tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25967785501389143452024-03-12T23:31:42.041-04:00Alix LevineAlix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-41487518662261364602012-05-03T16:30:00.000-04:002012-05-03T16:39:01.515-04:00Documents recovered from bin Laden's compound in AbbottabadMore than a dozen de-classified documents recovered from Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad were released today by CTC at West Point. A few highlights I found interesting:<br />
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Bin Laden would like to see Anwar al-Awlaki's resume:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>How excellent would it be if you ask brother Basir to send us the resume, in detail and lengthy, of brother Anwar al-'Awlaqi, as well as the facts he relied on when recommending him, while informing him that his recommendation is considered. However, we would like to be reassured more.</i></blockquote>
In a letter from bin Laden to Mukhtar Abu al-Zubayr, the head of Al Shabaab in Somalia, bin Laden rejects al-Zubayr's request to formally link Al Qaeda and Al Shabaab. Instead, he requested that they keep the definition of the relationship ambiguous:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>But there remains the situation of the brothers on your side and their talking about their relationship with al-Qa'ida, if asked. It would be better for them to say that there is a relationship with al-Qa'ida which is simply a brotherly Islamic connection and nothing more, which would neither deny nor prove. </i></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">Interestingly, in February 2012, less than a year after bin Laden's death, Zawahiri announced a formal unity between Al Qaeda and Al Shabaab. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">Finally, in an extremely long rant about media plans for the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, American-born Al Qaeda leader Adam Gadahn expresses dislike for jihadi forums:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><i>As for the Jihadi forums, it is repulsive to most of the Muslims, or closed to them. It also distorts the face of Qa'ida, due to what you know of bigotry, the sharp tone that characterizes most of the participants in these forums. </i></span></blockquote>
<br />Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-26167502935094308612012-05-02T17:38:00.002-04:002012-05-02T17:38:57.616-04:00Inspire Magazine Is Back<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Seven months after Samir Khan, the creator of <i>Inspire</i> <i>Magazine,</i> was killed in a drone strike along with Anwar al-Awlaki, the oh-so-famous English-language jihadi magazine has been resurrected. Issues 8 and 9 were released today, the first dated Fall 2011 and the second dated Winter 2012. The Fall 2011 issue was clearly written, compiled and edited by Khan before his death. It has all the usual Khan trademarks, which is made even more obvious when looking at the Winter 2012 issue, which is nothing even close to a Khan original. Though little credit was given to Khan for his mediocre at best graphic design and editing skills, issue 9 of <i>Inspire </i>is full of spelling and grammar mistakes - the worst one right on the cover of the magazine... can you spot it?? <div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JC3GRoFZpFs/T6GcmtMGN_I/AAAAAAAAAJU/zZcZ8kuVhmI/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-05-02+at+4.43.35+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JC3GRoFZpFs/T6GcmtMGN_I/AAAAAAAAAJU/zZcZ8kuVhmI/s400/Screen+shot+2012-05-02+at+4.43.35+PM.png" width="308" /></a></div>
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An additional note about timing: Though dated Winter 2012, the ninth issue of <i>Inspire </i>was released on May 2, 2012 - exactly one year after the death of Osama bin Laden. This may very well be a coincidence, and not much attention is paid to bin Laden in the issue, but it seems to be a convenient date to release. As for why they waited until now to release the Fall 2011 issue, my best guess is that AQAP wanted to release two issues together - as a way of showing that <i>Inspire Magazine</i> did not die along with Khan, as many analysts and media outlets suspected. </div>
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A few other things to note about the issues: </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wHOOZqmduyw/T6GiA1jJL-I/AAAAAAAAAJg/YJkhb_qdShk/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-05-02+at+5.06.40+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wHOOZqmduyw/T6GiA1jJL-I/AAAAAAAAAJg/YJkhb_qdShk/s320/Screen+shot+2012-05-02+at+5.06.40+PM.png" width="320" /></a>The focus, as always, is still on individual jihad, but the ninth issue takes it a step further than ever before. In a feature called "The Convoy of Martyrs," AQAP encourages individuals to act alone in gathering information, preparing and ultimately executing an attack. BUT - there must be an operational leadership, which AQAP will provide as long as you email their military committee. Essentially AQAP outsources all of the dirty work, while still having overall control and knowledge of operations. The military committee helps individuals who qualify (you must be a mature Muslim that listens and obeys) select a target and train, and after an attack is carried out the committee is in charge of media coverage of the attack. </div>
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Also interesting is the article that explains step-by-step how to build a remote control detonator for a bomb. Skill Level: Novice. Of course, the author of the article explains later: "Follow the instructions carefully in the explosives field. The first mistake can be the last."</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y4xuPNFsKjc/T6GlPujPdnI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/so7omHSTSF8/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-05-02+at+5.20.28+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="105" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y4xuPNFsKjc/T6GlPujPdnI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/so7omHSTSF8/s400/Screen+shot+2012-05-02+at+5.20.28+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VnENg_d8kzM/T6Gj_BpjVoI/AAAAAAAAAJw/9qYL6b_f0CA/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-05-02+at+5.15.14+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="72" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VnENg_d8kzM/T6Gj_BpjVoI/AAAAAAAAAJw/9qYL6b_f0CA/s320/Screen+shot+2012-05-02+at+5.15.14+PM.png" width="320" /></a>In line with focusing on individual jihad is the presence of Abu Musab al-Suri's articles in both issues (this is not unusual for <i>Inspire</i>). What many may find shocking though – unless you are an expert on all things al-Suri like my colleague
Jarret Brachman – is that al-Suri provides a prioritized target list with Western interests in Arab countries first, and America itself last. This largely contradicts AQAP's target list according to priority laid out in issue 9 (see right). </div>
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Finally, both issues released today, along with all other issues of <i>Inspire</i>, are interested in recruitment, reader participation and wide distribution. Issue 8 mentions they are looking for volunteers to preserve Internet links of the magazine, translators, researchers, and women who can write about women-related issues for the magazine. Issue 9 encourages readers to upload the magazine on both jihadi and non-jihadi forums. Furthermore, a footnote explains that one of the articles was included because a reader contributed it, encouraging others to provide articles and see their contributions in print. </div>
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</div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-70793323531721132492012-04-04T15:02:00.002-04:002012-04-04T16:51:23.541-04:00The Power of Social Media for TerroristsA bomb exploded earlier today in Mogadishu as the Somali Prime Minister addressed guests during a ceremony at the National Theater. At least six people were reportedly killed, though the Prime Minister was not hurt. While officials claim the attack was carried out by a female suicide bomber, a Somali terrorist group denies this claim and says that they planted explosives in the venue prior to the event.<br />
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In fact, Al Shabaab - the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia - claimed responsibility for this bombing on Twitter.<br />
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Prior to the emergence of social media, terrorist groups were forced to claim responsibility through video, audio or written messages which they sent to media outlets, or more recently messages posted on jihadist message boards. The fact that terrorist groups can now tweet their claim of responsibility, and in turn supporters can "follow" a terrorist group while at the same time "following" their favorite comedian or sports team, breaks down the barriers that used to make terrorist groups so exclusive and elite. Twitter, along with Facebook and YouTube, have made inaccessible far-reaching terrorist groups feel as if they are in your backyard. Social media has allowed anyone to be a member of a terrorist group, without really being a member - once someone decides to retweet or repost a terrorist message, they can feel as if they are part of the movement, whether or not they have any actual contact with anyone else.<br />
