The 9/11 Decade: The Image War

9/11: It was a PR stunt which killed thousands and launched a propaganda war that has, so far, lasted a decade. Since then, the US and al-Qaeda have competed furiously to win “hearts and minds” with elaborate media strategies. Spin, threats, lies, censorship, the killing of journalists; how far has each side been prepared to go to win the propaganda war?

In the “war on terror” the exploitation of images was to become a matter of life and death, as both the US and al-Qaeda bombarded the world with media designed to win people over to their side.

It started with 9/11 itself: an act of terror staged as a global media event and the catalyst for a decade of propaganda war. But al-Qaeda’s canny use of 9/11 imagery, which included saving footage of the attackers for release at a later date so as to maximise publicity, gave way to serious errors in judgement as the group’s use of beheadings not only terrorised viewers but also alienated one-time sympathisers. The US, for its part, did not perform any better with Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib becoming prime examples of how to lose a war. Source: Aljazeera