Yemen's latest, greatest threat: Twitter?
The local Al Qaeda affiliate saw no need to wait for the Yemen Army to attack before firing off its first tweet about the operation.
In Pictures Yemen in the crosshairs*XXXX*As word spread of the impending offensive in south Yemen, Twitter accounts linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula switched from condemning US drone strikes to lobbing taunts at the Army, referring to troops as "traitorous dogs" and accusing them of teaming up with Shiite rebels – a smirch in the majority Sunni country.
When the Army offensive actually began on April 29, AQAP issued regular updates on the fight while Yemen's government, stayed mostly silent on social media. Instead Yemeni activists who found their voice during the 2011 uprising took up the task of responding to AQAP and supporting the Army offensive.
The result: AQAP and the Yemeni public have left the government far behind in an information war made possible by the spread of the Internet in the Arab world's poorest nation. Authorities can no longer shape the narrative of counterinsurgency, particularly when it comes to controversial drone strikes.
Read More: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0505/Yemen-s-latest-greatest-threat-Twitter
