MSM finally gets around to reporting progress in anti al-Qaeda PR
Only four days after the story broke
The top White House terrorism expert thinks some gains are being made in the worldwide public relations battle against al-Qaeda, as the administration and its overseas allies press efforts to show that Osama bin Laden’s network is killing Muslim civilians rather than defending its interests.“More and more Muslim and Arab populations — [including] clerics and scholars — are questioning the value of al-Qaeda’s program,” Juan Carlos Zarate, deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism, said Wednesday at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The efforts he described are in line with plans that Michael E. Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, discussed in February before the same organization. Leiter, who is responsible for strategic communications planning in the fight against terrorism, said the goal is “to prevent the next generation of terrorists from emerging.”
One approach, he said, is “to show that it is al-Qaeda, not the West, that is truly at war with Islam.”
Last week, Zarate echoed that theme. He said al-Qaeda “should be revealed as themselves being at war with Muslims, especially those who do not believe as they do or subscribe to the al-Qaeda agenda.”
Zarate cited an Egyptian Islamic group, which includes former jihadist leaders, that recently published a series of books “highly critical of jihadists and al-Qaeda.” He did not say who promoted or paid for the books, but in undertaking this program, Zarate said, “credible voices, outside of the U.S. government,” had to carry the messages.
H/T Hot Air