Security tips from an Ingush brother
19-03-2009
Hunafa.com has posted a very interesting and useful
article about security,
written by an Ingush brother. The introduction does not explicitly say that it
was written by a Mujahid, but from the contents it can be concluded that the
author has something to do with Jihad in Caucasus. The article and intro is
translated here in full.
In internet forums you can quite often read posts like “I want to go to Jihad,
who will help me? Where can we meet?” They are posted either by agent
provocateurs from security services, or by sincere, but naive Muslims. And we
want to address this work to such [naive] brothers.
Jihad is a personal duty, but, as prayer, it demands fulfilling of certain
conditions. What will we say about a man who stands for prayer in trunks, in a
filthy place and without performing an ablution, [and who is] justifying it by
the fact that the prayer is obligatory and the time has come? But some brothers,
who have realized the obligation of Jihad, allow themselves to spend much time
in front of a computer display, while they do not prepare themselves at all
morally, physically and intellectually to the war in Allah’s path.
At the same time, today’s Jihad is a surveillance and sabotage activity, which,
in all armies of the world, is carried out only by specially selected, elite
fighters. Do you imagine a special forces soldier who does not know the
multiplication table, hardly pulls himself up five times, doesn’t know how to
shoot, and even is not familiar with his weapon, is not able to perform first
aid to a wounded, and does not fulfill security demands?
Discipline in disbelieving armies is maintained by fear of punishment. For a
Mujahid, the main reason for observing rules of war is his piety. A lack of
piety can cause casualties and even defeat, and it will not be an excuse on the
Judgment Day. Relying on Allah implies fulfilling all necessary conditions we
are able to fulfill, in the best way possible, and it is not neglect of actions
while saying “we rely on Allah”.
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Ribat
Part 1. General security
Jihad in Caucasus has been going on for many years, yet we continue to witness
poor preparedness of young Mujahideen, as well as neglect of security rules by
more experienced warriors. The military science was written by blood, and Muslim
blood is too precious to be shed because of a bad preparedness, carelessness or
foolishness.
We want to present some rules for preparation and waging of Jihad, based on the
contemporary experience of Mujahideen in North Caucasus.
First of all, it needs to be understood that Jihad in a territory that is
controlled by security services of the enemy requires extra security measures
from Mujahideen, and an ability to disguise not only your actions, but also
intentions. In particular, a Muslim who has made a firm decision to participate
in Jihad must be able to keep his decision in secret, because all security
services of disbelievers try to prevent appearance of Mujahideen and emerging of
new centers of Jihad, rather than dealing with consequences.
Main exposing factors [of a Mujahid] are:
1. Exposing features of Mujahid himself.
2. Wrong usage of means of communication.
3. Leaking of information through relatives or close friends.
Let’s review these factors in more detail.
1. Exposing features of a Mujahid (both potential and active) include:
Visiting a mosque (it is better to avoid mosques altogether, because they are
places where controlling Muslims and spying over them is easiest: everything is
visible, who associates with whom, absence of anyone is noticeable).
Talking about Jihad with unreliable (i. e. those who are not on the same path as
you) people, even if it is “masha’Allah, very good brother”.
Outer appearance, for example, growing beard, even stubble, if only it is not a
norm or a trend in the society. Also, use of [verbal] expressions, clothes and
accessories (Casio watch, Arabian perfume, miswak) that are associated in public
opinion with “militants” or “Wahhabists”.
All these issues were reviewed by the Mujahideen many times, an inquiry was even
made regarding possibility to ban wearing of headscarf by wives of Mujahideen,
because it was an exposing factor, but someone else’s experience and even
someone else’s error still does not teach us. For example, after the failed
[assassination] attempt on R. Kadyrov, he ordered to detain all young men based
on “stubble and long hair” features, and check whether they had any connection
to militants, and a first one in a group of detained men had happened to be a
Mujahid.
Many Mujahideen are careless about taking photos. We have to admit that photos
and videos, especially posted on the internet, serve as an excellent source of
information for disbelievers. An example is a story of a youth, son of a
policeman, who, “as a prank”, posed on a webcam, talking about Jihad and holding
his father’s handgun, and posted that video on the internet. It was not hard for
security services to find him by the handgun’s number, which was caught by the
webcam.
Mujahideen often start to take photos and even make [videotaped] statements,
supposing they are [already] on the wanted list, thus limiting their
opportunities in undercover activity on the plain. But we can say that the most
needed Mujahideen are exactly those who can act on the plain, hitting
disbelievers and apostates where they do not expect. Mujahid who is unknown to
anybody, and who doesn’t raise suspicions, can gather more intelligence and
inflict more casualties to the enemy, than the one who is forced to hide
constantly and care only for his safety.
2. Wrong usage of means of communication.
Extremely dangerous factor for a Muslim is the wrong usage of means of
communication, such as phone, internet etc. Any person who has realized the
obligation of Jihad becomes an object of attention for security services.
Enemies are not able to read our thoughts, [or] look into our hearts, but they
can eavesdrop on our conversations, read [our] e-mails etc.