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Al Shabaab in particular has been very successful at recruiting Westerners into their group - at least 40 Americans have traveled from the US to Somalia to join Al Shabaab since 2007. Their active use of Twitter - and tweeting in the English language - can only help their movement grow as more and more Westerners sympathize with their cause.Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-39196648736282815282012-04-04T12:38:00.001-04:002012-04-04T12:38:10.350-04:00Putting Down the Keyboard and Picking Up a WeaponEarlier this week I spoke at The Government Security Conference and Expo (or GovSec) about online extremism and the online behaviors that may potentially lead to an individual abandoning their avatar and carrying out violence in the real world. <div>
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For a more thorough summary of my talk, check out Government Computer News (GCN) and their article on it here: <a href="http://gcn.com/Articles/2012/04/03/GovSec-online-indications-of-terrorist-attacks.aspx?Page=1" target="_blank">When Does Online Radicalism Become Real-World Terrorism?</a> </div>
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For a more detailed description, or for inquiries about speaking engagements, <a href="mailto:alix@alixlevine.com" target="_blank">contact me</a>. </div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-85951328664381738472012-02-28T12:27:00.001-05:002012-02-28T17:00:56.052-05:00Virtual Behavior Can Predict Real Life Behavior<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The more I explore the online behaviors of extremists, the more I am reassured that my work has some meaning. Yesterday, a young boy shot and killed three high school students and injured two others at Chardon High School, incidentally a school very close to where I grew up. Thomas "TJ" Lane, 17, the alleged shooter, reportedly tweeted prior to the attack that he would be bringing a gun to school that day. Furthermore, he has also made some questionable remarks on Facebook. In December 2011, for instance, Lane reportedly wrote a poem on Facebook about a lonely man who nobody paid attention to. In the middle of the poem he declares:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm on the lamb but I ain't no sheep. I am Death. And you have always been the sod. So repulsive and so odd. </span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He then ends the poem by saying:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now! Feel death, not just mocking you. Not just stalking you but inside of you. Wriggle and writhe. Feel smaller beneath my might. Seizure in the Pestilence that is my scythe. Die, all of you. </span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lane clearly had some troubling thoughts, but what is more important is that fact that he posted these thoughts publicly on Facebook. An article in the New York Times last week discusses the issue of posting intimate thoughts on Facebook. The article, <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/us/facebook-posts-can-offer-clues-of-depression.html?_r=3" target="_blank">Trying to Find a Cry of Desperation Amid the Facebook Drama</a></i>, explains that people who publicly post troubling thoughts on Facebook are looking for an intervention of some sort.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The reality is, it is often difficult to know when someone is actually looking for help, or when someone just really had a bad day and needed to vent a little. But perhaps in this era where outsourcing safety procedures to citizens is the norm (i.e. the "See Something, Say Something" campaign or the recent </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20120224_5008.php" target="_blank">DARPA challenge</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> to track down signs and post them on a social networking site), maybe it is time for citizens - particularly parents and teachers - to be educated on spotting problem posts on social media. In light of Lane's tweet that he was bringing a gun to school, I think the "See Something, Say Something" campaign should be applied to more than just a suspicious package. Suspicious posts must be taken more seriously. Of course some will inevitably sneak through the cracks, but concerned citizens can play a bigger role in policing social media, not just by reporting problematic videos, but individual behaviors as well.</span><br />
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I cannot confirm that the email address and names are authentic, but it definitely demonstrates the extremists' interest in getting these emails. Between hacking and spamming, 2012 certainly has experienced a great deal of activity so far.Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-65520683064517169532012-01-09T15:48:00.001-05:002012-01-09T15:48:17.767-05:00Two Americans indicted in separate plots, both influenced by the InternetTwo Americans indicted in the US today could not be more different. Craig Benedict Baxam, a former US soldier who grew up in Maryland, was arrested in Kenya after trying to travel to Somalia to join the terrorist group Al Shabaab. He converted to Islam in July 2011 while serving in the army. Sami Osmakac, who was born in the former Yugoslavia and lived in Pinellas Park, Florida, planned to go on a bombing and shooting rampage in Florida. Why would I write about these men together, then? For one simple reason: The Internet played a role in the progression from regular guy to alleged terrorist for both of these men.<br />
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Baxam first learned about Islam while surfing the web and reading an article about the Day of Judgement on an Islamic religious website, according to the criminal complaint. After learning about Islam online, he secretly converted to Islam, which he could only have learned how to do from the Internet. Prior to traveling abroad to join Al Shabaab, Baxam destroyed his computer so that law enforcement could not obtain any of his online history.<br />
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Osmakac, on the other hand, was not as careful to hide his online posts. He was very active on YouTube, where he recorded a number of videos about converting to Islam, the importance of pleasing Allah and the issues surrounding assimilating in America and enjoying American life.<br />
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Both Baxam and Osmakac followed very different paths of radicalization and mobilization, but in the end it was the Internet that facilitated much of this progression.<br />
<br />Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-11419595384621540782011-12-06T14:30:00.000-05:002011-12-07T09:34:14.805-05:00Terrorist leader's son instructs American on YouTube propaganda video<br />
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<span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: Arial;">A legal US resident pleaded guilty last week to providing material support to the Pakistani-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) by making a propaganda video and distributing it on the Internet. Jubair Ahmed, who moved from Pakistan to Virginia at the age of 19, attended LeT terrorist training camps as a teenager. After moving to the US, he made a propaganda video with guidance from Talha Saeed, the LeT leader’s son, and posted the video to YouTube. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: Arial;">It is interesting that the son of a high profile terrorist leader is spending his time instructing some lowly recruit on how to create a propaganda video. Just goes to show how important terrorist groups find the use of social media to propagate their ideology. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: Arial;">The video, titled “Hafiz Muhammad Saeed Qunoot e Nazila Very Emotional,” consists of a prayer by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the leader of LeT, calling for the support of jihad and the mujahideen. <a href="mailto:alix@cronus-global.com" target="_blank">Email me</a> if you’d like a copy of the video.</span></div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-45219999419702860052011-09-30T16:41:00.002-04:002011-12-07T09:35:04.289-05:00Awlaki is (reportedly) dead... So does it matter?<div class="paragraph_style" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">
Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric turned Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) member with immeasurable influence on Western jihadists, was reportedly killed today by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen. Equally as important, but less widely reported in the media, is that along with him was Samir Khan, another American who joined AQAP in Yemen two years ago. Khan was the primary editor of the famous <span class="style" style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 16px;">Inspire</span> Magazine, an English-language online magazine that taught Westerners how to be a part of the jihadist movement. The seventh issue of the magazine was released just two days ago. </div>
