Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 6 - 2007
Blair to set up 'propaganda unit' to combat AQ propaganda Times Online, 13 February 2007 TONY BLAIR is planning to set up a "propaganda unit" in Whitehall to help sway Muslim hearts and minds in the battle with Al-Qaeda. From Times Online Blair to launch spin battalion against Al-Qaeda propaganda David Leppard TONY BLAIR is planning to set up a "propaganda unit" in Whitehall to help sway Muslim hearts and minds in the battle with Al-Qaeda. A "joint information unit", to be based in the Cabinet Office or the Home Office, will seek to counter disinformation issued by Islamic terrorists. The unit will be modelled on the "public information office" set up by the British Army as part of the campaign to defeat the IRA in Northern Ireland. The move signals a change of approach to the war on terror, with ministers placing more emphasis on influencing opinion in the Muslim world rather than relying on the military action which has dominated the American and British response since 9/11. The plan for the new unit is one of the key recommendations contained in a report presented to Blair last month by John Reid, the home secretary. The "Reid Group" report answered a request by Blair for a rethink on Britain's response to the war on terror. That followed last summer's alleged plot to blow up British and American airliners. Other proposals - including setting up a national security council similar to the American government's, creating a minister for counter-terrorism, and merging MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, the government eavesdropping agency - have all been dropped. Patrick Mercer, the Tory spokesman on homeland security, said: "Given all the time and effort that went into the Reid Group's rethink on terrorism, it is extraordinary that the only thing to get approval is a propaganda organisation, which is effectively a spin machine." Reid indicated last weekend that he would like to split the Home Office in two, with one department dealing with police, prisons and the criminal justice system while a second counters the terrorism threat and deals with border controls. However, Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, is said to have blocked the idea. Since the 9/11 attacks, senior Al-Qaeda figures have issued a stream of videos claiming responsibility for atrocities and warning of even more devastating attacks unless the West changes its policies on Iraq, Afghanistan and a range of other issues. Al-Qaeda has launched an internet broadcasting channel as its latest recruitment tool. The channel has been heavily advertised in password-protected jihadist websites across the world, including those based in Britain. The channel, Sawt al-Khilafa (Voice of the Caliphate), shows programmes and footage of attacks on American and British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also showing mujaheddin operations in Chechnya and central Asia as well as speeches by Osama Bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader, and other figures. The channel is also showing past speeches by Bin Laden, as well as various other hardliner preachers. Its message posted on jihadist forums reads: "We hope these [broadcasts] will have the desired results, that they will benefit the jihad fighters, and bring grief to the infidels and the hypocrites." The channel is being run by the Global Islamic Media Front, Al-Qaeda's propaganda wing. One well-placed insider said the aim of the new British unit was to coordinate well-argued public "rebuttals" of such propaganda messages. Additional reporting: Abul Taher |