Al Qaida — Web 2.0?

As it once did with the Soviet Union, the U.S. government sometimes tends to think of violent Islamic terrorists as 10 feet tall, both sinister and monolithic.

There's no doubt al Qaida and its affiliates mean the United States and its allies harm in the very worst way. According to U.S. intelligence agencies, they are the No. 1 security threat the country faces.

Still, even terrorist networks suffer from human frailties — power feuds, incompetence, betrayal.

A recent report by a researcher for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty finds a new vexation for the terrorists: they can't control the Web.

Conventional wisdom, the report notes, is that Islamic terrorist groups have been quick to exploit the Internet for propaganda purposes, in part because the Net's network matches terrorist groups' own loose, cell-like structure. Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was known to bemoan what he said was al Qaida and Co.'s ability to get their message across better than did the U.S. government, with all its resources.

But last month's report, entitled the "Al Qaida Media Nexus," says that the bad guys have a problem, too. Lacking "brick and mortar" media structures like CNN, Time or McClatchy, the terrorists need to brand their materials on the Internet to ensure credibility for their followers, and maintain message discipline.

This they do through "Media Production and Distribution Entities," which take statements, video and audio from groups like al Qaida in Iraq, polish them up, and post them on jihadist Web sites. The most influential appear to be Fajr, the Global Islamic Media Front, and Sahab. Freelancing is discouraged.

"Al-Qaida and its affiliates are stuck in Web 1.0," author Daniel Kimmage said in a statement accompanying the report's release. "Because Al-Qaida and its affiliates fear the intrusion of free-thinking, content generating individuals, they maintain strict message control. In this way, they resemble the stodgy structures of traditional mainstream media."

Traditional mainstream media. Hmm. That would be us.

The 28-page study has a few other surprising conclusions.

While statements and appearances by Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, get significant global media attention, products from the old "al Qaida central" — as opposed to loosely affiliated groups — make up only a trickle in the torrent of jihadist news flow.

Similarly, while terrorist videos get the most attention, 90 percent of jihadist "news" is made up of text. Books are occasionally posted, including the full Adobe Acrobat text of Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack.

Comments

[rba]

Must be something in the water. "Philip Seib: The Al-Qaeda Media Machine" is one of the articles in the latest issue of Military Review. Links @ Small Wars Journal.

[Warren Strobel]

RBA - Thanks for the comment. For our readers, here's a link to the Military Review current edition, although I am having trouble bringing up the article itself:

http://usacac.leavenworth.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/MayJun08/indexengmayjun08.asp