ON THE NET...
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Fateh+Kamel%22&hl=en&lr=&filter=0
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Fateh+Kamel%22&btnG=Search+News
The memorial they had set up was beautiful. Lots of very emotional people at the scene. Lots of media. One police car.
prayers going up . . .
Note: Click on the url to view graphics and hyper-text links for further information.
Note: The following text is an exact quote:
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http://www.internet-haganah.us/harchives/003803.html
March 13, 2005
"Jihadists Take Stand on Web, and Some Say It's Defensive"
According to the New York Times:
Last week, the Zarqawi group quickly denied news reports that it was responsible for a suicide car bomb in Hilla that killed 136 people. The attack was aimed at police and army recruits gathering outside a clinic, but many civilians, including women and children, were also killed. Residents of Hilla staged large and angry demonstrations against the violence that were featured on Arabic satellite television stations and Web sites.
The Zarqawi group's denial noted, correctly, that it had claimed responsibility for a separate attack on the same day aimed at American soldiers in southern Baghdad - not for the Hilla attack.
"We, the media department of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, declare that we have our own means of publication and that we observe the accuracy and truth of our statements," the statement said. "No one should aspire to say about us what we have not said."
We covered this issue last week, and as we noted then:
a. the "denial" really wasn't so much a denial as it was the lack of a confirmation. And
b. later the same day they did in fact take credit for the attack in Hilla.
The idea that Salafyist (Sunni) terrorists would feel anything like embarrassment at the wholesale slaughter of Shi'ites (Hilla is a Shi'ite community) is laughable. I'm not sure that the likes of Zarqawi consider Shi'ites human beings, or Muslims.
Has anything changed significantly in the past few weeks in regards to the jihadists in Iraq and their use of the internet?
Perhaps yes, though there is some debate as to the conclusions to be drawn from these changes.
The appearance of a publication in the name of Zarqawi's outfit is new, and reinforces the idea that volunteers from Saudi Arabia are central to the operation, since the 'Zurwat al Sanam' product is clearly patterned after similar publications which Al Qaida in Saudi Arabia released before the production team was killed, captured or driven out of the country.
The recent increase in 'chattiness' on the part of Zarqawi's lieutenants is a matter of some discussion within the Haganah. Take for example this...
...a letter from Abu Suleiman al-Iraqi (Zarqawi's security chief) to Abu Umar al-Baghdadi (probably the guy who is in charge in Baghdad area/province). One possibility is that they are actually using the forums to communicate. This strikes us as unlikely. A better guess is that they are doing this for show, because, as the Times report rightly notes:
...the jihadists seem highly sensitive to perceptions that they have been weakened or demoralized in recent weeks.
Many of the groups' new messages, for instance, refer to American claims that some of Mr. Zarqawi's loyalists have been captured, and that the noose is tightening around him. When Iraqi government officials released new photographs of Mr. Zarqawi on Monday, the group quickly responded with an explanation: the Americans had obtained them after killing a member of its "press department" in Falluja.
That they have started publishing under names other than that of Abu Maysara, and that Abu Maysara's online behavior has changed in some subtle ways, is interesting. While the intent may be to disprove American and Iraqi claims of progress in battling the Zarqawi group, and to demonstrate that Zarqawi still has a viable organization, these changes may also be seen as confirmation that they have indeed suffered losses.
I'm inclined to agree with Rita Katz's analysis:
"I think they feel they are losing the battle," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, an American nonprofit group that monitors Islamist Web sites and news operations. "They realize there will be a new government soon, and they seem very nervous about the future."
Her suggestion that "the insurgent groups appear to be focusing more on winning and retaining the sympathies of Iraqis" is reasonable enough, though I have spent a considerable amount of time studying the demographics of the prominent Islamist forums, and I see very little traffic from Iraq to these forums with the obvious exception of the operatives who post the communiqués. More likely this propaganda campaign is targeting the Saudis and European Arabs who frequent the forums where these communiqués are posted.
See also:
Arab volunteers killed in Iraq: an Analysis
Posted by aaron at March 13, 2005 06:37 PM