June 22, 2006: Found -&-Terror Incidents & the Media

Found

"The U.S. military in recent weeks has seized a "huge treasure" of intelligence materials on al Qaeda in Iraq, including a revealing document in which the terror group acknowledges its own "bleak situation" caused by losses on both the public relations and war fronts." .... "Egyptian-born Abu Ayyub al-Masri -- an explosives specialist also known by the alias Sheik Abu Hamza al-Muhajer -- has become the leader of Zarqawi's terror network" Papers reveal a weaker al Qaeda, Rowan Scarborough, WashTimes, June 16


The Media and Terrorist Incidents -- Sad ... & Sick

Media increases terrorism -- What's Black and White and Red All Over? By Richard Morin, June 15, 2006; A02, posted by Bugs

[....] "Both the media and terrorists benefit from terrorist incidents," their study contends. Terrorists get free publicity for themselves and their cause. The media, meanwhile, make money "as reports of terror attacks increase newspaper sales and the number of television viewers."

The researchers counted direct references to terrorism between 1998 and 2005 in the New York Times and Neue Zuercher Zeitung, a respected Swiss newspaper. They also collected data on terrorist attacks around the world during that period. Using a statistical procedure called the Granger Causality Test, they attempted to determine whether more coverage directly led to more attacks.

The results, they said, were unequivocal: Coverage caused more attacks, and attacks caused more coverage -- a mutually beneficial spiral of death that they say has increased because of a heightened interest in terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001.

One partial solution: Deny groups publicity by not publicly naming the attackers, Frey said. [....]