New Terror Magazine Hits The Web

‘Azan — A Call To Jihad’: New Terrorist Magazine Targets Obama -- Washington Times

A new English-language magazine published online by apparent radical Islamists pictures President Obama with a bull’s-eye on his head, ABC reports.

The magazine, titled, “Azan — A Call to Jihad,” features a full page poster that reads, “Wanted Dead Only. Barack Obama Mass Murderer. Reward: in the Hereafter.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/8/azan-call-jihad-new-terrorist-magazine-targets-oba/#ixzz2SnectJHn
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“Azan” means a call to prayer in Arabic.

The magazine also calls upon the “Ummah,” the community of Muslims worldwide, to hack U.S. drones, identifying drone attacks as “one of the utmost important issues that the Ummah must unite to come up with an answer to,” ABC reports.

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More News On The Terror Magazine Azan

Jihad magazine targets Obama, appeals for aid in hacking America's drones -- New York Daily News
New Terrorist Magazine Targets Obama, Drones -- ABC News
How One Jihadist Magazine Is Trying to Fight U.S. Drone Strikes -- National Journal
New English-language jihadi publication calls on Muslims to hack US drones -- RT

Why Al Qaeda's New Media Message Has A Madison Square Look To It

Investigators believe that Samir Khan (r.) is behind the sophisticated graphics and packaging of Al Qaeda's new recruitment magazine Inspire.

Former New Yorker Samir Khan Behind Graphics Of New Al Qaeda Recruiting Magazine Inspire: Officials -- New York Daily News

A slick new Al Qaeda magazine written in English to lure U.S. jihadists may be the work of a former New Yorker with an eye for graphics - and a lust for American blood.

Intelligence officials see chilling similarities between a militant blog Samir Khan produced and the Internet-based magazine Inspire.

Khan landed on intelligence radar in 2007, when he was 21, after posting an Osama Bin Laden screed to the blog he maintained from his parents' basement.

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My Comment: I suspect that this is only the beginning of growing trend, with more budding Jihadists with marketing and technical skills in the background.

How The AP, Washington Post, And Other News Networks Are Being Manipulated By Al Qaeda

Image from MSNBC (Photo Credit: AFP - Getty Images)

Al Qaeda's Propaganda Aims To Affect US Election And Future Strategies -- Counter Terrorism Blog

A recent Associated Press report and a Washington Post article reported that al Qaeda's web sites have expressed a strategic preference of their organization for the next President of the United States. The Washington Post analysis, observing that multiple sites and commentaries close to the Bin Laden group expressed a similar point of view, concluded that this indeed is al Qaeda's agenda: that a John McCain Presidency would benefit the Jihadi goals.

A first quick reading of the site's claim may appear to be an endorsement of the Senator from Arizona. A thorough reading of the posted material in original Arabic, however, and an analysis of the global strategies of the Jihadist movement along with the psychological war efforts by al Qaeda and their allies around the world, tell us a different story and it is the antipode of the Washington Post conclusion.
Here is my reading of the Jihadi postings:

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My Comment: Yup ..... our news networks have more trust in what Al Qaeda linked websites have to say than what the Pentagon Press Department may release. Thank God for alternative media sources and outlets like the internet.

Al Qaeda Propaganda Taken Offline

Al-Qaeda Web Forums Abruptly Taken Offline -- Washington Post

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 17 -- Four of the five main online forums that al-Qaeda's media wing uses to distribute statements by Osama bin Laden and other extremists have been disabled since mid-September, monitors of the Web sites say.

The disappearance of the forums on Sept. 10 -- and al-Qaeda's apparent inability to restore them or create alternate online venues, as it has before -- has curbed the organization's dissemination of the words and images of its fugitive leaders. On Sept. 29, a statement by the al-Fajr Media Center, a distribution network created by supporters of al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremist groups, said the forums had disappeared "for technical reasons," and it urged followers not to trust look-alike sites.

For al-Qaeda, "these sites are the equivalent of pentagon.mil, whitehouse.gov, att.com," said Evan F. Kohlmann, an expert on online al-Qaeda operations who has advised the FBI and others. With just one authorized al-Qaeda site still in business, "this has left al-Qaeda's propaganda strategy hanging by a very narrow thread."

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My Comment: This has been Al Qaeda's most effective tools to promote their cause .... my only question is .... why did it take so long to disable them?

Required Reading: The Spectacle of War by Andrew Exum

Hat Tip to Mountain Runner:

Quoting Mountain Runner directly:

Read Andrew Exum's excellent The Spectacle of War: Insurgent video propaganda and Western response (or PDF version here) at Arab Media & Society. Andrew describes what I call precision-guided media to mobilize supporters through a combination of traditional media such as radio and television, to New Media like websites, discussion boards, YouTube, and SMS. Modern insurgents have moved well beyond the international sympathy of the Zapatista to, as Andrew describes, fostering and relying on a re-interpretation of nationalism to mobilize and elicit responses near and far.

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My Comment: The report by Andrew Exum is incredibly clear and insightful, instructive, and educational in explaining how propaganda now functions in the internet age. The brief comments and explanations from Mountain Runner also go straight to the point ..... this post should be required reading for all news editors and publishers.