News & Opinion on Terrorism & Strategic Communication — September 18, 2007
Progress Report from 9/11 Commission. “Although Washington has carried out major reforms to improve its counterterrorism measures, there is a critical lack of urgency on several fronts.” (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 9/17).
Third AQ Video Calls for Attacks on West. “Media reports state that a third 9/11 Jihadist video, reportedly by Al Qaeda, has been released via Islamist web sites today, calling for Jihadist terror acts on the West to be a daily occurrence and calling for “acts of mass extermination.” (CT Blog, 9/17).
Postcards With Threatening Cartoon Sent To Nine Florida Schools. “Investigators released the postcards with the threatening drawings on them Monday in hopes of generating leads in the case. Officials said that the postcards are made up of various and traditional themes, and each one has a distinctive hand-drawn cartoon on it.” (National Terror Alert Response Center, 9/17).
A lesson for Europe. “After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim immigrants were seen as a potential threat in the United States. They have since become model citizens — and now they want a greater say in politics.” (Der Spiegel, 9/13).
Saudi Columnists Criticize Iran, Syria, Hizbullah. “In recent weeks, Saudi columnists have published numerous columns harshly critical of Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah. The columns warned of the demographic change that Iran is promoting in Lebanon and condemned Hizbullah for its willingness to sacrifice Lebanon for the sake of Syrian and Iranian interests” (MEMRI, 9/18).
U.S. Military Poor at PsyOps. “To achieve their objective, PSYOP practitioners should ideally have a clear understanding of the values and thought processes of their audience (as well as their own), and they should have a credible and compelling message to deliver. These have often been lacking.” (FAS Secrecy News, 9/17).
Is it Osama or is it Memorex? “One of the most effective forms of mass manipulation is to have access to technological possibility that is way ahead of anything the public ever sees. This way, you can make things happen to implant false beliefs about world events while the people don’t think for a second that anything underhand is being put before them.” (The Invisible opportunity, 9/17).
