Laura Mansfield American Arabic Translator

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

www.lauramansfield.com

rVirtual Reality: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

By Laura Mansfield

Sometimes fantasy turns into reality, especially in the world of cyber fantasy.

And the recent explosion in the global jihadist movement is fueled to a large extent by the virtual reality world of cyber-jihad.

That may sound a bit far-fetched, but if you take a look at a similar phenomenon of the past decade and a half, it becomes clear that a big part of the problem today is from individuals getting sucked into fantasy worlds on line, and then bringing that fantasy world back into the real world.

Do you remember back in the 1990's as cyber-romances moved out of the venue of the computer enthusiast and into the mainstream? At the time, it seemed like everyone know someone who was having an online affair.

To listen to those involved, the cyber-affairs were forbidden but very exciting. Men and women described a sort of "rush" that overtook them when they would meet their "cyber mate" on line. Cyber romances tended to get very intense quickly, and many people became obsessed with their virtual significant others.

But then the cyber world began to collide with the real world. Online relationships that began as a sort of "let's pretend" play-acting began to bleed over into reality, when one party or the other decided to take cyber sex to the next step - a real-life meeting.

The women's and men's magazines all featured articles titled something along the lines of "Is a cyber affair really cheating?". The answer, as many found out when they ended up in divorce court, was often a resounding "Yes".

If cyber romances were a phenomenon of the 1990's, then it's equivalent these days for many seems to be "cyberjihad".

Before the September 11, 2001 attacks, there were jihadist message boards on the internet, and terrorists were certainly using the internet to a degree.

But after 9/11, the "cyber jihad" really began to take off. Young men in growing numbers, and a smaller number of young women, began to search for like-minded individuals in jihadist chat room and on jihadist message boards.

Conversations and associations that would have been taboo in some cases and at the very least risked exposure in real life became the norm as these individuals began to form tightly-knit online communities on the web.

Quite often these forays into the jihadist world online began innocently enough, often initiated out of boredom or curiosity. But the world of cyber jihad can be just as seductive to many as the world of cyber romance, and the consequences can be deadly.

Jihadist message boards and chat rooms provide an unprecedented medium for recruitment and indoctrination. As the young men become more and more enmeshed in the jihadist ideology, they begin to lose touch with moderating influences offline in the real world.

It is not unusual to see many of these cyber jihadists signed on conversing in chat rooms and posting on message boards for upwards of twelve hours a day. Many are students or unemployed; others seem to be offline only for enough hours to conduct their offline activities - work, sleep, school, etc - but quickly come back online.

Before long, these new recruits are sucked completely into the world of cyber jihad. As they watch videos glorifying "martyrdom missions" - and there is certainly no shortage of those videos, with new attack video clips emerging daily - they begin to swear that they too will join the jihad in Iraq, Afghanistan, or in west.

Much of the infrastructure of the cyber jihad we see today, along with many of its leaders, was mentored by Younis Tsouli, who used the online name "Irhabi 007", or "Terrorist 007".

Tsouli, a charismatic voice on message boards in the 2003-2005 timeframe, emerged at a critical point in the development of the cyber jihad, and he quickly developed a following both online and offline.

One of Irhabi 007's key contributions was in the spread of jihadist propaganda and instructional videos on the internet. As he repeatedly posted videos from Zarqawi's group in Iraq showing the torture and beheading of Americans, his followers soaked up the videos and demanded more. Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups in Iraq obliged by providing the videos; Irhabi 007 worked hard to ensure that proper distribution channels were developed so that anyone who wanted to download these videos would have easy access to them.

Tsouli's played a major role in the radicalization of countless youth on the web; a look back at achive postings from the old Ansar forum shows how many of these youth first emerged on the boards asking questions and looking for videos, and over time began to voice a desire to join the jihad in Iraq, especially, and in the western countries as well.

It would be interested to see how many of these youth moved from initial curiosity into the virtual jihad online, and then took their online training and indoctrination back into the real world.