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Awlaki and Khan – though not key leaders of AQAP as has been reported – were crucial for the production of AQAP’s English language propaganda. If they are dead, this is a huge loss for all English (and Arabic) speaking jihadists that were inspired by these individuals. </div>
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While these individuals (particularly Awlaki) can never be replaced – they way everyone tried to decide who would replace Osama bin Laden – the ideology propagated by these men will continue to live on. This is why, much like with the death of bin Laden, the movement will not die with its leaders. Instead, Al Qaeda and its affiliates have managed to create an ideology that is supported by its grassroots movement, ensuring its survival. </div>
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For an in depth analysis of how Awlaki became the most likeable terrorist among Western supporters, read: <a href="http://fletcher.tufts.edu/Fletcher-Forum/Archives/~/media/Fletcher/Microsites/Fletcher%20Forum/PDFs/2011winter/Brachman-Levine.pdf" target="_blank">You Too Can Be Awlaki!</a></div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-51836383331189047942011-08-18T16:40:00.001-04:002011-12-07T09:38:25.616-05:00The Dangerous Side of Online Gaming<div class="Normal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
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Last week I spoke at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania’s “For the Win” conference. I focused on how extremist Internet users are increasingly adopting the marketing trend known as “gamification,” in order to fuel deeper and more dedicated user engagement. Knowledge @ Wharton, the online business journal at the Wharton School, wrote the following article about my presentation (<a class="class1" href="http://knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu/2011/08/the-dangerous-side-of-online-gaming/" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu/2011/08/the-dangerous-side-of-online-gaming/">read online here</a>). </div>
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The Dangerous Side of Online Gaming</div>
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Posted on August 17, 2011</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cc01_MZnmDw/Tt96BbRWfrI/AAAAAAAAAEE/uE0catMHxr4/s1600/081711_Gemification.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cc01_MZnmDw/Tt96BbRWfrI/AAAAAAAAAEE/uE0catMHxr4/s1600/081711_Gemification.jpg" /></a></div>
<a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2832" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2832">Gamification</a> has taken off as a phenomenon in U.S. business and social policy circles, but now it seems to have infiltrated the world of terrorism as well. One of the more unexpected uses of gamification — or the application of online game design techniques in non-game settings — to arise in discussions at Wharton’s recent “For the Win” conference is by Al Qaeda and Islamic extremist groups in their engagement with new members. Conference panelist Alix Levine, director of research at security consulting firm Cronus Global, analyzes Al Qaeda and Islamic extremist propaganda for a living. “I had never heard of gamification until February, but I’ve seen game mechanics in [Muslim extremist] propaganda, videos, lectures and websites,” she said.</div>
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For example, Levine noted that <span class="style" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-Italic, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 14px;">Inspire</span>, the colorful English-language online magazine reportedly published by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, featured in its summer 2010 issue an article entitled, “How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” which detailed how to make a pipe bomb out of commonplace ingredients. Authors of the article laced game-like devices throughout the story, asking readers playful questions, such as, “How many ingredients can you find in your kitchen?” Several extremists arrested by Western authorities have been found in possession of this article, according to Levine.</div>
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Al Qaeda uses online game techniques, in particular, to draw new recruits into deeper engagement. By playing on recruits’ competitiveness and desire to build status and recognition within the extremist community, Al Qaeda websites allow “you to earn points for the quantity and quality of your posts,” Levine noted. “When you post and when people thank you for your post, you level up,” eventually earning promotions from peasant to VIP, for example. Users can then earn rewards for their status and accrued points, such as changing the color of their user names or gaining permission to use an avatar.</div>
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The ultimate reward is admission to a password-protected Al Qaeda website, where more serious terrorist actions are discussed and there is greater potential to turn a committed online jihadist into a real-world weapon of terror. To attain entry, users must prove they are committed to the movement by attaining high status within the starter website and obtaining the recommendation of a respected member of the community.</div>
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Almost every hard-line Islamic extremist site offers a point system to users, wrote Jarrett Brachman and Levine in an April 13 <span class="style" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue-Italic, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 14px;">Foreign Policy</span> article on the world of gamification among extremists. The article cited a Britain-based website called Salafi Media, which measures a user’s status by a “fundamentalism meter.” The higher a user is ranked on this meter, the more power he or she wields in the online community.</div>
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While for the most part, the Wharton conference focused on how to use gamification to increase engagement in legitimate business and other contexts, Levine appealed to attendees to “turn everything backwards” in their consideration of gamification in terrorism and to offer suggestions on how to disrupt engagement. Levine offered one example of the successful disengagement of a 22-year-old member of the Revolution Muslim Group in New York City. He had been admitted to a coveted password-protected site and was even made interim president of his group, but suddenly left the movement. The reason: He lost a very public theological debate with a higher-status colleague online. He was kicked off all forums and never reentered the community, because the process of rebuilding his online identity and status would be too painstaking.</div>
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For more coverage of the “For the Win” conference visit our <a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2832" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2832">special section</a>.</div>
</div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-15681953867298577302011-07-19T16:39:00.001-04:002011-12-07T13:17:48.455-05:00Inspire #6: Making Jihad Fun<div class="paragraph paragraph_style" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">
The long awaited sixth issue of Inspire Magazine, an Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) production, was released on hardline websites last night. This is the first issue released since Osama bin Laden was killed over two months ago. What took so long, you ask? Well, they explain the delay:<br />
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<span class="style" style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 19px;">“Things have been quite hectic over here. The country is falling apart and our brothers are busy picking up the pieces.” </span></div>
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Hmmmm, sounds like a roundabout way of saying drone attacks.</div>
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All in all, this issue is the same as the previous ones. It includes essays/speeches written by Al Qaeda leaders, instructions on how to use an AK-47 and build an explosive (this time acetone peroxide) and encourages Westerners to join the jihadi movement.</div>
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Just like in previous issues, the sixth edition of Inspire uses humor to gain readership and encourage engagement among its readers. Inspire has truly become a gamified space - in other words game-like attributes are used in this clearly non-game environment to make light of the situations discussed in the magazine and engage with readers who may otherwise not be interested. For more information on how Al Qaeda uses online game theory to recruit the masses, see the article that <a href="http://jarretbrachman.net/" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://jarretbrachman.net/">Jarret Brachman</a> and I wrote in Foreign Policy: <a class="class1" href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/13/the_world_of_holy_warcraft?page=full" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/13/the_world_of_holy_warcraft?page=full">The World of Holy Warcraft</a>.</div>
