Saturday, September 08, 2007
OSAMA BIN WINGNUT?
What to make of Osama Bin Laden sounding less like a radical Salafist in his recent video than the infantile Sean Penn on a hysterical political rant, throwing in an homage to Noam Chomsky and global warming ? Well, government sources are pointing "Azzam the American", the young Californian convert, Adam Yahiye Gadahn as the origin of the more childish rhetoric that seems to be ripped from the memes of the Lefty Wingnut blogosphere.
In my opinion, that is a stupid interpretation. If it comes from our intelligence agencies, and not some staffer at the White House, all the worse for us.
First of all, such an analysis gives far too much emphasis to the role of Gadahn, a relatively juvenile character. Al Qaida does not lack members with the ability to read English or surf the internet. The radical Islamist-terrorist community have long monitored American websites, particularly those related to military and intelligence circles; one of their favorite theorists appears to be none other than William Lind! Gadahn's help in video production is a triviality, not a primary concern.
Secondly, the hodgepodge nature of the speech with Bin Laden zooming from Sarkozy to tax rates is indicative of an intentional raising of the noise to signal ratio. Much of this verbiage appears to me to be - well - irrelevant crap. It attracts media attention while distracting observers from two of the more ominous elements present in bin Laden's speech - his continuing fascination with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the call to embrace Islam. The latter being a religious duty for pious Muslims prior to the unleashing of war and ruin upon an enemy; a call once uttered by the generals of Arab caliphs and Turkish sultans half a millennium ago, before the sacking of infidel cities by Muslim armies.
The Germans just rolled up a major al Qaida cell days before an attack was to take place. Perhaps we should be looking at potential problems just a little bit harder ourselves.
What to make of Osama Bin Laden sounding less like a radical Salafist in his recent video than the infantile Sean Penn on a hysterical political rant, throwing in an homage to Noam Chomsky and global warming ? Well, government sources are pointing "Azzam the American", the young Californian convert, Adam Yahiye Gadahn as the origin of the more childish rhetoric that seems to be ripped from the memes of the Lefty Wingnut blogosphere.
In my opinion, that is a stupid interpretation. If it comes from our intelligence agencies, and not some staffer at the White House, all the worse for us.
First of all, such an analysis gives far too much emphasis to the role of Gadahn, a relatively juvenile character. Al Qaida does not lack members with the ability to read English or surf the internet. The radical Islamist-terrorist community have long monitored American websites, particularly those related to military and intelligence circles; one of their favorite theorists appears to be none other than William Lind! Gadahn's help in video production is a triviality, not a primary concern.
Secondly, the hodgepodge nature of the speech with Bin Laden zooming from Sarkozy to tax rates is indicative of an intentional raising of the noise to signal ratio. Much of this verbiage appears to me to be - well - irrelevant crap. It attracts media attention while distracting observers from two of the more ominous elements present in bin Laden's speech - his continuing fascination with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the call to embrace Islam. The latter being a religious duty for pious Muslims prior to the unleashing of war and ruin upon an enemy; a call once uttered by the generals of Arab caliphs and Turkish sultans half a millennium ago, before the sacking of infidel cities by Muslim armies.
The Germans just rolled up a major al Qaida cell days before an attack was to take place. Perhaps we should be looking at potential problems just a little bit harder ourselves.
Labels: 9/11, al qaida, analytic, bin laden, IO, terrorism
¶ 4:15 PM
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Presumable, bin Laden realizes that his supporters will come from the Left, so is readying to embrace them.
I would differ from that, Dan.
The only members of the broad left who Bin Laden would remotely appeal to would be hard-core authoritarian Chavistas. But neither he nor any Islamist groups have made any overtures to them.
The real goal of his domestic political rhetoric is very simple--he is trying to foment political division in the US. Part of that involves saying things that spark comments like the one you just made.
However, Bin Laden's knowledge of American domestic politics is very poor. Global warming and flat-tax.....what a mix.
The only members of the broad left who Bin Laden would remotely appeal to would be hard-core authoritarian Chavistas. But neither he nor any Islamist groups have made any overtures to them.
The real goal of his domestic political rhetoric is very simple--he is trying to foment political division in the US. Part of that involves saying things that spark comments like the one you just made.
However, Bin Laden's knowledge of American domestic politics is very poor. Global warming and flat-tax.....what a mix.
I woke up Saturday morning after staying up too late the night before. I lingered in bed awhile listening to the NPR Saturday AM radio program.
The NPR news analyst (Daniel Shorr?) talking to the host quickly covered the UBL video by saying something to the effect that it was just the normal propaganda and then they moved onto another topic. They completely left out all details and similiaties to, well NPR editorial positions.
I don't think they wanted to point out the similarities in the new message to that of the Western Left.
The NPR news analyst (Daniel Shorr?) talking to the host quickly covered the UBL video by saying something to the effect that it was just the normal propaganda and then they moved onto another topic. They completely left out all details and similiaties to, well NPR editorial positions.
I don't think they wanted to point out the similarities in the new message to that of the Western Left.
A.E. is totally correct. Right leaning people will see the leftist rhetoric in Bin Ladens speech whilst disregarding where he compares his goals to the neo-conservative movement and modern corporations goals. Whilst the left will pick up the fact that he has the same goals and deride the right. It's propaganda designed to divide america internally. For so much talk about 4gw within this section of the blogosphere you would of thought more than one of you (only A.E. at this stage) would have picked up the dual nature of Bin Ladens latest speech.
# posted by 
: Sunday, 09 September, 2007
: Sunday, 09 September, 2007
i agree with anonymous. there has been increasing evidence recently that extreme elements are getting better at propaganda. the focus on the environment might seem a bit "obvious", but it suggests they're thinking hard about adapting their message to undermine western morale, and to make us question whether we do have the moral high-ground. clearly obl won't ever be able to deliver this message credibly - but someone else might. if islamists are already reading lind's 4gw stuff, there's no reason to assume they won't manage to work this out. and if they do, we'll face all sorts of new problems, given our extreme incompetence in the area and our lack of interest in making it better....
# posted by : Monday, 10 September, 2007
: Monday, 10 September, 2007
"A.E. is totally correct. Right leaning people will see the leftist rhetoric in Bin Ladens speech whilst disregarding where he compares his goals to the neo-conservative movement and modern corporations goals. Whilst the left will pick up the fact that he has the same goals and deride the right. It's propaganda designed to divide america internally. For so much talk about 4gw within this section of the blogosphere you would of thought more than one of you (only A.E. at this stage) would have picked up the dual nature of Bin Ladens latest speech."
Anonymous, I'm touched by the compliment.
However, I predict there would be some disagreement about whether this would constitute 4GW. William Lind certainly would consider it 4GW, as Osama attempts to collapse America morally through rhetoric purposefully calibrated to cause political division and basic mistrust. I don't think T.X. Hammes could fit this into his "evolved insurgency" framework. It's material for another post for sure.
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Anonymous, I'm touched by the compliment.
However, I predict there would be some disagreement about whether this would constitute 4GW. William Lind certainly would consider it 4GW, as Osama attempts to collapse America morally through rhetoric purposefully calibrated to cause political division and basic mistrust. I don't think T.X. Hammes could fit this into his "evolved insurgency" framework. It's material for another post for sure.
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