Al Qaea's PR campaign gets 24-7 TV with help of Syria and Egypt
Daveed Gartenstien-Ross & Nick Grace:
The enemy has said that half its war effort is in the media battle space. That may be an understatement. What is also clear is that no one in the US is in charge of that part of the battle space. That would not mean censorship or taking charge of the media. It would mean taking an effective approach toward countering enemy propaganda efforts in much the same way that political campaigns have war rooms set up to respond to events that are taking place in the media spotlight.
AL QAEDA AND its allies now have their own 24-hour television station. Based at a secret studio in Syria, its signal is broadcast to the entire Arab world from a satellite owned by the Egyptian government. This development highlights al Qaeda's increasingly sophisticated propaganda efforts.There is much more. The irony is that their PR campaign has been very successful just using the mainstream media, which follows their script compliantly on most matters in Iraq. Bill Roggio has also reported on the jihad network that the troops call Muj TV.
Al Qaeda placed great emphasis on communicating its message effectively throughout 2006. Osama bin Laden and deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri issued more tapes in 2006 than in any year since the 9/11 attacks. In the past, al Qaeda tapes were generally released to Al Jazeera, but 2006 saw more Internet releases: the terrorist group's message was thus more quickly disseminated. Al-Zawraa TV, the 24-hour insurgent station, is an extension of this trend.
Al-Zawraa hit the airwaves on November 14. According to Middle East-based media monitor Marwan Soliman and military analyst Bill Roggio, it was set up by the Islamic Army of Iraq, an insurgent group comprised of former Baathists who were loyal to Saddam Hussein and now profess their conversion to a bin Laden-like ideology.
The Islamic Army of Iraq is subordinate to the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni insurgent groups, including al Qaeda in Iraq. The Al-Zawraa channel is not only viewed as credible by users of established jihadist Internet forums, but as a strategically important information outlet as well. Moreover, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, is delighted by the station. A U.S. military intelligence officer told us that al-Masri "has long-term and big plans for this thing."
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The enemy has said that half its war effort is in the media battle space. That may be an understatement. What is also clear is that no one in the US is in charge of that part of the battle space. That would not mean censorship or taking charge of the media. It would mean taking an effective approach toward countering enemy propaganda efforts in much the same way that political campaigns have war rooms set up to respond to events that are taking place in the media spotlight.
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