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Below are a few excerpts from Inspire #6 using humor or making light of the situations they are discussing:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px;"><br /></span></span></div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-15401519406231426412011-07-14T16:26:00.006-04:002011-12-07T13:22:40.209-05:00The Online Postings of Emerson Begolly<div class="paragraph paragraph_style" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">
Emerson Begolly, a Pennsylvania man with an extensive extremist online history, was indicted today for soliciting extremists to engage in acts of terrorism. He was previously arrested and charged in January for allegedly assaulting two FBI agents and firearms-related charges.<br />
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The indictment outlines a number of Begolly’s problematic postings on Ansar al-Mujahideen English Forum (AMEF) in 2010, including his support for 9/11 and his encouragement of others to carry out violent acts of terror. The indictment, however, just merely touches on the hundreds of posts that Begolly posted online since at least 2005.</div>
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Begolly - called “The Nasheed Master” by the Al Shabaab-linked message board Al Qimmah - wrote and recorded a number of Islamic songs, which he and others posted on an array of extremist message boards. Some of his more radical songs include “When the Jew’s Blood Reds my Knife, then my Life is Free from Strife” and another nasheed written as a tribute to Taimour Abdulwahab, the Iraqi who carried out a suicide attack in Sweden in December 2010. </div>
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In addition to his anasheed, Begolly expressed support for an array of gruesome terrorist attacks, including the November 2009 Fort Hood attack.<br />
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While it may seem shocking that this young American-born Penn State student could produce such gruesome posts, comments and songs, the reality is that Begolly is just one of almost 200 Americans arrested and charged for their involvement in this type of terrorist activity.</div>
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Please feel free to <a class="class1" href="mailto:alix@cronus-global.com?subject=" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" title="mailto:alix@cronus-global.com?subject="><span class="style" style="font-family: Times-Roman, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 22px;">contact me</span></a> for an archive of Begolly's anasheed, additional information on Begolly, or other Americans involved in terrorist-related activities.</div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-22581560086228469992011-07-13T14:46:00.002-04:002011-12-07T13:34:35.354-05:00Google’s Response to Keeping Extremism out of Social Media<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none;">Over the past couple of months, Google’s role in countering violent extremism has been the topic of much debate. On the one hand, Google has taken the initiative to help in this endeavor by organization a Summit Against Violent Extremism (which I attended, see my review of the conference <a class="class1" href="http://alixlevine.blogspot.com/2011/07/googles-summit-against-violent.html" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="5_Googles_Summit_Against_Violent_Extremism.html">here</a>). On the other hand, YouTube (owned by Google) contains hundreds of extremist and terrorist videos. In addition, other Google owned subsidiaries, like Blogger, also contain extremist content. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Below is Google’s response to Senator Joseph Lieberman’s questions: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px;"></span></div>
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</script>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-10162933433890774692011-07-05T14:35:00.001-04:002011-12-05T17:07:23.378-05:00Google’s Summit Against Violent Extremism<div class="Normal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">**See below for comment by Charles Cameron**</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Last week I joined Google, the Council on Foreign Relations and Tribeca Film Festival as an invited delegate at their <a class="class1" href="http://www.againstviolentextremism.org/" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://www.againstviolentextremism.org/">Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE)</a>. The delegates consisted of 80 former extremists (right wing, gang, Islamist etc.), a number of survivors, as well as professors, leaders of non-profits and other analysts in the field. </div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">In the aftermath of the conference there have been many critics, but not many enthusiasts. Some of the critiques include: </div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">-- It is impossible to understand extremism when you look at each different type of extremist ideology as a whole.</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">-- Google proposes using technology to counter extremism, but technology also facilitates the spread of extremist ideologies.</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">-- The government and academic programs have been working to solve this problem for years, so how can Google now take on this initiative and expect to succeed?</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">I agree, but.... </div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Nobody else has taken on this initiative in this way. As somebody who attended the summit, I can say first hand that the emotions and enthusiasm at the conference were powerful enough to overcome many of the obstacles. Former extremists across the spectrum identified with each other in a way I never thought possible - one highlight of the conference was when a former gang member from LA taught a former Muslim extremist a new handshake. </div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Throughout the conference, delegates had breakout sessions where we were tasked with coming up with a new idea to help combat violent extremism. At the end of the conference, delegates voted on their favorite idea. While the ideas were enlightening, what struck me was the excitement and enthusiasm in the room during the vote. Leaders of groups were parading around explaining their ideas with such genuine passion that it was impossible to be in this room and not be inspired by Google’s effort. </div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Instead of critiquing Google’s effort, it will be more productive and valuable to work in unison with Google on their mission to “initiate a global conversation.” There is no real downfall to having another avenue at which to approach this problem, and while I understand some of the pessimism surrounding the debate, I hope that more people will join in on the conversation in a meaningful and (gasp) positive way. We all have the same end goal, so maybe it’s time to stop critiquing each other and start working together.</div><div class="paragraph_style_1" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Comment by Charles Cameron:</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">I'm comparing Will McCants' response to the Google Ideas conference on FP [<a class="style" href="http://goo.gl/lVIO2" style="color: #2b56fd; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://goo.gl/lVIO2">http://goo.gl/lVIO2</a>] with yours, and I'm glad you wrote as you did. </div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">McCants – whose work I generally admire -- opens his comments by quoting Jared Cohen to the effect that the purpose of the conference was to "initiate a global conversation". McCants then more or less dismisses the conference itself a couple paragraphs later with the words "If these are indeed the conclusions of the conference, Google Ideas needs more thinking and less doing in its approach". </div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Conclusions? How does he get so quickly from "initiate" to "conclusions"?</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Okay, we all know that a conference can lead to a volume of proceedings read mostly by the authors themselves and a few aspiring students eager to follow-my-leader and dead end there – but this conference was very clearly intended to be the start of something, not the wrap-up. </div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">So your comment, "Instead of critiquing Google’s effort, it will be more productive and valuable to work in unison with Google on their mission to 'initiate a global conversation'" seemed to me to bring us back to the actual intent Google had announced for the conference, and you reinforce that when you write, "I hope that more people will join in on the conversation in a meaningful and (gasp) positive way."