This is so disgustingly ridiculously insane that it is beyond words:http://www.moonofalabama.org/2006/05/strategic_commu.htmlMay 08, 2006
Strategic Communication
I got my eyes upon you, and all the things that you do
Some close they eyes but mine can see, all the evil surroundin´ me
Paris: Evil
Last Thursday Reuters had this frightening story: Islamists using U.S. video games in youth appeal
The makers of combat video games have unwittingly become part of a global propaganda campaign by Islamic militants to exhort Muslim youths to take up arms against the United States, officials said on Thursday.
The gaming industry shuddered.
Tech-savvy militants from al Qaeda and other groups have modified video war games so that U.S. troops play the role of bad guys in running gunfights against heavily armed Islamic radical heroes, U.S. Defence Department official and contractors told Congress.
The games appear on militant Web sites, where youths as young as 7 can play at being troop-killing urban guerrillas after registering with the site's sponsors.
In a public hearing on "Terrorist Use of the Internet for Strategic Communications" DoD public diplomacy specialist Dan Devlin and SAIC, a defense contractor, presented this to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Reuters' report continues:
One of the latest video games modified by militants is the popular "Battlefield 2" from leading video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc of Redwood City, California.
...
"I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters," a narrator's voice said as the screen flashed between images of street-level gunfights, explosions and helicopter assaults.
...
SAIC executive Eric Michael said researchers suspect Islamic militants are using video games to train recruits and condition youth to attack U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.
Mr. Michael delivered his expertise within a $7 million DoD contract to screen 1,500 militant websites.
But unlike the US Army, which is indeed conditioning the 7 million registrated users of its official shooter game Americas Army, the tech-savvy Islamic Militants turn out to be a bit less dangerous.
What had been presented to the Intelligence Committee was identified by regular Battlefield II players as a video made by using an official game extension available for some $25.
The dangerous narrator's voice in the video was taken from the movie Team America World Police. The movie was made and published last December by a long-time gamer and is available as wmv-file on archive.org.
The gamer's nom de guerre is SonicJihad, the title of an album by Guerrilla Funk rapper Paris. "Islamic militants to exhort Muslim youths to take up arms against the United States" - indeed!
The Reuters story resides uncorrected at Fox News, the Washington Post, Yahoo and lots of other sites.
The DoD and its contracter were obviously feeding false information to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and to the global public.
Maybe they did know this and broke the law by spreading domestic propaganda
But then, maybe they did not know, but are unable to differentiate a video of a game from an actual game. Maybe they are just too dim to determine that an "militant islamist video game" is unlikely to use an English language character as "Islamic radical hero", underlying Irish dance music and Dutch and English in-game messages.
In the second case, of course, SACI and the DoD's "public diplomacy specialist" should be fired for utter incompetence.
Will the committee and the public ever be told? And what conclusion will the House committee and the public draw from this horrible game played by 7 year old troop-killing urban guerrillas on the Internet?
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http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-195896.htmlIslamic militants recruit using U.S. video gamesPosted on ZDNet News: May 5, 2006 5:30:00 AM
The makers of combat video games have unwittingly become part of a global propaganda campaign by Islamic militants to exhort Muslim youths to take up arms against the United States, officials said on Thursday.
Tech-savvy militants from al-Qaida and other groups have modified video war games so that U.S. troops play the role of bad guys in running gunfights against heavily armed Islamic radical heroes, Defense Department official and contractors told Congress.
The games appear on militant Web sites, where youths as young as 7 can play at being troop-killing urban guerillas after registering with the site's sponsors.
"What we have seen is that any video game that comes out ... they'll modify it and change the game for their needs," said Dan Devlin, a Defense Department public diplomacy specialist.
Devlin spoke before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, at which contractors from San Diego-based Science Applications International, or SAIC, gave lawmakers a presentation that focused on Iraq as an engine for Islamic militant propaganda from Indonesia to Turkey and Chechnya.
SAIC has a $7 million Defense Department contract to monitor 1,500 militant Web sites that provide al-Qaida and other militant organizations with a main venue for communications, fund-raising, recruitment and training.
The sites use a variety of emotionally charged content, from images of real U.S. soldiers being hit by snipers in Iraq to video-recordings of American televangelists including Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell making disparaging remarks about Islam.
"Infidels came to my village"
The underlying propaganda message, officials say, is that the United States is waging a crusade against Islam in order to control Middle Eastern oil, and that Muslims should fight to protect Islam from humiliation.
One of the latest video games modified by militants is the popular "Battlefield 2" from leading video game publisher, Electronic Arts of Redwood City, Calif.
Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, said enthusiasts often write software modifications, known as "mods," to video games.
"Millions of people create mods on games around the world," he said. "We have absolutely no control over them. It's like drawing a mustache on a picture."
"Battlefield 2" ordinarily shows U.S. troops engaging forces from China or a united Middle East coalition. But in a modified video trailer posted on Islamic Web sites and shown to lawmakers, the game depicts a man in Arab headdress carrying an automatic weapon into combat with U.S. invaders.
"I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters," a narrator's voice said as the screen flashed between images of street-level gunfights, explosions and helicopter assaults.
Then came a recording of President George W. Bush's September 16, 2001, statement: "This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while." It was edited to repeat the word "crusade," which Muslims often define as an attack on Islam by Christianity.
Two militant videos were also pointed out to lawmakers, including one called "Lion of Falluja," the city in Iraqi's violent Anbar province that has long been seen as a symbol of militant resistance.
Critics of the U.S. video game industry have long blamed the products for violence among American teenagers in civilian society, including high-profile shootings at public schools.
SAIC executive Eric Michael said researchers suspect Islamic militants are using video games to train recruits and condition youth to attack U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.
Story Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194416,00.html
