Focusing on social media, U.S. reexamines counterterrorism efforts
Jimmy Hibsch didn't hear of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's death through a television news bulletin or the radio.
It was on Twitter. And it was news the 19-year-old Arlington Heights native and University of Missouri journalism student almost immediately retweeted as he chatted with online friends.
After Khaled Basrawi, a Bartlett High School senior, heard the news on television in his Bartlett home, he immediately logged onto Facebook. “As soon as it happened, my status was ‘Bin Laden's dead,'” he said.
Within minutes, he said, dozens of fellow posters had commented.
While Hibsch and Basrawi are just engaging in normal social interactions of their times, experts worry that other, troubled youth are more and more becoming targets of terrorist groups like al-Qaida that tap into the increasingly blurred line between the real and virtual world.
This 24/7 frenetic virtual universe creates a perfect breeding ground for vulnerable youth engaging in unhealthy online communications who might be lured by terrorist recruitment, experts say. It's a key reason why the Obama administration decided not to release photos of bin Laden last week after Navy SEALs had shot him to death in Pakistan.
“Those photos would have been passed around through social media, they would have appeared on blog posts and Facebook pages and within networks,” said U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Evanston Democrat. “And I really think that there's no reason to provide fodder for those kinds of communications.”
And the near-constant interactivity by young adults on social media sites, blogs and even online fantasy sports leagues can make it tough for users to tell fact from fiction and reality from fantasy.
“People put their own spin on everything,” said Hibsch, noting that information is passed nearly around the clock, as he's always logged on, chatting, reading and responding, whether he's in class or in the dorm doing homework.
The U.S. House Homeland Security Committee's subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence recently heard testimony in Washington, D.C., from security expert Jarret Brachman about al-Qaida's success of late using the Internet to inspire and mobilize online followers through what he calls a “fantasy football” environment.
Brachman, the managing director of security consulting firm Cronus Global, told the subcommittee, which includes Rep. Joe Walsh of McHenry, that al-Qaida's media products and personalities reach far beyond the Middle East and are penetrating deep into American culture because of their interactive features.
“From Texas to Virginia to New York and beyond, al-Qaida's American supporters seem to be finding self-actualization in consuming and reproducing al-Qaida's Internet messaging, both in the virtual world and, increasingly, in the physical world,” Brachman said.
Take Inspire, an English-language magazine that's using creative ways to empower and motivate online supporters against Western governments, particularly the U.S., Brachman said. The magazine repackages quotes from celebrities such as David Letterman to make its points, and features comics to play out ideological battles. It also contains pithy step-by-step how-tos, such as how to make a bomb in your mom's kitchen.
This kind of “boiling-down” of complex political issues and promotion of dangerous activities to bite-sized talking points is critical for making an ideology more accessible, Brachman said. The online magazine is far from the only Web-based threat, he said.
Disenchanted, tech-savvy Americans can register on al-Qaida Web forums, build avatars on social networking sites, and watch videos of group leaders on YouTube.
“Everything from Facebook to Craigslist is becoming a whole nother set of channels ... to assemble and communicate some kind of messaging that never reached some high school kid in the U.S. before,” said Howard Tillman, president and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Academy in Chicago.
“Fragile people who might act out, who might be driven to these aggressive violent things, were never directly accessible by all the manipulative groups outside of the U.S. before.”
As a result, al-Qaida is able to cultivate a rich breeding ground for weak minds that might be drawn into terrorism far faster and easier online than they could ever before.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Portland teen accused of planning a deadly bombing attempt the day after Thanksgiving at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the name of Islamic radicalism, became heavily involved in the cause online.
In 2009, at the same time he was writing for his high school magazine, he was writing articles about holy warriors outlasting the enemy for an online magazine called Jihad Recollections, under the pen name Ibn al-Mubarak, the FBI said.
“As these individuals read Inspire and watch AQAP videos, as they register on al-Qaida Web forums and build avatars on social networking sites, they become increasingly ‘real' within al-Qaida's virtual space,” Brachman said.
Walsh, a Republican from the 8th District and the only Illinois member of the subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence, said the meetings have “only reinforced in my mind how big the threat is around the world when you talk about a group of people that want to kill us.”
The committee's main task these days, Walsh said, “is to really look at this homegrown threat and the way that they are using technology to advance recruitment. ... We're no longer necessarily talking about huge threats emanating from remote locations. It's here, and it's connected among various groups through the use of technology.”
So much of al-Qaida's focus, he said, “is them trying to connect to youth. There's a real focus on using things that young people are attracted to.”
Still, Brachman said the U.S. government is “missing the boat on al-Qaida's use of the media.
“A breath of fresh air has long been needed in this field, one that approaches al-Qaida's pioneering efforts to recruit, radicalize, mobilize and operationalize Americans via Internet propaganda through their eyes, not ours,” he said.
Brachman suggests the government sponsor a series of out-of-government academic studies that examines the “underlying mechanisms of al-Qaida's English-language propaganda” using interactive media and gaming experts.
As one such expert, Tillman said that means fully understanding how terrorist groups are able to “reach and recruit these kids, and then they'll be able to enable them to a much larger extent in a much larger extent than they have in the past.”
The U.S., Walsh said, now must find ways to “fight on a variety of fronts. One for the fronts has to be figuring out ways to market the goodness.”
Bartlett High School's Basrawi, with the help of an Arlington Heights priest, is trying to do just that on a local level.
Their recently founded Children of Abraham Coalition brings suburban teens and adults of Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths together through their shared lineage in Abraham.
The Rev. Corey Brost, religion chair at St. Viator High School, said post 9/11, he has seen anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry spread across the country. And interacting with teens on a daily basis, he's heard anti-Semitic comments that kids “make without realizing.” Brost said he's come to have a great reverence for Muslim and Jewish traditions.
“I've seen how their values echo those in my own faith. That's so misunderstood in our nation, and that misunderstanding is such a great source of hatred and violence.”
Brost said he wants to channel the positive energy of suburban teens before they are recruited by the “hate mongers” in the world. “They have a great voice,” Brost said of suburban teens. “We just need to help them find their voice on this issue. Work with them.”