A Gulf Electronic Army is being planned to fight terrorist elements who seek to brainwash victims into committing acts of terror, according to a digital forensic expert. Dr. Abdul Razzaq Al-Morjan, a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Digital Forensics, said the initiative is a proactive knowledge-based strategy to protect society against ideological risks and contribute towards global peace. He told Al-Riyadh Arabic daily, sister publication of Riyadh Daily, that the initiative is based on an international model which has been found suitable for the GCC states. It complements the efficient counterterrorism efforts currently underway, Dr. Abdul Razzag said. Alluding to the highly successful Saudi-led Arab and Islamic counterterrorism alliance, he said that eradication of terrorism requires such a strong initiative. However, he lamented the lack of social action against extremism as compared to the determined efforts put up by the security authorities, and called for integrated efforts in this regard. Al-Morjan pointed out to reports that cite an increase in electronic terror recruitment, particularly by organizations such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Hezbollah. Terrorism-sponsoring countries also misuse the internet and social media to spread their tentacles of violence, extremism, and online recruitment. For these reasons, it has become all the more imperative to introduce a social initiative to support the ongoing GCC counterterrorism objectives and strategies. This will also be in line with the UN call to all countries to encourage and enable citizens to participate in anti-terrorism efforts. The proposed initiative is aligned with the objectives of the Saudi-led Islamic alliance that focuses on fighting terrorism on several fronts and through various means, including ideological, informational, financial and military. Society will move from theory to practice in its contribution to the ideological counterterrorism endeavor, he stressed. Al-Morjan further said that the initiative confirms with the line of thinking of the Crown Prince and Interior Minister who is in the forefront of the Kingdom's security personnel and apparatus. The Crown Prince seeks to make a marked shift from reactive to proactive policies. In keeping with this plan, the initiative will make counterterrorism efforts knowledge-based so that terrorist forces and their ideology will be pulled up from the very roots of the Internet and social media, he asserted. Listing the objectives of initiative, he said they include contributing towards security, scaling back electronic recruitment, eliminating soft power impact, reducing the consequences of cyber attacks, empowering social counterterrorism endeavors as per the UN counterterrorism strategy, and. sharing of expertise in the religious, psychological, social and technological fields. He affirmed that the damage inflicted by terrorism in the GCC varied from country to country with the Kingdom being the most affected. It is no wonder therefore that the total number of hashtags against the Kingdom had reached as many as nearly one million posts, attempting to undermine its security particularly during Haj. Bahrain comes second, with Iran doing everything it can to destabilize its security. Kuwait and the UAE follow. The initiative aims at utilizing the youth, males and females, as an important resource. Young men and women will assume a larger role because they are future human capital of the GCC states. Moreover, they are key players in realizing the Saudi Vision 2030. He cited the Sakina Campaign, as an example of joint efforts within an institutionalized framework. The campaign is a multidisciplinary non-governmental voluntary program founded by Sheik Dr. Abdul Monem Al-Moshawwah under the umbrella of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. He said the formation of the electronic army is expected to be announced soon to move from the battleground to the virtual world. It is a multi-phased program comprising multiple initiatives. "We, in the GCC, will take on Iran, as the war is an ideological, social and technological one," Dr. Al-Morgan said, thanking GCC citizens for their interaction with the initiative, which is receiving considerable international and regional attention.
