi Meir Kahane, it was declared to be terrorist organizations in March 1994 by the Israeli Cabinet following an attack in February 1994 on the al-Ibrahimi Mosque Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA): Also known as Basque Fatherland and Liberty, it was founded in 1959 with the aim of creating an independent homeland in Spain's Basque region. Responsible for bombings and assassinations of Spanish Government officials, it is believed to have killed over 800 persons since the early 1960s.

Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is suspected of a number of international terrorist attacks including the 1972 Telaviv airport attack, and attacks on Israel and moderate Arab targets. It operates out of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and the occupied territories. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam use highest number of suicide bombers, according to US Department of State. Nearly 200 suicide bombers have conducted attacks since the 1991 assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by the world's first female suicide killer (1991), who handed him flowers, then detonated a pound of plastic explosives strapped to her body.

Terrorists, according to Knight, are already developing their own news networks and media techniques that match and sometimes surpass mainstream media. He believes the traditional values of accuracy and speed will become even more important for mainstream reporters competing with partisan voices on the internet.