</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">My questions are: how and where do we do this?</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">There will have been contacts made at the conference that will lead to an exchange of emails, no doubt – but that's not a global conversation.</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Here are some of the problems I foresee:</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">(a) siloing: the conversation limiting itself to a few constituences, each of which talks mainly among its own members, leading to (b) group think: in which the widely assumed gets even more firmly entrenched as "wisdom", with (c) secrecy: meaning that potentially relevant information is unavailable to some or all participants, all of which add up to (d) blind spots: topics and approaches that still don't get the attention and exploration they deserve.</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">The solutions would need to include:</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">(a) networked diversity: by which I mean a structured means of getting the unpopular or minority opinion front and center (compare business brainstorming in which a facilitator ensures even the "quiet ones" get heard, and that even poor ideas are expressed without critique until a later, evaluative stage), (b) contrariety: meaning that whatever ideas are "easily dismissed" get special attention, with (c) transparency: meaning that whatever could be redacted and made partially available is made available, not (as in US Govt "open source" material, closely held), so that (d) oddballs and outriders get to participate…</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Jami Miscik who was Deputy Director for Intelligence at the time, caught my attention when she said in 2004, "Embrace the maverick". Oddballs aka mavericks make the best contrarians, because they start from different premises / different assumption bases. Miscik accordingly invited science fiction and film writers to interact with her analysts at CIA, and found that when they did, they produced 80% already known ideas, 10% chaff, and 10% new and "valid" scenarios (<a class="style" href="http://goo.gl/qzQXq" style="color: #2b56fd; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://goo.gl/qzQXq">http://goo.gl/qzQXq</a>). But even then, "science fiction and screen writers" is a box...</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Cross-fertilization, questioning of assumptions, passion, reverie, visualization, scenario planning, play – the number of strategies that could be employed to improve the chances of a successful new insight emerging are many and various – unkempt artists probably know some of them better than suits with high IQs and clearances, and Google clearly knows this, too…</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">But where?</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">I mean, what Google+ circles do any of us join to join this global conversation? What twitter hashtag brings us together under one roof? When's the follow up in my neck of the woods, or yours? </div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">What's the method for getting the conversation widespread, well-informed – and scaleable, so the best of the grass roots and local ideas can find their way to the influential and informed, and the best insights of the influential and informed can percolate through to the grass roots and local?</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Lastly, I'd like to thank Google for getting a dialog going between those with a range of subjective experiences of radicalization, and those whose job it is to understand and thus be able to interdict it. Demonization never got the situation in Northern Ireland anywhere near peace – listening did.</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">And thank you too, Alix, for your own contribution. Let's move the conversation onwards.</div></div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-52765724417940290112011-06-10T14:23:00.003-04:002011-12-07T13:38:05.151-05:00Big Week for Al Shabaab News<div class="paragraph paragraph_style" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">
This week the FBI confirmed the identity of one of the suicide bombers in the May 30 suicide attack in Somalia as St. Paul resident Farah Mohamed Beledi (pictured right). Soon after the attack, Al Shabaab identified the suicide bomber as Abdullahi Ahmed, another Somali-American from Minneapolis. The FBI has yet to announce whether the second suicide bomber is in fact Ahmed.</div>
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On the same day that Beledi was identified as one of the suicide bombers, another Somali-American was arrested and charged with providing material support to Al Shabaab. Ahmed Hussein Mahamud, 26, of Westerville, Ohio, allegedly conspired with others to provide money and personnel to the terrorist group. He will be transferred to Minneapolis to face trial, where he was indicted earlier this week. </div>
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Beledi and Mahamud are just two of at least 34 people charged in the U.S. in the past few years in connection with Al Shabaab. Twenty-one of these individuals are in U.S. custody, while 13 others are at large or believed to be dead. In addition to those officially charged on terror offenses, at least 6 others are believed to have been killed while fighting with Al Shabaab, including Shirwa Ahmed, the first known American suicide bomber. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Nzi7ZBWdmUU/Tt-yc7L9JJI/AAAAAAAAAFM/hbpSKFtzvkU/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Nzi7ZBWdmUU/Tt-yc7L9JJI/AAAAAAAAAFM/hbpSKFtzvkU/s200/images.jpeg" width="193" /></a>Reports are coming out today that a female Al Shabaab fighter has carried out a suicide attack on the Somali<span class="style" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 17px; opacity: 1;"></span><br />
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<span class="style" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 17px; opacity: 1;"></span>Minister of Interior’s house, injuring him. While her identity has not yet been confirmed, there are three other women charged on terror offenses linked to Al Shabaab who have been arrested in the U.S. These three women - Nima Ali Yusuf, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan - have all be charged with aiding Al Shabaab.</div>
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While recent events have forced us to focus more on AQ Central, AQAP, TTP and LeT -- this week alone proves that we have to continue to be concerned about Al Shabaab. </div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-28039629405260801312011-06-08T14:22:00.001-04:002011-12-07T13:53:31.208-05:00Hizb ut-Tahrir America Keeps on Trucking<div class="paragraph paragraph_style" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">
Despite canceling their second annual Khilafah conference last summer because they lost their venue, Hizb ut-Tahrir America - the US-based sect of a global Caliphatist movement - has announced that<br />
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they will be holding their third annual Khilafah conference at the end of this month in Chicago. Learning their lesson from the previous year, the venue location is still TBA.</div>
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In addition to posting the conference announcement on their website, HT also announced the conference on Facebook. HT is very active on mainstream social networking sites, as are many of its members.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hd1uMtxN4IA/Tt-2FC-HQ3I/AAAAAAAAAFU/Y7WcSmUtFsw/s1600/fp-flyer11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hd1uMtxN4IA/Tt-2FC-HQ3I/AAAAAAAAAFU/Y7WcSmUtFsw/s320/fp-flyer11.jpg" width="320" /></a>At their 2009 conference, HT speakers advocated for replacing the US constitution with shari’a law and implementing an Islamic Caliphate in the US. One speaker urged the audience to fight for Islamic law in the US “unless and until Islam becomes victorious or we die in the attempt.” </div>
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While HT claims that they advocate a non-violent ideology, the group has a history of encouraging jihad “to fight the enemy and repel them.” HT also frequently urges for Muslims to “blow Israel off the map” and “fight the Jews.” So far, HT in America has not endorsed violence publicly. </div>
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Stay tuned for more details about the upcoming event. In addition - if you’d like more information about some of the US-based individuals involved in HT in America, please <a class="class1" href="mailto:alix@cronus-global.com" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" title="mailto:alix@cronus-global.com?subject=">contact<span class="style" style="font-family: Times-Roman, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 22px;"> me</span></a>. </div>
