TERRORISM, COMMUNICATION AND THE INTERNET

TERRORISM AND THE INTERNET

The Internet has become the preferred source of information and means of communications for many Muslim extremists, jihadists and terrorists. There are literally hundred of jihadist web sites. The challenge for investigators is figuring out which ones are worth monitoring and disrupting and which are not.

Terrorists have used Google Earth to locate targets for attacks. Sometimes the things that are shown are beyond disturbing: such as children re-enacting the beheading of American captive Nicholas Berg in Iraq. There are sites that show how to make bombs and set up booby traps and password-encrypted bulletin boards used to make contacts and exchange information. The texts on jihadist site often use coded words and reference to historical events and theological language that have of an insider meaning to Islamists.

Describing a recruitment video circulated by al Qaeda, Bruce Hoffman wrote in The Atlantic Monthly, “The seven-minute tape, seized from an al Qaeda member by U.S. authorities, extols the virtues of martyrdom and solicits recruits to Osama bin Laden's cause. It depicts scenes of jihadists in combat, followed by the successive images of twenty-seven martyrs with their names, where they were from, and where they died. Twelve of the martyrs are featured in a concluding segment with voice-over that says, "They rejoice in the bounty provided by Allah. And with regard to those left behind who have not yet joined them in their bliss, the martyrs glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they cause to grieve." The video closes with a message of greeting from the Black Banner Center for Islamic Information. [Source: Bruce Hoffman, The Atlantic Monthly, June 2003]

"My Muslim brothers, you know that the enemies of Islam are malicious to Islam," one person wrote on a jihadi site. "What helps them is their knowledge of chemistry, physics, mathematics and programming languages, as well as their knowledge in the sciences of cartography, electronics and others. So if you possess knowledge in any of the aforementioned sciences that would benefit Islam and Muslims, say so." [Source: Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times, December 20, 2005]

See Al-Qaida and the Internet

Internet Replaces Terrorist Training Camps

Israeli cyberterrorism expert Gabriel Weimann told Reuters that terrorist training camps are becoming less necessary as jihadist receive training and information on the Internet. Now they meet on cyberspace.” Rita Katz, head of the Washington-based institute Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE), which monitors Islamist websites, told AFP: Terrorists use the Internet for “communication, recruitment, planning” and, importantly, for military instruction. “Everything is there, it replaces the training camps,” she said. [Source: AFP, October 27, 2005]

Sebastian Rotella wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “The Internet has become a virtual training camp and operations center replacing the Al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan and Bosnia that produced a legion of fighters, formed them into cells and launched them at targets. The soldiers of this looser network were more technologically and culturally agile than the grim fanatics who executed attacks in the past, according to trial evidence, court documents and interviews with investigators, defense lawyers, family and friends. They spoke more English than Arabic and listened to the rap of Kanye West along with the harangues of Abu Musab Zarqawi. Their Western ways enabled them to communicate and cross borders with ease. And investigators say they had a youthful disregard for life. [Source: Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2007]

At the same time, many were amateurish and reckless. That made them easier to track, but presented investigators with a dilemma: A fighter may lack experience, but he remains a menace if he is willing to die for his cause. As militants radicalize more quickly and operate more independently, the threat they pose often is harder to assess.

Communications Methods Used by Terrorist To Avoid Detection

Nicholas D. Kristof wrote in the New York Times: The jihadis also use the Internet for communications. They know that the American intelligence community uses sophisticated computer programs that scan e-mail messages, so some of them share a single e-mail account, and the person writing the message doesn't send it but saves it as a draft. Then the recipient logs in and reads the draft without it ever actually being transmitted. Likewise, the jihadis have communicated on gaming forums and even once on a bike forum. Sometimes they use the "live chat" function on Japanese gaming sites, where the only eavesdroppers are teeny-boppers. [Source: Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times, December 20, 2005]

Jihadi Web sites change their U.R.L.'s constantly and are often password-protected, and they may block access to viewers in Western countries. They're also language-protected, in that the communications are in Arabic - and the U.S. intelligence community has a desperate shortage of people with good Arabic skills. Sometimes the jihadis simply spell U.R.L.'s in the Arabic script, so that Arabs understand the address but U.S. computers or nonnative speakers may not. What they're not shy about is galvanizing terrorists.

