Clinton: We Hacked Yemeni al-Qaeda Sites

Terror boasts were replaced with info on civilian deaths
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2012 1:59 AM CDT
Updated May 24, 2012 2:54 AM CDT
Clinton: We Hacked Yemeni al-Qaeda Sites
Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday.   (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Al-Qaeda has issued a call for "electronic jihad," but it looks like the terror group has been outgunned by State Department experts. Hillary Clinton, speaking at the Special Operations Command gala dinner last night, said that American specialists had hacked into al-Qaeda sites in Yemen that "bragged about killing Americans," ABC reports. "Within 48 hours, our team plastered the same sites with altered versions of the ads that showed the toll al-Qaeda attacks have taken on the Yemeni people," she said.

"We can tell our efforts are starting to have an impact because extremists are publicly venting their frustration, and asking supporters not to believe everything they read on the internet," Clinton said, hailing the work of the "digital outreach team" tasked with countering terrorist propaganda worldwide. The team is "already patrolling the web and using social media and other tools to expose al-Qaeda’s contradictions and abuses, including its continuing brutal attacks on Muslim civilians," she said. (More al-Qaeda stories.)

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