Terrorist branding is a reality.

Terrorist branding is a reality.

 “Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.” These observation come form one of the oldest and most used military handbook called Binga-fa or commonly labeled “the Art of War” from Sun Tzu.

Nowdays seems that also Terrorist groups are adopting his ideas. Terrorist are people who, with any tools, spread fear among civilians. Their activity could range from a physical action like killing someone or destroying a property, to make propaganda using for examples modern media.

What seems happening in the recent years is a reshaping of the terrorist groups, especially the one that aim to be recognized as world brand, in order to become more flexible and adapt to the modern media, especially social media like facebook, youtube and twitter. The net could allow people, physically far from each other, feel very close thanks to instant messaging, sharing of content like picture or video or Voip call.

The net, as exist now, it is not matching the “normal”, family based, social structure that every society is used to. On the contrary the concept of modern terrorism, with independent cells spread around the world, with the single terrorist that got a training in some warfare scenario (and then came back home), it is likely matching perfectly the net concept.

The Net is particularly well-suited for the spread of ideology to a global audience because communication channels are largely unfettered.

According to Weimann (2005), the Internet is an ideal platform for international terrorists because it affords easy access, minimal regulation and censorship, anonymity of communication, speed, low cost, a multimedia environment to combine text, graphics, audio, video and perhaps most significantly, the ability to shape coverage in the traditional mass media.

Specifically, terrorists can bypass existing “selection thresholds” of traditional media to gain public attention by simply posting the controversial content themselves. One example of terrorist propaganda being spread through social media channels is the beheading by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of an American businessman in Iraq. A video of the murder was uploaded to the Internet by al-Qaeda and was downloaded over 500,000 times within the first twenty-four hours of its online posting. The video with interactive comments is still accessible online (Liveleak.com, 2013).

Speaking about the topic Mark Laity Chief Strategic Communications at Shape Nato stated: “I don’t think there is really a difference between inside and outside sources in that their skills will be those of their sympathizers and members. They in turn will have done their own research or potentially been recruits whose job was in the media/marketing area. In my view they have done or shown nothing that could not be derived from ‘amateur’ research by an intelligent and dedicated individual. They will also be to some degree be using skills in social media that are almost standard knowledge amongst young people who very often are ‘digital natives’. They are also able to naturally resonate with sympathizers in the same way as other people who have a particular interest or enthusiasms can easily connect with those who share the same interests.

Also never underestimate the influence of motivation. On ‘our’ side most people engaged in this field are doing their day job and then go home. These people are fired by zeal, religion etc and therefore give 100% to the cause both in terms of intellectual engagement to learn, and then the hours they will put into output.”

Given this view, terrorist and the net are a perfect match. The last evolution in the terrorism activity is to seize the opportunity to use the western social media tools and strategy to spread the terror.

During the 911 attacks era, Al Qaeda was using mainly standard media like video recorded for Tv. Now Isis, with an unbelievable knowledge of social media strategies, is fully embebbed by social media expert. Psychological operation (from now Psyops) are the new bread and butter for any terrorist.

Psyops are planned to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence emotions, motives, objective reasoning and ultimately the behavior of organizations, groups and individuals. Psychological operations have involved a variety of tactics and technologies to influence target audiences (FM 33-1-1, 2003). There are three types of psychological operations: tactical, strategic and consolidation activities.

Tactical PSYOP is targeted towards specific enemy combat groups to induce them to perform a specific action that will affect the current or short-range combat situation. A simply example is the strategy adopted by Isis before the Mosul invasion. Their Social Media Warrior (from now SMW) broadcasted in twitter many pics depicting how the Iraq army soldier will be threaten if captured in the city. When Isis declared that was marching against Mosul Iraq brigade offered few opposition, running away leaving behind Advanced weapons and other valuable asset freshly purchased by Usa govern.

Aimed at a larger audience, strategic PSYOP involves a carefully planned campaign against a larger target audience.

Again after the seize of Mosul Isis broadcasted on twitter and youtube video of the stolen Humvee. In a specific Hashtag they amended the hashtag of Michelle Obama from #bringbackourgirls to #BRINGBACKOURHUMVEE. Isis mocks Michelle Obama with cruel photoshop of her famous tweet in support of girls kidnapped by Nigerian terrorists.

The mission of consolidation PSYOP is to assist the civil and military authorities in consolidating their gains, by establishing and maintaining law and order and by re-establishing civil government in an occupied or liberated area. In this specific area Isis keeps an high attention in order to spread content “useful” for any moment of life. The last example was the Isis approved Pancake recipes that was spread in the net in order to educate isis fighter wife how to cook a proper breakfast for their husbands. Regardless of the type of psychological operations used by terrorist groups, propaganda is a major component of any psychological operations campaign. Today’s terrorists increasingly have turned to Psyops as a significant tool and tactic in their asymmetric struggles. Essentially, terrorism is a communications process designed to influence audiences beyond that of the direct target. This process is interactive in which target audiences decode terrorist violence depending on the contexts, methods and tools it has for interpreting the situation. The responses and interpretations by the target audience provide feedback to terrorists. Terrorism is an act, process or plan intended to cause a response. As a violent vehicle for communication, terrorism exploits a variety of mediums.

