Last night an
J.M. Berger, a counter terrorism expert who wrote the book Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go To War In The Name Of Jihad, started the trolling with this tweet:
Hey everybody, Al Qaeda is using this hashtag to solicit ideas for media ops #???????_??????_??????_??????? -- you should all send some.
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) August 13, 2013
Then it picked up steam:
On a scale of 1 to al-Qaeda, how explosive is your love for me? #???????_??????_??????_???????
— Rob Hintz (@Rob_Hintz) August 14, 2013
— Charlie (@timmyconspiracy) August 13, 2013
Apparently everyone is, erm, *blowing up* this militant Jihadi Twitter hashtag: #???????_??????_???????_???????
— Mark Jaquith (@markjaquith) August 14, 2013
Have you considered creating a boy band? #???????_??????_???????_???????
— Beau Scheier (@BeauScheier) August 14, 2013
New jihadi training video: Out with the monkey bars, in with hot yoga #???????_??????_??????_???????
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) August 13, 2013
Then the original al Qaeda poster tweets this out:
#???????_??????_???????_??????? ?????? ????????? ????? ?? ???????? :(
— ???? ?? ???? (@gdslooptadhi) August 14, 2013
The rough translation is "American infidels involved in 'Al Hastaq' (hash tag) of suggestions for public relations (frowny face emoticon)."
J.M. Berger, not satisfied with the total trolling, immediately called them out for their use of emoticons:
What makes this AQ complaint about us hijacking their hashtag awesome is the sad face emoticon http://t.co/YsYhPiPQyg
— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) August 14, 2013