Excellent piece by Bruce Hoffman, thanks for sharing.Originally Posted by davidbfpo
I'm not sure I follow your commentary though, a message alone doesn't threaten us, it is the actions taken by the Jihadists that threaten us. The message came first, and now the message interacts with the actions in many ways to make it more appealing to those thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands, who are interested in and identify with the message. A lot of people were interested in, and identified with Christianity also, but that message didn't threaten us, because people usually didn't act out violently because of the message (though one can argue that point).
The fact that the message resonates despite a collective "our" best efforts to weaken it should definitely cause concern. As Bruce points out the impact of social media on the ability to get their message out is important.
His comments on their attempt to produce chemical weapons was interesting also. Not surprising since AQ leadership has expressed desire to obtain WMD for many years, but with the assumption that some of the scientists who helped Syria and Iraq develop their chemical weapons joined the jihadist movement the risk is greater that they will succeed in acquiring an actual chemical weapon. How effectively can they employ it? That is still an unanswered question.The advantages of the new social media to terrorists are manifold. Ease, interactivity and networking, reach, frequency, usability, stability, immediacy, publicity, and permanence are benefits reaped by those terrorist groups exploiting and harnessing these new technologies. A new generation of celebrity fighters is also being created, heralded and extolled in a familiar vernacular to Facebook friends and Twitter followers throughout the world.
Favorite quotes from the article:in May 2013 Turkish authorities reportedly seized two kilos of sarin nerve gas—the same weapon used in the 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway system—and arrested twelve men linked to al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al Nusra. Only days later, another set of sarin-related arrests was made in Iraq of ISIS operatives overseeing the production at two factories of both sarin and mustard blistering agents.
Wishful thinking
RealityAnd, the longing for democracy and economic reform across North Africa and the Middle East that the same optimists enthused had decisively trumped repression and violence.
It is time to rethink this challenge with a clean slate and without the biases of political correctness or Islam phobia.Despite having suffered the greatest onslaught directed against a terrorist organization in history, al-Qaeda’s ideology and brand has nonetheless prospered.
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