Tag Archives: Social Media

ISIS Using Encryption To Avoid FBI

FBI Director James Comey admitted to lawmakers that ISIS and other terrorist groups are using encryption methods as a way to avoid federal investigators.

“This is not your grandfather’s al Qaeda,” he told a Senate panel.

Comey said that ISIS has been effective in using social media outlets like Twitter where they have over 22,000 English-language followers.

“[It’s like a] devil in their pocket all day long that says ‘Kill, kill, kill,” Comey said.  “There is simply no doubt that bad people can communicate with impunity in a world of universal strong encryption.”

“We cannot break strong encryption,” Comey told lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I think people watch TV and think the bureau can do lots of things. We cannot break strong encryption.”

Comey cited as an example the case of Usaamah Rahim, the Boston man killed when he attacked FBI and Boston Police as they tried to question him.  The agents tracking him couldn’t see his exact plans because they went into an encrypted site.

The FBI calls that “going dark.”

“ISIL does something al-Qaida would never imagine: they test people by tasking them,” Comey told the senators. “Kill somebody and we’ll see if you are really a believer. And these people react in a way that is very difficult to predict. What you saw in Boston is what the experts say is flash-to-bang being very close. You had a guy who was in touch in an encrypted way with these ISIL recruiters and we believe was bent on doing something on July 4th. He woke up one morning, June 2nd, and decided he was going to go kill somebody.”

Gospel Singer Shares Message Of Love On Charleston Shooter’s Facebook Profile

Marcus Stanley, a victim of gun violence, showed the world a message of grace and forgiveness in a Facebook comment that has gone viral.

“I love you Dylann… even in the midst of the darkness and pain you’ve caused.”

The Facebook comment was found on the barren profile of Dylann Storm Roof, the suspect of the Charleston shooting. Stanley posted the message before Roof was captured Thursday morning in hopes that he would see it.

“I don’t look at you with the eyes of hatred, or judge you by your appearance or race, but I look at you as a human being that made a horrible decision to take the lives of 9 living & breathing people,” Stanley, a 30-year-old gospel singer, wrote on Roof’s Facebook. “Children do not grow up with hatred in their hearts. In this world we are born color blind. Somewhere along the line, you were taught to hate people that are not like you, and that is truly tragic.”

In 2004, Stanley was shot eight times by a gang during an initiation rite on the streets of Baltimore. CBN News reported that he had lost feeling in his right hand. A few months later, he turned to God and was able to forgive the man that pulled the trigger, according to his Facebook page.

Stanley even encouraged the young man to accept Jesus into his heart and be forgiven.

“Give your heart to Jesus and confess your sins with a heart of forgiveness. He is the only one that can save your soul and forgive you for the terrible act that you have done. I love you Dylann…but more importantly HE loves you.”

Marveled by Stanley’s compassion for Roof, other Facebook users have shared the post nearly 28,000 times.

Madrid Cultural Counselor Resigns Over Anti-Semitic Comments

A man who had been appointed Saturday to be Madrid’s “Cultural Counselor” and a new city councilman has resigned as counselor over anti-Semitic jokes and comments made on twitter in 2011.

Guillermo Zapata tweeted in 2011 “How do you fit five million Jews in a SEAT 600 [a Spanish car]?  In the ashtray.”

Zapata claimed it was all humor and not how he feels about Jews.

“Now some of those tweets, which were written within the context of a conversation on black humor, have been recovered with the goal of presenting them as though they represented my ideas….while in fact I do not defend them at all,” Zapata wrote Sunday.  “I firmly condemn all forms of racism, and, of course, anti-Semitism. I believe the Jewish Holocaust teaches us a lesson that humanity must never forget, so that it is never repeated.”

However, critics of Zapata quickly pointed out how he defended a now-disgraced journalist who denied the Holocaust.

Jews in Spain were quick to issue condemnation for the statements.

“The Jewish community of Madrid has issued an immediate communique asking for explanations and obviously denouncing these types of comments and we also stated that we will not tolerate any kind of anti-Semitism,” said David Hatchwell, the president of the Jewish community of Madrid and vice president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain.

