For much of the fall season of 2008 all of us the the Northeast Intelligence Network, and those of you who follow our reports, probably could not help but notice a rather significant increase in the postings coming from jihadist website forums which were seized upon as potential Indications and Warnings (IW) precursors to Islamic terrorist strikes. Just as quickly as those jihadi posts popped up like a crocus in early spring... they stopped cold with a finality and suddenness that was also a cause of significant concern. Not only did the posts cease in this manner, but the primary jihadi websites themselves began disappearing or going offline. Some believe, as I do, that this was due to inter-Islamic fratricide, a cyber war between the Shi'a and Sunni jihadists. We at NEIN were assured by those "in the know" that the United States governments counter-terrorist efforts were not the cause of this.
