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September 10, 2014
Obama State Department To Take Down ISIS With New Social Media Campaign
Obama State Department To Take Down ISIS With New Social Media Campaign
The State Department is launching a tough and graphic propaganda counteroffensive against the Islamic State, using some of the group's own images of barbaric acts against fellow Muslims to undercut its message.
While the department since 2011 has operated a small unit devoted solely to the task of analyzing and countering terrorists’ messaging around the world, that unit – the 50-member Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications -- has shifted gears in recent months to concentrate more on the Islamic State threat.
The social media presence – on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and beyond – has started using some potentially risky tactics to go after the militant network, also known as ISIS.
The item grabbing the most attention lately is a shock factor-heavy YouTube video set up as a fake recruiting ad for the Islamic State.
“Run – do not walk to ISIS Land,” the video implores viewers. The video tells recruits they can learn “useful new skills” -- like “blowing up mosques” and “crucifying and executing Muslims.” (WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO)
Illustrating the sarcastic appeal is an array of bloody images and videos, including of people being crucified, decapitated heads arranged next to each other, and mosques being blown up.
The “ad” ends with the line: “Travel is inexpensive, because you won’t need a return ticket!”
Not everyone thinks the “ad” is an effective tool.
“I just thought it was bizarre,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News, dismissing the video as a symptom of “press release foreign policy” that is “fundamentally unserious.”
But a State Department spokesperson said the work is vital “given how violent extremists are increasingly exploiting the suffering caused by global conflicts to lure susceptible youth” to join.
“We believe countering our adversaries in this space is critical. We must contest the space by confronting distortion with reality and lies with truth,” the spokesperson told FoxNews.com.
The video is part of the State Department’s “Think again. Turn away” campaign aimed at convincing would-be recruits not to join.
The effort comes as the Obama administration comes under fire from critics who say it waited too long to act against the Islamic State, despite clear evidence the group was gaining a startling amount of territory – and military equipment -- in northern Iraq and Syria earlier this year.
“His policy so far has been a policy of containment, not of defeat,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told “Fox News Sunday.”
Wild Thing's comment..............
This is just too weird.
Posted by Wild Thing at September 10, 2014 12:50 AM
Comments
This broken JV president is out of his mind / league!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at September 10, 2014 05:38 AM
Yup, going to launch a social media campaign, sanctions, and strongly worded letters against them. That should teach them to mess with Obama.
Posted by: BobF at September 10, 2014 07:11 AM