The easiest way to know a person’s mood and thoughts is to tap and analyze what
he says and writes, an elementary phone tapping and internet wiretap, to
intercept telephone conversations, e-mails, chat [messages] and forum [posts]…
A mobile phone is also a source of signal for means of surveillance, therefore
it is necessary to completely turn off the phone at secret locations
(apartments, houses, meeting places etc.) by removing the battery and the SIM
card, because the phone usually contains an additional energy source for saving
its settings. The phone may be turned on only in the case of extreme necessity,
and only during movement (in a car, bus etc.).
It needs to be known that surveillance through mobile phone may be tuned on a
certain voice, therefore there is no sense to change phone number and phone
itself for a person who is kept under surveillance “by voice”. To prevent it,
SMS should be used [instead].
A Mujahid whose statement was published, should know that his voice will be
saved in a database of the electromagnetic intelligence of disbelievers, and his
every phone conversation will be tapped automatically.
It needs to be firmly remembered that there are no secure phones: your phone for
contacting your relatives, phone used only for internet access, [they] serve the
enemy as the same source of information about your location. Remember: it is not
the phone that is insecure, it is you who is insecure. Anytime you turn on your
phone, it can be enough reason to target you.
According to statistics of Russian security services, during the last several
years, around 80-90% successful operations against Mujahideen have been carried
out due to surveillance and tapping of mobile phones.
All Mujahideen should be instructed regarding use of means pf communication, and
any violation of the instruction should be punished strictly. A place where a
phone was turned on in violation of the instructions, is by then considered
unsafe.
Internet activity also should be regulated by security rules. Visiting web-sites
like kavkazcenter.com is strictly controlled by security services. What is more,
even if a visitor of non-Muslim information resources, such as ingushetia.org or
kavkaz-uzel.ru, reads only news about military actions and similar incidents, it
also attracts attention of security services.
E-mail is also easily accessible source of information. Cracking an e-mail
account’s password is not hard for more or less experienced hacker. All your
mail that is stored on servers located in Russia is accessible for any [Russian]
policeman. Therefore you should use non-Russian e-mail services and regularly
(at least once in two weeks) change passwords. And don’t write anything that can
attract attention of the enemy! All e-mail in the world passes through the
automatic system that reveals so called keywords. Be sure that phrase
“SubhanAllah” is included in those keywords.
If a person is not able to fulfill security requirements, it is easier to expel
him from a Jama`ah, than to expose other Muslims to fatal danger.
For example, a young Mujahid who arrived at a secret apartment and was waiting
to go to the woods, was warned that he should not call anywhere from his phone,
but then he was heard talking on the phone similar to: “No, brother, I can’t
tell you where I am now, it is unsafe, I can’t endanger the brothers”. From the
outside it could appear like this Mujahid was just foolish, but the problem is
that many brothers who consider themselves smart, behave like this. Such
conversation will not leave any doubt in any policeman, let alone specialists
who conduct surveillance. We will just add, that some time later that apartment
was raided, and three experienced and cautious Mujahideen inside were martyred.
And if senseless phone talk of that young Mujahid caused their killing, then he
should think, what he will say in his excuse on the Judgment Day.
Deteriorating quality of mobile communication is a sign of danger. If all of a
sudden you can’t make mobile calls from a place where previously you did not
have problems calling, then possibly there is a surveillance station working in
your area, and you need to leave the area urgently.
If you are calling someone and the calls reach, but nobody answers, it could be
a sign that the person was detained, and disbelievers are checking who is
calling him.
First thing that disbelievers check after detaining someone suspected of links
to Mujahideen, are SIM cards of their mobile phones. For this [purpose] they use
a whole laboratory based on GAZelle [van], stuffed with various hardware.
All secret locations, as well as objects of work (disbelievers, apostates,
weapon types, car types, names of Mujahideen groups etc.) should be encrypted by
a previously agreed code, in order to prevent conversations such as: “let’s meet
where you have met our other friends the day before yesterday” — “what friends?”
— “those who work with Abdulla” — “what Abdulla, senior or junior?” — “the one
whose hand is not working enough” — “the one whose brother has been married… and
where should we meet?…” etc.
It needs to be known that disbelievers may use tools for distant eavesdropping,
that allow listening to a conversation in a house or a passing car from 80-100
meters. Therefore in places where such eavesdropping is possible, you should be
silent or talk in a misleading way. In general, it is better to be silent more
and talk less!
3. Leaking of information through relatives or close friends.
The issue seems obvious, but nevertheless, many brothers still can’t solve it.
You should remember once and for all: if you yourself could not keep your own
secret, then a person to whom you revealed it, all the more will not keep your
secret.
Secrets of Jihad, military secrets are forbidden to tell anyone, even most
trustworthy people. Mujahid can just blurt out, or he will be forced to talk
after being tortured or drugged. Wife can share with her mother, and she will
tell her friends or relatives…
Variants are countless, but all they lead to one thing: what is known by two
people, is known by everybody.
In any case, any exchange of information should be substantiated (it is not
allowed to tell secrets as an example or to raise morale) and minimized (if you
can’t hide something from your wife, then she should be warned not to tell it to
her mother or reliable friends).
Sometimes some Muslims are so naive that they think that ties of kinship will
prevent members of disbelieving forces from harming them. It should be clearly
understood, that bitterness of war in Caucasus reached such high degree, that
local “cops” do not hesitate to shoot, abduct and torture their “militant”
relatives or those “suspected in links to militants”.
Prepared by Abu Anas of Khacharoy.
Submitted by a Mujahid