Does the United States need a new information service to wage an information war?

Recruiting is not merely meant to fill operational needs. It is an end in itself: It aims at creating a new mindset.

... Self-radicalization begins the day that an individual seeks out jihadist websites.

... The message from the global jihad is aimed directly at the
individual.

Submission is voluntary. ... A component of our counter-recruiting strategy must be to always offer a safe way back from the edge.

... the US Army is reportedly preparing an assault on jihadist websites.

Testimony by Brian Michael Jenkins, presented before the House Homeland Security Committee, Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment on April 5, 2007.

See also, Unconquerable Nation: Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves:

Brian Michael Jenkins presents a clear-sighted and sobering analysis of where we are today in the struggle against terrorism. Jenkins, an internationally renowned authority on terrorism, distills the jihadists’ operational code and suggests how they might assess their situation very differently from how we might do so. He distills the jihadists’ operational code and outlines a ferociously pragmatic but principled approach that goes beyond attacking terrorist networks and operational capabilities to defeating their entire missionary enterprise by deterring recruitment and encouraging defections.

Jenkins believes that homeland security should move beyond gates and guards and become the impetus for rebuilding America’s decaying infrastructure. Americans need to adopt a realistic approach to risk and get a lot smarter about security. We need to build upon the nation’s traditions of determination and self-reliance. Above all, we need to preserve our commitment to American values. Preserving these values is no mere matter of morality, he argues; it is a strategic imperative.

Jenkins brings to his prose the driving rhythm, no-nonsense language, passion, and energy of a warrior, and he brings to his analysis the steady, informed perspective of a historian. Unconquerable Nation is a rallying cry from a man who has dedicated his life to defending America, who has been dismayed by the propagation of homegrown terror, yet who refuses to surrender his faith in what he believes are America’s finest, unconquerable values.

How America deals with the terrorist threat is one of the major challenges of this century. Jenkins points the way forward.