Counter-Terrorism: The Moral Degeneracy of Silence

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March 6, 2007: One of the counter-terrorism battles you rarely hear about, is the one that tries to influence media, in Moslem countries to, to go up against Islamic terrorists. This often involves bribes, which is one reason the program does not seek publicity. In most poor countries (and some not-so-poor ones), journalists and their editors can be rented for a suitable fee. This is no secret. Typically, the American infowarrior is not trying to get Arab (or Pakistani, or Indonesian) media to publish "praise the United States" items. Too obvious. Much more useful to try and get the media to say more about the many atrocities Islamic terrorists commit against other Moslems. This is not easy to do, because local Islamic terrorists will often take offense, and sometimes respond by killing the offending editor or journalist.

News of Moslems killed by Islamic terrorists has been a major problem for organizations like al Qaeda and the Taliban. Officially, the terrorists consider their Moslem victims to either be "martyrs" (unwilling participants in the jihad against Islams enemies) or "not true Moslems" (and thus deserving of death for disagreeing with the Islamic terrorists.) Naturally, Islamic radicals are sensitive to how news of these dead Moslems is reported. So American bribe money often can only get a mention of Moslem deaths, from Islamic terrorist acts, and one that still must describe them as "martyrs" or "not true Moslems." This way, the journalists are safe, but the local Moslems still get the message (and usually ignore the terrorist spin.)

Oddly enough, Western media don't like to cover the "Moslem killing Moslems" angle much either, but for more complex reasons. Western journalists tend to believe the Moslems aren't as responsible for the Islamic terrorism, as are the actions of Westerners. Not just colonial powers of a century ago, but the current presence of U.S. troops in Iraq as well. Thus, one can express ones anti-American attitudes, by downplaying the atrocities of the Islamic terrorists. Besides, the Islamic terrorists are much more likely to kill a journalist they don't like, than are the Americans.

Another story few journalists from anywhere will touch, is the fact that ignoring these Islamic terror attacks on Moslem women, children, clerics, hospitals, mosques, etc., is a failing amounting to an indictment of the moral bankruptcy of contemporary Islamic leadership