Craig Whitlock wrote in the Washington Post, “Terrorist cells around the world have become noticeably more skilled at avoiding detection, European counterterrorism officials and analysts said in interviews. For instance, operatives now commonly use Skype and other Internet telephone services, which are difficult to trace or bug. At times, they have displayed a flair for creativity. Defendants convicted last April in a plot to blow up targets in London with fertilizer bombs communicated via chat rooms on Internet pornography sites in an effort to throw investigators off their trail, according to testimony.[Source: Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, January 5, 2008]

“In Germany, police said they were taken aback by some of the tactics employed by the three-member cell that was charged in September with plotting to bomb American targets. To communicate with operatives in Pakistani training camps, cell members rarely used the same computer more than once, sometimes driving more than 100 miles to find a new Internet cafe. Other times, they cruised through randomly picked neighborhoods in search of unsecured wireless connections, all in an effort to make it more difficult to monitor their e-mail traffic and Web searches, police said.The cell was traced only after U.S. intelligence officials noticed suspicious electronic communications originating in Pakistan, counterterrorism officials said. Police said they later determined that the suspects had received anti-surveillance training in Pakistan.

"It's one thing to follow the foot soldiers or the ones recruited to be suicide bombers; they're often not very smart," said Rolf Tophoven, an analyst at the Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Policy in Essen, Germany. "But it's different with the elite ones, the clever guys who are Internet experts with white-collar jobs, sitting behind a desk. They are very sophisticated professionals who are able to counter the surveillance of the intelligence agencies."

Since Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the lead planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings, was captured after he was traced using prepaid chip, or SIM card, he had acquired from Switzerland, al-Qaeda operatives have tended to use chips only once or twice before throwing them away and have turned to Internet telephone services such as Skype, which are extremely difficult to monitor. One senior Italian counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed strong frustration that Skype had been invented.

Internet Security Methods Used by Terrorists

AFP reported: One method attributed to the suspected head of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, is the “dead letter box” system: someone creates an email account, gives the password to several members of a group and communicates by saving messages in a draft messages folder without sending them. Communication by this method cannot be monitored because government systems for tracking emails work only if someone sends an email, said Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore. “It was used by Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who was the mastermind of 9/11, to communicate with the global network,” Gunaratna said. [Source: AFP, October 27, 2005]

“According to Givner-Forbes, the most common method used by serious Islamist websites is password-protected online message boards that only members can use.”Most recently they have been leveraging the net more and more to circulate terrorist tactical instructions, training manuals, explosives recipes,” Givner-Forbes said. “We’ve seen recently more sophisticated material such as instructional videos where you see someone going through all the steps needed to make a device or an explosive and instructions are printed very clearly on the screen,” she added. “It’s just like on the food channel when someone cooks a recipe.”

If terrorist sites are attacked, the people running them can republish copies. Many Internet trackers are disadvantaged by not speaking Arabic and people running terrorist sites “may just change the colour of their site and change the writing at the top, call it something else and change the format. It’s the same material,” she said.Cyber-jihadists also have techniques to hide their identity and hack into sites, like the germ weapons expert Mustapha Setmariam Nassar who circulated a manual via an American commercial server. “When you take down a website, from my own experience, the next day it’s up again from a new server and not only that, it’s not from the US any more but it turns itself to a password-protected website,” said Katz. “It just makes things more difficult for government agents and for people that monitor websites,” she added.

