Posted on 10/01/2010 2:45:48 AM PDT by Cindy
SNIPPET: "Al-Qaeda has transformed in recent years from a terrorist organization (illegal) that haphazardly used media to advance their cause (not illegal) to a media organization (not illegal) that haphazardly uses terrorism to advance their cause (illegal). In other words, by reconceptualizing their illegal organization into a legal movement, they managed to rope in thousands, if not tens of thousands of new followers. This reconceptualization, by sheer numbers, structurally flipped the ratio of their labor hours from being 3/4 illegal stuff (terrorist operations) and 1/4 legal stuff (media operations) to 1/4 illegal stuff (terrorist operations) and 3/4 legal stuff (propaganda operations).
You no longer have to be a financier or commander or foot soldier – things that are illegal – in order to be al-Qaeda. You can be al-Qaeda by being a web administrator or graphic designer, doing things that are not against the law. In fact, you can now be al-Qaeda without even being al-Qaeda, according to Adam Gadahn’s “Call to Action” video.
To address this messy issue that few CT researchers seem to understand much less discuss in any nuanced way, I launched my ”Meet a Jihobbyist” series to cut right to the heart of this issue. My goal was to force our community to start peering into the understudied world of legal, open al-Qaeda. I intentionally chose unimpressive, banal individuals to profile – not the big bad terrorists who we tend to think of when we talk about al-Qaeda. And it is for this very reason that I’ve been getting reactions across the board in response to my series."
(Excerpt) Read more at jarretbrachman.net ...
http://jarretbrachman.net/?p=964
“Meet a Jihobbyist: Subject 5”
Posted on October 7, 2010
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http://jarretbrachman.net/?p=984
“Meet a Jihobbyist: My (Surprising) Final Reflections”
Posted on October 9, 2010
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