Former recruiter warns of rise in online Al-Qaeda jihadist propaganda after US army withdrawal
A former Al-Qaeda recruiter has warned that the West has handed a major propaganda victory to terror groups the world over with its rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Jesse Morton said that he had witnessed increased online ‘chatter’ among supporters of jihadi movements such as Isis, known as IS-Khorosan (IS-K) in Asia, since the drawdown was announced.
He also warned that the departure of the last US soldier from the airport in Kabul on Monday night will be spun by Al-Qaeda as an ‘immaculate success’ vindicating Osama bin Laden’s anti-West prophecy.
Morton, now an expert in counter-extremism, said the return of the Taliban has created a global upsurge in extreme views that can only be countered with a focus on human rights.
He told a conference organised by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) on Monday to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 that there had been an increase of between 8% and 10% in jihadi ‘chatter’.
Morton, a former US Muslim convert, said: ‘Where we find ourselves now is a vision that ultimate victory is for the Muslims and that will now impact the minds and mentality not just of jihadists, but of Islamists.
‘It makes that very real argument that only violent jihad can obtain the change that radical Muslims want to achieve all the more palatable.
‘And it will bleed into the understanding of prophecy and the resonance of Isis trying to take over from the Taliban, because the statement of jihadists is that they hold Khorosan in Arabic as Afghanistan.
‘The prophecy says the black flag of jihad will be realised in Khorosan and will not be stopped until it reaches Jerusalem.
‘In a matter of months, really weeks, we have seen what was in the mind of jihadists basically a state of despair when Isis’s caliphate was dismantled and…they weren’t in the media, they weren’t in the Press…all of the chatter since then, I’ve seen jihadist chatter online, particularly in Arabic, increase at least eight to ten-fold.’
Morton pinpointed the Taliban’s killing of the Afghan Government’s media spokesman, Dawa Khan Manapal, in the days running up to the fall of Kabul as similar to Al-Qaeda’s PR strategy before 9/11.
He said: ‘Whenever two terrorist groups try to compete and combat each other technically it is a competition for publicity and Press.
‘Terrorists don’t care about how many people they kill, they care about how many people are watching…We are going to see a massive ideological war between jihadists everywhere.’
Morton told Metro.co.uk after the conference that Al-Qaeda, which has a local and global outlook, is also attempting to capitalise on the coalition’s departure following the 20-year intervention in Afghanistan.
‘For Al-Qaeda it’s confirmation that bin Laden’s war on the far enemy, that is the US and its Western allies, has proven an immaculate success,’ he said.
‘Bin Laden said he was going to bleed the Americans into bankruptcy by luring them into guerrilla war in Afghanistan in the same manner that the Afghan Mujahadeen did against the Soviets.
‘For every jihadist, every Islamist and every person who takes the real religion and mixes it with politics there is a deep appeal to this narrative that another superpower has been defeated.
‘The primary narrative that drives radicalisation is in fact the David versus Goliath mentality and so this is just further confirmation for their worldview that terrorism works.’
IS-K has claimed responsibility for the suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport – the latest in a series of atrocities by the group in Afghanistan – that has claimed the lives of 170 civilians and 13 US Marines.
Metro.co.uk has previously reported how proscribed terror organisations are regrouping with no Western presence on the ground after the Taliban swept to power within the space of two weeks.
‘For the Taliban, Isis and every terrorist group in the world this is a rejuvenating period,’ Morton said.
‘The Taliban is in power but it’s a further indication that if you stay patient and keep fighting then victory is on the horizon.
‘What has really galvanised Isis’ propaganda and their recruitment is that if they get a strong presence on the ground in Afghanistan in the vacuum that has been created and if they rejuvenate their movement then they will again be able to promote prophetic narration such as the black flag being raised from Khorosan.
‘This says that they won’t be stopped until they reach Jerusalem, which taps into that broader anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic statement and can be a very powerful lure for those who are susceptible to radicalisation.’
Following the airport attack the US launched a drone strike that was blamed for claiming the lives of 10 members of the same family on Sunday.
Washington said Islamist suicide bombers who were targeting the airport were killed. However Morton has first-hand experience of those who he feels will not be deterred by the deaths of their associates in targeted military operations on what is now Taliban soil.
He was known as Younus Abdullah Muhammed after becoming a radicalised convert before turning FBI informant and co-creating the counter-radicalisation group Parallel Networks in 2017.
Morton told Metro.co.uk that as US global interventionism ends the so-called war on terror needs to be replaced with a demonstration that the West can stand for human rights and democracy.
‘We have to really understand how the 20 years that are the war on terror have affected our domestic situation,’ he said.
‘We have polarisation at home, a rising threat of right-wing extremism and massive mistrust in governmental institutions domestically.
‘In the international arena, the liberal world order is endangered because of rising powers such as China, Iran and Russia.
‘We have to stop countering everything and realise what we promote is most valuable, so it’s really time to stand up for democracy, human rights and individual freedoms and not get stuck in reactionary policies and practices that have been the underlying principles of the war on terror.
‘We have to understand that democracy and human rights is what makes people believe in what the West has established.
‘If we are not promoting them and getting through to people who believe in those principles on the ground it doesn’t matter how many terrorists you kill or extremists you stop from establishing political power.
‘Someone will step in and sell them the false narrative that authoritarianism, that jihadism, that Communism are effective. We have squandered and destroyed and damaged our ability to do that over the last 20 years.’
The CEP, a New York-based think tank, has previously warned of the renewed threat posed by IS-K and the most extreme elements within the Taliban, such as the Haqqani Network.
The UK has backed a UN Security Council resolution calling on the Taliban not to provide safe haven for terrorists and to respect human rights and international humanitarian law.
Source: Metro