Beaheading Videos and Other Terrorist Propaganda Tools

Nicholas D. Kristof wrote in the New York Times: “Until you see a video of Iraqi insurgents taking a terrified, hogtied man and sawing off his head with a butcher knife, you don't know what "blood-curdling" truly means. Yet the jihadis themselves release these "beheading videos" on the Internet as part of their booming propaganda machine, and they are wrenching not only for their brutality but also because they underscore the insurgents' increasing technological edge. If there's any area where we should have the supreme advantage fighting terrorism, it's the Internet - yet Islamic extremists sometimes run rings around us in cyberspace, using it to recruit and train terrorists and to communicate with each other in amazingly sophisticated ways. [Source: Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times, December 20, 2005]

“When insurgents stage an attack these days, they sometimes film it from several angles so as to make better propaganda, which they then distribute on jihadi Web sites and on DVD's. Aside from promotional videos like those, there are the how-to variety, like one with step-by-step instructions for making a suicide vest. At the end, the filmmakers made a makeshift bus and put the vest on a mannequin to blow it up. "The person who is wearing the explosive pouch, when entering the bus and wanting to blow himself up, his face must be to the front and his back to the rear," the video instructs. That's because there's much less explosive power on the sides.”

Mamoun Fandy wrote in the Washington Post: “The apparent executions in Iraq last week of U.S. soldier Keith Maupin and U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun, and the confirmed beheadings a week earlier of South Korean Kim Sun Il in Iraq and of American Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia, left the media the world over horrified and uncertain about how much should be shown. Except in much of the Arab world, that is. As I scanned Arab satellite channels and Arabic newspapers, I found a lot of reporting on the brutal attacks, but very little condemnation and a widespread willingness to run the stomach-turning video and photos again and again. [Source: Mamoun Fandy, Washington Post, July 4, 2004]

“Showing videotapes of people being shot, beheaded or held hostage with a curved sword aimed at their neck is largely new terrain for the Arab media. As a media critic whose focus is the Arab world, I have watched perhaps a dozen Arab channels and read countless newspapers in recent weeks. I found that few Arab commentators and journalists noted either that major shift or its significance. In particular, the Kim and Johnson beheadings generally have been reported as if they were quite ordinary. (Hassoun's death was announced only yesterday by a militant group promising to release a video soon of his claimed beheading -- undoubtedly to wide coverage again.)

“I am aware of only a handful of columnists, most notably the Kuwaiti journalist Ahmed al-Rubai, who condemned the killings unequivocally. Some reporters and analysts intimated to me that they were afraid to denounce the beheadings; others provided distorted coverage that blurred the line between terrorism and Iraqi resistance to the U.S. occupation. Take, for example, the video of Kim's beheading. Al-Jazeera and the Lebanese LBC presented the video, which al-Jazeera said it had received from a group linked to al Qaeda, as if the terrorists were part of the Iraqi resistance against the Americans and their allies. Al-Jazeera did not note what any person knowledgeable about the region's dialects would have known: that the terrorists who appeared in the video and read the "verdict" that justified Kim's killing were not Iraqi and therefore not part of the Iraqi resistance. They clearly spoke a dialect from the Saudi heartland of Najd.

Anti-American, Pro-Terrorist Slant of the Arab Media

Mamoun Fandy wrote in the Washington Post: Al-Jazeera “calls every Arab suicide bomber a shaheed, or martyr. And yet its anchors take care to refer to Abdul Aziz al-Maqrin, who claimed to have beheaded Johnson, as the "man who Saudi Arabia and Washington call a terrorist." As to why this is so, Abdul Rahman Rashed, the head of al-Arabiya, blamed both contemporary Arab culture and the culture of Arab newsrooms. He offered two examples -- one from print and the other from TV -- to make his point. He told me that last year, when he was still chief editor of the pan-Arab daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat (for which I am a columnist), he caught one of his editors changing the caption of an AP photo from "an American soldier chatting with an Iraqi girl" to "an American soldier asking an Iraqi girl for sex." "If I had not caught him, it would have gone to print this way," he said. Now, at al-Arabiya, he has received pictures of Johnson's beheading, but refuses to show them. Al-Jazeera aired the entire video, which Rashed equates with airing the full-length communiques of al Qaeda. Rashed, who took over al-Arabiya a few months ago, said that changing the channel's culture is "a huge challenge." [Source: Mamoun Fandy, Washington Post, July 4, 2004]

