Islamist Website Instructs Mujahideen in Using Popular U.S. Web Forums

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Islamist Website Instructs Mujahideen in Using Popular U.S. Web Forums to Foster Anti-War Sentiment among Americans

In the past few months, Islamists engaged in "media jihad" have increased their efforts to expose as broad a Western audience as possible to their jihad films, which purport to document the growing success of the mujahideen in Iraq and Afghanistan. As part of this endeavor, they have posted jihad films on popular free video-sharing websites such as YouTube, LiveLeak, and Google Video, hoping that such films will tip public opinion in the West against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan - thus pressuring Western governments to withdraw their troops from these countries.

As part of the campaign to foster anti-war sentiment among Westerners, and more specifically among Americans, a member of the Al-Mohajroon Islamist website with the username Al-Wathiq Billah instructed mujahideen in how to infiltrate popular American forums and to use them to distribute jihad films and spread disinformation about the war.

The following are excerpts: [1]

"Raiding American Forums is Among the Most Important Means of Obtaining Victory in the Fierce Media War… and of Influencing the Views of the Weak-Minded American"

"There is no doubt, my brothers, that raiding American forums is among the most important means of obtaining victory in the fierce media war... and of influencing the views of the weak-minded American who pays his taxes so they will go to the infidel American army. This American is an idiot and does not [even] know where Iraq is... [It is therefore] mandatory for every electronic mujahid [to engage in this raiding]."

"It is better that you raid non-political forums such as music forums and trivia forums... which American people... favor... Define your target[ed forum]... and get to know it well... Post your contribution and do not get into... futile arguments..."

Indicate You Are an American

"Obviously, you have to register yourself using a purely American name... Choose an icon that indicates that you are an American, and place it next to your nickname [in the forum]."

"In my experience, the areas most visited in American forums... [are titled] 'Random Thoughts' and 'What's going on in your mind?'... [The former] takes priority in the American forums, and is highly popular. You should post your contribution there... This should include films of the mujahideen in Iraq, mujahideen publications in English, and images and films of the Americans' crimes, [such as] killing unarmed civilians in Iraq... etc."

"Invent Stories About American Soldiers You Have [Allegedly] Personally Known"

"Obviously, you should post your contribution... as an American... You should correspond with visitors to this forum, [bringing to their attention] the frustrating situation of their troops in Iraq... You should invent stories about American soldiers you have [allegedly] personally known (as classmates... or members in a club who played baseball and tennis with you) who were drafted to Iraq and then committed suicide while in service by hanging or shooting themselves..."

"Also, write using a sad tone, and tell them that you feel sorry for your [female] neighbor or co-worker who became addicted to alcohol or drugs... because her poor fiancé, a former soldier in Iraq, was paralyzed or [because] his legs were amputated... [Use any story] which will break their spirits, oh brave fighter for the sake of God..."

How to Make Americans Feel Frustrated With Their Government

"You should enter into debate or respond only if it is extremely necessary... Your concern should [only] be introducing topics which... will cause [them to feel] frustration and anger towards their government..., which will... render them hostile to Bush... and his Republican Party and make them feel they must vote to bring the troops back from Iraq as soon as possible."

"Do not... discuss issues pertaining to Arabs or Muslims at all, whether negatively or positively... because this could be a trap for you... In addition, do not ask people to circulate the material [you have posted] in other forums... as these types of requests will expose you..."

[selil]

It's nice to see this percolating to the surface finally. Want to bet it is ignored by just about everybody? Every time I've mentioned to anybody this as an information operations weapon I get told it can't be happening. Despite the evidence that the Democrats used the same techniques during the last presidential election cycle.

[John T. Fishel]

This is a really sophisticated approach to PSYOP that will be nearly impossible to counter. The best we can do is mitigate the impact.

That said, I could not find the full article on the link to MEMRI. Can anybody give me a cite that I can get to.

thanks

John

[Ender]

Let's get "capitalistic" with this! By that I mean there is one product out there with very little competition. We can "flip" their position and relative strength quite easily by creating our own parallel slickness. We have the ability to mass produce ANYTHING and with all of the multi media capabilities we possess I don't see why there arent four or five American-made and American "spun" DVDs in every Iraqi home. Best way to break a monopoly is to introduce competition into the mix.

I dont see why we have to just do damage control on this one, we can actually win this war... now we just need to enlist our finest media personnel to institute a massive spin campaign that will influence the minds of millions and impact the decisions of... wait a minute I think they are already on the job, but they are not working for us.

If our media put as much attention into helping our cause as they do hating Bush this would BE OVER WITH.

