Prince Harry Fights the Taliban

(Picture From The Drudge Report)


You Tube 1

You Tube 2

Telegraph TV


Snop's Commentary:

The news of Harry's deployment to Afghanistan is bound to send a psychological bolt through the minds of ally and enemy alike. We learned of the deployment earlier today when Matt Drudge published the news having reportedly been tipped off by an Aussie or a German magazine.


Unfortunately, it sounds like Harry is being relocated from his forward base--if one is to believe the follow on reporting poping up in the English press.

This event demonstrates the inability of government and media, even when working together, from preventing operational security leaks given the 24/7/365 news hungry global media environment that we live within-- especially when it involves someone with such a high profile.

On the other hand, ten weeks is a longtime and this must be seen as a hugely successfull tactical deception operation of the first order. First the MOD head faked toward Iraq followed up by a silent "Infil" into Iraq--good show!

In addition to the tactical deception plan, it looks like there is a well coordinated information operation being executed with or without the active collusion of the media. An operation complete with iconic images of the Prince on patrol, firing a heavy machine gun and calling in air strikes on the Taliban.

It seems to me this whole thing could take a much greater meaning if one thinks about what is going on here. It may not be a war on Islam, but the Taliban in Afghanistan are Muslim. It may not be a crusade, but the Prince Harry is a royal Englishman and grandson of the Christian Sovereign who is also known as "Fidei defensor" or defender of the faith.

A Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that his presence in Helmand Province meant that the Royal Family had joined in the "aggression against Muslims".

Echos of the past are inescapable and unavoidable in the present. How the intersection of past and present will play out in this latest twist in the "War on Terror" is yet to be seen, but in any event, things are bound to get more interesting.

In the meantime, Al Qaeda and the Taliban must be frothing at the mouth with rage, while the rest of us are left to admire Harry's bravery and devotion to Queen and country--or is that Grandma and country?

Way to go Harry!

Taking a Page From the Cold War (Better Late Then Never)

Snop's Commentary:

Six plus years after 911, word has it, we have a plan... (read the full article)

By Walter Pincus Monday, February 18, 2008; A15

Two U.S. intelligence officials, in public appearances last week, outlined plans to join the ideological fight against radical Islam, much as the CIA worked behind the scenes during the Cold War in the battle against the creed of world communism.

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The goal, Leiter said, is "to prevent the next generation of terrorists from emerging," and one approach he suggested is "to show that it is al-Qaeda, not the West, that is truly at war with Islam."

Hours earlier, at a hearing on worldwide threats before the House Armed Services Committee, John A. Kringen, the CIA's deputy director for intelligence, spoke on the same theme, saying that while the United States and its allies have succeeded in "disrupting and dismantling terrorist organizations . . . the supply of people wanting to join those organizations continues and in some areas continues to grow."

Kringen then put the current ideological struggle "in the context of what we had to do within the days of the Cold War." Back then, the Soviet leaders set up the Cominform, an organization by which Moscow controlled communist parties throughout the world and, through them, the activities and propaganda of intellectual, artistic, labor and youth organizations that they established.

To meet that challenge, Kringen said the United States and its allies targeted "the soft side" of that conflict. The U.S. approach in the 1950s was to reach out to non-government organizations, including intellectual publications, labor unions and student groups, sometimes providing secret financial support, much as the Cominform did.

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Leiter described the "global ideological engagement, referred to by some as the 'war of ideas,' " as "a key center of gravity in the battle against al-Qaeda, its associates and those that take inspiration from the group."

He described terrorist leaders who "aggressively employ messages related to current events, leverage mass media technologies and use the Internet to engage in a communications war against all who oppose their oppressive and murderous vision," adding: "We must engage them on this front with equal vehemence."

As acting director of the counterterrorism center, Leiter is hardly unconnected to the proposed ideological war. A little-publicized role of the director is to conduct strategic planning for the fight against terrorism for the entire U. S. government, a role in which Leiter reports directly to the president.

As Leiter put it publicly, the law creating the center "mandates that all elements of national power, not just the intelligence or military elements, be leveraged in the fight." President Bush approved the center's first strategic operational plan in June 2006, and though highly classified, it clearly includes a fight for the hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide.

