Safety & Security Guidelines For Lone Wolf Mujahideen’ Distributed On Twitter
On October 18, 2015 a top ISIS disseminator on Twitter named Abu Naseeha circulated an instructional manual for lone wolf attackers. He tweeted: “BREAKING: ‘safety & security guidelines for lone wolf mujahideen’ by IS supporters”. He included a link to the manual, which is hosted on Dump.to, a site which allows users to anonymously share text and images. The work is a summarized and updated English translation of part of a longer series by Al-Fajr Media Center titled Sina’at Al-Irhab (“Terror Industry”), which was first published in 2010. The guide contains 12 chapters: “Definition of security, its importance and its obligation to Islam”;” general security guidelines”; “Homeland Security-Cell Security”; Online Security-Encryption”; “The Safehouse”; “Conferences & Meetings”; “Travel & Transport Security”; “Money & Weapons Security”; “Surveillance”; “The Cover”; “Social Engineering”; and “Special Operations & Inspection”. At the time of this writing, the guide has been online for 14 hours and received around 1,000 views. The cover image of the manual features a graphic of a burning NYC skyline (the image is taken from the promo poster for the 2008 Hollywood film Cloverfield). The following is a summary of the guide.
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Despite being circulated by a top ISIS account, it should be mentioned that members of Jabhat Al-Nusra are also circulating the work on Twitter.
On October 19, an Australian Jabhat Al-Nusra fighter tweeted a link to the guide, and wrote, “Much needed piece of work for the new and often reckless generation of jihadis.”
The opening section explains the contents of the guide: “We present you this modest work for lone wolf mujahideen and small cells of brothers who want to bring victory to this religion. This is originally a series of lectures in 30 parts about safety & security in Jihadi work, entitled ‘Dawrat al-Amn wa Al-Mujhabaraat‘ [Security and Intelligence Course]. It was initially meant for mujahideen groups and not lone wolves, but we have tried to adapt it and pick what’s important and leave what’s not relevant for an individual mujahid and small groups. No doubt that today, at the era of the lone wolves, brothers in the West need to know some important things about safety in order to ensure success in their operations. We have also adapted some parts, taking into account the latest technological advances, for example in the field of encryption and safety of documents. We highly recommend the reader to also read Inspire and Dabiqmagazines for all the valuable info they contain on the topic of lone wolf operations. The series was released by al-Fajr media Centre a few years ago, in Arabic. We thought a lot of non-Arabic speaking brothers would find it interesting and may apply it in their blessed operations.”
*** ‘Wear a Christian Cross’: Al-Qaeda Jihad Rules Adapted Into Handbook for Lone Wolves
PJMedia in part: The booklet goes into encryption techniques that U.S. officials acknowledge have put many online jihadis in dark, unreachable corners of the Internet. “Your mobile phone is a government spy with you on your pocket,” the guide advises. “Make sure to read enough about Android ways to protect your privacy. Never use iOS, as it’s compromised.”
Tips are also included for finding an appropriate safehouse, whether for living and planning or storing weapons: “make that apartment look un-Islamic” and devise secret knock-knock codes to alert others in the safehouse if you’re being followed or if everyone needs to flee, the guide states. If jihadis decide to go beardless to not attract attention, they’re advised to allow a 2-week beardless window to allow their skin to get some sun. The guide says it’s “permissible” for jihadists trying to blend in “to wear a necklace showing a Christian cross.” They’re encouraged to make the smartphone, tablet or music players they’re carrying “entirely un-Islamic” with “songs, music clips, funny videos, etc. No Quran app, no hadith app.” More here.
