Faces of Death: Syria Terrorist Opposition Tweet Smiling Photos of Dead ‘Martyrs’ for Fundraising, Recruitment

By 21st Century Wire
Global Research, November 07, 2013
21st Century Wire 5 November 2013
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Recruitment marketing has hit a new low, courtesy of the terrorist militant gangs still running rampant in Syria.

Halloween came and went last Thursday, but Syria’s Islamic militant opposition fighters (many imported from outside of Syria) have been promoting their new ‘Faces of Death’ genre – enthusiastically promoted Tweeting over the social networking platform, and not a chirp from the censorship gods behind the curtain at Twitter Inc…

Ironically, Twitter has been censoring accounts in the US that criticised President’s Obamacare debacle, yet, this same corporation, and the likes of Facebook, to not only promote, but more importantly facilitating fundraising and recruitment for violent, armed terrorist enterprises in the Middle East. The Washington Post confirms:

“To some Syrian rebels and their supporters, Twitter is not just a communications tool but also an online cash machine, useful for soliciting donations or even running auctions for donated cars and jewelry. Others use Skype accounts to conduct interviews with potential recruits or to share advice on military tactics. Still others employ YouTube or Facebook to trumpet their battlefield successes or to document alleged atrocities by their opponents.”

The trend is overwhelming, with enough exhibits on Twitter and Facebook alone to fill an entire section of this website. See the full report on this disturbing trend compiled by Memri.org in a PDF document found here.

Now dubbed, ‘McCain’s Army’ (photo of McCain with Syrian terrorists, left), and ‘Graham’s Crackers’ in Syria, because of their illicit backing from US Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, it seems everyone – except those in Washington DC, are already well aware that radical jihadist and al Qaeda fighters have completely routed their more moderate cohorts in their bid to establish a Sunni-based sharia enclave across multiple regions in Syria and Iraq with pledges of more cash from neighboring Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Presently, the jihadist-dominated militant opposition in Syria is receiving arms directly from the the US via the CIA and other ‘off book’ channels, and are being funneled cash from gulf monarchies Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

So both US government officials, and US mega corporations are giving aid and comfort to known terrorist outfits in Syria, but actively working against constitutional freedoms and rights in the US itself.

Sounds like a massive double standard, and certainly in the realm of illegality – by anyone’s standards…

Islamist rebels in Syria use faces of the dead to lure the living

Joby Warrick
Washington Post

In his death portrait, the young rebel’s bearded face is fixed with a broad, unearthly grin. The Saudi man had been killed in fighting, and his corpse, with its beatific smile, was photographed and displayed in a Twitter posting inviting others to celebrate his martyrdom.

“He always used to say: ‘Those martyrs smile. What is it they see?’ ” a former comrade wrote in a tribute to the fighter, identified as Abu Hamad al-Saya’ri. In another post, an admirer mused about the good fortune of the fallen and speculated on what the dead must be saying: “Congrats to me, congrats to me, I became a martyr.”

The Saudi fighter is one of hundreds of Islamist veterans of the Syrian conflict whose deaths are heralded in Web postings, many of which feature bloody — and, occasionally, smiling – portraits of the newly deceased. Although the images may strike many Westerners as macabre, they have become one of the rites of service among Syrian jihadists, as well as a popular recruiting tool.

“These guys are celebrated, and to young people back in the neighborhoods, they are heroes,” said Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington nonprofit group that monitors Web sites and news media in the region. “They look at the photos and they say, ‘I can be this guy.’ ”

The memorials for dead fighters are but one manifestation of an explosion in the use of social media by Islamists since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011. Although jihadists have long used the Internet to communicate messages from leaders or spread images of battle, Syrian rebel groups are flocking to Web sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Flickr to create new ways to recruit, train, raise money, debate theology and coordinate strategy, researchers say.

To some Syrian rebels and their supporters, Twitter is not just a communications tool but also an online cash machine, useful for soliciting donations or even running auctions for donated cars and jewelry. Others use Skype accounts to conduct interviews with potential recruits or to share advice on military tactics. Still others employ YouTube or Facebook to trumpet their battlefield successes or to document alleged atrocities by their opponents.

The sites’ growing popularity among the more extremist Syrian rebel groups — including some with ties to al-Qaeda — has prompted calls for more stringent policing by the U.S. companies that own them. A handful of accounts have been blocked, but the vast majority continue to operate, providing a rare window into the thinking, planning and tactics of jihadist groups in Syria and beyond, analysts say…

Continue this Washington Post article here
Articles by: 21st Century Wire

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