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Terror Television

Al-Qaida Launches a Weekly News Show

By Yassin Musharbash

Terror videos have become almost commonplace. But now, al-Qaida has taken it one step further: download-ready "news broadcasts" on the Internet. The "Voice of the Caliphate" will be airing once a week. Two programs have already been shown.

"Good evening, and welcome to your program, 'The weekly news overview for the Muslim community.'" With this friendly greeting, the program begins. Their contrast to the image with which they're paired -- the anchor man is wearing a military uniform and a black mask and upon his table rests a Koran and a machine gun -- could hardly be more jarring. And indeed, this is no normal television show. It's al-Qaida TV -- the terror group's latest attempt to widen its group of sympathizers.

"Voice of the Caliphate" the propaganda-show is called and it's been available for a number of days as a downloadable file on a number of Islamist Web sites. Two productions have been made available, each in Arabic and each 15 minutes long. Their content? World news from the perspective of al-Qaida and co.

Events from Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan are reported upon, as is, with a heavy dose of schadenfreude, the destructive fall-out from Hurricane "Katrina" in the United States. According to the show, the hurricane was a "soldier of God" that found its way to New Orleans, "the city of homosexuals."

But this isn't just some amateur looking video. The producers of "Voice of the Caliphate" have gone to great lengths to make the show look professional and to project the image that they are informed. A station-logo, sub-titles, and flashing text all appear on screen, as does the box -- standardized by reputable news shows -- above the anchorman's shoulder displaying a picture to go with the news item being presented.

There are even "adverts." Between news stories, the anchor leaves the set and a short film is shown. One is a series of images, coupled with music, depicting a presumed al-Qaida-member in prison ("May God end his incarceration"). Another is a trailer for an upcoming film ("Total Jihad" by "Mouslim Mouwahad"). And then, there is a preview of the up-coming show: "An address on Muslim media, by the General Secretary of the 'Global Islamic Media Front'".

Al-Qaida Opens Up

The Global Islamic Media Front (GMIF) is also the group behind the "Voice of the Caliphate." Presumably a loose network within al-Qaida made up of experienced al-Qaida fighters as well as less experienced converts, the GMIF focuses primarily on public relations. For years now, the GMIF has acted as a sort of filter for the Islamist Internet and regularly claims that only those terrorist messages -- claims of responsibility for terrorist attacks or group strategy papers for example -- which appear on a GMIF site are authentic. The material the site has published has so far tended to support this claim, making a connection to al-Qaida that much more likely.

Nevertheless it is unclear whether the two programs are produced with the knowledge of, let alone actually by, the al-Qaida leadership. It is possible the shows are simply made by sympathizers who want to help the terror network with getting its message across more effectively. Indeed, the terror network has opened up massively since the Afghanistan war in 2001 and has repeatedly asked supporters to take the initiative themselves, especially in propaganda. And the "Voice of the Caliphate" can be seen as the most recent step in a propaganda initiative, which began with several online magazines in 2003.

Interestingly, the founder of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, plays no known role in either of the two "news" shows thus far released. Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida lieutenant in Iraq, on the other hand, is given a great deal of attention. Excerpts from two of his taped messages are reproduced for minutes at a time in the show. In one of them he announces the start of total war against the Shiites in Iraq. Bulletins of other terror organizations active in Iraq are also given a lot of space. Ansar al-Sunna makes an appearance for example, as does the Islamic Army, and the Army of the Mujahidin. The programs reflect the trend which has been apparent on Islamic Web sites for months: The Iraqi al-Qaida branch works together more closely with other organizations than was previously assumed.

No Money for Katrina Victims

Videos of real attacks are also played -- repeatedly -- in the programs: They show, for example, a jeep loaded with explosives exploding in the middle of American soldiers or Jihadists setting off rockets while shouting "Allahu Akbar." Viewers can even see scenes from the training camps with Mujahidin soldiers in uniform going through training exercises from obstacle courses to fitness routines. Such video clips are, of course, not new; al-Qaida has been using them for years to recruit new members. But the fact that they can now be found online and as part of entire programs shows, above all, how professional the group's public relations work has become.

The producers consider their broadcast to be a counterweight to Western propaganda. A video montage in the second episode of "Voice of the Caliphate" showed the broadcast's logo beaming over the emblems of CNN, BBC, al-Jazeera, Reuters and Fox News. The host dismisses Western reports -- broadcast recently -- that al-Qaida's "second man" has been arrested in Iraq, saying it is just one of the "typical lies," that the global media disseminates. The truth, the host says, repeating a statement by al-Qaida's official spokesman, is that "Abu Azzam was nothing more than a simple soldier."

Tragedy in Niger

At the end of the second broadcast, the producers even go so far as to present al-Qaida as a humanitarian organization. Instead of donating money to the victims of the hurricane in the US as the ruling families of the Arabic Gulf states have done, the speaker suggests people should pay more attention to the victims of famine in the Muslim parts of Niger. "It seems as though the Muslim community isn't taking this tragedy seriously," the speaker says, as images of starving children are blended in.

During the course of the show, those who helped make it are referred to with names like "God's sword," or the "Approaching Dawn" -- monikers in no way traceable to a real person. The same applies for the host: He speaks dialect-free standard Arabic, making it unclear in which region the editorial operation is based. Some experts believe the show could even be produced by exiled Arabs living in Western countries.

It's still too early to tell whether Terror TV will strike a chord with terrorists and their sympathizers. Up to now, only a few hundred people have downloaded the videos -- and the subject has found only limited resonance on Islamist discussion forums on the Internet. From the view of the terror sympathizers, the advantage of the broadcast is that "Voice of Caliphate" compiles all the material for them and they no longer need to do so themselves. On the other hand, al-Qaida members on the Internet are already capable of quickly compiling this type of information on their own -- they don't need the help of Terror TV.

Indeed, the lasting impression one gets from "Voice of the Caliphate," is that its producers have one thing in mind: to demonstrate exactly what they are capable of -- both for their own clients and their enemies in the West.