Although to my knowledge no longitudinal scientific study has tracked these trends, a cursory review of indictment and trial records of suspected terrorist shows a strong internet footprint for most.

Because of the ease of migration of jihadist activities from cyberspace into the real world, the virtual jihad must be considered an active front in the war on terror.

As long as the virtual jihad is allowed to grow unchallenged, the terrorist ideologies espoused on the internet will continue to spill over into real life terrorist attacks, and human lives will be lost.

It is critical that western governments come up with a clear and concise plan for dealing with the cyber jihad. In some ways, the cyber jihad world is even more dangerous than the terror training camps in Afghanistan, because they can reach people in the privacy of their own homes, and the entire cycle encompassing recruitment, indoctrination, training, and attack planning can be carried out online.

Only the operational stages remain for the "real world": the actual creation of the explosives or other "weapons" to be used in the attack, and the attack itself. Even the celebrations afterwards happen online.

The internet may be a great place to play "let's pretend". But virtual reality doesn't remain online. It spills over into the real world.

And that's the big problem with the "Cyber Jihad".

[sandinista! 1,816]

laura mansfield is a hack who writes for world net daily and frontpagemag, and insists that "radical Islam has declared War on America" and " Islamists were behind the Oklahoma City bombing". She's complete garbage. "Americans beware of muslims with computers." This ####### gets so boring.

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

laura mansfield is a hack who writes for world net daily and frontpagemag, and insists that "radical Islam has declared War on America" and " Islamists were behind the Oklahoma City bombing". She's complete garbage. "Americans beware of muslims with computers." This ####### gets so boring.

I had no idea who she was until today when I saw her featured on aol and then I started doing some reading. You can hardly call her a hack. She apparently worked for several embassies and actually spends every day pouring through islamist websites. Did you take a look at her site? She is fluent in arabic and does translations of al qaeda releases. I have no idea who she is entirely but the site kind of speaks for itself. I found it especially interesting that she follows the blogs... I have read about several american women like this. I do not know where they find the time to do this stuff. I don't think you can completely discount what she is doing. I still do not understand how she can read arabic so fluently. She must have been trained at the defense language institute or something. Just because you do not agree with her ideology does not mean that she is not good at what she does. She is apparently translating blogs and websites every single day. www.lauramansfield.com

Very interesting blog. Where did she say beware of muslims with computers? Do you have quotes that say this? I would be very interested to read these quotes in context. I have never heard of her before today but when I logged onto her blog this morning after seeing her in AOL, I was shocked at the level of her translations and at the number of blog entries. She is very into what she is doing and I still am trying to find out how exactly she making a living at what she does.

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

laura mansfield is a hack who writes for world net daily and frontpagemag, and insists that "radical Islam has declared War on America" and " Islamists were behind the Oklahoma City bombing". She's complete garbage. "Americans beware of muslims with computers." This ####### gets so boring.

Well I figured out how she makes a living. She translates jihadist message boards and charges 135 dollars a year for a subscription.

http://www.lauramansfield.com/j/subscribe.asp

[PetraPerson101 0]

You can hardly call her a hack. She apparently worked for several embassies and actually spends every day pouring through islamist websites. Did you take a look at her site? She is fluent in arabic and does translations of al qaeda releases.

Anyone can translate those releases, observe:

"We're coming to get you. Ha ha ha, the Democrats are helping us. We're going to make Burger King fat free. We eat babies."

See?

( If you understand Arabic - you'll hear the translations are BOGUS when they translate Arabic. Even in the regular news - when they translate Iraqis talking about daily life. That's why they mute the sound and *never* provide easy access to the raw audio. I catch the first few raw Arabic seconds of these so-called "translations" - and do a real translation of what was said. I almost *NEVER* hear what the person said in any part of the so-called "translation". S

Notice the government is still hurting for translators ... even though all of these "prodigies" came out of college touting their non-existant "Arabic skills".

Edited September 21, 2007 by KyanWan

[MrsAmera 41]

It's funny that you've brought that up my husband has said the same thing, that even subtitling in TV shows/ movies just doesn't match up. Very interesting point..

