Modern Terrorism & the Media

New information Environment

Richard Holbrooke

How can a man in a cave outcommunicate the world's leading communications society?

Get the Message Out by Richard Holbrooke The Washington Post Sunday, October 28, 2001

every expert in Islam, every analyst of what is happening in the Muslim world, agrees that Osama bin Laden has gained the initial advantage in this struggle by arguing that this is a war against Islam, rather than, as President Bush correctly says, a war against terrorism.

The language

with which the media reports and discusses insurgent

terrorist organizations and their actions, is extremely important, as the

language which it adopts often will set the parameters for public discourse.

due to terrorism’s enormous emotional impact, there is often a

lack of neutral words with which to describe the incident.

if the terrorist organization or the counter-terrorist group can

induce the media to accept their nomenclature, it has already won an

important psychological victory.

Some examples of Terrorist and Counter-Terrorist labels and nomenclature for the same thing

1. Criminal – Revolutionary 2. Terrorist – Guerrilla 3. Murderer – Freedom Fighter 4. Gang – Army 5. Subversive element – Liberator 6. Bloodbath – Purge 7. Lunatic – Martyr 8. Mercenary – Soldier 9. Threat – Warning 10. Aggression – Preventive Counter Strike 11. Assassin – Avenger 12. Propaganda – Communiqué 13. Extremist Fanatic – Dedicated Anti- Imperialist 14. Attack- Operation 15. Hired Killer- Example of Revolutionary Solidarity 16. Murder – Revolutionary Justice

Marshall McLuham

, one of the most celebrated researchers on the social impact of

the mass media, “without communication terrorism would not exist.’’

Terrorism, however, did widely exist before the mass media did.

According to Brigitte Nacos

terrorists commit violent acts looking for three universal objectives: to get attention, to gain recognition, and even in order to obtain a certain degree of respect and legitimacy.

Terrorists always calculate the effect that their actions will have in the media and the

“triangle of political communication”

Access to the media brings terrorists closer to a democratic society’s

decision-making process, which greatly increases that chances that this complex network of interactions will result in a political decision that favors the interests of their group.

TV and terrorism

television’s consolidation as the principal source of information and knowledge for millions of people meant a new step in the evolution of the terrorist phenomenon. TV has a series of characteristics that make it easily adaptable to terrorist logic creating a situation of almost perfect “symbiosis”:

Visual Culture / Image-oriented culture

Thus terrorists look to attack those places that given their location or their significance will attract the immediate attention of the media.

Following this logic, the example of the September 11, 2001, attacks were sufficiently visual to meet the demands of the TV culture and to satisfy the public fascination for live coverage of events.

New York

among others, where the largest concentration of television stations and film studios and equipment exist, terrorists not only guaranteed for themselves an exhaustive coverage and a global projection of their actions, but the

existence of multiple tourists and citizens who had their own film equipment.

Time on TV is short. But they have to summarize and offer the viewer the principal news events in a brief time period make deep analysis, knowledge of historical context, antecedents and any other element which escapes the realm of the immediate highly difficult.

So clichés / oversimplifications / shallowness

TV

shows a strong tendency to “personify” the story. Setting aside the collective, cultural, transnational, and ideological aspects that underline

the vast majority of terrorist movements.

The media are not a simple entities that transmit “raw” information.

It has an active role in “constructing” the news

A media-oriented strategy.

Jihadis

The media are the principal authors of the stereotyped and clearly negative vision

Muadh bin Abdullah Al-Madani, Al Qaeda ideologist the media, which pleads impartiality, churn out their

most awesome propaganda machine bombarding the watching public with the White House

spin on events, completely ignoring any other perspectives.

Ayman Al Zawahiri

number two in Al Qaeda, enumerates the “tools” that the

“Western powers” use to fight against Islam in his book “Knights Under the Prophet's Banner”. In this list, “international news agencies and satellite television”

Al Qaeda

According to Al Qaeda, the press continuously lies, not only about the

real motivations of the mujahidin, but above all about the real motivation of Western governments.

The media numbs the population in general and particularly Muslims, entertaining

them with sinful issues. Their goal is to keep Muslims unaware of the

seriousness of their situation as a people and of their obligations as believers:

The “Declaration of War against the United States” in 1996, for example, caused little impact.