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<br /></div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-58461060003889661392011-05-31T14:18:00.000-04:002011-12-05T14:19:49.627-05:00Arrest of American who Threatened South Park Creators<div class="Normal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Younus Abdullah Muhammad (aka Jesse Curtis Morton), who has been charged with threatening the creators of South Park, was arrested in Morocco on May 27 and awaiting extradition to the US, according to his website IslamPolicy. The alleged arrest is also posted on his facebook page. </div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Despite a warrant issued for his arrest several weeks ago, Abdullah Muhammad continued to post entries on his blog as well as hardline Islamic forums until the day he was arrested. In one such entry on his blog, he reposted the original threat against the creators of South Park - the very document that got him into this trouble in the first place. </div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">In another post on the day of his arrest, Abdullah Muhammad threatens Shi’a Muslims, saying: “May Allah (swt) destroy the dirty rawafid shia and humilate all those that try to portray permissibility in this age for cooperation with them...” This is just one of the various veiled threats Abdullah Muhammad has issued against the US, Jews, and Shia Muslims, among others, over the past several years since he co-founded Revolution Muslim in 2007. </div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Prior to being charged with communicating threats, Abdullah Muhammad exclaimed “We are all Osama bin Laden” in the wake of bin Laden’s death. “<span class="style" style="color: black; line-height: 19px; opacity: 1;">It is our duty today to reflect not on what we are doing and to celebrate nostalgically as if being a fan and supporter puts us on the same playing field, no rather we should reflect on what we are not doing realizing that we all must strive to be more and more like Osama bin Laden,” he wrote.</span></div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><span class="style" style="color: black; line-height: 19px; opacity: 1;"><br />
</span></div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><span class="style" style="color: black; line-height: 19px; opacity: 1;">The arrest of Abdullah Muhammad does not mean the end of the extremist messages propagated by Revolution Muslim/Islam Policy. There are still a number of individuals linked to the group who continue to post comments in support of this extremist ideology. It should be interesting to see how this group attempts to recover with the arrest of their leader. In a way this can be likened to the death of Osama bin Laden - in the same way that al-Qaeda’s ideology will live on, so too will this group’s ideology, no matter who is the next leader. </span></div></div><div class="tinyText" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-size: 1px; height: 64px; line-height: 64px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible;"> </div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-75243560538771625472011-05-31T14:16:00.001-04:002011-12-07T13:55:23.367-05:00Another Woman Convicted on Terrorism Charges<div class="paragraph paragraph_style" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">
Last week, Amera Akl pleaded guilty to attempting to provide funds and other equipment to Hezbollah along with her husband, Hor Akl. The Akl’s, who both hold dual American and Lebanese citizen<br />
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ship, attempted to conceal $200,000 a vehicle they planned to send to Lebanon.</div>
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This marks the fourth American couple motivated by a radical interpretation of Islam to be arrested and charged on terrorism offenses in the past 10 years, though three of the four instances occurred in the last year. In each of these instances, the wife (or ex-wife in one of the cases) played a supporting role for her husband as he engaged in terror activities. </div>
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The number of women engaging in terror activities in the U.S. is increasing rapidly. For more info see, <a class="class1" href="http://alixlevine.blogspot.com/2011/03/jihad-jamie-trend-analysis.html" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="../3/8_Jihad_Jamie__Trend_Analysis.html">Jihad Jamie: Trend Analysis</a></div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-31182057541241461582011-05-18T14:13:00.001-04:002011-12-07T13:57:35.775-05:00Op-Ed: Gaming the System<div class="Normal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
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**Note: This op-ed was originally posted on The Gamification Blog, and can be found <a class="class1" href="http://gamification.co/2011/05/17/gaming-the-system/" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://gamification.co/2011/05/17/gaming-the-system/">here</a>**</div>
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Gaming the System: Changing the Course of Online Radicalization</div>
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Alix Levine is the Director of Research for <a class="style_1" href="http://www.cronus-global.com/" style="color: #2b56fd; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://www.cronus-global.com/">Cronus Global</a>, a security consulting firm. She specializes in the study of homegrown extremism and online mobilization. You can find her at <a class="style_1" href="http://www.alixlevine.com/" style="color: #2b56fd; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://www.alixlevine.com/">www.alixlevine.com</a>.</div>
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We all know that the purpose of gamification is to drive consumer participation. I fly on Continental Airlines because I want to obtain elite status and I buy my coffee at Starbucks in order to level up on my Starbucks rewards. But just as corporations have figured out a way to engage consumers in a more meaningful way and encourage brand loyalty, al-Qaeda’s marketing gurus aren’t trailing too far behind.</div>
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Similar to most other online social spaces, virtually every hardline Islamic website attributes ranks to their members based on the number and the quality of their posts. As members are more engaged on the forum, they can level up in status, earn badges, and obtain trivial online rewards like changing the color of their username or adding an avatar.</div>
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As I note in my <a class="style_1" href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/13/the_world_of_holy_warcraft" style="color: #2b56fd; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/13/the_world_of_holy_warcraft">Foreign Policy article on this topic</a>, its not just Islamic extremist sites that implement gaming mechanics into the architecture of their websites. Other hardline sites also use gamification to encourage engagement among their users, including the popular white supremacist forum Stormfront, which allows users to level up in status based on their posts in the forum.</div>
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In addition to gamified websites, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups also gamify their propaganda materials. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) English-language magazine, titled Inspire, uses gimmicky phrases to downplay the seriousness of their very dangerous message. The magazine teaches readers how to “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom,” a dangerous and illegal task that when presented in a rhyming phrase makes the undertaking more appealing and achievable. By gamifying the message, AQAP is able to lower the threshold between virtual and reality, between unattainable and within reach.</div>
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The result of gamification in the jihadi online space is increased engagement. As more and more game mechanics are employed on the extremist forums, an increased number of users will become even more engaged, ultimately spending longer durations of time on the forums talking about more things related to militancy. Gamification has enabled extremist forums to successfully create jihadi superusers. The concern is that these superusers will eventually decide to live up to their virtual identities that they have created, and carry out violent acts in the real world.</div>
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This isn’t a far-fetched concern. The majority of Westerners arrested on terror-related charges have used the Internet at some point of their radicalization process. A 20-year old boy from Virginia, for instance – who came to fame last year for threatening the creators of South Park – was active on at least a dozen different social online spaces that employed gaming mechanisms, ranging from hardline Islamic extremist forums to the mainstream social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. He reached such a high status through his online postings, that the well known New York-based extremist organization Revolution Muslim asked him to run their website. Six months later he was arrested for attempting to join an al-Qaeda linked terrorist group in Somalia and communicating online threats; he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.</div>
