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Al-Qaeda posts job offers online
THE al-Qa'ida terror network has launched an internet advertising campaign to recruit agents, calling for applicants who are fluent in English, are willing to pursue jihad against the West and have "video production" skills.The al-Qa'ida drive for "pure" Muslims invites fundamentalists who are "voluntarily willing" to fight against Western influences in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Chechnya. The bizarre recruitment campaign, revealed by London-based daily Arabic newspaper Asharq Alawsat, mirrors advertising techniques adopted by the US's spy agency the CIA and comes just months after Britain's elite MI6 security service advertised for agents for the first time. While the advertisements do not specify the nature of the job, al-Qa'ida asks for candidates who are bilingual, well versed in Islamic foreign affairs and blessed with "video production" skills. The message says al-Qa'ida is waiting for applicants "willing to support its organisation" and urges them to "express their interest" by email and and await further contact for a job interview. "The nature of the work will closely reflect the work that we (al-Qa'ida) have been carrying out on Iraq, as witnessed on television and heard about on radio," Asharq Alawsat quotes the ad as saying. "Every Muslim must know that his time is not his own and must fight for other (Muslims) who are shedding their blood in battles (against the West)," the message says, as translated by The Australian. It specifically refers to Iraq, where "our brothers and sisters are being killed". Cryptically, the message, which calls on Muslims to act "immediately", also insists that recruits "must have the ability to produce video programs" and must be able to "write speeches" and "be able to deliver the group's messages as clearly and eloquently as possible". Al-Qa'ida has had a long history of recording video messages from its leaders in exile, including Osama bin Laden, who has been in hiding since before the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Terrorists have also used video equipment, usually through Qatar-based Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera, to record messages from kidnap victims. The network has been criticised since the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq for showing beheadings of hostages held by al-Qa'ida extremists. The Arabic-language website where the advertisement appears promises to link prospective "jihadists" to al-Qa'ida operatives, who will get in contact via email. MI6 broke with almost a century of tradition earlier this year to recruit openly for spies. It had previously only provided a post-office box address on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website for hopefuls to make contact. According to al-Qa'ida's latest message, anyone interested in becoming an agent had to do so by their own "will" and had to speak and write Arabic and English fluently to help monitor information circulating in the global media about Islam. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-10-04 |
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