Internet Trolls are harmless malcontents, right?

[Ignis]

CIA Bomber Got His Start as a Jihadist Troll

We’re learning more about the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers at a base in Afghanistan last week. It appears as though the man responsible for the worst losses in CIA history served both as a double agent for Jordanian intelligence and a webmaster for a popular and now-defunct jihadist forum.

In a September 2009 interview given to a jihadist journal published by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Fajr media, Abu Dujanah al-Khurasani revealed that his path to suicide bombing started with his time as extremist Internet troll.

In the interview, flagged and translated by the tireless terrorism sleuth and NEFA Foundation Senior Investigator Evan Kohlmann, Khurasani describes himself as having militant aspiration from a young age, saying that he was “raised to love Jihad and martyrdom since my youth.”

But it was in a post to the al-Hesbah online forum where Khurasni’s claims his involvement with organized militancy began to snowball. “My native place was the proud al-Hesbah {forum}, and one day I wrote an essay about the failure of Baghdad plans in comparison to al-Falluja battle, and I added evidence from reality, so one of the administrators there confirmed my subject, and that motivated me to continue participation.”

-- Wired: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/cia-bomber-got-his-start-as-a-jihadist-troll/

:scared:

[rcrush]

1. ...

[Ignis]

2. Saint Hicks wouldn't facepalm.

He'd give us a lovely, lyrical rant.

[Tailormyst]

8. omg I love that picture

[Beetwasher]

3. Oh No! Trolls Of Terror!!! (This Has To Be An Instant Classic!)

Game over. Now that terrorists of trolling, surely, they have won.

[Ignis]

4. I'm torn...

This is either just the usual Tech Terra Porn fluff, or it's a testing of the waters for further $ or power for Internet surveillance.

[Ignis]

5. Here's the bit that reminded me of RimJobLand:

Khurasani was later nominated as a moderator at al-Hesbah and became a prominent voice in the forum. Despite his success in the forum, however, Khurasani claims that the hypocrisy of pursuing “jihad in speech” without committing to “jihad with self” began to eat away at him.

“How can I encourage people to Jihad while I’m sitting away?” he asked. How do I sell them the beautiful musk while my smell is gross? How do I become a burning wick for others to have light? Can any sane person accept that, not me. Jihad in speech is needed, and Jihad with money is needed, but neither of them can replace Jihad with self.”

Granted, most of these people are about as terrifying as your average resident of Mom's Basement, but we've also seen evidence that scary, sick fucks like Dr. Tiller's murderer are active on RW forums in the US.

[Ignis]

6. It's cold and lonely on the 2nd page.

:kick:

[el_bryanto]

7. I never looked at it that way. Instead of verbally harming people with rhetorical explosives

I could be physically blowing them to hell. Gosh. The possibilities are endless. Thank you Ignis - you've opened my eyes.

Bryant

[Ignis]

10. All part of the service!

:hi:

[LoZoccolo]

9. I see the extremism; I don't see the trolling.

Trolls use deception and theatrics to manipulate the dynamics of an online community; it seems like he was saying extreme things in an extremist forum, but in accord with the general intended audience of the forum and not to expose things about them or to trick them. If the article contains anything about actual trolling, I think I missed it.

[Ignis]

11. You raise a good point re: the terminology.

Here's the closest thing I could find to evidence of "trolling," from a WSJ article on the bomber:

In a posting on the site in May of 2007, Mr. al-Balawi sought to persuade people from a variety of backgrounds, including African-Americans, Native Americans, Vietnamese and poor immigrants to join the fight against their "oppressor," the U.S., the West Point analysts found.

-- WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126264256099215443.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

Still, it does sound like he was merely recruiting within the confines of an extremist site, rather than trolling on opposition sites.

:shrug:

[Ignis]

12. And one more for the night crowd.

:kick: