[Editor's note: I am pleased to introduce another new contributor, Scott Sanford, who is a graduate student at George Washington University specialising in jihadism in the levant. Scott has guest blogged for Jihadica in the past, but now he is joining us on a more regular basis.] “What is the Secret of the Falluja [...]
Archive for the ‘Recruitment’ Category
Falluja Analytics
Posted: 11th May 2009 by Scott Sanford in Better Know a Forum, Iraq, Jihadi media, Recruitment, technology1
Jihadi Reactions to the Torture Memos
Posted: 4th May 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Motivations, Recruitment, Western mediaI found the jihadi reactions – or lack thereof – to the release of the CIA torture memos intriguing. You can read my take on this in Foreign Policy Magazine‘s Argument section. The bottom line is this: the damage caused by Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib is irreparable and the end of U.S. torture will not in itself [...]
Child Martyrs
Posted: 11th March 2009 by Qandeel Siddique in Jihadi journals, Pakistan, propaganda, Recruitment[Editor's note: I am very proud to introduce a new contributor, FFI researcher Qandeel Siddique, who will be covering Urdu-language jihadi websites for Jihadica]. The Pakistani militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, led by the famous Masood Azhar, has a strong presence on the Urdu-language wing of the jihadi internet. Among its less savory operations is an online [...]
How Online Recruitment Works
Posted: 18th September 2008 by Will McCants in Indoctrination, propaganda, Recruitment, trainingTags: propaganda, radicalization, Recruitment
In a feeble attempt to live up to Jihadica’s new billing as the “most dangerous” website monitoring Jihadis online, I thought I’d post some thoughts on what role Jihadi forums play in recruitment and radicalization. The usual characterization of online recruitment goes like this: some hapless Sunni Muslim starts poking around online, discovers Jihadi propaganda, [...]
Zawahiri the XO
Posted: 11th September 2008 by Will McCants in AQ in Iraq, AQ Leadership, Bin Laden, Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq, Jihadi media, Recruitment, tactics, ZawahiriTags: Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Qaeda Central, al-Qaeda in Iraq, Bin Laden, Islamic State of Iraq, Zawahiri
The US military has given CNN letters that Zawahiri wrote in March 2008 to senior al-Qaeda commanders in Iraq (hat tip SK). Much of the content has been filtered through an MNFI spokesman so it’s hard to use CNN’s summary to assess al-Qaeda’s fortunes in Iraq. Nevertheless, since the summary fits with the bleak picture [...]
Pakistani Taliban Videos Posted On Mainstream News Site
Posted: 27th August 2008 by Will McCants in Afghanistan, Jihadi media, Pakistan, propaganda, RecruitmentTags: Afghanistan, media, Pakistan, Pakistani Taliban, Taliban
[Chipotle Mystery] One of the difficulties in studying militant groups in Pakistan is that there aren’t a lot, if any, forums dedicated to these groups that are affiliated with the Taliban. Most Taliban-related information that is available in forums comes through Al-Qaeda clearinghouses like Al-Sahab, though smaller studios occasionally have videos that make it to [...]
Mosab Hassan Yousef Receives Death Sentence from the Global Islamic Media Front
Posted: 22nd August 2008 by Will McCants in Hamas, Israel, Palestinian Territories, Recruitment[Scott Sanford] On 21 August 2008, the al-Qaida-affiliated Global Islamic Media Front released a statement written by Abu al-Harith al-Ansari concerning the conversion of Mosab Hassan Yousef from Islam to Christianity. This conversion is significant because Yousef’s father is a senior Hamas leader in an Israeli prison and Yousef himself allegedly was in a leadership [...]
Walking the Talk: Forum Members Travel to Afghanistan and Iraq (Pt. 3)
Posted: 6th July 2008 by Will McCants in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Recruitment, Travel RoutesTags: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, martyrdom, UAE
Today we continue our look at a Kuwaiti cell and how its members transitioned from forum fighters to foreign fighters. When we left off, Badr al-Harbi and Bawasil had returned to Kuwait from the front in Afghanistan via Iran, entrusted with a special mission by Abu al-Layth al-Libi, a senior al-Qaeda leader. They were delayed [...]
Walking the Talk: Forum Members Travel to Afghanistan and Iraq (Pt. 2)
Posted: 2nd July 2008 by Will McCants in Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Recruitment, Travel RoutesTags: Abu Layth al-Libi, Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Travel Routes
On Monday, we looked at the case of al-Miskin al-Muhajir/asdasd99, who finally made his way to Afghanistan. Miskin had hoped to go to Iraq in April with a group from Kuwait, but unnamed obstacles stood in his way. We don’t yet know the fate of Miskin, but we do know what happened to this earlier [...]
Walking the Talk: Forum Members Travel to Afghanistan and Iraq (Part 1)
Posted: 30th June 2008 by Will McCants in Afghanistan, Iraq, Recruitment, Travel RoutesTags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Recruitment, Travel Routes
On the Firdaws forum yesterday, a member posted a message informing fellow Firdawsians that one of their own, asdasd99, had joined the caravan of jihad in Afghanistan. Asdasd99, who also goes by al-Miskin al-Muhajir (The Lowly Emigrant) on the Ekhlaas forum, had tried to go to Iraq a month ago with a group from Kuwait [...]