Online threats of retribution and increased recruiting attempts by jihadists in the wake of the Senate Intelligence Committee's "torture report" are "only just beginning," says Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and Vice President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative.
"It's only just beginning. It's going to gather steam. We're going to be seeing references to this report by jihadists for months if not years to come," Spencer said Friday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
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"They will use it because Islamic jihad recruitment rests largely upon grievances. They have to have grievances that they point to.
"Because in Islamic theology, if you can establish you were defending yourself against an attack by non-Muslims then every Muslim in the world is obligated to join against the non-Muslims and fight with you."
The report — released Tuesday by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Sen. Dianne Feinstein — says the CIA misled Congress and White House officials about its interrogations of terror suspects and mismanaged a program far more brutal and less effective than publicly portrayed.
It told of techniques such as waterboarding, rectal feeding, forced nudity, and extended periods of confinement in a coffin-sized box in attempts to get information from suspected terrorists after the 9/11 attacks.
Republicans counter that Democrats knew about and approved of the techniques and are doing an about-face and slamming the CIA for political purposes. They say the release of the report endangers Americans all over the world.
Spencer said while most Muslims will not heed the jihadists calls, the terrorists believe they "can maximize recruitment by portraying themselves as simply defenders against attacks by infidels — and this report of course plays right into their hands."
Spencer — author of the books
"The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion" and
"The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)", both published by Regnery — said Feinstein knew the consequences of the report's release.
"She had to know that this was what she was doing. I mean, this is not something that's hidden," he said.
"If you go back 10 years to Osama bin Laden justifying 9/11, he lists this long laundry list of grievances of supposed atrocities by America, by Israel and so on.
"Islamic jihad literature is always full of this kind of thing and so to release this, it had to have been basic knowledge in the State Department … that this kind of thing would be just handing a weapon to jihadi who have already sworn to kill American civilians in as large numbers as possible."
Spencer's group, Jihad Watch describes itself as "a weblog dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology plays in the modern world." The American Freedom Defense Initiative says its mission is to "go on the offensive when legal, academic, legislative, cultural, sociological, and political actions are taken to dismantle our basic freedoms and values."
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