ABSTRACT

Students of terrorist violence and communication are well aware that for terrorists “the immediate victim is merely instrumental, the skin of a drum beaten to achieve a calculated impact on a wider audience.” By making the videotape available to the media nearly simultaneously with the explosion, the terrorists calculated correctly that the news media would pay a great deal of attention to Misk. Mainstream media, including their online content, continue to be the most important news sources. Bin Laden expressed what terrorists at all times believed and acted upon, namely, that terrorism is “propaganda by the deed” or “propaganda of the deed” as nineteenth-century anarchists put it. The anarchists of the nineteenth century explained their political violence as “propaganda of the deed” and thereby indicated that their terror strikes were designed to get their messages across to their targets. Terrorists need to spread their propaganda to further their ultimate political objectives.