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Islamic State Twitterati Use Senate Intelligence Report to Accuse U.S. of Terrorism, Recruit More Terrorists

/ AP
December 9, 2014

On Tuesday, following the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA interrogation techniques, supporters of the Islamic State and other terror groups took to Twitter to decry the United States with the hashtag #Torture_Report, posting excerpts of stories in order to encourage violence against the U.S. and Western nations.

Despite repeated warnings from U.S. politicians and security officials, the report was released shortly before noon on Tuesday and, after a few hours of combing through the 528-page report, jihadist Twitter users and IS supporters began using episodes of CIA "torture" to both accuse the U.S. of terrorism and incite marginalized Muslims to wage violent resistance against America and its allies in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

One Twitter user from Algeria, Asad ad-Din Shirkuh, summed up the attitude of global jihadists after the report's release:

One user, Fahad Al Juhani (whose Twitter profile suggests he is eager for the 'day of judgement'), berated the U.S. for its "murderous" activities and suggested that this report was only a small part of the bigger picture: "This is the tip of the iceberg! What #America has practiced in bombing civilians and supporting dictatorships is more of a crime #torture_report #congress_report."

This tweet from Abu Bakr #Caliph (undoubtedly a reference to IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi) urges outraged Muslims to curb-stomp their offenders: "From now on when someone accuses your Muslim brother of terrrorism, stick the #torture_report on the heel of your shoe and shove it in his mouth."

The Twitter user Mus'ab al-Iraqi justified torture of Americans: "The #torture_report says that torture was necessary to prevent possible attacks, I hope for reciprocity and we say that torture was necessary to prevent American attacks."

Before deleting this tweet, Twitter user Musaed urged: "Every Muslim should check out these American crimes, the same needs to happen to them with Jihad, at least, or the #Islamic_State will claim them #torture_report #congress_report."

IS supporters also used the Senate Intelligence Committee report, and the journalistic reports it spawned, to identify countries that aided the U.S. in gathering intelligence from captured terrorists. This Twitter user, Alahmawlana, posted a map from The Guardian and used it as an informational bulletin for jihadists seeking revenge against countries that work with U.S. intelligence agencies: "List of countries that facilitated or incubated detention facilities for the American intelligence apparatus. #torture_report."

Shirkuh even used an alleged report of rape to incite followers against Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah for cooperating with the U.S., using a vulgar reference (note, 'gheerah' means 'jealousy'):

Al-Iraqi used the report to point out the hypocrisy of America and the West, and issued an ominous warning for America: "The #torture_report revealed that human rights are the biggest lie that the West raises over the Muslims, and they are reserved especially for the infidels only, not human rights. After today, an eye for an eye."