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Within a two-year span, this boy went from a promising young star to an unemployed college dropout who spent nearly every waking hour posting about his support for terror, how to raise your children with the values of jihad (he has a child of his own), and how to propagate jihad online. The fact that someone with no real world connection to extremists can reach such an elite status virtually is very telling of how powerful gaming elements can be for up and coming online extremists.</div>
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For years counterterrorism analysts have been exploring options for combatting online extremism. On one end of the spectrum are those who argue that we should remove every extremist site from the Internet. However, this not only disregards our first amendment right, but it also neglects the fact that a site can simply move to a different URL. On the other end of the spectrum are those analysts that believe we should make more of these sites and use them as honeypots, entrapping as many extremists as we can so that others are scared. Neither of these tactics have proven successful, and as the Internet has become more prevalent in our lives, it has also become the driving factor of radicalization for the majority of Islamic extremists.</div>
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The counterterrorism field has never used the theories of gamification to help us understand online radicalization. Analyzing the current situation with this new framework helps build an understanding for what motivates the online extremist community. While this framework has helped tremendously in our understanding of online extremism, I am now looking to game mechanics to guide me toward an understanding of how to counter online extremism.</div>
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So my question to you is how do we reverse the process of online radicalization using game mechanics? In other words, can we use gamification to influence these online communities in a positive way, rather than driving them further toward extremism? This is not an easy challenge and I do not expect easy solutions. But as gamification becomes more and more a part of our daily lives, it will inevitably increase at an equal pace for online jihadists. The challenge is figuring out how to disrupt the game flow, and I wholeheartedly believe that gamification is the answer – but how?</div>
</div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-45217494974623456102011-05-16T14:11:00.000-04:002011-12-07T13:59:35.157-05:00South Park Threats Lead to Another Charge<div class="paragraph paragraph_style" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">Younus Abdullah Muhammad (aka Jesse Curtis Morton), a Muslim convert from New York, has been charged with communicating threats for threatening the creators of South Park in April 2010 after the show aired an episode mocking the Prophet Muhammad. Abdullah Muhammad, formerly the leader of Rev</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">olution Muslim who now runs Islam Policy, is the second person to be charged with this offense. Zachary Chesser, a Muslim convert from Virginia, pleaded guilty last year to communicating threats (in connection with the South Park threats), as well as providing material support to Al Shabaab and soliciting crimes of violence.</span></span></div>
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If you’d like a copy of Revolution Muslim’s Press Release: Clarification On The South Park Issue - which is the document he wrote that is getting him in trouble now - let me know, I’ll be happy to pass it along. Also feel free to contact me if you’d like more information on Abdullah Muhammad/Revolution Muslim/South Park threats.</div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-4733798163641749302011-05-03T14:07:00.001-04:002011-12-07T14:02:45.946-05:00Anyone Can be the Next Osama bin Laden<div class="Normal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
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Over the past few days, hundreds of Osama bin Laden’s supporters have posted, commented, blogged, tweeted and facebooked “We are all Osama bin Laden.” With mixed emotions of anger, sadness and disbelief, a vast community of bin Laden’s followers express solidarity and allegiance to a man whose ideology and legacy will live on for years, if not decades to come. </div>
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“Obama, prepare yourself for 5 million Osama bin Laden’s,” one online extremist posted in an Arabic hardline forum. By strategically positioning themselves as viable candidates to lead the mov<br />
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ement in a post-bin Laden world, the grassroots community has just changed the way the U.S. must view Al Qaeda. For the past 10 years, the U.S. has been fighting a war against an enemy that we could name and put a face to. Upon his death, we face a new enemy, but this time it isn’t just one person, and we can’t put a face to him. This time it is the followers and supporters of bin Laden that we will be fighting, because according to them, they are all Osama bin Laden.<br />
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In the coming days and weeks it will be important to monitor the grassroots movement online activity. A close look at conversations among peers will tell us a lot about the next enemy that we face. </div>
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For an excellent collection of posts in reaction to bin Laden’s death, I highly recommend checking out Aaron Zelin’s Blog <a class="class1" href="http://jihadology.net/2011/05/01/usamah-bin-laden-is-dead-forum-reactions/" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://jihadology.net/2011/05/01/usamah-bin-laden-is-dead-forum-reactions/">Jihadology</a>. </div>
</div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-79054080698252273572011-04-27T14:06:00.001-04:002011-12-05T17:12:19.372-05:00My Analysis of the Analysis on the Gamification Article<div class="Normal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Thanks to everyone who commented on the latest article that Jarret and I <a class="class1" href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/13/the_world_of_holy_warcraft?page=full" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/13/the_world_of_holy_warcraft?page=full">published in Foreign Policy</a>on how the online militant Islamist world has been increasingly “gamifying” their users’ experiences. This post will respond to some of the analysis offered by Jihadica’s <a href="http://www.jihadica.com/the-limits-of-gamification/" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://www.jihadica.com/the-limits-of-gamification/">Will McCants</a> and <a href="http://news.intelwire.com/2011/04/some-thoughts-on-gamification.html" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://news.intelwire.com/2011/04/some-thoughts-on-gamification.html">J.M. Berger</a> over at Intelwire. </div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">The purpose of our FP piece was to offer a more developed lens for understanding a series of trends that counterterrorism analysts have been anecdotally observing for some time. It’s no surprise that gaming techniques make mundane activities more fun. Nor is it a surprise that they have been implicitly present within the online jihadist movement for years. Where our article advances the conversation is by showing the ways in which English-language militant Islamist forums are now explicitly integrating game mechanics into the structure of their online architecture. The obvious implication of systematically employing these mechanics into the forums is that it offers users a more engaging experience, which means they will spend more time on the forums talking about more things related to militancy. </div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">McCants brings an important perspective to the article. For McCants, our gamification framework applied less well to Awlaki. We agree. We don’t see Awlaki as having gamified his blog with the same intentionality or transparency that frequent flier miles, for instance, may encourage consumers to accept sub-optimal flight schedules in order to earn elite status. The beauty of Awlaki’s approach is how intuitive and organic it seemed to be: he created a gamified system without really even trying. Awlaki didn’t need expressly defined prizes, like most forums have today. Instead, Awlaki made himself the prize and his lectures the virtual currency to gather, exchange and discuss. </div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Berger usefully expands on a point we had made in his response by arguing that when an individual gets closer to violent action, they start losing “rep power” and influence in the forums. This is an issue that needs to be explored further. I don’t think the example of Zachary Chesser works in this case, however, as Berger contends. Berger correctly notes that Chesser was eventually banned from the Islamic Awakening forum and moved most of his online presence to Al Qimmah. However, Al Qimmah also employs game mechanics, as do other sites Chesser was active on before his arrest, including Ansar al-Mujahideen English Forum. Of course Al Qimmah and Ansar are far more militant sites than Islamic Awakening, but the point is that users will find the appropriate site to express their extremist ideologies – and almost all of these sites employ game mechanics to encourage increased user participation.</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">Berger also reports that after Chesser’s arrest, Islamic Awakening members “hosted a roast,” which I would argue is a major exaggeration. Even the post Berger uses as an example, where a user accuses Chesser of having “loose lips,” the user ends his post by saying “Make dua for him and I'm going to see if his wife/child are doing ok.” Despite accusations that Chesser was not wise in the way he spoke, most users still assumed he was innocent and encouraged others to pray for him and his family. That being said, I still think Berger’s argument deserves more thought and I plan to explore it further. </div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><br />
