Video: “60 Minutes” exposes internet as jihad tool
posted at 12:07 am on March 5, 2007 by Ian
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Recently the Bush administration acknowledged that al Qaeda is reorganized and gaining strength. As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, that’s been possible, since the fall of Afghanistan, through the explosive growth of al Qaeda on the Internet. Last week, word spread on the web that Vice President Cheney was in Afghanistan. In hours the base where he was staying was bombed. It’s not clear the bomber was targeting the vice president, but U.S. Intelligence noted the coincidence.
It was a fairly interesting piece, it would have been better if “60 Minutes” spent time on explaining the jihad message being spread on YouTube, rather than just naming the website as an example. Most of the segment was spent on forums and sites of the ilk.
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Pelley made it very clear back durning Bremer’s days whose sdie he was on.
Editor on March 5, 2007 at 12:33 AM
Don’t we have a microwave bomb that actually fries electronic media? And, can’t it be used in these regions where these terrorists operate? If so then, the ultimate question arises…why don’t we USE it?
thedecider on March 5, 2007 at 12:41 AM
That was one of the best reads. Great stuff. I wonder if CBS runs an encore so I can dvr it.
csdeven on March 5, 2007 at 1:38 AM
Allahtube Akbar?
- The Cat
MirCat on March 5, 2007 at 2:57 AM
“Spit……… cough… spit…….?
Sorry, I just got done watching the CBS 60 Minute clip…
Wait……. “Hack…… spit…. spit……….”
I don’t even know where to start…….
Hey, Scott Pelley, this information has been around since day one (1)… IDIOT! And just because Ms. “Blinky” is in power, you now want to expose what we have been up against?
Where the hell were you?……… Oh, “Hate Bush!”, yeah, we get that, but to the main point, FOLLOW THE DOTS!!!!!!!!!
It’s not only thier propoganda, but the speeches made by “the Swimmer”, “the Blinker”, “the Cryer {Durbin}”, “Depends”, CBS, NBC, ABC, and the rest of you BEFORE the election that has given them INFLUENCE..
Scott Pelley, YOU SIR, ARE A SON OF A BITCH, A TRAITOR TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND A POLITICAL HACK!
Go ahead, ban me Ian, I don’t care anymore if I can’t give back what this piece of shit just broadcast to the world….
Scott Pelley, you have a new role in history…… and no, it’s not for expert journalism.
IDIOT! …….”duuuuhhhhhhhh, the stupid US has just learned the power of propoganda and the new technology of this magic called the “internet”,…… how does it work? what spell do you have to cast?
No, you will not get away with the damage that you have caused, you will not get away with the determination that you have given our enemy, and no, sir, you will not get away without being named…… Scott Pelley, you are a traitor to the United States of America, and as a Citizen, I arrest you……….! There, I said it, little Johnny Sutton will protect you, but at least I said it.
Go Fu*k yourself, Scott Pelley, and take the rest of the MSM with you……… I have had it!
PinkyBigglesworth on March 5, 2007 at 3:03 AM
First of all, I consider the source. 60 Minutes is the outfit that tried to use forged documents to “prove” that George W. Bush was AWOL from the ANG during Vietnam. We know how that worked out for them.
Frankly, as a result, nothing they say should ever be taken at face value, especially as this piece is a transparent attempt to undermine America’s will to fight the war on terrorism by portraying the enemy as becoming invincible through their little beheading movie sites.
This is anti-war agitprop, nothing more. It is designed to (1) discredit Bush, and (2) convince America to cut and run in Iraq. Period.
Look at the numbers. How many actual TERRORIST ATTACKS has happened BECAUSE some goof-ball Muslim dweeb viewed one of their videos and became a suicide bomber or foreign fighter?
Ans: Very, very few.
Why?
Because most of the morons viewing the videos “don’t have a life!” (as the vernacular goes) And no matter how fired up they think they are, the do NOT have the (gum)balls to pick up a gun, or strap an vest filled with explosives up and commit terrorism.
It takes more than some shrill Muslim music and chants of “God is Great” in a movie to drag their skinny butts out of their bedrooms and hop a plane to Damascus. It takes real commitment of the kind that is drilled into their skulls for years by the parents, their Islamic schools, and their Imams.
It takes face-to-face intense brainwashing that they get from their Imams, not some beheading video, to bitterly travel thousands of miles to kill Americans, or even down the road to the nearest “tube” and blow that up.
Here’s an example: It takes the US Marines 13 weeks of CONTROLLED AND INTENSE, physical and mental stress to turn a teenager into a Marine. It is not done via a video stream from a web site, either. It takes a screaming, spitting, red-faced, drill instructor litterally getting in your face for 13 weeks to turn you from an typical kid into a motivated fighter. And another 3 to 12 months of advanced specialized training after that to make you combat ready.
I don’t care how many times you watch a beheading video, it isn’t going to turn someone into a suicide bomber. It is going to take RELIGIOUS training and intense indoctrination to reach the point where you are willing to become a martyr.
