ji·had·ica

Magazine Update

It has been a good week for jihadi magazine buffs. There are new issues of Qadaya Jihadiyya and Tala‘i Khurasan, as well as two brand new magazines, Sawt al-Qawqaliz (sic) and Markaz Ansar al-I‘lam. The newcomers are not particularly impressive and I do not expect them to last long in the fiercely competitive world of jihadi media. Sawt al-Qawqaliz seems intended as a mouthpiece for the Caucasus Emirate, and it is clearly the work of non-native Arabic speakers, for the language is full or errors and low on idiom. Incidentally, I cannot figure out what “Qawqaliz” is supposed to mean (suggestions anyone?). It could simply be a misspelling of Qawqaz, but how could they get the very name of the magazine wrong? In terms of content, the 24-page publication is almost entirely focused on Caucasian issues and does not even mention Gaza. The Shabab of Somalia are the only outsiders

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Thomas Hegghammer February 12, 2009

Pathetic Psy-ops

The British tabloid The Sun reported yesterday that al-Qaeda leaders rape male recruits to shame them into becoming suicide bombers. Let me start by congratulating the journalist on being able to fit the four words “al-Qaida”, “gay”, “rape” and “horror” in one and the same headline in the world’s largest English-language newspaper. I would not normally bother with this kind of nonsense were it not for the fact that it sheds light on the recent reports about AQIM’s alleged plague experiments, covered previously on Jihadica. Both stories were broken in the West by The Sun, and both stories relied on Algerian security sources. We are most likely dealing here with an anti-al-Qaida psy-op, and a very poor one at that. These latest stories echo an only marginally better operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq last winter. It involved a steady stream of articles about al-Qaida exploiting all kinds of defenceless people

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Thomas Hegghammer February 5, 2009

A Unified Strategy towards Germany?

Over the past few months, several German-speaking jihadists have appeared in propaganda videos emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bekkay Harrach (aka Abu Talha al-Almani), who was recently featured in a production by al-Qaida’s official media arm al-Sahab, is only the most recent example. As described in this article, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and its offshoot, the Islamic Jihadi Union (IJU), also boast Germans in their ranks, and have actively used them in their media productions. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber, believed to be from the Taliban, attacked the German embassy in Kabul on 17 January 2009. All of this has been interpreted  as a sign that Germany is being targeted by al-Qaida. The German focus is indeed intriguing. But what I find even more interesting are the differences between these productions and what they tell us about the landscape of jihadi groups in Afghanistan. Too often, groups like al-Qaida,

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Anne Stenersen February 2, 2009

AQIM, the Plague and the Press

There is an incredible story coming out of Algeria these days. International and Algerian media have reported that 40 members of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) were killed by the plague (black death) at a training camp in Tizi Ozou, eastern Algeria earlier this month (see also here). According to intelligence officials, the outbreak was either a consequence of poor living conditions or, more likely, due to a biological weapons experiment gone awry. While this would seem to place AQIM in line for a Darwin Award, that is precisely why we should be careful to conclude too early on the veracity of these rumours. AQIM, on its side, has been quick to respond to the story, publishing Wednesday (January 21) an official statement refuting the reports. Ascribing the story to “hypocrite pens” and characterizing it as “a plot by the intelligence community”, AQIM “assures that the claims are totally

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Hanna Rogan January 23, 2009

New Issue of Sada al-Malahim

Al-Qaida in Yemen (AQY) has released the seventh issue of its magazine Sada al-Malahim (SM), adding to the mounting evidence that the group is thriving. The slick 44-page publication contains no less than 30 articles by 23 different pen names. Many of the latter are no doubt invented, but the issue must be the work of a well-run media cell of a certain size. An undated picture on p. 16 showing 20 people training in the desert, as well as note on p. 12 inviting readers to submit questions to the journal’s gmail address, suggest that AQY is not about to collapse any time soon. The front page story, “Gaza under siege by Arab rulers”, is quite interesting. The article hardly mentions Israel and America, but instead lashes out at the Arab regimes and government clerics for facilitating the siege by repressing the mujahidin. “[The rulers] incriminated anyone who merely

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Thomas Hegghammer January 19, 2009

Facebook Fail

Nusra2 announced yesterday that its Facebook raid was a failure.  Over 120 people signed up but the group was shut down after only 2 days.  Somehow, the statement says, the mainstream media got wind of what was happening and Facebook took action.  Nevertheless, two new groups have formed, one in English and the other in Arabic. Document (Arabic): 12-21-08-shamikh-response-to-nusra2-group-being-shut-down

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Will McCants December 22, 2008

Email Invasion Of U.S. and U.K. Universities

‘Tis the season for cyber-invasions.  Not to be outdone by the Faloja forum’s Nusra2 Facebook invasion, a senior member of the Shumukh forum, Hafid al-Husayn, has proposed sending 100,000 emails to university professors, students, and employees containing “pictures of slain Americans and films of the mujahids’ triumphs in the Islamic State of Iraq and Afghanistan.”   In a follow-up post, Hafid explains that the purpose of the 100 Thousand Campaign is to shame the West.  He then restates his tactics, this time in English: We will invade ur universities , we will send the news of mujaheddin and the films, movie , pics of ur killed soldiers in ISI Islamic State of Iraq and Afghan. Now our goal and target is to send the news to 100 thousand lecturers student &,tech of ur universities and Institutes ,and of course they will FWD the email to many friends and beloved people , we are

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Will McCants December 19, 2008

Invading Facebook: Theory And Practice

That’s the title of a post last week by Faloja member `Umar `Abd al-Hakim in Syria.  `Umar believes that Jihadis have successfully penetrated Youtube and it’s now time to more directly market their materials to the masses.  To this end, he gives an overview of Facebook and why it will be useful for Jihadi propagandists.  To get the ball rolling, `Umar and others announced a campaign yesterday, “Aid Invasion2” (Ghazwat al-Nusra2).  Below is a summary of `Umar’s introductory post, followed by the announcement of the campaign.  Note that the Facebook invaders believe the propaganda front is outside of the Jihadi forums, a point I have made repeatedly.  Moreover, this is not an attempt to replicate the social networks that exist on the forums; the members of the campaign want to exploit existing networks of people who are hostile to them and presumably they will adopt new identities once they have

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Will McCants December 17, 2008

Influence of 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 following reasons: Access:   There is not much internet access in the ME compared to the West.  Also, local censors can easily block the forums. Interest:  Most Middle Easterners don’t think that much about Bin Laden or al-Qaeda. Coverage:  If the forums were important, mainstream Arabic newspapers would have written more about them. Rob ends his post by suggesting that influence should be measured by how many people in the region actually watch or read al-Qaeda material. On the issue of access, Rob is right: connectivity in the Middle East is much less than in

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Will McCants October 20, 2008

More on Online Recruitment

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 fight alongside, both to steel my resolve and to help me carry out attacks) Opportunity (I need places and means for carrying out an attack) (Tim glosses these as Psychological, Social, and Organizational factors, which is helpful.) Aaron goes on to say: When we see so-called Internet jihadis who become active in real-world plots, they frequently come from the ranks of the forum activists, the guys who are more than just part of the Allahu Akbar chorus. It is through their online associations and the opportunities that the Internet provides that they are able to

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Will McCants October 14, 2008
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