“The Arab world today swims in a sea of linguistic violence that justifies terrorism and makes it acceptable, especially to the young. One needs only to read the writings of the Syrian Baathist Buthaina Shaban, who is the minister for immigrant affairs but also a syndicated writer whose work appears in many Arab newspapers. In an article entitled "Blood of Martyrs," published last September in Tishreen, a major state-owned Syrian newspaper, she wrote in response to a Palestinian suicide bombing: "The blood of martyrs inscribes a scroll that can be read only by those with faith in their peoples and in the future of the [Arab] nation, who are convinced that however great their [personal] accomplishments, they are but a single link in the life of the homelands and the peoples. Therefore, they are ready for giving, the utmost of all kinds of giving, so that the scattered drops [of blood] join together to form a stream, then a river, then a gushing torrent." Articles like this, which glorify death and urge young people to be suicidal, are part of the steady diet that Arab youths are exposed to every day.

“Another example: Faisal Qasim, al-Jazeera's most popular talk-show host, recently devoted his entire 90-minute show to berating those who condemn terrorism in the Arab world, whom he called "agents of Washington's neo-cons." He wrote an article that made the same point for the pro-bin Laden newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, whose editor in chief, Abdul Bari Atwan, is a regular guest on al-Qasim's show.

“One Egyptian student told me the Americans "deserve [killing] for their support to Israel and their occupation of Iraq." A Kuwaiti who recently graduated from a Pennsylvania university said of Americans, "Don't believe them when they say it is al Qaeda that is slaying Americans. It is Americans who are killing Americans to justify their presence in the Arab world and to control Arab oil." In each country, I was struck that al Qaeda and its ideas are no longer perceived as extreme. Indeed, al Qaeda has become mainstream and being part of the movement is "cool" in the eyes of young people. Why? Arab culture is being corrupted by the media that glorify violence, but also by schoolbooks that present only one role model for Arab children: the Jihadists and those who excelled at battling non-Muslims.

Terrorist 007, Jihadist Hacker

Rita Katz and Michael Kern wrote in the Washington Post: “For almost two years, intelligence services around the world tried to uncover the identity of an Internet hacker who had become a key conduit for al-Qaeda. The savvy, English-speaking, presumably young webmaster taunted his pursuers, calling himself Irhabi -- Terrorist -- 007. He hacked into American university computers, propagandized for the Iraq insurgents led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and taught other online jihadists how to wield their computers for the cause. Suddenly last fall, Irhabi 007 disappeared from the message boards. The postings ended after Scotland Yard arrested a 22-year-old West Londoner, Younis Tsouli, suspected of participating in an alleged bomb plot. Only later...was Tsouli's other suspected identity revealed. British investigators eventually confirmed to us that they believe he is Irhabi 007. [Source: Rita Katz and Michael Kern, Washington Post, March 26, 2006]

“After pursuing an investigation into a European terrorism suspect, British investigators raided Tsouli's house, where they found stolen credit card information, according to an American source familiar with the probe. Looking further, they found that the cards were used to pay American Internet providers on whose servers he had posted jihadi propaganda. Only then did investigators come to believe that they had netted the infamous hacker.

“The short career of Irhabi 007 offers a case study in the evolving nature of the threat that we at the SITE Institute track every day by monitoring and then joining the password-protected forums and communicating with the online jihadi community. Celebrated for his computer expertise, Irhabi 007 had propelled the jihadists into a 21st-century offensive through his ability to covertly and securely disseminate manuals of weaponry, videos of insurgent feats such as beheadings and other inflammatory material. It is by analyzing the trail of information left by such postings that we are able to distinguish the patterns of communication used by individual terrorists.

“Irhabi's success stemmed from a combination of skill and timing. In early 2004, he joined the password-protected message forum known as Muntada al-Ansar al-Islami (Islam Supporters Forum) and, soon after, al-Ekhlas (Sincerity) -- two of the password-protected forums with thousands of members that al-Qaeda had been using for military instructions, propaganda and recruitment. (These two forums have since been taken down.) This was around the time that Zarqawi began using the Internet as his primary means of disseminating propaganda for his insurgency in Iraq. Zarqawi needed computer-savvy associates, and Irhabi proved to be a standout among the volunteers, many of whom were based in Europe.

