WAR ON ISIS - The Digital Front

aka "As Satin Spreads His Talons"

"State Department faces criticism in uphill social media war against Islamic State group" PBS NewsHour 10/22/2014

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Late yesterday, word came that three teenage girls from the Denver area were detained over the weekend in Germany by American authorities.  Their disappearance raised fears they were on their way to Syria to join the Islamic State group.

That’s because the militants have been luring recruits from around the world with a sophisticated Web-based media operation, a program the U.S. government is now targeting.

Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner has the story.

And a warning:   It contains some graphic images.

MARGARET WARNER (NewsHour):  The Islamic State group’s sweeping land grabs across Syria and Iraq this year have been matched by an online onslaught as well.  The group posts videos documenting its brutality, the killings of soldiers, journalists, aid workers and citizens, and touting its military victories.

This one yesterday showed U.S. military equipment airdropped Sunday to Kurds fighting I.S. in the Syrian town of Kobani, but captured by the jihadis.  Other postings offer idyllic visions of the so-called Islamic caliphate that the group aims to build across the Middle East.

MAN:  You have to be here to understand what I’m saying.

MARGARET WARNER:  Many are in English aimed at potential recruits well beyond the war zone.  The U.S. government views this campaign as a major threat, as the then-chief of the National Counterterrorism Center Matthew Olsen, recently made clear.

MATTHEW OLSEN, Former Director, National Counterterrorism Center:  ISIL disseminates timely and high-quality media content on multiple platforms, including on social media, all designed to secure a widespread following for the group.