MILNET Brief
  The Al-Qaeda Network, Update 11/2006
"CAPT [] testified, "with high priced help...we still couldn't do it...it was feckless."  Accordingly, other options for support to the Able Danger mission were considered."

- Department of Defense IG report on Able Danger, 9/18/2006

MILNET's Terrorist Profiles    Updates to this Briefing

Conspiracy theorists were all over the Able Danger story, complaining that the U.S. government, and specifically, the Department of Defense has white-washed the Able Danger program's discovery of Mohammad Atta as being associated with the so called "Brooklyn" cell in New York City, bringing his face and statistics onto the radar well before 9/11.  Whether you believe in the conspiracy or not, you'll have to agree that pulling together open source data on Al-Qaeda prior to 2001 was a lot more difficult than it is today.  In this briefing, we provide some graphical analysis of the Al-Qaeda network as well as quote U.S. and U.K. official and civilian online sources of terrorist groups have aligned themselves to Al-Qaeda.

The chart below is a work in progress.  To see how it will all work later, click on the South Asia title box and then follow the links to people and groups by clicking on new graphics, see second chart below the first.  Note that Western Asia and the Middle East graphics are semi-functional at this time..


A Network Chart:  Click on the title box of an area to expand the network map


If you click on the South Asia box in the graphic above, you will see the Al-Qaeda Indonesia folder.  The Jemaah Islamiah and Kumpulan Militan/Mujahideen Malaysia, and Laskar Jihad folders are active, you may click on any of those three to drill down further.
History of Al-Qaeda in IndonesiaDate the source information was publishedDate the source information as publishedJemaah Islamiah, an Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group active in IndonesiaIdentified leader or member in the Abu Sayaff terrorist group in IndonesiaNickname of Alias of the member identified on the folder's tabAbu Sayaff, an Al-Qaeda lnked terrorist group active in IndonesiaIdentified leader or member in the Indonesian Abu Sayaff terrorist group active in IndonesiaIdentified leader or member in the Indonesian Islamir Liberation Front terrorist group active in IndonesiaDate the source information was publishedIdentified leader or member of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group in Indonesia A typical "drill down" in the MILNET Al-Qaeda Network Application





Update:

February 12, 2007:

Another type of network diagram are called association graphs. We have been able to mock one up using the European News Monitor online explorer application.  If you click on the sample below, it will take you to the MILNET Briefing on this data mining technology.  You can also try it out for yourself by running the ENM News Explorer, however we highly recommend you read the MILNET Briefing in order to first familarize yourself with the tool.



Abu Sayyaf Linkages
(Click on Image to Navigate to the MILNET Briefing on the Tool)



Note:  These charts and graphics do NOT represent actual Able Danger or even Able Providence data. The diagrams in this briefing at the same time NOT fictional. This is a 2006 effort to show what could be used by Intelligence agencies today on open source data. We DO NOT have the data mining tools available for this purpose. Just one of those tools, the Orion MAGIC© system costs $32,000 base price, with $1,000 each for other necessary support and networking modules. This is "hand cobbled" visualization of data readily available via Google or Yahoo search of the Internet, that allows a small amount of "drill down" to more details.

© Copyright 2006, 2007, Michael G. Crawford for MILNET