5/23/2006
al-Qaida modifies war video games to be anti-U.S.
A Pentagon research team monitors more than 5,000 jihadist Web sites, focusing daily on the 25 to 100 most hostile and active, defense officials said Thursday. And the makers of combat video games have unwittingly become part of a global propaganda campaign by Islamic militants to exhort Muslim youths to take up arms against the United States, officials added.
Tech-savvy militants from al-Qaida and other groups have modified war video games so that U.S. troops play the role of bad guys in running gunfights against heavily armed Islamic radical heroes, Defense Department officials and contractors testified. The games appear on militant Web sites, where youths can play at being troop-killing urban guerrillas after registering with the site’s sponsors. “What we have seen is that any video game that comes out ... they’ll modify it and change the game for their needs,” said Devlin.
Tech-savvy militants from al-Qaida and other groups have modified war video games so that U.S. troops play the role of bad guys in running gunfights against heavily armed Islamic radical heroes, Defense Department officials and contractors testified. The games appear on militant Web sites, where youths can play at being troop-killing urban guerrillas after registering with the site’s sponsors. “What we have seen is that any video game that comes out ... they’ll modify it and change the game for their needs,” said Devlin.
