Informational Warfare Helped Defeat Daesh in Iraq and Could Help Ensure the Peace
UNIPATH STAFF
Just weeks after Iraq eradicated Daesh’s last stronghold in the country, Baghdad hosted the 3rd International Conference on Countering Daesh Propaganda and Ideology. The mood among the multinational audience was congratulatory and optimistic in recognition of a victory that had reduced Daesh’s presence to a few locations in Syria.
“Iraq achieved the complete victory by liberating its total land from the disgrace of Daesh using organic forces with support of advisors and experts from the coalition forces,” Safaa al-Din al-Sheikh, Iraq’s deputy national security advisor, said in an introduction to the December 13-14, 2017, conference. “Yet Iraq faces a huge challenge in combating the ideas of Daesh, which will determine the real victory over the terrorists.”
Baghdad was honored with the presence of some of Saudi Arabia’s top counterterrorism leaders. Dr. Nasser al-Baqmi, secretary-general of Saudi Arabia’s Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, or ETIDAL, described the main tenets of counterterrorist messaging as “exposure, raising awareness, confrontation and cooperation.”
“Iraq is fighting terrorists on behalf of the world,” Dr. Nasser said. “We praise the important role of Iraq in fighting extremist ideology.”
Dr. Nasser highlighted his country’s critical role fighting terrorism, since the country is the heartland of Islam. The center relies on security methodology and statistical intelligence to disrupt terrorist propaganda, refuting and correcting their distortions of religious texts.
“We have expert and specialized teams to analyze the extremist narratives in real time and discredit them by properly citing the Quran and hadiths,” he said. “We are very proud of our achievement and our capability to defeat terror ideology on social media.”
Staff Maj. Gen. Adel Abas, director of planning in Iraq’s Combined Joint Operation Command, recounted how Iraq and its allies, after the security collapse of 2014, achieved victory over Daesh in 2017 with a bitter fight for the strategic city of Mosul. He also praised the role of media in defeating the enemy.
“The media is an effective weapon that can defeat the enemy on all levels,” the general said. “Media and psychological operations were used to great effect to support the fighting by using portable radios and dropping leaflets.”
Maj. Gen. Tahseen Al-Khafaji, director of media and morale guidance in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, discussed the value of asymmetric psychological warfare to rid cities of Daesh gangs with less collateral damage. The Iraqi military created a specialized psychological operations unit that helped build bridges of communications with citizens in Daesh-occupied areas.
“We received many intelligence tips about weapon caches and enemy posts from civilians. Despite what they went through during the furious fighting, our citizens received us with open arms and tears of relief and told us that they were following our media instructions and kept some of our dropped leaflets,” Gen. Tahseen said.
Saeed Naama al-Jayashi, chief of Iraq’s national War Media Cell, explained how his organization monitored and analyzed enemy propaganda and created a plan to counter terrorists’ psychological efforts. He expressed gratitude to the coalition for not only unifying its informational efforts with Iraq’s but also providing advanced technology and training for Iraqi psychological operation units. “We learned a lot from our allies’ experiences, and we were well-coordinated with the coalition forces in the operational and strategic areas,” he said.
Several speakers at the conference stressed the need to continue an aggressive communications strategy to defeat the twisted ideology that motivates Daesh and other terrorists. Much of the focus should be on immunizing children from such toxic messages.
Esam Amin of the Directorate of Security and Intelligence in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense said Daesh’s propaganda operations took a severe hit with the loss of Iraqi territory, yet its messaging machine continues to exploit social media to target isolated groups that sympathize with its ideology.
After the expulsion of Daesh from Mosul, the terror group’s publications have focused on violent revenge. To prevent attempts at a resurgence, Amin urged governments to try to delete Daesh archives from the internet. Equally concerning is the psychological state of children who lived under Daesh occupation for several years. Dr. Saad Oubaidi, an expert in psychological operations, said Daesh made a footprint inside a community that found itself on the opposite side of the government.
“What concerns us today is not the return of Daesh, but the children who were brainwashed by Daesh,” Dr. Oubaidi said. “Mosque preachers must change their speech and avoid talking about heavenly virgins.”
Dr. Saad al-Hadithi, spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister’s office, urged the government to employ sociologists and religious scholars to protect youth against extremist narratives transmitted by cellphone from social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
“The state alone can’t face up to these challenges without the support of the people and civil organizations,” Dr. al-Hadithi said.
Comments are closed.