American Teen Pleads Guilty To Helping ISIS

A Virginia teenager is planning for life in prison rather than his high school graduation after pleading guilty to helping ISIS.

Ali Shukri Amin, 17, admitted to authorities that he had used his computer to contact ISIS members and helped arrange for an 18-year-old classmate to travel to Syria to join the terrorists.

Amin pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.

The teen said he ran the twitter handle @Amreekiwitness to “provide advice and encouragement to ISIL and its supporters.”  He also taught followers of the terrorist group how to convert currency to Bitcoin so they could fund the terror group.

“Around the nation, we are seeing ISIL use social media to reach out from the other side of the world,” Assistant Attorney General Carlin said. “Their messages are reaching America in an attempt to radicalize, recruit and incite our youth and others to support ISIL’s violent causes.”

The FBI had been keeping the teenager under surveillance for over a month before they took him into custody.

“Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that those who use social media as a tool to provide support and resources to ISIL will be identified and prosecuted with no less vigilance than those who travel to take up arms with ISIL,” said U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente.

ISIS Member Accidentally Gives Up Command Center Location Via Social Media

While ISIS has been successfully using social media to recruit new members and radicalize those sympathetic to their cause, some members are posting items that undermine their own case.

The U.S. military said a recent post by a “moron” helped them take out an ISIS command and control center.

“These guys that are working down at Hurlburt (Florida), they’re combing through social media. And they see some moron standing at this command and control capability for Da’Esh, ISIL. These guys go, ‘ah we got an in,'” Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said during a Monday speech in Arlington, Virginia.

Twenty-two hours later, the center no longer existed.

“Long story short…three JDAMs take the entire building out,” Carlisle said in the speech to the Air Force Association.

A JDAM is a device that guides bombs to their targets using a global positioning system and internal navigation system.

ISIS has recruited around 3,400 westerners and at least 200 Americans using social media according to Nicholas Rasmussen of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Marine and Wife Become National Witness For Christ

They didn’t realize a moment of obedience and placing God first would turn them into witnesses for Christ on the national stage.

Marine Cpl. Caleb Earwood was due to marry the love of his life Maggie in Asheville, North Carolina last Saturday.  He wanted to make sure that their marriage began in the way a marriage should begin: dedicating all to the Lord.

So he asked his friends and family to arrange a way for him to pray with his wife-to-be without violating the marriage tradition of the groom not seeing the bride before the wedding.

“They hid me in a room and he stepped up on the stairwell and he stuck his hand out and I grabbed his hand,” Maggie Earwood told ABC News.

The couple held hands around a corner and prayed.  A picture was taken and shared on social media.

And then it blew up all over the world.  The photo appeared in magazines like US Weekly and even had the couple make an appearance on NBC’s Today show.

“We were about to take our first steps in life together, and we didn’t want to take a step without it being in God’s will,” Caleb, 21, told TODAY.com. “I prayed to God for my beautiful and intelligent wife that he blessed me with and the amazing family I was marrying into.”

Maggie said it was a great relief for her on her wedding day to know the person she was about to vow to spend the rest of her life with felt the same way about God as her.

What many didn’t know about the wedding is that Caleb almost didn’t make it.  He had emergency surgery the week prior for kidney stones and had to work to keep up his strength for the big day.

Now, the couple is thankful their picture is blessing others and showing the importance of placing God first.

“We’re thankful that our picture is able to bless so many people and touch that many hearts,” said Caleb.

“Charlie Charlie Challenge” Has Teens Summoning Demon

A new viral video challenge has teenagers attempting to summon a demon.

The “Charlie Charlie” challenge has teens all over the world filming themselves and then posting the videos to websites such as YouTube.

The challenge involves using pencils and a paper with squares on it to be a “conduit” for the demon to speak to them.  The demon, a Mexican spirit named Charlie, reportedly shows up when an incantation is chanted and the pencil moves.

Then at the end, a second chant asking if they can stop is done or else a portal for demons to enter at any time is left open in the home.

The videos, shared with a special Twitter hashtag, features the teens asking questions or freaking out when the pencils begin to move.

The game/urban legend reportedly is one that has been going around the Spanish-language internet for years but just recently moved into the English-speaking internet.

