A former al-Qaida recruiter said that the United States was losing the propaganda war with the Islamic State and other terrorist groups because of weak messaging and poor media products.
"This looks like it was done on Windows Movie Maker," Abu Hurriya, 37, told
CNN on Friday.
He was comparing an anti-terrorism video produced by the State Department — made up of only text and static pictures — with professional-quality ISIS recruitment footage that included panoramic photography and computer-generated graphics, according to the report.
Abu Hurriya, who is not using his real name, was recently released from prison in the United States for propagandizing on behalf of a terrorist organization, CNN reports.
Born and raised in New York, he was once the chief propagandist for al-Qaida in the U.S., helping to recruit Americans for the terrorist group.
ISIS targets lost, angry young men and women — a "seeker" — for its radicalization process, he told CNN.
"I can put myself in their shoes because I was once in them," Abu Hurriya said. "I don't justify it because I don't think you can justify it, but at the end of the day I understand how they can get to that point.
"They're young and vulnerable," he said. "It's the same way that a kid in the ghetto joins a gang."
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