The State Department has released a graphic mock recruitment video for the Islamic State terrorist group.
The video — titled “Welcome to the Islamic State Land” — shows executions, mosque bombings and crucifixions as text flashes across the screen: “Run, don’t walk to ISIS Land. Where you can learn useful news skills for the Ummah. Blowing up mosques! Crucifying and executing Muslims! Plundering public resources! Suicide bombings inside mosques!”
The video was released Aug. 22 by Think Again, Turn Away, a project of the State Department’s Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications.
Will McCants, a scholar of militant Islam at the Brookings Institution who was involved in setting up the center, told CNN in June that the project is essentially the State Department’s recognition that it needs to be engaged in the propaganda war terrorists are waging on social media.
“For years, al Qaeda had gotten in the heads of the U.S. government, and the U.S. government had become very sensitive to various al Qaeda talking points,” he told CNN. “I felt there’s no reason why we can’t return that favor. … The more you can make them think on these points, the more you can damage their credibility and shape their behavior.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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