Posted on 06/28/2008 10:52:15 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Early this year, a religious radical calling himself Abu Hamza had a question for the deputy leader of al-Qaeda regarding the Egyptian secret police. "Are they committing unbelief?" he tapped on his keyboard. "And is it permissible to kill them?"
A few weeks later, an answer came from a man with a $25 million bounty on his head, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Killing the police is justified, Zawahiri replied, because they are "infidels, each and every one of them."
The exchange was part of the latest propaganda coup orchestrated by al-Qaeda: an online chat between Zawahiri -- one of the world's most wanted fugitives -- and hundreds of curious people around the globe. After announcing in a Web forum in December that he would entertain questions on virtually any topic, Zawahiri received 1,888 written queries from journalists and the public. He patiently answered about one-fifth of them, even hostile postings that condemned al-Qaeda for harming innocents and perverting Islam.
The war against terrorism has evolved into a war of ideas and propaganda, a struggle for hearts and minds fought on television and the Internet. On those fronts, al-Qaeda's voice has grown much more powerful in recent years. Taking advantage of new technology and mistakes by its adversaries, al-Qaeda's core leadership has built an increasingly prolific propaganda operation, enabling it to communicate constantly, securely and in numerous languages with loyalists and potential recruits worldwide.
Every three or four days, on average, a new video or audio from one of al-Qaeda's commanders is released online by as-Sahab, the terrorist network's in-house propaganda studio. Even as its masters dodge a global manhunt, as-Sahab produces documentary-quality films, iPod files and cellphone videos. Last year it released 97 original videos, a sixfold increase from 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
PING.
Interesting...
So there you are, all you silly triumphalists! Al Q. is being pounded in the real world but is still triumphing in cyberspace.
Zawahiri sure has a lot of time to answer fan mail, guess he’s not actually in charge of any operations.
Once again, the enemy is doing so much better than us, so much more competent than the silly Republican lead Americans. Thanks, WA PO.
Check out StarCMC’s YouTube Smackdown threads...they can’t even post videos anymore. We chew them up and spit them out.
Very interesting, thanks for the ping.
What time is it in New Zealand? I’m up too late, but I suspect you’re at your computer with morning coffee or afternoon tea. :-)
Ping
It’s just going 19h21 in Auckland as I hit the “Go” button now...
WaPo looking for any angle to give terrorists a victory.
Early this year, a religious radical calling himself Abu Hamza had a question for the deputy leader of al-Qaeda regarding the Egyptian secret police. "Are they committing unbelief?" he tapped on his keyboard. "And is it permissible to kill them?"
The infowar is being fought - all OVER the internet. And most of our countrymen are so afraid of offending muslims that they do not join the battle.
Thanks for satisfying my curiousity.
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