Highlights
– Campaign to enlist international diplomatic posts and major media outlets to fight al-Qaeda propaganda
– Strategy will highlight group’s loss of support worldwide, lack of answers and its committed atrocities against civilians
– Group’s ability to appeal to disenfranchised youths and growing networks in North Africa and Western Europe indicate a long-term threat
The Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), a British government counterterrorism organization, has initiated a campaign designed to undermine and discredit al-Qaeda propaganda at home and abroad. According to a July 2008 report by the British Home Office, the RICU will push key arguments to diplomatic posts and embassies around the world to highlight al-Qaeda’s declining support, rejection by credible religious figures, and details of atrocities against civilians resulting from indiscriminate attacks. Furthermore, the RICU plans to channel messages through unspecified private sector communicators including major media outlets, and Internet bloggers in prominent Internet forums.
Although there are multiple terrorist ideologies that pose a threat to the United Kingdom (UK) or its interest overseas, al-Qaeda’s ideology or “brand” likely holds the greatest influence for radicalizing disenfranchised youths in the UK. Furthermore, the threat of a terrorist attack in the UK remains a serious possibility. In the past few years, Islamic radicals have plotted catastrophic attacks including the two failed attacks in June 2007 in London and Glasgow (Terrorist Attack, Terrorist Attack), the failed 2006 trans-Atlantic bombing plot that planned to kill 2,000 people (Failed Terrorist Attack), and the July 2005 London Tube bombings that killed 52 people .
As British authorities continue to investigate thousands who reside in the UK who support terrorism, the new media campaign is a strategy aimed at countering al-Qaeda’s narrative in the long-term.
Targeting the Hearts and Minds
The campaign’s primary purpose will seek to discredit al-Qaeda’s narrative on three respective fronts including: detailing the terrorist organization’s loss of support worldwide; the group’s general lack of answers; and, arguing that the organization will ultimately harm its supporters. The government’s propaganda scheme consists of recent news reports and articles from North African, Middle Eastern and Arabic sources, as well as reports from prominent Western publications including the New York Times.
The messages will move away from aggressive rhetoric language such as a “clash of civilizations” and more towards the idea of shared values. According to the Whitehall report, the initial series of material pushed to diplomatic offices highlights several points underlining al-Qaeda’s waning influence.
• The dossier highlights the condemnation of al-Qaeda by former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, and leading Saudi scholar Salman Abu-Awdah who published an open letter to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden labeling al-Qaeda’s ideological aims as illegitimate and immoral.
• The dossier highlights the tendencies of international terrorist organizations including Hezbollah and Hamas to distance themselves from al-Qaeda.
• The dossier also points out that the group has been driven from large areas of Iraq and continues to lose ground in Afghanistan.
• The report highlights that prominent radical preacher Mohammed Hamid was addicted to crack cocaine. Hamid was recently convicted of three counts of murder and three counts of providing training for terrorism at al-Qaeda styled training camps in the UK.
Threat to Western Nations Will Remain a Long-term Challenge
Although the British government believes this campaign can undermine the al-Qaeda narrative, the report is aimed at reminding readers of the group’s knack for linking fact, fiction, and emotion. Preventing al-Qaeda propaganda from turning disenfranchised Britons against their country will likely require a balanced effort of anti-terror investigations and a push of effective arguments across media outlets for the long-term.
While the dossier notes key arguments that suggest al-Qaeda is losing support in the Middle East, recent attacks in North Africa and several investigations into al-Qaeda networks in Western Europe indicate that the threat of al-Qaeda inspired attacks will persist in the long-term.