Look at the numbers: These web sites are nearly lost among the millions on the web. That’s point one. Point two, look at OUR extremist websites in America. How many DEMOCRATS at DU or DKOS, or even the viewers of the white supremacist web sites go out and commit violence? Zilch.
Why? Because the web is a great vehicle for exchanging ideas but not so great “whooping up” their readers to “pick up a gun” or “strap on a bomb” and do something.
Should our military and intelligence agencies worry about them as they do? Of course. NOT because they “stir these muslims up,” but because THEY CAN BE USED TO PLAN AND COORDINATE ATTACKS.
C-cubed and I-C-cubed are the games involved, here.
And there is the propaganda war involving OUR media. Shutting down these web sites as we find them thwarts their stated goal of using OUR media to install fear, uncertainty and doubt in the American public’s mind.
Which was the ONLY motive for 60 minutes to broadcast this piece as they did.
georgej on March 5, 2007 at 3:58 AM
For a moment I thought that said, Video: Internet exposes “60 Minutes” as jihad tool.
Al Qaeda and CBS News do seem to rebroadcast a lot of each other’s material.
saint kansas on March 5, 2007 at 5:01 AM
My apologies to IAN,
I actually listened to that tripe, and blew my top.
Thanks for just erasing my message……….
Sometimes, this experiment in democracy just gets the best of me.
Again, my apologies to IAN and the rest of the HA staff……..
PinkyBigglesworth on March 5, 2007 at 5:26 AM
www dot convertordie dot cbs dot com
Tony737 on March 5, 2007 at 6:30 AM
You make an interesting point, but it seems to me that doesn’t happen here because most people here do have a life. No matter how dire and desperate the proggressives try to make things, even the “poor” in this country are relatively comfortable and content compared to the rest of the world.
It is precisely because so many in the Middle East literally don’t have a life that this propoganda could work, these people are truly downtrodden, desperate, and have no future but squalor and oppression. The key purpose of the jihadist propoganda may not necessarily be to recruit and motivate, but to redirect and focus the anger and frustration at the Western World rather than at the true oppressors at home.
You are certainly correct in that CBS is going to completely miss the point and use this as a bludgeon against the right no matter what.
B Moe on March 5, 2007 at 8:06 AM
Pretty grim. The point made by one of the people interviewed that really caught my attention was how the internet is insidiously taking over Islam.
Cursed with living in interesting times.
honora on March 5, 2007 at 8:42 AM
Is there a more useless waste of time than watching “60 min.”? They lost their edge years ago.
right2bright on March 5, 2007 at 9:56 AM
Whatever the incidental causes are of muslims turning to violence, they’re prepared by their scriptures, by the teaching embedded in the religion itself. The teaching is exemplified by the ninth sura, especially in its fifth verse.
We come together here and tell each other what we think, because we think our opinions are true and important. We try earnestly to persuade others, because we think their opinions are incorrect and that their mistakes are important. Yet when we go to explain Islamic violence, we often skip right over muslim opinions, as if to deny that muslims think their opinions are important and as if to deny that they think they’re right and we’re wrong.
We turn away from Islam and say that muslims are moved by poverty, oppression, or the Internet, even though Osama bin Ladin is rich, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is powerful, and it’s muslims at both ends of the Internet connections. When people ignore the causal role of the muslim religion, I detect that their motive is pity or kindness toward religious believers. However, it seems to be cruel pity, because as long as those believers believe the ninth sura is God’s Word and applicable today, that text will always be a means for them to stir each other to violence. Pity for muslims is cruelty toward their neighbors.
Kralizec on March 5, 2007 at 10:22 AM
Its too bad we dont have a 1000 HA sites that would reach the Joe Schlubs on their desktops. (Although thank you HA for trying!)
The Internet is a sad place.
I was talking to a friend the other day about how the internet is like the beginning of the American experiment. I meant how we’ve allowed everyone to learn to read and write, and not treat the common man like a plebe. This dissemination of information gave great opportunity to all folks Living here. It has givin folks like Einstein, who was a file clerk, the opportunity to realize their full potential.
The sad part is that many folks don’t search out the opportunities to learn from the internet.
Maybe we could infiltrate a few Pron sites and put up conservative messages just like the Jihadies infiltrate Iraq news sites.
That would be quite funny to buy banner add space on porn sites to help inform folks on the news that the MSM wont give them.
-Wasteland Man.
WastelandMan on March 5, 2007 at 11:17 AM
haha!
JetBoy on March 5, 2007 at 12:45 PM
CBS got the story sideways, as usual:
Jihad uses main stream media as propaganda tool for global Islamic Imperialism
The internet spreads jihad was a story about 7 years ago.
profitsbeard on March 5, 2007 at 1:43 PM
I would agree except for one thing.
Most of these downtrodden, desperate, future-less Jihadis also don’t have Internet access, either. What they do have are Imams in their local mosque screaming hatred every Friday night. And they have their madrassas, where they get the message, and the necessary intensity, every day.
These websites are either aimed at the west for use by our western media for agitprop purposes, or they are used as a method of communicating among cells.
georgej on March 5, 2007 at 2:52 PM
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