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saturday

The percolating Mideast crisis makes Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges, Haifa University professor Gabriel Weimann’s exposé of the Web’s capacity to foster violent protest, seem almost clairvoyant. Though one may bristle at Weimann’s obsessive catalog of terrorist groups on the Web, his exhaustive research into the ABCs of how terror groups are formed and funded in cyberspace is impressive. As we marvel at our ability to map the route to Grandma’s house, dig up video clips from obscure sitcoms that aired in the ’80s, and book Hawaiian vacations online, we should remember that—by Weimann’s count—between January 1998 and May 2005, at least 4,300 Web sites were less interested in facilitating Evite correspondence than in blowing things up. Weimann discusses and signs copies of his work at 6 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919. (Justin Moyer)