Sunni insurgents in Iraq guilty of cyber-jihad

Complimenting very well what 1389 just recently posted — Is the U.S. government finally ready to confront cyberjihadism? — comes an article fresh from The Washington Times:

Sunni insurgents in Iraq are spreading their message of violence to the Arab and Muslim world via underground videos, writings and songs on the Internet, according to a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report.

“There is rapt attention to the importance of media” among Sunni militant groups as they engage in sectarian violence with Shi’ites and oppose the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, said Daniel Kimmage, an RFE/RL analyst who co-authored the report “Iraqi Insurgent Media: The War of Images and Ideas.”

Individuals with computers and Internet connections are using simple software programs to compile videos of roadside bomb attacks and gunbattles, set them to songs promoting jihad, and share them with countless people, according to the report released in late June.

“It’s virtually impossible to tell” who is maintaining the Web sites and creating the content for them, Mr. Kimmage said Thursday. Some Web sites have existed for a few years, while others remain in operation for only a few months before they shut down for whatever reason.

One video compilation of bombings and attacks, called “Top 20,” is described as a “greatest hits” collection. “They say it’s to encourage healthy competition among insurgent groups,” Mr. Kimmage said.

Many videos start on Web sites with a small audience, but are quickly picked up by others until they become widely viewed. The report highlighted one example from a few months ago of a video depicting a sniper shooting U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, which was eventually aired on Al Jazeera television, a major Arab-world news channel.

“That really sends a message to the consumers of the media,” said Kathleen Ridolfo, who wrote the report with Mr. Kimmage. “It shows how channels like Al Jazeera do their part to support global jihad.”

The authors said that most Sunni insurgent videos and articles contain jihadist language — words like “crusaders” and “infidels” — to appeal to an audience beyond Iraq’s borders. This language was introduced to Iraqi insurgents by groups like al Qaeda, Ms. Ridolfo said.

Read the rest.

I have something to say here, very quickly: I think it is not necessarily a good thing for the American public to be so well-insulated from vivid images of our enemies killing our soldiers. In fact, I am going to start addressing that in slightly more visceral imagery here at the Anvil in the coming weeks. I am convinced that, just as we almost never see repeats of 9-11 footage on television, we are similarly being coddled like children by our government and media when it comes to the deaths of our soldiers, while our enemies use the images that should righteously incite us to further their own ends. This practice is wrong. We have every right to get pissed off; those are our people dying out there because of a death cult that should have stagnated back in the 7th century, but instead has festered like a never-healing open wound.

Insulating the public from the killing of our soldiers isn’t the answer, exposing the public to the evils of our Islamic enemies is. And point of fact, I think that’s the real motivation behind keeping the reality of the war from being presented more boldly to the American and Western public: to protect Muslims from an angry citizenry here in the States and abroad. The Bush Administration making stupid decisions again based primarily on Islamic appeasement policies.

What kind of soft, shallow and morally confused people have we become in the USA when we are willing to go watch ultra-violent movies like ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ or ‘Hostel’ for entertainment, but we aren’t willing to face the brutal realities of the very real ‘War on Terror’ for the good of ourselves?

No wonder we are losing the Long War.