The war against terrorism has evolved into a war of ideas and propaganda, a struggle for hearts and minds fought on television and the Internet. On those fronts, al-Qaeda’s voice has grown much more powerful in recent years.
Taking advantage of new technology and mistakes by its adversaries, al-Qaeda’s core leadership has built an increasingly prolific propaganda operation, enabling it to communicate constantly, securely and in numerous languages with loyalists and potential recruits worldwide.
“It is just plain embarrassing that al-Qaeda is better at communicating its message on the Internet than America,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in a speech in November.
“As one foreign diplomat asked a couple of years ago, ‘How has one man in a cave managed to outcommunicate the world’s greatest communication society?’”
Al-Qaeda’s Growing Online Offensive - washingtonpost.com
This article (a truly awesome piece of journalism in it’s own right, complete with hyperlinks that expand the value hugely) raises dozens of questions in my mind. I’m going to think about this and come back with more soon.
One thing I do know is that It’s no coincidence that the two most impactful applications of the Internet right now (going forward) are political in nature.
