State Department fights IS propaganda
Chief Tango sends us a link to the Washington Post which reports that the State Department is fighting fire with fire in the propaganda war.
“Welcome to ISIL-Land” generated news stories and negative comments on Twitter about its extremely violent content and mocking tone. YouTube requires viewers to be 21 to watch it.
[…]
The video that became prominent last week is one of several on a new State Department YouTube channel in English aimed at disaffected young Western Muslims who may be wowed by the Islamic State’s battlefield momentum. The countermessage is simple: These guys are lying to you, and if you go to Syria to fight Western oppression you’ll just end up killing innocent Muslims.
The 50-employee Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications is the State Department office behind the video. The organization was launched in 2011 to analyze and answer militant activity on social media and does most of its work in languages other than English.
The English-language YouTube channel was created in a rush in July as part of an expanded online message campaign following the fall of the strategic Iraqi city of Mosul to Islamic State militants, the senior State Department official said.
The same video was first posted in Arabic in July, and that version has more than 42,000 views on YouTube. The English-language version was also posted in July. It is part of a campaign called “Think Again, Turn Away,” that also tweets with the motto “some truths about terrorism.”
I guess the State Department hasn’t been paying attention; the brutality of ISIS/ISIL/The Islamic State is the big draw for young jihadists. They’re tired of the al Qaeda way of fighting wars and they want some new unbridled blood-drenched experience which IS offers. The fact that al Qaeda disowned IS should have been a hint.
And 42,000 viewers? Seriously? On a planet with 1.6 billion Muslims, they’ve reached 42 thousand? TAH gets more than 42 viewers in a slow week.
The United States understands that the lure of the Islamic State’s jihadist message is strong, and fueled by grievance and history that no quick online American answer can fully address, the senior State Department official said.
“So we poke holes in their narrative, try to turn the tables,” the official continued. “You’re not going to get a knockout blow.”
Poking holes in their narrative isn’t going to work either. See how I poked holes in the State Department’s narrative, but they won’t stop their counterproductive behavior, will they?
Carol Brown at American Thinker concurs.
Category: Terror War
If we were poking large holes via high order detonations in their soil on a regular basis one of two things would quickly become apparent. Either they would consider having a reasonable discussion or they would be dead. I vote for the latter outcome, but being forced to negotiate against pain of death as a motivator is also an effective tool as the Japanese and Germans learned so many years ago.
VOV…+100
“So we poke holes in their narrative, try to turn the tables,” the official continued. “You’re not going to get a knockout blow.”
Are these folks really this retarded? Youtube videos to dissuade wannabee IS fighters.
Why not tell them the truth, that is if Obama had the guts to establish it and stick to it. That truth being, if we catch you trying to get there to fight us, you got straight to prison as a terrorist and enemy combatant. If you get there, like Great Britain, your citizenship is revoked and if you try to enter the U.S. again, you will be detained and imprisoned as a terrorist. Your face will appear on a new deck of cards of American terrorists wanted dead or…dead. But if information an memory serve me, Holder and the State Department has already said, they can’t stop them from reentering the U.S. because they are citizens. Again, if memory serves, one of the legal ways to have citizenship revoked is to take up arms with an enemy against the U.S.
This administration is digging the grave deeper each day and with each press release. Problem is, it will be our graves not theirs.
“Wanted dead…or dead”. Nicely put, Sparks. As to barring re-entry, what happened to those no-fly lists? Did it get too crowded with folks who wrote letters to their congress critters or the home town paper?
All they have to do is take a boat accross Lake Erie. Black hood, Brit accent, duffel bag full NBC party favors /optional.
Have you seen this?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2747965/I-ve-never-seen-Border-Patrol-Filmmaker-shows-Ebola-infected-ISIS-terrorist-sneak-Lake-Erie-Canada-Cleveland-RICIN-Rock-Roll-Hall-Fame.html
“Youtube videos to dissuade wannabee IS fighters.”
They got it almost right. It should be “diss” and not “dissuade.” The guys at State should amble over to the Jawa Report and take notes. Splodey-dopes and Christian boobies should figure prominently
She said “boobies”.
They should start a hashtag campaign to end ISIS, it worked so well to get the girls back from Boko Har… oh right, nevermind.
Wishing for a large meterorite strike, or several, in that area would be more effective.
I’ll see what I can do to mentally alter the orbits of several bus-sized asteroids that are NEOs and aim them at ISIL country.
What?!? My plan is at least concrete and will get results you can actually see.
Why try to stop them? Hell just let them revoke their citizenship, get their photo and prints in a database and give them a plane ticket.
A hearty handshake and a bowl of soup would be optional.
“Headed to Syria to fight? Yes, sir, that’s a young man’s game, that…. please face the camera – smile ! thank you, sir, and we need your prints – hands flat on the scanners, that’s right sir… goodbye sir… yep, you’re on your way… oh, and don’t fucking come back, asshole”
Hell, I could give that speech easily.
If somebody is seriously considering going to join ISIS even after all the exposure of their atrocities in the media, that person suffers from a character defect that can’t be fixed with a video.
Maybe the administration could convince them by providing Obamacare and pushing their need for food stamps?
Seems to work everywhere else.