Last week, Leiter would not describe tactics but said the struggle against extremist ideology would be won "not by attacking religious or cultural traditions, but by highlighting the poverty of extremist thought, by working together with mainstream adherents of all faiths . . . and by using all elements of national power -- diplomacy, foreign aid, non-government organizations and the like."

Madrid/London style attack in the works for Germany?

German fears over al Qaeda actvity

From CNN's Berlin correspondent Frederik Pleitgen

Story Highlights

- Al Qaeda has begun an online propaganda blitz on German-speaking Muslims
- Jihadist videos issue calls to join "Holy War", others show bomb-making workshops
- Three men arrested in Germany summer 2006 for alleged bomb plot on Americans
- German government says worried but no evidence of an imminent attack

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Al Qaeda has begun an online propaganda campaign, targeting German-speaking Muslims with increasing amounts of terror-related content, German security officials have told CNN.

And while there is no evidence of specific plans against Germany and Austria,German State Secretary of the Interior August Hanning has said he is worried that the authorities "will not be able to thwart all terror plots in the future."

Jihadist videos obtained by CNN, and narrated and subtitled in German, call on German-speaking Muslims to join the "Holy War" against what they call an "American led coalition against Islam that Germany and Austria are a part of."CNN has also seen excerpts of what German intelligence officials say is a 16-hour long, professionally produced bomb-making tutorial. Watch report on the terror videos.

While the video is narrated in Arabic, German officials say it is so well produced that even non-Arabic speakers can understand it. The tutorial instructs viewers in the production of various forms of homemade explosives; German officials say these bombs, if produced according to the instructions, would work and could be potentially devastating.

Last summer three men were arrested in Germany for allegedly plotting bomb attacks against Americans resident in the country. Two of the men were German converts to Islam and one was a Turk living in Germany.

The German Interior Ministry has said since that it is worried al Qaeda might be preparing to make attacks in Germany, although it does not want to create panic and believes there is no evidence of an imminent outrage.Germany has so far escaped the type of large-scale al Qaeda terror attack that has hit other parts of Europe such as Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005.

Terrorism expert Guido Steinberg, from the Berlin-based Center for Research and Politics, told CNN al Qaeda seemed to think that attacks on German soil could provoke Berlin to withdraw its 3,000 soldiers from northern Afghanistan.

"Al Qaeda has identified Germany as one of the weakest links in Afghanistan," Steinberg says.

Snop's Commentary:

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In the 17 Dec 07 Post "Is the BattleField Moving to Europe" Walid Phares makes the observation that Al Qaeda is "preparing the psychological terrain for an escalation on European soil". The Washington Times carried his OpEd article titled Osama Targets Europe on the 6th of Dec 07. Its worth a read because it makes the case for a shift in Al Qaeda's efforts from Iraq to mainland Europe.

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It is also worth repeating the following comments from the 17th...

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"From a Cognetic point of view, Bin Laden is setting the stage to pit the strength of media amplified violence against a weakening Europe. A Europe that lacks a central unifying principle or ideology needed to counteract the determined Salafist's and their bloody interpretation of Islam.

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Osama wants to peal back the onion and pit Europe against America, European nations against one another and the islands of Muslim angst against a sea of secular indifference throughout the continent. See Dawn of the Cognetic Age: Looking through the lens page 104 and Bin Laden Attempting to Strip US Allies from the Anti-Terrorism Coalition."

Jihad TV (Cognetics Brought to Life)

Snop's Commentary:


The following British Ch4 news special "Jihad TV" gives us a glimpse at how miltant Islam uses global media as a weapon of war and by doing so helps bring the concept of Cognetics to life.


Warning: Creepy and disturbing to watch but well worth it.


From Dawn of the Cognetic Age...

"Unable to attack the United States directly since 9/11, al-Qaeda uses global media to bypass the strength of our homeland defenses, follow the path of least resistance through our open society, and attack our psychological center of gravity.