Terrorism propaganda could manifests through a vast web of Internet servers in the form of high definition video productions, social networking sites and treatises that often showcase impassioned, articulate and educated leaders. As mentioned before popular digital platforms include blogs, Twitter, YouTube, online chat rooms, open and password-protected forums, social networking sites such as Facebook and Google+, photo-sharing sites such as Instagram and Tumblr, and periodicals available in digital and print format. These strategies recruit new members, educate the public about a group’s ideology, generate fear, obtain financing and organize events that endorse the stated objectives of the group. While terrorists, for example, use an amalgam of force, fear and targeted attacks to stay relevant and to make an impression on the public, causing harm is often a secondary result of a terrorists’ primary objective to achieve a political goal Therefore, while the substance of these messages is largely consistent, the form of the messages has evolved in the digital age.

Propaganda as tool for Recruitment, Incitement, and Radicalization is the most recognized areas of terrorist activity. As a group of like-minded individuals who seek to further their cause, jihad at its core is a modern-day public relations machine. For example, Al-Qaeda employs a sophisticated media strategy and has utilized more than 4,000 web sites to reach its followers and threaten its enemies. Al-Qaeda owns a multimedia production company and released one particularly polished video montage, akin to the type of music video seen on Western television, set to the tune of popular music and featuring a “Top 20” review of graphic images of attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Twitter is one of the preferred playground. The official Somali al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab maintained a popular Twitter handle, @HSMPress, with nearly 21,000 followers, but was administratively disabled in January 2013 for making a specific threat in violation of Twitter’s terms of service. Within two weeks, however, a new handle, @HSMPress1, had opened and garnered over 5,767 followers (Twitter, 2013). A common myth among western citizens is the idea of Lone Wolves terrorist. Terrorists often send messages to stoke anger in marginalized, younger people who are impressionable, disenfranchised and seeking a cause. It’s not complex to image realities like Banlieu as a potential area were young poor muslim could be deceived by these action. Potentially (still a matter of study at the time of print) the recent example of recruitment and radicalization of terrorists is that see the attack of Paris. While it is still in discussion if the recruitment for the last action in Paris was performed virtually or planned in advance when the brothers where involved in warfare scenario. One of the relevant element that further can help to create a connection among Islamic terrorist is the concept of Bayaa (swearing fealty) to the caliph in Islam. “The bayaa doesn’t require being under the geographical rule of the caliph or being part of his structure; it is a simple act of mutual recognition and loyalty at the price of blood. By swearing bayaa, the people state that they recognize the caliph as their ruler, and therefore he should recognize them as his subjects, and that the caliph’s enemy is their enemy, and their enemies are the caliph’s enemies. So, for example, if the United States attacks IS, and someone who has sworn bayaa to IS lives in the United States, then by duty, and with no prior corporation or alignment, that someone can commit violent acts against the US government on US soil. Swore bayaa, but live in Ghana? No problem. Attack the local US Embassy, citizens or US-affiliated businesses in Ghana in IS' name, and IS won’t mind or distance itself from the act or deny involvement and most likely will claim responsibility.” As explained by Al Monitor magazine.

Another area where social media excel is the training. The risks and costs associated with dwindling physical training facilities have contributed to an increase in virtual training grounds for students of terrorism. The Internet has become a vehicle to pair mentor and novice and to serve as a surrogate for traditional in-person encounter; previously unconnected individuals can develop their cultural identities and form social bonds. In the past, recruits were trained by teachings contained in the ultra-secretive Encyclopedia of Jihand, a collection of essays on weapons handling, bomb making, and military training, but the contents of this terrorist training manual, along with The Terrorists Handbook and The Anarchist Cookbook, are now widely available on the Internet. A recent area of interest of SMW are cyber-attacks. The term “cybercrime” encompasses “any crime that is facilitated or committed using a computer, network or hardware device” in which the computer or the device serves as an agent, facilitator, or as a target of the crime. A recent example of a PSYOP cyberattack occurred in USA when a hacking group named "CyberCaliphate," hijacked the Pentagon-operated Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. military's central command, and posted pro-Islamic State content. The hackers also posted links to allegedly stolen internal documents, which after a brief glance, did not contain any classification markings and in some cases were widely available (and searchable) online. The CENTCOM hack, though, is nothing but proof that middle managers in the Pentagon's social media department need to use stronger passwords. The account itself wasn’t part of the Centcom security area, but the password security was the same of any twitter user. However from an external, not properly informed by media, vision, people were just able to understand that one of the most relevant Military organization of Pentagon was hacked.

How can further evolve this scenario is easily described by Laity “ Terrorists are certainly traffic orientated, but driving social media traffic is done very differently to normal advertising. What marketing firms do is try to imitate real social media, but terrorist organizations use social media much more naturally. If you are trying to sell gadgets then it’s hard to get normal people to do your advertising for you, but with regard to ISIS etc then that is not the problem. If you sympathise with ISIS then you don’t need encouraging to put your social media networks at their disposal.” So a potential evolution could be specializing by Terrorist group in different use of the Social. “ I’m not enough of a digital native to know. That said I think it’s easy to predict that if you see a social media technique/trend then ISIS will not be slow to exploit it – so just follow the leading edge of social media and wait. More important is the content. AQ found that maximal violence in the end undermined it, but ISIS seems to be recruiting on the basis of the extremity of its violence. Will that keep working?” observed Laity.