[sandinista! 1,816]

laura mansfield is a hack who writes for world net daily and frontpagemag, and insists that "radical Islam has declared War on America" and " Islamists were behind the Oklahoma City bombing". She's complete garbage. "Americans beware of muslims with computers." This ####### gets so boring.

I had no idea who she was until today when I saw her featured on aol and then I started doing some reading. You can hardly call her a hack. She apparently worked for several embassies and actually spends every day pouring through islamist websites. Did you take a look at her site? She is fluent in arabic and does translations of al qaeda releases. I have no idea who she is entirely but the site kind of speaks for itself. I found it especially interesting that she follows the blogs... I have read about several american women like this. I do not know where they find the time to do this stuff. I don't think you can completely discount what she is doing. I still do not understand how she can read arabic so fluently. She must have been trained at the defense language institute or something. Just because you do not agree with her ideology does not mean that she is not good at what she does. She is apparently translating blogs and websites every single day. www.lauramansfield.com

Very interesting blog. Where did she say beware of muslims with computers? Do you have quotes that say this? I would be very interested to read these quotes in context. I have never heard of her before today but when I logged onto her blog this morning after seeing her in AOL, I was shocked at the level of her translations and at the number of blog entries. She is very into what she is doing and I still am trying to find out how exactly she making a living at what she does.

who cares how well she speaks arabic? her ideology and slant are what make her a hack. she routinely presents islam as a freakshow centered around terrorism, fundamentalism and incendiary propaganda. she's a trawler, lurking around on garbage websites, coming up with the most garbage excuses for humans she can find, and then announces to middle america that she's uncovered the 'true face of islam'.

trash

trash

and more trash

[Ban Hammer 13,669]

laura mansfield is a hack who writes for world net daily and frontpagemag, and insists that "radical Islam has declared War on America" and " Islamists were behind the Oklahoma City bombing". She's complete garbage. "Americans beware of muslims with computers." This ####### gets so boring.

I had no idea who she was until today when I saw her featured on aol and then I started doing some reading. You can hardly call her a hack. She apparently worked for several embassies and actually spends every day pouring through islamist websites. Did you take a look at her site? She is fluent in arabic and does translations of al qaeda releases. I have no idea who she is entirely but the site kind of speaks for itself. I found it especially interesting that she follows the blogs... I have read about several american women like this. I do not know where they find the time to do this stuff. I don't think you can completely discount what she is doing. I still do not understand how she can read arabic so fluently. She must have been trained at the defense language institute or something. Just because you do not agree with her ideology does not mean that she is not good at what she does. She is apparently translating blogs and websites every single day. www.lauramansfield.com

Very interesting blog. Where did she say beware of muslims with computers? Do you have quotes that say this? I would be very interested to read these quotes in context. I have never heard of her before today but when I logged onto her blog this morning after seeing her in AOL, I was shocked at the level of her translations and at the number of blog entries. She is very into what she is doing and I still am trying to find out how exactly she making a living at what she does.

who cares how well she speaks arabic? her ideology and slant are what make her a hack. she routinely presents islam as a freakshow centered around terrorism, fundamentalism and incendiary propaganda. she's a trawler, lurking around on garbage websites, coming up with the most garbage excuses for humans she can find, and then announces to middle america that she's uncovered the 'true face of islam'.

trash

trash

and more trash

so what you're saying is this article is made up? link

or is it trash because you disagree with it?

[Jenn! 918]

She kind of reminds me of that Debbie Schlussel ####.

[ya falaha! 0]

I was thinking the same thing.

She kind of reminds me of that Debbie Schlussel ####.

[sandinista! 1,816]

laura mansfield is a hack who writes for world net daily and frontpagemag, and insists that "radical Islam has declared War on America" and " Islamists were behind the Oklahoma City bombing". She's complete garbage. "Americans beware of muslims with computers." This ####### gets so boring.

