The Caliph, The Fat Sheikh And Their Goats: The Keyboard Warriors Taking Social Media Back From Iraq's Extremists

Niqash - society - The Caliph, The Fat Sheikh And Their Goats: The Keyboard Warriors Taking Social Media Back From Iraq's Extremists  "“There are a large number of actual ISIS sympathisers who
follow me and even retweet many of the jokes,” al-Fatassi says. “Because
the first thing they do when making a Twitter account is search for
“ISIS”. So they end up following me and ISIS Media not knowing we are
both parody accounts.”"

Syrian electronic army 'hacks' Independent, OK Magazine and NHL

Guardian, Syrian electronic army 'hacks' Independent, OK Magazine and NHL "The Syrian Electronic Army has “hacked” a number of high profile sites, after the group apparently exploited a fault with a content delivery network (CDN)."

'Blood Jihad 2'

IB Times, ISIS Child Training Camp In Iraq Shown In New Video 'Blood Jihad 2' "Training in Raqqa has two tracks: A 45-day “legitimacy training” and three months of “war course,” or a combined 45-day program during times of intense battles, a spokesperson for the anti-militant activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, recently told IBTimes."

Purple Rain blog: UKIP Mistake Cathedral For Mosque

hopenothate, Purple Rain blog: UKIP Mistake Cathedral For Mosque "South Thanet UKIP branch have been left with egg on their face after making a huge mistake on the social network Twitter."

Terror suspect posts image of baby

BBC, Terror suspect posts image of baby "A terrorism suspect [Abu Rumaysah] who skipped bail in London has apparently released an image he claims shows him with his newborn son in the Islamic State (IS)."

Britons jailed over Syria terror camp

BBC News, Britons jailed over Syria terror camp, 26 Nov 2014 "Mohommod Nawaz, 30, and Hamza Nawaz, 24, both from Stratford, east London, were sentenced to four-and-a-half years and three years respectively."

Swing Sets and Death in Syria: A Visit to an Aleppo Playground

Spiegel Online, Swing Sets and Death in Syria: A Visit to an Aleppo Playground

Western Media Is Obsessed With Kurdish Female Fighters Battling ISIS

Ruwayda Mustafah Rabar, Global Voices, Western Media Is Obsessed With Kurdish Female Fighters Battling ISIS, 19 Nov 2014 "International media agencies and activists alike have pushed images of female Peshmerga in their coverage and on social networking sites. The idea of women in uniform, heavily armed, fearless and fighting alongside men seems to be enticing, perhaps even captivating because it is perceived to be one of the strongest messages of defiance in the face of ISIS — a notoriously brutal Al Qaeda offshoot responsible for mass killing of Iraqi soldiers, Syrian soldiers, aid workers, journalists and the kidnapping, rape and forced marriage of women. In the group's Mosul manifesto, ISIS requires the confinement of women to their homes, unless absolutely necessary."

Why journalists should approach #ISIS tweets with caution

CJR, Why journalists should approach #ISIS tweets with caution "ISIS’ social media presence is also a massive phenomenon that warrants careful research and reporting beyond its instrumental use as a primary source. The tweets are more than a megaphone—they are a sign of ISIS’ ambition, part of what set the group’s declared state-building project apart from the sect-like secrecy of its forerunner, Al-Qaeda." The same applies to academics.

The Origins of ISIS (Islamic State)

from Brookings Institution

Why ISIS supporters can't stop tweeting about Ferguson

vox.com, Why ISIS supporters can't stop tweeting about Ferguson "Since the news of Darren Wilson's non-indictment broke last night, some Arabic language journalists noticed something curious: pro-ISIS Twitter users were all over the Ferguson discussion. "It's horrible," Joyce Karam, the Washington Bureau chief for Al-Hayat, writes. "Most of the tweets when you look up "فيرغسون" ([Arabic] for Ferguson) are ISIS driven.""

Soldiers, Spies, Cyberwarriors: '@War' In The Internet Age

Discussion of a new book: NPR, Soldiers, Spies, Cyberwarriors: '@War' In The Internet Age "The book looks cyberspace as war's "fifth domain" (after land, sea, air and space). [Shane] Harris covers topics like the NSA, the role of cyber warfare in the Iraq troop surge of 2007, China's "rampant" espionage on American corporations — and the U.S. government's strategy of playing the victim."

Patronato Postcard: A Visit To Chile's Little Palestine

worldcrunch, Patronato Postcard: A Visit To Chile's Little Palestine non-tech, but interesting

Egyptian Cyber Army: The hacker group attacking ISIS propaganda online

Mashable, Egyptian Cyber Army: The hacker group attacking ISIS propaganda online "Last week, less than 24 hours after ISIS social media accounts posted a threatening message from the group's leader, the audio recording was replaced with a song and its transcript with a logo resembling that of the Egyptian military, accompanied by a writing in Arabic that read "Egyptian Cyber Army.""

Hunting the Taliban, Crossing Continents

Hunting the Taliban, Crossing Continents - BBC Radio 4



"Mobeen Azhar reports from Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, where police are at war with the Taliban. Given rare access to the work of the police by a Senior Superintendent in Karachi's Criminal Investigation Department, Mobeen joins officers on a night time raid in search of the men who train suicide bombers. He meets a suspect in custody who brags about planting bombs and describes how he urges teenage boys to sacrifice their lives in violent jihad. Mobeen also talks to a businessman who was kidnapped for ransom and meets the families of police officers who have been killed by the militants.



"Assassinations linked to political parties have blighted the city for over a decade but today, more than 70 groups representing the militant Taliban are also fighting for control. This guerrilla war, once confined to the tribal belt of Waziristan has moved into Karachi with devastating results."

French jihadis

Zee, Jihad lures teens from unsuspected corners of France ""Religion is very much an accessory. It`s an Islamist community, but it could just as easily have been anarchist, or anti-fascist," [Marc] Sageman told a news agency.

"It was a point underlined recently when it emerged that would-be jihadists bought the books "Islam for Dummies" and "The Koran for Dummies" over Amazon before leaving Britain last year."

'Report Jihad'

Mirror, 'Report Jihad' button promised by UK internet providers to help tackle online extremism "Internet service providers in the UK including BT, Virgin, TalkTalk and Sky have pledged to introduce a 'report Jihad' button to make it easier for customers to flag extremist materials."

Jihad + poetry

RFE/RL, 'What Rhymes With Islamic State?' Militants Express Ideology Through Poetry "In one recent poem about Syria, published on the khilafa.org website, which is run by Chechens in the Latakia-based Khalifat Jamaat faction, the Daghestani author criticizes such "armchair warriors," who he says post pictures of food on social media instead of defending hungry children in Syria."

Kenya arrests

alarabiya.net, 200 arrested as Kenya police raid suspected Al-Qaeda linked mosques "One man was killed Monday as Kenyan security forces arrested more than 200 people and seized weapons in raids on mosques accused of links with Somalia's Al-Qaeda affiliated Shebab militants, police said."

Iran to have Internet ‘smart filtering’ within months

alarabiya.net, Iran to have Internet ‘smart filtering’ within months, 14 Nov 2014 "Iran will have “smart filtering” within six months to weed out Internet content the authorities deem offensive or criminal, the telecommunications minister said on Friday."