Neue Einblicke in die islamistische Web-Propaganda

--- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty hat einen Bericht über die Internet-Propaganda islamistischer Kreise mit Schwerpunkt Irak veröffentlicht. Dabei handelt es sich zwar keineswegs um einen Report aus neutraler Quelle, aber die Ergebnisse kann man sich mal anschauen:

The book-length report, "Iraqi Insurgent Media: The War Of Images And Ideas" by RFE/RL regional analysts Daniel Kimmage and Kathleen Ridolfo, provides an in-depth analysis of the media efforts of Sunni insurgents, who are responsible for the majority of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq. Kimmage and Ridolfo argue that the loss of coordination and message control that results from decentralization has revealed fundamental disagreements about Iraq's present and future between nationalist and global jihadist groups in Iraq and that these disagreements are ripe for exploitation by those interested in a liberal and democratic Iraq. The report also finds that anti-Shi'ite hate speech is an increasingly prominent part of the insurgent message. With sectarian killings on the rise in Iraq, the tenor of invective points to the possibility of even greater bloodshed. A wealth of evidence shows that hate speech paved the way for genocide in Rwanda in 1994, for example. Iraq's Sunni insurgency has developed a sophisticated media campaign to deliver its message over the Internet through daily press releases, weekly and monthly magazines, books, video clips, full-length films, countless websites, and even television stations. Part of the target audience for insurgent media projects are mainstream Arabic-language media, which often amplify the insurgent message to a mass audience. The popularity of online Iraqi Sunni insurgent media, the authors contend, reflects a genuine demand for their message in the Arab world. A response, no matter how lavishly funded and cleverly produced, will not eliminate this demand. The authors argue that efforts to counter insurgent media should not focus on producing better propaganda than the insurgents, or trying to eliminate the demand for the insurgent message, but rather on exploiting the vulnerabilities of the insurgent media network.

Ein paar Auszüge aus der Analyse: Biographies of the best-known martyrs are sometimes lavish affairs, Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, the most famous jihadist to have died in Iraq, was the subject of a downloadable "encyclopedia" that includes not on numerous materials on the Jordanian militant's life, but also a complete collection of his statements, essays on his beliefs and influence, and statements on the jihad in Iraq by Osama bin Laden. Formatted as a 7.7-megabyte self-contained mini-browser, the "encyclopedia" provides users with a table of contents and a conventient graphics interface. ... The development of martyr biographies illustrates the growing professionailism of the insurgent media network. In May 2005, a participant in a jihadist Internet forum posted a collection of 430 biographies of martyrs in Iraq culled from newspaper accounts, forum posts, and transcribed "wills" recorded by suicide bombers before their final attacks. ... Just as the operational press release is the basic unit of insurgent textual production, visual records of attacks are the basic units of insurgent video production. The two genres are closely related, and insurgent groups sometimes issue operational press releases along with links to download a video record of the attack. (...) Most insurgent groups take care to "brand" themselves, placing their logos in a corner of the screen for the duration of the video ... The impressive array of products Sunni-Iraq insurgents and their supporters create suggests the existence of a veritable multimedia empire. But this impression is misleading. The insurgent media network has no identifiable brick-and-mortar presence, no headquarters, and no bureaucracy. It relies instead on a decentralized, collaborative production model that utilizes the skills of a community of like-minded individuals.

Und sonst: Terror-Craze in UK: Polizei fahndet mit Großrazzia nach Terroristen. Die Fahndung nach den Bombenlegern von London und den Hintermännern des Anschlags auf den Flughafen von Glasgow läuft auf Hochtouren. Und: Autobomben als billige Massenvernichtungswaffen. Von Bagdad nach London: Das urbane Leben und die Mobilität sind die Ziele des Terrorismus und der Sicherheits- und Überwachungsmaßnahmen