I had no idea who she was until today when I saw her featured on aol and then I started doing some reading. You can hardly call her a hack. She apparently worked for several embassies and actually spends every day pouring through islamist websites. Did you take a look at her site? She is fluent in arabic and does translations of al qaeda releases. I have no idea who she is entirely but the site kind of speaks for itself. I found it especially interesting that she follows the blogs... I have read about several american women like this. I do not know where they find the time to do this stuff. I don't think you can completely discount what she is doing. I still do not understand how she can read arabic so fluently. She must have been trained at the defense language institute or something. Just because you do not agree with her ideology does not mean that she is not good at what she does. She is apparently translating blogs and websites every single day. www.lauramansfield.com

Very interesting blog. Where did she say beware of muslims with computers? Do you have quotes that say this? I would be very interested to read these quotes in context. I have never heard of her before today but when I logged onto her blog this morning after seeing her in AOL, I was shocked at the level of her translations and at the number of blog entries. She is very into what she is doing and I still am trying to find out how exactly she making a living at what she does.

who cares how well she speaks arabic? her ideology and slant are what make her a hack. she routinely presents islam as a freakshow centered around terrorism, fundamentalism and incendiary propaganda. she's a trawler, lurking around on garbage websites, coming up with the most garbage excuses for humans she can find, and then announces to middle america that she's uncovered the 'true face of islam'.

trash

trash

and more trash

so what you're saying is this article is made up? link

or is it trash because you disagree with it?

exactly where did i say she "made anything up"? it's this tripe

The reason for concern is obvious: Two different doctrines are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm and fuzzy doctrine is being used to draw people in, with a focus on the well-being of their children.

But the Arabic-speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American tone.

It shows clearly that as much as we'd like to pretend it hasn't, jihad has reached Small-Town, USA. This mosque isn't in Washington, D.C., or New York City. This is a small mosque in a small town in the deep South.

And if it's in this tiny little quiet southern town, it's probably in your hometown, too.

that makes me think she's trash. it's like if i visited stormfront.org, or went to one of the meetings this hideous neo-nazi white supremacist ####### is always handing out fliers for at my train station, and then going home and blogging that i'd uncovered the truth about white people in america. garbage. she's a nut picker-deliberately seeking out a skewed selection of ####### excuses for humans who happen to be muslim in order to paint the worst picture possible. that's selective agitrop, to paint the picture, subtly to be sure, of the evil hordes of muslims who are hellbent on destroying america, and if you come across a normal one, well they're just engaging in duplicity, or even a 'sales pitch'.

[Ban Hammer 13,669]

laura mansfield is a hack who writes for world net daily and frontpagemag, and insists that "radical Islam has declared War on America" and " Islamists were behind the Oklahoma City bombing". She's complete garbage. "Americans beware of muslims with computers." This ####### gets so boring.

I had no idea who she was until today when I saw her featured on aol and then I started doing some reading. You can hardly call her a hack. She apparently worked for several embassies and actually spends every day pouring through islamist websites. Did you take a look at her site? She is fluent in arabic and does translations of al qaeda releases. I have no idea who she is entirely but the site kind of speaks for itself. I found it especially interesting that she follows the blogs... I have read about several american women like this. I do not know where they find the time to do this stuff. I don't think you can completely discount what she is doing. I still do not understand how she can read arabic so fluently. She must have been trained at the defense language institute or something. Just because you do not agree with her ideology does not mean that she is not good at what she does. She is apparently translating blogs and websites every single day. www.lauramansfield.com

Very interesting blog. Where did she say beware of muslims with computers? Do you have quotes that say this? I would be very interested to read these quotes in context. I have never heard of her before today but when I logged onto her blog this morning after seeing her in AOL, I was shocked at the level of her translations and at the number of blog entries. She is very into what she is doing and I still am trying to find out how exactly she making a living at what she does.

who cares how well she speaks arabic? her ideology and slant are what make her a hack. she routinely presents islam as a freakshow centered around terrorism, fundamentalism and incendiary propaganda. she's a trawler, lurking around on garbage websites, coming up with the most garbage excuses for humans she can find, and then announces to middle america that she's uncovered the 'true face of islam'.

trash

trash

and more trash

so what you're saying is this article is made up? link

or is it trash because you disagree with it?

exactly where did i say she "made anything up"? it's this tripe

The reason for concern is obvious: Two different doctrines are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm and fuzzy doctrine is being used to draw people in, with a focus on the well-being of their children.

