CNN’s Adam Levine reports “al Qaeda's English-language outreach efforts have nearly disappeared”.
… "The reasons for this are likely representative of a shift in messaging focus as well as a resource management decision to allow the proliferation of support groups producing translations to shoulder more of the burden,"... "It also could point to a loss of capability or operational difficulties facing the elements of the organization that had been performing the work from 2000 to 2010."
The drop off is "significant," observed terror analyst Peter Bergen, who has published numerous books on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. The prominence of Urdu videos suggests al Qaeda is narrowing its focus…
Comments
Could this decline in activity be explained by other factors than the 'supply' by AQ? Local anecdote suggests that young males are staying away from visiting known and even suspected AQ websites, fearing 'Big Brother' is watching the "obvious suspect" websites.
On SWC we have discussed whether AQ has adapted modern management techniques. Maybe AQ's public relations department have looked at how many hits their websites get and noted it has fallen?