“Irhabi's central role became apparent to outsiders in April of that year, when Zarqawi's group, later renamed al-Qaeda in Iraq, began releasing its communiqués through its official spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, on the Ansar forum. In his first posting, al-Iraqi wrote in Arabic about "the good news" that "a group of proud and brave men" intended to "strike the economic interests of the countries of blasphemy and atheism, that came to raise the banner of the Cross in the country of the Muslims." At the time, some doubted that posting's authenticity, but Irhabi, who was the first to post a response, offered words of support. Before long, al-Iraqi answered in like fashion, establishing their relationship -- and Irhabi's central role.

“Over the following year and a half, Irhabi established himself as the top jihadi expert on all things Internet-related. He became a very active member of many jihadi forums in Arabic and English. He worked on both defeating and enhancing online security, linking to multimedia and providing online seminars on the use of the Internet. He seemed to be online night and day, ready to answer questions about how to post a video, for example -- and often willing to take over and do the posting himself. Irhabi focused on hacking into Web sites as well as educating Internet surfers in the secrets to anonymous browsing.

Internet Tools Posted by Terrorist 007, Jihadist Hacker

Rita Katz and Michael Kern wrote in the Washington Post: “In one instance, Irhabi posted a 20-page message titled "Seminar on Hacking Websites," to the Ekhlas forum. It provided detailed information on the art of hacking, listing dozens of vulnerable Web sites to which one could upload shared media. Irhabi used this strategy himself, uploading data to a Web site run by the state of Arkansas, and then to another run by George Washington University. This stunt led many experts to believe -- erroneously -- that Irhabi was based in the United States. [Source: Rita Katz and Michael Kern, Washington Post, March 26, 2006]

“Irhabi used countless other Web sites as free hosts for material that the jihadists needed to upload and share. In addition to these sites, Irhabi provided techniques for discovering server vulnerabilities, in the event that his suggested sites became secure. In this way, jihadists could use third-party hosts to disseminate propaganda so that they did not have to risk using their own web space and, more importantly, their own money.

“As he provided seemingly limitless space captured from vulnerable servers throughout the Internet, Irhabi was celebrated by his online followers. A mark of that appreciation was the following memorandum of praise offered by a member of Ansar in August 2004:"To Our Brother Irhabi 007. Our brother Irhabi 007, you have shown very good efforts in serving this message board, as I can see, and in serving jihad for the sake of God. By God, we do not like to hear what hurts you, so we ask God to keep you in his care. You are one of the top people who care about serving your brothers. May God add all of that on the side of your good work, and may you go careful and successful.

“Irhabi's hacking ability was useful not only in the exchange of media, but also in the distribution of large-scale al-Qaeda productions. In one instance, a film produced by Zarqawi's al-Qaeda, titled "All Is for Allah's Religion," was distributed from a page at www.alaflam.net/wdkl . The links, uploaded in June 2005, provided numerous outlets where visitors could find the video. In the event that one of the sites was disabled, many other sources were available as backups. Several were based on domains such as www.irhabi007.ca or www.irhabi007.tv , indicating a strong involvement by Irhabi himself. The film, a major release by al-Qaeda in Iraq, showed many of the insurgents' recent exploits compiled with footage of Osama bin Laden, commentary on the Abu Ghraib prison, and political statements about the rule of then-Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Cyber Warfare and Non-State Actors

Harvard’s Joseph S. Nye wrote in the Project Syndicate: “Two years ago, a piece of faulty computer code infected Iran’s nuclear program and destroyed many of the centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Some observers declared this apparent sabotage to be the harbinger of a new form of warfare, and United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has warned Americans of the danger of a “cyber Pearl Harbor” attack on the US. But what do we really know about cyber conflict? [Source: Joseph S. Nye, Project Syndicate, May 2012]

“The cyber domain of computers and related electronic activities is a complex man-made environment, and human adversaries are purposeful and intelligent. Mountains and oceans are hard to move, but portions of cyberspace can be turned on and off by throwing a switch. It is far cheaper and quicker to move electrons across the globe than to move large ships long distances. The costs of developing those vessels — multiple carrier task forces and submarine fleets — create enormous barriers to entry, enabling US naval dominance. But the barriers to entry in the cyber domain are so low that non-state actors and small states can play a significant role at low cost.