</div><div class="paragraph_style" style="color: black; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 36px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;">I want to thank everyone again for their comments. This article has opened up some great discussions and I hope we continue to debate and explore these issues further. Most importantly, I hope that we can go forward with this new framework and develop it into an argument that will help us both understand and combat virtual extremism crossing over into violence.</div></div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-8173579761339761052011-04-15T14:05:00.002-04:002011-12-07T14:06:26.789-05:00The World of Holy Warcraft<div class="Normal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
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Jarret Brachman and I published a new article in Foreign Policy yesterday on how al Qaeda has gamified the movement. You can read it here: <a class="class1" href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/13/the_world_of_holy_warcraft?page=full" style="color: #2b56fd; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/13/the_world_of_holy_warcraft?page=full">The World of Holy Warcraft</a>. </div>
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In the article we conclude that the <span class="style" style="color: #202020; line-height: 19px; opacity: 1;">fervor of online jihadists is actually quite similar to the fervor of any other online group, and this is partly a result of the use of gamification on online </span><br />
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<span class="style" style="color: #202020; line-height: 19px; opacity: 1;">social spaces. In the same way that you can “like” a Facebook post or “retweet” on Twitter, members of an online forum can now “thank” someone for their post or give them a positive reputation power. To further a user’s engagement, the more “rep power” or “thanks” one collects, the quicker they can amass all the rankings, scores, badges, and levels to prove their increase in reputation. Competition is key here.</span></div>
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<span class="style" style="color: #202020; line-height: 19px; opacity: 1;">Anyone who thinks they aren’t affected by gamification - i.e. applying game-like attributes to non-game activities - is wrong. If you've used frequent-flier miles, earned stars with your coffee purchase at Starbucks, or checked in on Foursquare, you've had a gamified experience. Gamification is merely the tool used to increase engagement among individuals that may not otherwise have </span><br />
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<span class="style" style="color: #202020; line-height: 19px; opacity: 1;">been engaged.</span></div>
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What’s interesting is that one of the forums we wrote about has reposted the article (see right), and in the past 20 hours dozens of users have commented on the article - everything from anger to sarcasm to agreement, and even excitement about their newfound fame. To put it in Abu Hurairah’s words: “I love how in 16 minutes we've managed to post a page of posts - 5 of them in the last 2 minutes.” </div>
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One user even took advantage of this thread to make a suggestion about repping and thanking in the forum. UmmAbdulMalikStorm said: “<span class="style_1" style="color: #323333; line-height: 19px; opacity: 1;">PS..i think we should get rid of reps and keep the thanks. There's more benefit in the thanks coz it keeps the repetitive "I agrees" at bay.”</span></div>
</div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2596778550138914345.post-44783221074638262252011-04-11T14:03:00.000-04:002011-12-07T14:06:52.950-05:00Omar Hammami’s Rap Songs Aren’t So “Jihadi Cool”<div class="Normal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
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Alabama native Omar Hammami, famous for his rap songs on behalf of Al Shabaab, released two new rap songs over the weekend. The first, in a clear effort to deride recent reports of his death, he prays for a drone attack or a cruise missile to kill him, rapping: “An amazing martyrdom I strive for and adore.” It is very typical of a terrorist to release a video or audio recording soon after the media reports that he may be dead, proving he is still alive. Hammami follows suit, even mocking the media reports further by rapping: </div>
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There’s nothing as sweet as the taste of a tank shell</div>
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But it could be compared to being where the mortar fell</div>
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But all that could be seen as tasteless</div>
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Compared to smart bombs falling when they don’t miss</div>
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It was a beautiful day, when that predator paradise missile sent me on my way</div>
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A one way ticket with no stops or delays, no problems in the grave nor fear on that day</div>
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Or better yet send me a cruise, and send me on a cruise</div>
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Family rejoices at the news and follows me in what I do</div>
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In the second rap song, titled “Make Jihad with me,” Hammami dedicates the rap to the “Muslim youth in the West who are finding their way back to their glorious roots.” Here is the chorus:</div>
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Make Jihad with me</div>
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Allahu Akbar give me some more bounty</div>
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Attack America Now</div>
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Martyrdom or victory</div>
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We takin’ Nairobi to Addis</div>
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Paradise insight</div>
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My Muslim brother bring your money and your life</div>
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Khalifah is here</div>
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We breakin’ down Gitmo</div>
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We Wipin’ Israel clear off the globe</div>
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Despite the straightforward and unwavering lyrics, while rapping these songs Hammami sounds unconvinced. Stumbling over some of the lyrics, and clearly uncomfortable with his rapping skills, these songs are just not so “jihadi cool.” Telling of these unimpressionable rap songs is the lack of reaction to them in the forums and on social networking sites. Can you imagine the impact a similar release would make in the forums if it was from say, Anwar al-Awlaki, instead of Omar Hammami?? </div>
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As an experiment, I searched posts on Facebook today for “Hammami,” and not one person has shared either of his rap songs yet. In a search for “Awlaki,” twelve different people have linked to Awlaki videos since yesterday. Remember, Awlaki hasn’t come out with a new lecture since February. </div>
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The differences between Awlaki and Hammami are substantial, and Hammami makes many of them clear in his rap songs. To name a few: Hammami has no religious legitimacy, he is considerably less confident when he speaks/raps, he is trying too hard to be “cool,” and he did not first gain a following in the West before moving abroad and attempting to recruit others to jihad. In other words, when comparing Awlaki to Hammami in a case study, Awlaki’s path to fame worked, while Hammami’s is miserably failing. </div>
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</div>Alix Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01048059501640823696noreply@blogger.com0