Priests and Pastors around the world have been taking a stand against the activity, saying that toying around with demons isn’t something anyone should be doing.

“I want to remind you all there is no such thing as ‘innocently playing with demons’,” Father Stephen McCarthy of Philadelphia wrote to students.

“Please be sure to NOT participate and and encourage others to avoid participation as well.  The problem with opening yourself up to demonic activity is that it opens a window of possibilities which is not easily closed.”

Seattle Student Uncovered As ISIS Recruiter

A journalism student from Seattle has been uncovered by authorities as a prominent female ISIS recruiter.

Rawdah Abdisalaam reportedly ran a twitter account called “@_UmmWaqqas” that had over 8,000 followers.  The account called on all Muslims to join the Islamic terrorist group.

“This is all I do pretty much,” one post stated, which included a photograph of Abdisalaam’s laptop–sitting on an Islamic State flag—playing Islamic lecture videos. “My aspiration is to become like A’isha Radi Allahu Anha (the wife of Mohammed) in every sense.”

“May Allah bless our Mujahideen in Dawlatul Islam,” she wrote in another Tweet. “May Allah grant them victory over their enemies and bless the Islamic State!”

Friends of Abdisalaam were shocked to discover she was working with ISIS.  They say that she has fled Seattle and could have left the country. She also reportedly had contact with Keonna Thomas, a Philadelphia woman arrested earlier this year for attempting to join ISIS.

FBI Director James Comey said that social media is a growing path for the terrorists to recruit members.

“It’s almost as if there is a devil sitting on the shoulder saying, ‘Kill, kill, kill, kill’ all day long,” he said. “[They are] recruiting and tasking at the same time. … In a way, the old paradigm between ‘inspired’ and ‘directed’ breaks down here.”

Social Media Shows Link Between Ferguson & Baltimore Violence

Fox News discovered a report that shows a link between the violence in Ferguson, MO and the violence that is burning Baltimore.

A government related data mining firm has found between 20 and 50 social media accounts in Baltimore that were connected to the peak of the violence and rioting in Ferguson.  The discovery suggests that “professional protesters” are taking advantage of the Baltimore situation in an attempt to cause anarchy and violence.

Fox reported that the data mining company said the locations could be spoofed, but that they can’t fully explain away the massive numbers if that would be the case.

The launching of the Monday rioting began via social media when calls were placed for a “purge” starting at the Mondawmin Mall and moving downtown.  The reference was to a movie called “The Purge” where for 12 hours there is no police or emergency response, allowing citizens to commit acts of crime and violence with immunity.

While gang members are denying they were working together to focus on white police officers, texts through social media did show accounts calling for people to “kill all white police officers” in response to the death of Freddie Gray.

A 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew for all Baltimore citizens goes into effect tonight and will last for one week.

ISIS Threatens U.S. In New Video

Islamic terrorist group ISIS has released a new propaganda video aimed at Americans saying there is “no safety” for any citizen and threatening to conduct a 9/11 style attack.

“America thinks it’s safe because of the geographical location,” the video states. “Thus you see it invades the Muslim lands, and it thinks that the army of the Jihad won’t reach in their lands. But the dream of the American to have safety became a mirage. Today there is no safety for any American on the globe. The mujahedeen before, although they had less resources, attacked New York and bombed the Twin Towers in September 11 attacks. That blessed incursion was a fatal blow. All praise is due to Allah, the American economy was shaken.”

In addition to the threats on America, the video features clips of ISIS attacks in the Middle East, the attack on Canada’s Parliament Hill and testimony of Amedy Coulibably, the French terrorist who was part of last year’s massacres.

ISIS burned down the homes of 10 Christian families in Nineveh on April 7th.  The group is also setting up traps to kill Christians when they enter their homes.

“Some of the houses in the village are burned. Some are bombed and destroyed. Some are robbed. We heard of one man who tried to enter his house and as soon as he opened the door, the house exploded,” a Christian man named Ayad said in a video interview with the World Council of Churches. “As ISIS forces leave, they are planting explosions inside the houses so that if people return they will be victims of the blast.”