Al Qaeda exporting jihad with a hip-hop vibe

This is a 2009 story i forgot to post; events since this was published in May 2009 seem to bear out some of the predictions in the full story.

CNN

Al Qaeda exporting jihad with a hip-hop vibe
updated 6:12 p.m. EDT, Mon May 4, 2009
By Paula Newton
CNN

LONDON (CNN) -- The latest video from Somalia's al Qaeda-backed Al-Shabaab wing is as slickly produced as a reality TV show but with a startling message -- complete with a hip-hop jihad vibe.

"Mortar by mortar, shell by shell, only going to stop when I send them to hell," the unidentified voice raps on the video, which runs at least 18 minutes.

The video also shows a man reported to be Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, dubbed "The American" by al Qaeda. He apparently is now in Somalia training and counseling Somalis from North America and Europe. He speaks in American English.

"Away from your family, away from our friends, away from ice, candy bars, all those things is because we're waiting to meet the enemy," says the man believed to be al-Amriki.

Intelligence experts say the video was probably made in recent weeks and comes on the heels of an audio message in March purportedly from Osama bin Laden. In that recording, the al Qaeda leader calls on his "Muslim brothers in Mujahid Somalia" to overthrow President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed for cooperating with the West.

Al-Shabaab is the militant Islamic wing in Somalia. It means "Youth" in Arabic.

"We're seeing perhaps their most sophisticated attempt so far to really reach an audience of potential recruits in America, and that's one of the things that made that video very significant," said Ben Venzke of the IntelCenter, a Washington-based research group that tracks al Qaeda's development and messages.

"They're casting it in a way that's going to speak to the youth of today," Venzke said. "Most of the time, what we're seeing in their videos directly parallels what the groups are doing operationally, what they are targeting, where they're recruiting."

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The the entire story, with video and photos, HERE.