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INFORECENT WORKINTELWIRE BROADCAST WRITING NEW MEDIA PRINT RESUME MULTIFACETED MEDIA GROUP VIDEO
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Author, analyst and consultant on Al Qaeda and domestic U.S. extremism.Berger is a contributor to Foreign Policy and an associate fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation.  When Boston Marathon runners rounded the bend from Beacon Street last week, they were in the home stretch of the race. As they poured through the closed intersection, they ran past a nondescript address: 510 Commonwealth Avenue. The location was once home to an international support network that raised funds and recruited fighters for a jihadist insurgency against Russian rule over Chechnya, a region and a conflict that few of the runners had likely ever given any serious thought. One mile farther, life in Boston was transformed in an act of horror that killed three and injured scores. And one week later, everyone in Boston and around the United States is thinking and talking and asking about Chechnya. Full story at Foreign Policy Also at Foreign Policy: How the West made a laughable terrorist magazine into a success WHO MATTERS ONLINE
It is relatively easy to identify tens of thousands of social media users who have an interest in violent ideologies, but very difficult to figure out which users are worth watching. For students of extremist movements and those working to counter violent extremism online, deciphering the signal amid the noise can prove incredibly daunting.
A new paper by J.M. Berger and Bill Strathearn published by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) offers new metrics for evaluating engagement and influence in social media networks related to extremism, analyzing thousands of followers of Twitter accounts for prominent American white nationalists and anarchists. The metrics were extremely effective at identifying highly engaged extremists in large data sets. The new research also sheds light on the relationship between mainstream and extremist politics, showing that followers of white nationalists on Twitter were highly engaged with mainstream Republican party politics, according to an analysis of the hashtags and links they tweeted. For the full study, click here RELATED MEDIA COVERAGE: RECALCULATING THE SPLC'S HATE LIST The Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual "Year in Hate and Extremism" report last week, and as usual, it was terrifying. In an article for the SPLC's Intelligence Report magazine, researchers said they had identified an "all-time high" of 1,360 antigovernment groups active during 2012 and about the same staggering number of hate groups as last year, a total of 1,007.
But those numbers are not what they seem.
Full Story at Foreign Policy  Somali al Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab woke up one January morning to discover that its popular English-language Twitter account -- @HSMPress -- had been suspended, apparently because it had issued a direct, specific threat of violence in breach of Twitter's terms of service. This rare termination dusted off one of the counterterrorism industry's most-cobwebbed debates: Should we let terrorist groups use the Internet, or should we try to knock them offline? Full story at Foreign Policy PANEL: TERRORIST USE OF THE INTERNETJ.M. Berger took part in a panel discussion on terrorist use of the Interent for the Huffington Post Live news channel. MAJOR PUBLICATIONS
COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM (CVE)ONLINE EXTREMISM AND CVEFBI USE OF INFORMANTSANWAR AWLAKIDOMESTIC EXTREMISMAMERICAN JIHADISTSEXCLUSIVE PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTSBIOGRAPHY J.M. Berger is a researcher, analyst and writer covering extremism, with a special focus on extremist activities in the U.S. and extremist use of social media. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, the CTC Sentinel, the New York Daily News and the Boston Globe, and on National Public Radio, Public Radio International and the National Geographic Channel. Berger has discussed terrorism and extremism on CNN, Fox News and many other radio and television outlets.
In addition to writing for the media, Berger consults on homegrown terrorism, online extremism and how extremists use social media and the Internet. He has presented research for counterterrorism professionals such as the New York City Police Department's Intelligence Division, New Jersey state law enforcement, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University and more. THE BOOK
Jihad Joe is the first comprehensive history of the American jihadist movement, tracking the phenomenon from the 1970s to the present. The book has been praised in reviews by the New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, the Washington Times, Redstate.com, Library Journal and more. It is available in hardcover eveywhere books are sold, as well as Kindle, Nook and Google ebook editions.
MEDIAJ.M. Berger appeared on Fox News to discuss the arrest of Jose Pimentel, the latest homegrown terrorist. J.M. BERGER
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MEDIAThe Stream, on Al Jazeera English, hosted a discussion of radicalization with Haris Tarin, director of the Washington office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Mubin Shaikh, a former undercover operative with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS); and Intelwire's J.M. Berger. For NPR's On the Media, J.M. Berger dissected problems with the coverage of Inspire Magazine. J.M. Berger discussed the Boston Marathon bombing with BBC television and radio, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Berger also wrote about the attack for Foreign Policy and spoke with reporters from The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, the Christian Science Monitor, Radio Australia, AFP and many others. J.M. Berger discussed the State Department's counterterrorism initiatives on social media with the Associated Press. The Associated Press spoke with J.M. Berger about the recent reward offered for the arrest of American jihadi Omar Hammami Wired covered a story first broken on INTELWIRE about American Al Shabab member Omar Hammami denying he wrote the jihadist raps attributed to him. "The raps were pretty terrible," J.M. Berger told Wired. "If he's not responsible for even one, that's a black mark erased from his record." J.M. Berger was quoted in a Buzzfeed story on the Christopher Dorner case. Berger was quoted in several recent stories on terrorist use of the Internet, including the suspension of Al Shabab's Twitter account. Associated Press, LA Times, Al Jazeera, Washington Times, Toronto Star. CNN's Starting Point (above) and Out Front with Erin Burnett invited J.M. Berger to reveal new details about Wisconsin white supremacist shooter Wade Page and his recent encounters with law enforcement sources investigating domestic terrorism. Berger was quoted in stories on on Wade Page, the white supremacist who opened fire on a Sikh religious assembly in Oak Creek, Wisc., by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and more. EVENTSNew America Foundation panel, "Infiltration and Surveillance: Countering Homegrown Terrorism," with J.M. Berger and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman. NEWSJ.M. Berger was named one of Foreign Policy's Twitterati 100, "the 100 Twitter feeds you need to follow to make sense of" global turmoil and conflict.In an exclusive report for Foreign Policy, J.M. Berger reveals the reason that Somalia's Al Shabab wants to kill American jihadist Omar Hammami. J.M. Berger's investigative piece Patriot Games: How the FBI spent a decade hunting white supremacists and missed Timothy McVeigh was named a long-form journalism pick of the week from Longform.com. INTELWIRE and J.M. Berger were quoted in a New York Times story on the latest Al Qaeda terror scare. RESEARCHREVIEWSNew York Times: "a timely warning from an expert who has not lost his perspective"Washington Times: "How these American jihadists became radicalized, recruited and trained... constitute the core of Mr. Berger's important book." Zenpundit: "Berger neither condemns nor excuses: he sees, he asks, he researches, he reports. ... a book to read... a book to admire." Redstate.com: "well-researched and incredibly accessibly presented history of American involvement in violent jihad." Publisher's Weekly: "lifts the veil on the phenomenon of American jihadists..." Library Journal: "an easy read... the better choice for those seeking ... objective [journalism]." Buy "Jihad Joe" now! |
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