Vigilantes Stalk Terrorists on the Internet

An Amtrak train isn't the first place you'd think to look for somebody trying to save the world, but Aaron Weisbard isnt just anybody.

Weisbard runs a website called "Internet Haganah," dedicated to taking out terrorists.

"I believe the expression is if not me then who, if not now then when," Wesibard said. "It was a job that needed doing, things that needed to be done. I had fairly unique skills that I could apply to the problem."

Think of Weisbard as part James Bond, part Bill Gates.

We were only able to catch up with this internet private eye on a train to his hometown in Carbondale, Ill. As the receipent of dozens of death threats, you can understand why his house and office are off limits.

"When the first threat you get is from a longtime friend of Osama bin Laden, that's scary but it proved to me i was doing something right," he said.

A native New Yorker, Weisbard launched Haganah -- which means defense in Hebrew -- soon after 9/11.

Through elaborate charts and graphs, he follows high-level al Qaeda websites, monitoring them for training videos like this one on how to make explosives, or plots on how to pull off a suicide bombing.

"It's a little bit like mining," he said of his search process. "You look for a seam. Here's a good seam of information. You find a lead that leads to other leads."

Weisbard hunts for top secret terrorist info that doesn't turn up in a simple Google search. Instead, he said it's hidden in pornography and other random websites. But if you think that's hard to find, you can't imagine what it takes to locate the person responsible.

"I make friends with them," he said. "I send them an email, see where the email comes from or to, take a look at how he's paying for things, take a look at who he is, take a look at what trail hes left in other places."

For terrorists, avoiding weisbard is more than a game. These days, computers are their primary means for planning attacks, recruiting new members, and funneling money. In a speech in 2007, FBI director Robert Mueller went so far as to call the internet the terrorists' town square.

"They are difficult to identify and track because they move out of systems at will and do not leave broken glass behind," Mueller said.

Those who have worked with terrorists say Weisbard is not having that big of an impact. One man who was a member of a Florida-based organization that supported terrorism said terrorists don't think they'll get caught is because they believe they're taking protective measures.

"I dont think they're thinking theyll get caught," he said. "So I don't think they're worrried about this kind of thing."

"They have a site out there they feel is going to be shut down or whatever, I'm sure they have other sites ready to go."

Which is exactly what internet investigators expect.

"We follow them so if one shuts down, another one pops up," said Douglass Hagmann, director of the Northeast Intelligence Network.

Hagmann, of Erie, Penn., has a staff of 20 who infiltrate terrorist websites.

By building up profiles that appear to come from trustworthy Islamists, Hagmann said his crew has tricked terrorists into trusting him with some of their most delicate secrets. One example -- the time they told him a training manual could be acquired through the Arkansas highway department's website.

"What they were doing is storing these documents on the Arkansas state department of highway server," Hagmann said, "and telling the terorrists all over the world if you want this encyclopedia or the current editotion of Albatar, which is a manual for terrorists, go to the department of highways of Arkansas and you can download it that way."

What Haggmann and Weisbard find, they either report on their websites or report to the government. In some cases, it's information the FBI may never have gotten. In other cases, it might actually hamper the federal government's intelligence gathering mission.

Tony D'Angelo, a former agent who worked in the FBI's counter-terrorism unit, said he fears what happens when these internet vigilantes do their work too well.

"The fact these people are brought to light in a derogatory manner might draw these people further underground," D'Angelo said. "It could actually inhibit what law enforcement is trying to do."

But that's not the way Weisbard sees it.

"If I was working for the government I'd be reassigned by now," Weisbard said. "Instead, I've been able to focus for nine years on one adversary, one group of guys who are engaged in one sort of activity. That gives me a certain advantage."

Weisbard said his greatest accomplishment is that he is partially responsible for taking down "terrorist 007," an al Qaeda mastermind known as the most wanted man on the web.

"I pressured him," he said. "Everytime he set up a site, I shut it down. We made him busy, very busy. Sooner or later if a guy's busy, he makes a mistake."

Because of his intel, Weisbard claims police found "terrorist 007" in London, where he will spend the next 15 years in