WASHINGTON — State Department cyber-experts recently hacked into websites being used by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen and substituted the group’s anti-American rhetoric with information about civilians killed in terrorist strikes, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday.
When al-Qaida recruitment propaganda appeared on tribal sites in Yemen, Clinton said, “within 48 hours,our team plastered the same sites with altered versions ... that showed the toll al-Qaida attacks have taken on the Yemeni people.”
The revelation provided an unusual window into lowlevel cyber-warfare activities that the government rarely discusses.
In a speech to the Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., Clinton cited the hacking operation as an example of growing counter terrorism cooperation among the State Department,the intelligence community and the military.
She said State Department experts also are working with special operations forces in Central Africa, helping to encourage defections in the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony.
As the U.S. military has expanded its operations into areas formerly reserved for diplomats, Clinton has been an advocate for expanding her department’s reach, with civilian-military operations she calls “smart power.”
“We need special operations forces who are as comfortable drinking tea with tribal leaders as raiding a terrorist compound,” she said. “We also need diplomats and development experts who are up to the job of being your partners.”
Clinton said the hacking was conducted by the Center for Strategic Counter terrorism Communications, based at the State Department, with expertise drawn from the military and the intelligence community.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 05/24/2012