[marct]

Originally Posted by John T. Fishel

This is a really sophisticated approach to PSYOP that will be nearly impossible to counter. The best we can do is mitigate the impact.

John, it's fairly easy to develop a strategy to counter this but it requires people who think in Information Age, rather than Industrial Age, terms. That said, while the strategy is easy to develop, implementing it will be tricky.

Originally Posted by John T. Fishel

That said, I could not find the full article on the link to MEMRI. Can anybody give me a cite that I can get to.

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP150807

Originally Posted by Ender

Let's get "capitalistic" with this! By that I mean there is one product out there with very little competition. We can "flip" their position and relative strength quite easily by creating our own parallel slickness. We have the ability to mass produce ANYTHING and with all of the multi media capabilities we possess I don't see why there arent four or five American-made and American "spun" DVDs in every Iraqi home. Best way to break a monopoly is to introduce competition into the mix.

Spoken like a true American! Hey, it worked in WWII.

Originally Posted by Ender

I dont see why we have to just do damage control on this one, we can actually win this war... now we just need to enlist our finest media personnel to institute a massive spin campaign that will influence the minds of millions and impact the decisions of... wait a minute I think they are already on the job, but they are not working for us.

Should I make comments about "finest media personnel" and oxymorons?

Nah, you don't want broadcast media, what you want is a bunch of disgruntled teenagers who have forgotten more about the net than 99% of broadcast personnel ever knew!

Originally Posted by Ender

If our media put as much attention into helping our cause as they do hating Bush this would BE OVER WITH.

But the terrorists (and the Iraqis) don't vote in the US ! More seriously, the best way to handle the problem is to bypass the broadcast media and work directly on the population; especially the under 20 population.

Marc

[marct]

John,

The original thread is listed as http://www.mohajroon.com/vb/showthread.php?t=48233 but I am getting a database error when I try to connect to it.

Marc

[selil]

Originally Posted by marct

John, it's fairly easy to develop a strategy to counter this but it requires people who think in Information Age, rather than Industrial Age, terms. That said, while the strategy is easy to develop, implementing it will be tricky.
.....
Nah, you don't want broadcast media, what you want is a bunch of disgruntled teenagers who have forgotten more about the net than 99% of broadcast personnel ever knew!
.....
But the terrorists (and the Iraqis) don't vote in the US ! More seriously, the best way to handle the problem is to bypass the broadcast media and work directly on the population; especially the under 20 population.

The people exist who understand the medium and the methods of creating change rapidly in the hearts and minds of people. They however are working against DOD institutions like defenselink.mil where old media paradigms are simply webified. Inclusion is not on the buffet of media relations to create strategies for dealing in in the information age. Simply put DOD and the institutions are not prepared to use the tools they don't understand.

It's interesting but the people who really understand the medium of information age weapons are all in their late 30's and 40's. The teenyboppers are consumers not developers.

Must agree on bypassing mainstream media. With the web you can do that.

[Ender]

Originally Posted by selil

It's interesting but the people who really understand the medium of information age weapons are all in their late 30's and 40's. The teenyboppers are consumers not developers.

I think we are underestimating our teenyboppers. How many high profile hackers have been teenage kids? (I honestly don't know) How many kids have turned to writing their own programs, making their own movies and games, building their own computers.... specifically because they do not want to get bent over by marketing and consumerism. How many of the younger hackers were motivated by their own personal strategies eg: Showing off, Experimentation etc... They understand information warfare all too well, they are just fighting the battles on terms that are relevant to them. Make your values and battles relevant to them and watch how fast they learn and adapt.

As an example I had a guy in my platoon who was from the rural Midwest. He was a teen when he came into the Corps and he went to RadBn... he already knew (almost) everything his courses taught him and even offered tricks to the SNCO's who taught them. I got this from a crusty career Gunny who ended up becoming his platoon sergeant. Once this kid applied the Marine Corps standard to the knowledge base he already POSSESSED he was unstoppable. There are 18-20 year old communications geniuses (Comm "Guru's") that knew everything they needed before they even enlisted. They are some who are now solidly in their 20's and are making six figures, doing what they did in the Corps, which is actually what they did BEFORE the Corps. How many of our teenyboppers use their time in the service simply so they can establish some bona fides to develop a resume that says they are qualified to know what they already knew?

While I would concede that the people who understand the most about the application of information age weapons are the 30-40 set, the ones who understand the best are in the 10-20 set.

[selil]

Ender,

We'll likley have to agree to disagree. The principle of using a specific case as cited in your example of the comm guru to a general population of teenagers doesn't hold up logically.