Went practically unnoticed in the country on which war was declared.

Abu Musab al Suri : Osama “has caught the disease of screens, flashes, fans, and applause.”

Al Jazeera: The turning point

Al Qaeda’s negative perception of the mass media has been largely conditioned by the Western media’s leadership in the world and by the airtight political control of the press in the Arabic-Muslim world.

“Second Palestinian Intifada” 2000

Arabic citizens’ opinions

calling for their leaders to do more for the Palestinians, governments of the region

quickly reacted accusing the broadcaster of inciting violence. Egypt and Jordan, Saudi

Arabia

Al Qaeda found the network to be an important and efficient spokesperson, a

broadcaster that continuously validated its message due to the way it covered given news stories.

The economics

The exclusive material on the bombings of Afghanistan was sold by Al Jazeera for a succulent quantity of money: they sold footage on Bin Laden for 20,000 dollars a minute and even a three minute long video

with a 1998 interview of him for 250,000 dollars

The internet

Despite the United States and its allies’ massive mobilization of resources in the “War on Terrorism” Al Qaeda has been able to continue supplying the mass media with new propaganda. Each new consignment has meant a new symbolic triumph for the terrorist organization, given that each new communiqué demonstrated their capacity to evade their powerful enemies’ siege.

information and communication technologies have developed to such a point that these groups can film, edit, and upload their own attacks within minutes of staging them, whether the Western media are present or not.

Radically new Info env no longer dependent on traditional media

Media savvy terrorists Enemy enormously adaptive to this new environment

Media have engender a new type of war the way they are shaping the battlefield

needs to be understood.

Terrorists and insurgents are now no longer dependent upon the professional media to

communicate. In fact, to an unprecedented degree, the professional media have become dependent upon them.

Cameras of increasing quality have become progressively cheaper and smaller even in countries without dependable electricity. Laptop computers are similarly available

worldwide and at progressively lower prices and higher quality.

Media labs have been decentralized Between June and roughly November 2007 (roughly

the period corresponding to the “surge”), American forces captured eight media labs belonging to AQI. In these labs they found a total of 23 terabytes of material that had not yet been uploaded to the web.

Coalition forces made the labs a priority target under General David Petraeus because of their importance to AQI operations, recruitment, and funding.

American television networks, unable to obtain usable combat footage on

a regular basis, all depend on insurgents for visual product.

If the story has the potential to erode public support, either domestically or internationally, then it is, in fact, mission critical.

according to the Multi-National Force- Iraq (MNF-I), resulted in more than an 80 percent

degradation of AQI’s capacity to get new material on the web as of September 2007

Qualities of the Internet

ease of access, lack of regulation, vast potential audiences, and fast flow of information,

Modern Terror

Today, all active terrorist groups have established their presence on the Internet.

A very dynamic phenomenon:

websites suddenly emerge, frequently modify their formats, and then

swiftly disappear reappear different address same content al Qaeda’s websites location content change

almost daily

Target audience

Current potential supporters International public opinion Citizens of states against which terrorist are

fighting

Misguided policies

Focus on exaggerated threat of cyber terrorism

Missing routine uses of terrorism

An ideal arena for activity

offers easy access; little or no regulation, censorship, or other

forms of government control; potentially huge audiences spread throughout

the world; anonymity of communication; fast flow of information;

• inexpensive development and maintenance of a web presence;

• a multimedia environment (the ability to combine text, graphics, audio, and video and

to allow users to download films, songs, books, posters, and so forth); and

• the ability to shape coverage in the traditional mass media, which increasingly use the

Internet as a source for stories

Instrumental uses of internet

Psychological warfare (disinformation, distill fear, helplessness, disseminate horrific images (beheading, IED attacks etc.) Cyberfear: the fear of cyberterror attack Examples: disabling air traffic control systems NY stock markets

Internet regardless of validity / potential impact Allow even a small group to amplify its message,

exaggerate its importance/threat Propaganda Training Networking (chat rooms/cybercafés) Sharing information Fundraising Recruitment Data mining Coordination of actions