by Steven R. Corman
I ran across an interesting research article in the most recent issue of the Journal of Communication entitled “‘Carrying online participation offline’–Mobilization by radical online groups and politically dissimilar offline ties.”*
The study looks at neo-Nazis and radical environmentalists (NN/RE) in the West, but because it potentially sheds some light on similar practices [...]

by Steven R. Corman
Hi there.  Long time, no blog.  That’s in part because I was attending a conference entitled Strategic Communication for Combating Terrorism sponsored by the NATO Center of Excellence for Defense Against Terrorism in Ankara, Turkey.  The workshop featured 15 experts on strategic communication, including fellow blogger Matt Armstrong of MountainRunner.
Considering that we [...]

By Pauline Hope Cheong
Two related white papers have generated fresh buzz about Internet radicalization in recent weeks.  These papers are in substantial disagreement about the basic issue of how much of a force the Internet is in causing radicalization.  This is a sign that the process is not yet well-enough understood, and that we need [...]

by Steven R. Corman
Today the Washington Post reports that AQ Web Forums were “abruptly” taken down.  Abruptly?  Well not if abruptly means suddenly, as in it just happened.  This story has been circulating in the blogs for months, and it’s more like there have been a few waves of take-downs.  It even blipped-up elsewhere in [...]

by Steven R. Corman
Writing today in Danger Room, David Axe called members of the State Department’s Digital Outreach Team (DOT) “trolls.”  Axe was responding to some statements by Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Jim Glassman’s in a bloggers’ roundtable earlier this week.  Glassman discussed a recent and unusual engagement with an Iranian [...]

by Monika Maslikowski
Online PSYOP campaigns are a cheap and easy way for extremists to infiltrate U.S. public discourse about the fight against terrorism. The campaigns attempt to break the political will of U.S. policymakers and persuade the public to doubt the purpose and effectiveness of their government’s policies.
Does extremist propaganda have enough breadth and [...]

by Steven R. Corman
In the past couple of days I have received email alerts from ESISC, an independent European group based in Brussels that describes itself as doing observation and analysis of international terrorism and related strategic issues. The emails indicate concern that the Bad Guys are planning attacks during the upcoming Ramadan (which this [...]

by Steven R. Corman
I recently talked to Capt. David Faggard, who is Chief of the Air Force New Media and Emerging Technologies team. His newly-formed group is an Air Force contribution to the effort by the U.S. to catch up to their “war of ideas” opponents in the use of New Media. Though it is [...]

by Steven R. Corman
Today Danger Room is reporting on an ABC news story about a video, purportedly posted by AQ operatives, calling for the use of WMDs against the West. The story quotes an FBI spokesman to support the claim.
The trouble is, the tape appears to be a mashup of previously released videos, apparently [...]

by Steven R. Corman
A heads up to COMOPS readers…Last week Senator Joe Lieberman’s office contacted YouTube asking them to remove  a list of videos posted by designated terrorist organizations, claiming any such posts violate YouTube’s prohibitions against “graphic or gratuitous violence.”   YouTube removed some of the videos that contained violence or hate speech, but [...]