But the Arabic-speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American tone.

It shows clearly that as much as we'd like to pretend it hasn't, jihad has reached Small-Town, USA. This mosque isn't in Washington, D.C., or New York City. This is a small mosque in a small town in the deep South.

And if it's in this tiny little quiet southern town, it's probably in your hometown, too.

that makes me think she's trash. it's like if i visited stormfront.org, or went to one of the meetings this hideous neo-nazi white supremacist ####### is always handing out fliers for at my train station, and then going home and blogging that i'd uncovered the truth about white people in america. garbage. she's a nut picker-deliberately seeking out a skewed selection of ####### excuses for humans who happen to be muslim in order to paint the worst picture possible. that's selective agitrop, to paint the picture, subtly to be sure, of the evil hordes of muslims who are hellbent on destroying america, and if you come across a normal one, well they're just engaging in duplicity, or even a 'sales pitch'.

i'm just trying to figure out why those links are labeled "trash" and it appears that it's just due to you disagreeing with what she said because it was negative.

so next question - do you think the story in that one link happened or not?

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

laura mansfield is a hack who writes for world net daily and frontpagemag, and insists that "radical Islam has declared War on America" and " Islamists were behind the Oklahoma City bombing". She's complete garbage. "Americans beware of muslims with computers." This ####### gets so boring.

I had no idea who she was until today when I saw her featured on aol and then I started doing some reading. You can hardly call her a hack. She apparently worked for several embassies and actually spends every day pouring through islamist websites. Did you take a look at her site? She is fluent in arabic and does translations of al qaeda releases. I have no idea who she is entirely but the site kind of speaks for itself. I found it especially interesting that she follows the blogs... I have read about several american women like this. I do not know where they find the time to do this stuff. I don't think you can completely discount what she is doing. I still do not understand how she can read arabic so fluently. She must have been trained at the defense language institute or something. Just because you do not agree with her ideology does not mean that she is not good at what she does. She is apparently translating blogs and websites every single day. www.lauramansfield.com

Very interesting blog. Where did she say beware of muslims with computers? Do you have quotes that say this? I would be very interested to read these quotes in context. I have never heard of her before today but when I logged onto her blog this morning after seeing her in AOL, I was shocked at the level of her translations and at the number of blog entries. She is very into what she is doing and I still am trying to find out how exactly she making a living at what she does.

who cares how well she speaks arabic? her ideology and slant are what make her a hack. she routinely presents islam as a freakshow centered around terrorism, fundamentalism and incendiary propaganda. she's a trawler, lurking around on garbage websites, coming up with the most garbage excuses for humans she can find, and then announces to middle america that she's uncovered the 'true face of islam'.

trash

trash

and more trash

so what you're saying is this article is made up? link

or is it trash because you disagree with it?

exactly where did i say she "made anything up"? it's this tripe

The reason for concern is obvious: Two different doctrines are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm and fuzzy doctrine is being used to draw people in, with a focus on the well-being of their children.

But the Arabic-speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American tone.

It shows clearly that as much as we'd like to pretend it hasn't, jihad has reached Small-Town, USA. This mosque isn't in Washington, D.C., or New York City. This is a small mosque in a small town in the deep South.

