By Roberto Böer
Special to YNOT
WASHINGTON – In its ongoing attempt to counter the recruiting efforts of ISIS, the American government and its allies often have found themselves struggling to concoct a compelling counter-message.
Social media efforts like the Twitter account “Think again turn away” have received a reaction much like one would expect a pair of chubby, balding 47 year-old men to get when trying to pick up cute young coeds at a college bar: Eye rolls, laughter and general disdain at the utter cluelessness of their would-be suitors.
Lately, though, the worm has begun to turn. In recent weeks, a campaign designed to appeal to young people vulnerable to recruit by the so-called “Islamic State” finally has found a form of bait on which these misguided youngsters actually might bite: Pornography.
While media reports give credit for the ‘pr0npaganda’ campaign to the general internet crowd, including denizens of 4Chan and a bunch of silly-mask-wearing dweebs who think the movie V For Vendetta was some seriously deep shit, the truth is much more interesting.
I have it on good authority from my contacts in the intelligence community this new porn-driven appeal to young people has its roots in a facility located in Langley, Virginia — and I ain’t talking about the Burger King on Tuskegee Airmen Blvd.
You might be skeptical about the notion the CIA trolls terrorists on Twitter, but if the rumors are true, this is far from the first time The Company has used social media as part of a broader information warfare campaign. Remember all those Beyonce halftime show memes back in 2013? That was the CIA trying to dissuade young women from taking dangerous performance-enhancing drugs.
Heck, this isn’t even the first time the agency has used porn as part of its messaging. I can’t really get into the details, because they’re still highly classified, but suffice to say it’s no coincidence the rise in popularity of the porn tube site SmutNucleus happened in the immediate aftermath of the disaster in Benghazi. The CIA-backed site served as a useful distraction to keep people from learning a truth even more shocking than the violence at the American compound: For months, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been using her private mail server to spam key Republican members of Congress with offers for bogus Amway products like “miracle” glass cleaner and “sneeze-free” black pepper.
The CIA’s current pr0npaganda campaign works as follows: First, agents set up social media accounts and post mundane, everyday messages designed to establish the account as a “legit” user. After a few weeks of posting stock photo selfies, cat memes and pictures of food, the agents start using the accounts to post pornographic imagery to profile timelines associated with ISIS, along with text that taunts and provokes the account holders.
So far, the results have been pretty impressive. Just last week, I hear the CIA succeeded in getting a major ISIS lieutenant to lose his shit on Twitter, where he published a rapid-fire series of tweets in badly broken English, among other things warning the porn-spammers to “immedantly seize and decease with thus sickly filth” unless they wanted to “face severed consequentials.”
Another ISIS lieutenant tried to turn the porn-spamming against the perpetrators by providing links to sites operated by anti-porn groups like Porn Kills Love — but this just resulted in even more mockery by both the CIA-operated accounts and actual social media users who jumped at the chance to take a few shots at the extremist organization.
“What’s the matter? Don’t like porn in which the women still have heads?” tweeted one observer.
“Nah. They’re just upset every American porn star has a cock twice as big as theirs,” another cuttingly responded on behalf of the flummoxed jihadists.
Naturally, the CIA’s pr0npaganda campaign can’t defeat ISIS on its own. To do that, the agency is going to need help, primarily from the Pentagon, which as you know is largely staffed by foulmouthed military men, many of whom are quite gifted when it comes to delivering the dreaded “internet burn” that comes with a particularly biting post.
Are there downsides to this approach? Yes, of course. Every covert operation, no matter how carefully executed, always carries the risk of blowback. There’s no telling how much more dangerous a porn-addicted terrorist might be than a more chaste one, for example.
Still, if posting dick pics and links to Mia Khalifa videos can convince even one young person to stay home and masturbate instead of flying to Syria to sign on with ISIS, we can all agree that’s a good thing.
Yes, Mom, even if he gets a little jizz on the sofa from time to time.
Former CIA officer Roberto Böer makes his living these days as national security pundit and author. In addition to regular appearances on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, he is the author of several best-selling books, including 100 Highly-Redacted Stories of CIA Incompetence and How to Accidentally Bomb the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and Other CIA Achievements.