The fact of Paris however demostrated something more that should require further observation. The attack at Charlie Ebdo was performed by 2 brothers claiming to be part of the Yemen cell of Al Qaeda. While the attack to the Kosher supermarket was performed by a claimed affiliated to Isis from Syria.

The two groups of terrorist were linked and the Isis one was asking the release of the 2 brother from Al Qaeda. In the meantime from abroad Isis claimed that all the attack were performed by their warrior and Al Qaeda was doing the same. This two organization are competing for the Terrorism supremacy or are allied? “It’s the nature of terrorist organisations to splinter. That doesn’t mean there can’t be tactical cooperation for limited periods but I would be amazed if it could be sustained. As in Syria I would expect terrorists groups to do more of what they think works to gain recruits/support while at the same time fighting and undermining each other.” Concluded Laity.

As explained by Mr Manciulli head of italy delegation to the Nato Parliamentary assembly“ ISIS originates from al-Zarqawi’s Iraqi al-Qaeda branch, and from the very start the underlying logic was one of separation from the original “parent” al-Qaeda. This logic has become stronger during the Syrian conflict and now this is also evidenced by the different goals that the two movements appear to pursue. On the one hand Isis follows a dual-track plan of action: the creation of an Islamic state and the gradual accession of the Islamic world to the caliphate; and an organized terrorist presence in other areas with “classic” destabilizing aims. On the other hand, al-Qaeda continues to pursue a more "traditional", strictly terrorist strategy, aimed at expanding its area of influence in those territories lacking effective state control (Sahel, central Africa, parts of Asia). 

In the short term these different perspectives generate a kind of competition mainly due to the fact that Isis’ fundamentalist state project is deeply attractive to entities and actors globally inspired by the radical movements. Thus, Isis ends up detracting support from al-Qaeda. Moreover there are many cases of small and very small organizations that have changed their field of action by breaking their ties to al-Qaeda and subjecting themselves to the caliphate. 

This competition ends up being waged in the media as well. In the immediate future I do not see a scenario of unification of the two organizations in their struggle, but rather there will be a continued overexposure of Isis and an erosion of support from the al-Qaeda’s base. Without doubt, this will lead to a reaction by al-Qaeda which will try to stem the outflow of supporters and to reassert its autonomous existence.”

Based on the affirmation of Mr Manciulli the event of Paris could configure itself as a brand action of Al Qaeda to reaffirm its existence as terrorist group.

Even more relevant is the meaning that a competition of Brands, in the industry sector of terrorism, could lead to. “As we can see, there is an escalating horror show in the media that began with the heinous executions perpetrated by Isis and is continuing with various forms of attacks. Through its sheer brutality (using children as victims or actors, actions involving shocking bloodshed, the taking of hostages) ISIS seeks to morbidly attract media attention to amplify its message. In this perspective the competition between the Isis and al-Qaeda “brands” can increase the risk of terrorist attacks. 

However, we need to ask ourselves who the addressees of these media messages are, which to my mind are not directed solely to the Western world. Videos and images are produced with ever more sophisticated techniques which are evidence of some form of coordination of media activities, having dual addressees: on the one side, the Islamic world seems to be the first recipient, with the aim to persuade the radical Islamic world that ISIS is truly building an Islamic State, with its laws and its determination to subjugate the West and those who do not recognize its authority. This goal is being pursued also by improving the quality of their photographic material: the pages of the Dabiq magazine show that the sharia state really exists and that it projects an intransigent identity. 

On the other side there is the Western world, which ISIS wants to frighten and persuade of its utter determination. Therefore, we are confronted with a highly sophisticated process seeking to highlight the different scale of its operations as compared to traditional terrorism and to consolidate ISIS as a reference point for the radical Islamic world. 

It is quite clear that the jihadist media strategy coupled with the increasing brutality of territorial control in Nigeria by Boko Haram and in the Middle East by Isis entails a growing risk factor for us. 

Let me conclude with an image: if you compare the poor and out-of-focus pictures depicting the Afghan mullahs wielding Kalashnikovs with today’s high-quality images of the global jihad on the glossy pages of Dabiq, there is no need to explain in words how fast the threat is growing”

Assuming all the details of Psyops, brand competition among Isis and Al Qaeda, and the social network evolution of terrorism is possible to argue the reshaping of biggest terrorism groups in order to fit in to the Net? In other words is it possible that terrorist will, in future, plan their actions with the primary focus aimed to let these action ( thanks to SMW) become viral in the social media arena? Most probably all the terrorist groups that aim to become a brand world wide recognized will stick even further to the social media strategist rules that, once said Sun Tzu, imply that “All warfare is based on deception”. The net is the perfect place for deception.

By

@enricoverga

Originally published on Longitude ( www.longitude.it)