Because we do not censor the Internet or transnational television, images of death and destruction from terror attacks speed unimpeded [...] directly to our TV screens and computer monitors, delivering a mental blitzkrieg attack measured not in explosive weight but in the weight of perception"

Cognetics and the Virtual Ummah

Fully appreciating the revolutionary nature of the Cognetic Age requires understanding that unrestrained human-to-human communication is at the heart of the current revolution. -Snop




Inside Qaeda's 'MySpace' Internet Sites

By Eli Lake Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 15, 2008

WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda-operated Web forums are bringing young men into the terrorist movement, including some who are turning into suicide bombers in Iraq, says a new paper for the American military's think tank on the war against Islamic terrorism.

The paper will be released Thursday in the monthly journal, Sentinel, of West Point's Combating Terrorism Center. It delves into what its author, Evan Kohlmann, calls Al Qaeda's "MySpace," the jihadi Web forums that have in some ways overtaken the role of Qaeda's physical training camps.

The paper examines Al Qaeda's first user-participatory Web forum, developed in 2004, known as Muntada al-Ansar, and it traces through the posts and subsequent eulogies on the site, how aspiring jihadis not only joined Al Qaeda, but traveled thousands of miles to detonate themselves in the battle of Iraq.

[...]

Mr. Kohlmann, who has worked as a consultant on terrorism for both the American and British governments, concludes that the Web forums for Al Qaeda in many ways replace the training camps the organization used to create terrorists in the 1990s.

"In the same way that traditional terrorist training camps once served as beacons for would-be jihadists, online support forums such as Muntada al-Ansar and al-Ekhlaas now operate as black holes in cyberspace, drawing in and indoctrinating sympathetic recruits, teaching them basic military skills and providing a web of social contacts that bridges directly into the ranks of Al Qaeda," he writes. "Rather than simply using the web as a weapon to destroy the infrastructure of their enemies, Al Qaeda is using it instead as a logistical tool to revolutionize the process of terrorist enlistment and training."

[...]

Mr. Kohlmann said yesterday in an interview, "Heretofore, the discussion has been limited because we want to get information about Al Qaeda that we never had. The kind of inside information, maybe there has not been an explicit awareness as long as we leave these Web sites online." But Mr. Kohlmann said the web forums were an immediate threat that must be aggressively countered.

"These are the new dark rooms where guys are planning trips and operations," Mr. Kohlmann said. "This is where people are teaching themselves to be terrorists online. It used to be you went to Afghanistan and this whole process took months and you had to travel thousands of miles.

What Al Qaeda has done is to simplify and franchise out the process, so that now someone can teach themselves to be a terrorist and can literally find their own way to the front line much more quickly."

(Full article)


Snop's Commentary:

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Social network analysis is gaining currency amongst counter-terrorism experts. One such expert is Dr. Marc Sageman, a former Foreign Service officer and practicing forensic psychiatrist.

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Dr. Sagemen describes the Internet’s impact on creating a virtual social network of like minded individuals that dream of recreating the 7th century Islamic Ummah (community or nation) and are willing to turn themsleves into human bombs to achieve their goal.

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From his book "Understanding Terror Networks"...

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"The Internet creates a seemingly concrete bond between the individual and the virtual Muslim community. This virtual community plays the same role that “imagined communities” played in the development of the feeling of nationalism, which made people love and die or their nations as well as hate and kill for them (Anderson 1991). Because of its virtual nature, the Internet community has no earthly counterpart and becomes idealized in the minds of surfers.

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This community is just, egalitarian, full of opportunity, unified in an Islam purged of national peculiarities, and devoid of corruption, exploitation, and persecution. The appeal of this approximation of paradise can become irresistible, especially to alienated young Muslims and potential converts suffering from isolation or from ordinary discrimination.

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The immediate responsiveness of Muslim chat rooms and the relevance of the message bring concreteness and reality to this virtual community. Without the restraints from real interactions with the social world, this virtual world allows extreme violence against the presumed conspirators against the virtual umma[h].”

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To get an idea of what a social network analysis looks like, take a look at the following analysis of the 911 hijackers. Just click here or on the graphic at the beginning of the article to see how the various groups were related.