The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) is releasing a resource profiling the violent Islamist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), whose history of attacks reach far beyond its mountainous headquarters in Yemen. The Wall Street Journal today details how AQAP has overhauled its media strategy to communicate more directly with reporters and compete for prominence in cyberspace with other violent extremist groups like ISIS.

"The Journal article also demonstrates how modern communications networks, including social media platforms, have become essential recruitment, fundraising and propaganda tools for extremist groups. CEP’s rigorous research and #CEPDigitalDisruption crowd-sourcing campaign seeks to counter extremism online by identifying extremist accounts and as well as gaps in social media platforms’ extremism prevention protocols. The refusal of Twitter and other companies to acknowledge the crucial role their platforms play in terrorist strategies is impeding the ability of moderate forces to effectively counter the relentless stream of extremist propaganda online.

"Formed by the union of al-Qaeda’s branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, AQAP became widely known for its terrorist plots on U.S. soil, including the 2009 Christmas Day attempted bombing and the 2010 attempted bombing in New York’s Times Square. Most recently, AQAP claimed credit for planning the January 7 murder of 12 people at the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the deadliest terrorist attack in France in more than 50 years.  The attack was carried out by brothers Chérif and Said Kouachi, who swore allegiance to AQAP before they were killed two days later in a gun battle with French police.  AQAP leaders celebrated the murders and praised the brothers on social media platforms following the incident. The group employs numerous indoctrination strategies, including publishing an English-language online magazine, Inspire, aimed at aspiring Western jihadists."

CEP has developed an in-depth profile of AQAP, one of the most lethal of the al-Qaeda affiliated organizations. Learn more about the origins, financing, leadership, history, and violent activities of AQAP and other extremist groups at counterextremism.com.

For requests for interviews, please contact CEP at [email protected].