And if it's in this tiny little quiet southern town, it's probably in your hometown, too.

that makes me think she's trash. it's like if i visited stormfront.org, or went to one of the meetings this hideous neo-nazi white supremacist ####### is always handing out fliers for at my train station, and then going home and blogging that i'd uncovered the truth about white people in america. garbage. she's a nut picker-deliberately seeking out a skewed selection of ####### excuses for humans who happen to be muslim in order to paint the worst picture possible. that's selective agitrop, to paint the picture, subtly to be sure, of the evil hordes of muslims who are hellbent on destroying america, and if you come across a normal one, well they're just engaging in duplicity, or even a 'sales pitch'.

She is on the front page of aol and I had never heard of her before. I had no idea that she wrote for world net. It is interesting though that she understands arabic so well . I wonder if there is any truth to the things she is alleging. Oh well. I just had never heard of her before.

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

laura mansfield is a hack who writes for world net daily and frontpagemag, and insists that "radical Islam has declared War on America" and " Islamists were behind the Oklahoma City bombing". She's complete garbage. "Americans beware of muslims with computers." This ####### gets so boring.

I had no idea who she was until today when I saw her featured on aol and then I started doing some reading. You can hardly call her a hack. She apparently worked for several embassies and actually spends every day pouring through islamist websites. Did you take a look at her site? She is fluent in arabic and does translations of al qaeda releases. I have no idea who she is entirely but the site kind of speaks for itself. I found it especially interesting that she follows the blogs... I have read about several american women like this. I do not know where they find the time to do this stuff. I don't think you can completely discount what she is doing. I still do not understand how she can read arabic so fluently. She must have been trained at the defense language institute or something. Just because you do not agree with her ideology does not mean that she is not good at what she does. She is apparently translating blogs and websites every single day. www.lauramansfield.com

Very interesting blog. Where did she say beware of muslims with computers? Do you have quotes that say this? I would be very interested to read these quotes in context. I have never heard of her before today but when I logged onto her blog this morning after seeing her in AOL, I was shocked at the level of her translations and at the number of blog entries. She is very into what she is doing and I still am trying to find out how exactly she making a living at what she does.

who cares how well she speaks arabic? her ideology and slant are what make her a hack. she routinely presents islam as a freakshow centered around terrorism, fundamentalism and incendiary propaganda. she's a trawler, lurking around on garbage websites, coming up with the most garbage excuses for humans she can find, and then announces to middle america that she's uncovered the 'true face of islam'.

trash

trash

and more trash

so what you're saying is this article is made up? link

or is it trash because you disagree with it?

exactly where did i say she "made anything up"? it's this tripe

The reason for concern is obvious: Two different doctrines are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm and fuzzy doctrine is being used to draw people in, with a focus on the well-being of their children.

But the Arabic-speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American tone.

It shows clearly that as much as we'd like to pretend it hasn't, jihad has reached Small-Town, USA. This mosque isn't in Washington, D.C., or New York City. This is a small mosque in a small town in the deep South.

And if it's in this tiny little quiet southern town, it's probably in your hometown, too.

that makes me think she's trash. it's like if i visited stormfront.org, or went to one of the meetings this hideous neo-nazi white supremacist ####### is always handing out fliers for at my train station, and then going home and blogging that i'd uncovered the truth about white people in america. garbage. she's a nut picker-deliberately seeking out a skewed selection of ####### excuses for humans who happen to be muslim in order to paint the worst picture possible. that's selective agitrop, to paint the picture, subtly to be sure, of the evil hordes of muslims who are hellbent on destroying america, and if you come across a normal one, well they're just engaging in duplicity, or even a 'sales pitch'.

i'm just trying to figure out why those links are labeled "trash" and it appears that it's just due to you disagreeing with what she said because it was negative.

so next question - do you think the story in that one link happened or not?

AOL puts this out like she is just some ordinary housewife. Far from it. She was working for the American embassy in Lebanon at the time of the beirut hijacking. She also does audio analyses for the crime library site and did the analyses of the Nick Berg beheading. I am at a loss for words as far as everything else the above poster said. I did not even know who she was until today. Did any of you actually look at her site? What do you think?

[ya falaha! 0]

Google her. She definitely has other agendas. Getting info about Muslims from this woman is like getting info about blacks from the KKK.