The Sleeper Cell Next Door

This is a Frontpage interview with Brian Jenkins, Senior advisor to the President of the RAND Corp. The discussion centers on Osama's latest videos.
The Sleeper Cell Next Door
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | 9/21/2007
FROM FRONTPAGEMAG.COM:

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Brian Jenkins, the Senior Advisor to the President of the RAND Corporation and author of Unconquerable Nation: Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves.

FP: Brian Jenkins, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Jenkins: Thank you.
FP: What do you make of Osama’s latest videos?
Jenkins: Communications comprise a key component of al Qaeda’s campaign. We see it as a military contest. Bin Laden sees it as building an army of believers. All wartime communications are aimed at the home front. Even as bin Laden appears to be addressing us, his followers are his primary audience.
The latest bin Laden tape informs them that, despite being the target of a worldwide, high-tech manhunt, he is alive, well, his robes are clean and pressed, he has access to a barber, he is serene, up on world events, he reads books, he is engaged and in charge—hardly the portrait of a fugitive. His acolytes see his survival as evidence of divine protection.
The words themselves hit the recurring themes. Bin Laden’s basic message is one of incitement. Bin Laden tells his followers not to wait for the center to do something for them, but to take action on their own—only continued terrorist operations ensure the continued relevancy of al Qaeda, and continued relevancy is bin Laden’s chief concern. His invitation to Americans to embrace Islam in order to end their troubles is the traditional Muslim offer to infidels—if we refuse, violence is justified. But it is also sincere. Fanatics cannot comprehend why anyone would not join them in the joy of their certainties.
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