My experience is that the guru's entering my classes have "silo's" of information that can be applied. They don't have the broad foundation of knowledge needed to operate across multiple operating systems, network topoologies/architectures, or enviroments.

On average I have about 80 vetted, motivated, cream of the crop students in information assurance and security topics a semester. Of those about three are truly uber geeks, and of that there is maybe one who has a good understanding of cyber warfare. The mental change from citizen to warrior is still needed to have the mental "bend" to use a tool for whacking people. This semesters future god of war is a former Army Sgt mother of a couple rug rats who is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

[Ender]

Sam,

Originally Posted by selil

We'll likley have to agree to disagree.

No need for that. I can be persuaded by superior logic and experience!

The principle of using a specific case as cited in your example of the comm guru to a general population of teenagers doesn't hold up logically.

The A-B, B-C of the teenager with potential turns into comm guru may not have flowed linerally but I think the logic behind it stands. What I should have clarified is not that the comparison goes to the general populace of teens as a whole to but to those who would have the ability to work effectively. Your class percentages correspond with the mental image I have of how many kids like this are out there but then again I see those same types of stats in EVERY class... there are the few who really rock it but only one of those who truly understands. Let's say there are ten who teach the exact same material as you. Every class is 100 students and only 3 pass muster in every one. Instead of saying there is no way we can train 1,000 students this way lets look at the thirty we can.

This semesters future god of war is a former Army Sgt mother of a couple rug rats who is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Yeah buddy..."Don't Mess With Mom," is a message that needs to be sent the world over!

Joel

[John T. Fishel]

First, thanks Marc for the cite. I just wanted to be absolutely sure that it wasn't bogus.

My point on countering the propaganda strategy was not a technical one. Sure, we can find multiple ways to cover cyberspace as well as the more conventional airwaves. The problem, as I see it, is the message strategy itself. Consider what these jihadis are recommending. Pass yourself off as an American. Sow dissent about the government and its policy on the basis of all the legitimate arguments made by the anti-war crowd. Do not talk about Islam, Jihad, or the cause...

The counter - which really can only mitigate the impact of that message - is to get your side of the story out in the same media, especially cyberspace. But the USG is limited by law in doing so. It cannot lawfully conduct even "White" propaganda operations targeted on Americans, let alone the kind of "gray" or "black" propaganda this kind of counterpropaganda operation needs. We, as individuals or as private groups can do so, but do we have the time or willingness to hunt down the kinds of websites the jihadis are talking about? The best I can do is to call the attention of my class on National Security Policy to this website (which I have already done) and now to this thread (which I will do tomorrow). That will put a few civilian 20 somethings into the loop...

[marct]

Hi John,

Originally Posted by John T. Fishel

First, thanks Marc for the cite. I just wanted to be absolutely sure that it wasn't bogus.

I was 99.8% sure it wasn't bogus since I've seen similar tactics before and, also, heard of them from some of my students. Still and all, the site itself is interesting in an odd way.

Originally Posted by John T. Fishel

My point on countering the propaganda strategy was not a technical one. Sure, we can find multiple ways to cover cyberspace as well as the more conventional airwaves. The problem, as I see it, is the message strategy itself.....

The counter - which really can only mitigate the impact of that message - is to get your side of the story out in the same media, especially cyberspace. But the USG is limited by law in doing so. It cannot lawfully conduct even "White" propaganda operations targeted on Americans, let alone the kind of "gray" or "black" propaganda this kind of counterpropaganda operation needs. We, as individuals or as private groups can do so, but do we have the time or willingness to hunt down the kinds of websites the jihadis are talking about?

Really? Hmm, I hadn't realized that, especially given what I, as a Canadian, see coming out of some official USG offices. I would definitely call some of it "propaganda"; sometimes white, frequently gray.

Originally Posted by John T. Fishel

The best I can do is to call the attention of my class on National Security Policy to this website (which I have already done) and now to this thread (which I will do tomorrow). That will put a few civilian 20 somethings into the loop...

Well, as to the "message strategy", I don't really see any problems (remember I'm looking in from outside the US ). If you conduct the strategy based on a philosophical set of core values such as individual choice and responsibility, the advantages of a social contract to agree to disagree, and the benefits to all members of society in multiple viewpoints exchanging ideas in a free and open dialogue, then it is not, technically, propaganda.

Actually, this is something that is already happening with the spread of blogs and net 2.0 software. All I am suggesting as a general strategy is to make certain that particular viewpoints are expressed and provide factual support for those viewpoints. The nice thing about this strategy, if it can be implemented, is that it a) serves to strengthen philosophical core values and b) counters large parts of the irhabi subversion.

Marc