Aaron has posted some hard-won data about activity on the top-ten Jihadi forums that he’s collected over the last three years. He hasn’t used the name of the forums, so it’s difficult for me to draw my own conclusions, but Aaron’s interpretation of the data fits what I’ve seen: It’s probably too early to say [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Jihadi Forums’
Forum Activity Over Three Years
Posted: 21st December 2008 by Will McCants in UncategorizedTags: Jihadi Forums
2
The Christian Science Monitor and The Guardian have very informative pieces on the forum closures. They also have excellent taste in opiners. One of them, Aaron, has links to the recent public discussions among us fora followers who are trying to figure out what’s going on. (Is it me, or are most of Aaron’s comments on [...]
Influence of Jihadi Forums
Posted: 20th October 2008 by Will McCants in propaganda, UncategorizedTags: Jihadi Forums
Rob at Arabic Media Shack has, as always, an informed take on the forum closures. I have a slightly different take that I’ll share after a summary of his argument. Rob concedes that the closures are a big deal (doesn’t say why), but he’s skeptical that they are influential in the Middle East for the [...]
Two Important Sites Back Up
Posted: 19th October 2008 by Will McCants in UncategorizedTags: Jihadi Forums, Maqdisi
Faloja, one of the second-tier sites that was closed down two weeks ago, is back up. In announcing its return, the administrators acknowledged that it had fallen victim to the same wave of closures that shut down the top-tier sites in September. It also announced that several of these sites will be back online shortly. [...]
More on Online Recruitment
Posted: 14th October 2008 by Will McCants in Indoctrination, Motivations, propaganda, UncategorizedTags: Jihadi Forums
Tim has a nice summary of a recent conversation between him, me, and Aaron about online recruitment. Tim and I agree and I think Aaron does too, but he wants more rigorous metrics. Fair enough. Aaron observes that there are three things involved with radicalization: Motivation (I’m willing to fight) Association (I want people to [...]
The Noose Tightens: Second-Tier Forums Down, Call for Information Ops on U.S. Forums
Posted: 7th October 2008 by Will McCants in propaganda, UncategorizedTags: Information operations, Jihadi Forums
It has been almost a month since the top-tier Jihadi forums were taken down (with the exception of Hesbah–suspicious). Now the second-tier forums have been taken down: Faloja, al-Ma`arik al-Salafiyya, and Shura. Shumukh is hanging on and that’s where most of the hand wringing is happening at the moment. Some are accusing the Shia of [...]
Jihadi Media Pioneer Drowns, Friend Explains How They Met Online
Posted: 4th October 2008 by Will McCants in Jihadi media, MoroccoTags: Jihadi Forums, Jihadi media
The Sumud Squadron announced last week that one of its founding members, Abu al-Haytham al-Shamali, had drowned. According to the statement, Abu al-Haytham had established a number of media brigades and squadrons, including the Ghuraba Brigade and the Sumud Squadron. He was also known on the forums for his postings on security and propaganda. The [...]
Cyber attack and Ineptitude Delay Release of al-Qaeda 9/11 Video
Posted: 17th September 2008 by Will McCants in AQ Leadership, Jihadi mediaTags: 9/11, al-Qaeda, cyber attack, Jihadi Forums
Major Jihadi forums have been down for almost a week now, which ruined al-Qaeda’s release of its 9/11 anniversary video. The video is now out, but those who prepared it for distribution included the wrong password and it probably won’t be until tomorrow that the problem is corrected. Even when it finally sees the light [...]