“In my book The Future of Power, I argue that the diffusion of power away from governments is one of this century’s great political shifts. & Cyberspace is a perfect example. Large countries like the US, Russia, Britain, France, and China have greater capacity than other states and non-state actors to control the sea, air, or space, but it makes little sense to speak of dominance in cyberspace. If anything, dependence on complex cyber systems for support of military and economic activities creates new vulnerabilities in large states that can be exploited by non-state actors.

“Four decades ago, the US Department of Defense created the Internet; today, by most accounts, the US remains the leading country in terms of its military and societal use. But greater dependence on networked computers and communication leaves the US more vulnerable to attack than many other countries, and cyberspace has become a major source of insecurity, because, at this stage of technological development, offense prevails over defense there.

“The term “cyber attack”covers a wide variety of actions, ranging from simple probes to defacing Web sites, denial of service, espionage, and destruction. Similarly, the term “cyber war” is used loosely to cover a wide range of behaviors, reflecting dictionary definitions of war that range from armed conflict to any hostile contest (for example, “war between the sexes” or “war on drugs”). At the other extreme, some experts use a narrow definition of cyber war: a “bloodless war” among states that consists solely of electronic conflict in cyberspace. But this avoids the important interconnections between the physical and virtual layers of cyberspace. As the Stuxnet virus that infected Iran’s nuclear program showed, software attacks can have very real physical effects. A more useful definition of cyber war is hostile action in cyberspace whose effects amplify or are equivalent to major physical violence. In the physical world, governments have a near-monopoly on large-scale use of force, the defender has an intimate knowledge of the terrain, and attacks end because of attrition or exhaustion. Both resources and mobility are costly.

“In the cyber world, by contrast, actors are diverse (and sometimes anonymous), physical distance is immaterial, and some forms of offense are cheap. Because the Internet was designed for ease of use rather than security, attackers currently have the advantage over defenders. Technological evolution, including efforts to “reengineer” some systems for greater security, might eventually change that, but, for now, it remains the case. The larger party has limited ability to disarm or destroy the enemy, occupy territory, or use counterforce strategies effectively.

“Cyber war, though only incipient at this stage, is the most dramatic of the potential threats. Major states with elaborate technical and human resources could, in principle, create massive disruption and physical destruction through cyber attacks on military and civilian targets. Responses to cyber war include a form of interstate deterrence through denial and entanglement, offensive capabilities, and designs for rapid network and infrastructure recovery if deterrence fails. At some point, it may be possible to reinforce these steps with certain rudimentary norms and arms control, but the world is at an early stage in this process.

If one treats so-called “hacktivism” by ideological groups as mostly a disruptive nuisance at this stage, there remain four major categories of cyber threats to national security, each with a different time horizon: cyber war and economic espionage are largely associated with states, and cyber crime and cyber terrorism are mostly associated with non-state actors. For the US, the highest costs currently stem from espionage and crime, but over the next decade or so, war and terrorism could become greater threats than they are today.

“Moreover, as alliances and tactics evolve, the categories may increasingly overlap. In the view of Admiral Mike McConnell, America’s former director of national intelligence, “Sooner or later, terror groups will achieve cyber-sophistication. It’s like nuclear proliferation, only far easier.” The world is only just beginning to see glimpses of cyber war — in the denial-of-service attacks that accompanied the conventional war in Georgia in 2008, or the recent sabotage of Iranian centrifuges. States have the greatest capabilities, but non-state actors are more likely to initiate a catastrophic attack. & A “cyber 9/11" may be more likely than the often-mentioned “cyber Pearl Harbor.” It is time for states to sit down and discuss how to limit this threat to world peace.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, The Guardian, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Global Viewpoint (Christian Science Monitor), Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, NBC News, Fox News and various books and other publications.

Last updated July 2012


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