Terrorists use the press and public relations as weapons, said a study released Wednesday by Arizona State University.
"People are surprised the jihadis think of the media as a weapon," said Steven Corman, director of the school's Consortium for Strategic Communication and a Defense Department consultant on communications networks and counterterrorism.
His study analyzed almost 300 al Qaeda statements, letters and other documents, many of them captured during U.S. military actions in the Middle East and recently declassified by the Pentagon.
The report found that jihadist operations use consistent patterns of outreach that establish them socially and religiously, generate public sympathy and intimidate opponents. Threats, in fact, are part of terrorist "talking points."
"Jihadis pursue these strategies using sophisticated, modern methods of communications and public relations," Mr. Corman said. "There's evidence in the documents that jihadis segment audiences and adapt their message to the audience."
Judging from the way the media reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and the war on terror in general) the terrorists are doing a pretty good job in this. In the past I have referred to the press as the "useful idiots" of the extreme Muslims. There is no better evidence for the truth in that statement than to observe just how efficiently those extremists have fashioned the media into a weapon of demoralization and intimidation against America.