Dutch Ministry of Defense
Abstract
Without communication there can be no terrorism. This was a
conclusion drawn a quarter century ago and it still holds true.
Without effective communications, a terrorist movement
would be unable to recruit new members into its ranks,
motivate and inspire existing members to carry on with the
struggle despite formidable odds as well as expand the pool of
active supports and passive sympathizers from the movement
draws its sustenance. Bruce Hoffman recently indicated that
the art of terrorist communication has now evolved to the
point where terrorists can effortlessly and effectively control
the communication of their ideology of hate, intolerance and
violence: determining the content, context and medium over
which their message is projected; and towards precisely the
audience (or multiple audiences) they seek to reach. A decade
ago there were about twelve terrorist group websites. Since
then the number has increased to well over 7,000 such sites.
Virtually every terrorist group in the world today has its own
Internet website and, in many instances, maintain multiple
sites in different languages with different messages tailored to
specific audiences. The amount expanding amount of terrorist
propaganda has been the subject of research by law
enforcement and intelligence services. A small cottage
industry of research institutions has developed which analyze
the output of terrorist organizations. In the presentation the
results will be shown of the work of number of these
institutions (e.g. SITE Intelligence group, ICT’s Jihadi
Website Monitoring Group). Their efforts offer important
clues with respect to ongoing terrorist plans, emerging modus
operandi, communication strategies of different terrorist
organizations and increasing skills in exploiting the Internet
for operational purposes.
Short bio
Albert J. Jongman (1955) majored in western sociology at the
University of Groningen in 1981. During his studies he gained
practical experience as a research assistant at the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in Sweden.
From 1982 to 1987 he worked as a researcher at the
Polemological Institute of the University of Groningen where
he dealt with several research topics including the quantitative
study of war, political violence, armament and disarmament
issues and human rights. In 1987 he moved to the University
of Leiden where he acted as Data Manager of the Project on
Interdisciplinary Research on the Root Causes of Gross
Human Rights Violations (PIOOM). He also worked on
several research projects, including the World Conflict and
Human Rights Map, 20th Century Genocides and Monitoring
Human Rights Violations. In 2002 he moved from academia
to government. Since early 2002 he works as a senior
terrorism analyst for the Dutch Ministry of Defense. His
'World Directory of Terrorist and other Organizations
associated with Guerrilla Warfare, Political Violence and
Protest,' was included in the award-winning 'Political
Terrorism. A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data
Bases, Theories, and Literature' (2nd edition, 1988) edited by
Alex P. Schmid. During the 1990s he regularly contributed to
the Dutch Yearbook on Peace and Security. Currently an
update of Political Terrorism is being prepared under the title
Handbook of Terrorism Research that will be published by
Routledge in 2010. In his current function he participates in a
number of Advanced Research Working Groups of NATO and
in activities of the Dutch National Coordinator for
Counterterrorism.