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A Trio of Disinformers: Islam Memo, Muhammad Abu Nasr, and Jihad Unspun

A trio of obscure Web sites and individuals has combined to spread deliberate disinformation, particularly about U.S. actions in Iraq. The entities involved are Islam Memo (Islammemo.cc), Muhammad Abu Nasr, and Jihad Unspun (jihadunspun.net).

Most of the disinformation appears to originate with Islam Memo, which is a pro-al Qaeda, pro-Iraqi insurgency, Arabic-language Web site based in Saudi Arabia.

Muhammad Abu Nasr, co-editor of the Free Arab Voice Web site (freearabvoice.org), translates material from Islam Memo into English and posts it as "Iraqi Resistance Reports" on his Web site.

Jihad Unspun publishes selected articles by Muhammad Abu Nasr, giving them a broader audience.

This trio of Web sites and individuals has attempted to launch many disinformation stories. Most have fizzled out without any great impact, but some have spread more widely.

Islam Memo

Islam Memo, or Mafkarat al-Islam, is perhaps the most unreliable source of "news" about Iraq on the Internet. For example, on March 27, 2005, Islam Memo "news items" translated into English by Muhammad Abu Nasr claimed that more than 88 U.S. soldiers had been killed that day. In reality, none had been killed. Such disinformation fabrications are typical of Islam Memo. In the ten-day period from March 20 to March 29, 2005, they claimed that more than 334 U.S. troops had been killed. The real number was eight.

Muhammad Abu Nasr

As mentioned earlier, Muhammad Abu Nasr, co-editor of the Free Arab Voice Web site, translates Islam Memo reports into English. The contents of his Web site make it clear that Muhammad Abu Nasr is a communist. For example, he includes on the Web site an obscure 1935 speech by Khaled Bakdash, the former head of the Syrian Communist Party, because he believes it has important "contemporary implications."

The speech deals with "popular front" tactics -- ways in which communists in the 1930s tried to use popular national causes to advance the victory of communism. For example, Muhammad Abu Nasr approvingly quotes Bakdash's advocacy of working with "revolutionary nationalists ... even when they claimed to be Nazi or fascist."

Applying this logic to today's world, Muhammad Abu Nasr champions Arab nationalist, anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments apparently because he believes that a broad-based "popular front" based on such causes will hasten the victory of communism in the Arab world.

Muhammad Abu Nasr faithfully translates the Islam Memo's many phony "news items" into English every day and posts them as "Iraqi Resistance Reports" on his Web site. They are also posted on other Web sites, including Jihad Unspun.

Jihad Unspun

Jihad Unspun is owned and published by a Canadian woman who converted to Islam in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Jihad Unspun has a track record of spreading very unreliable allegations. For example, on November 22, 2004, it reported that a November 21 attack on a U.S. base in Balad, Iraq had killed 270 U.S. troops. In reality, no U.S. troops were killed that day.

Jihad Unspun has often cited Islam Memo reports, praising their "accuracy." On December 19, 2004, Jihad Unspun [JUS] wrote, "[f]rom shortly after the time of our inception almost three years ago, JUS has carried many reports from the news agency Mafkarat al-Islam (Islam Memo). We have done this as we have come to have a great deal of respect for the accuracy of their reporting."

Two months later, Jihad Unspun revealed some reservations about the accuracy of Islam Memo reports. On February 23, 2005, Jihad Unspun posted the contents of a letter it had written to Islam Memo, which stated, "we are well aware that there is now a ‘family feud' brewing and that Mafkarat al-Islam is currently under attack by many Arab news and Mujahideen sites. ... the voices of your critics are becoming louder, as is the strength of the case they are making against your reporting."

Jihad Unspun went on to publicly ask Islam Memo several pointed questions, including, "[w]hy are the number of American casualties reported by Mujahideen groups to other news sites far more modest than the numbers reported by Mafkarat al-Islam?"

It is not clear whether Islam Memo responded to Jihad Unspun, but Jihad Unspun apparently overcame its reservations about the accuracy of Islam Memo's reports. On March 28, 2005, it published an Iraqi Resistance Report based on Islam Memo reporting, which falsely claimed that more than 88 U.S. soldiers had been killed on March 27. As noted above, the real number was zero.

Disinformation Successes

While most disinformation fabrications by Islam Memo do not receive much media attention, some have.

As explained in another article in this Web collection, Islam Memo, Muhammad Abu Nasr, and Jihad Unspun combined to spread the false story that U.S. forces had used mustard gas in Fallujah, Iraq. This disinformation was subsequently repeated by Cuba's official news agency Prensa Latina and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

In another example of successful disinformation, on December 18, 2004, Muhammad Abu Nasr posted an Islam Memo report that claimed an attack against Abu Ghraib prison had been sparked by a letter from a female inmate named Fatima. In the letter, which seems undoubtedly to be a fabrication, Fatima claims to have been raped repeatedly, along with 13 other girls.

The charges in the letter are totally groundless and Fatima herself appears to have never existed. Only six females were held temporarily at Abu Ghraib prison at various times from July to mid-December 2004, two of them for treatment in the medical facility. None of them were held for more than 10 days and none were sexually assaulted.

Despite the fact that the claims in "Fatima's letter" are baseless, the sensationalistic, outrageous nature of the charges ensured that the letter was widely reposted on Internet sites and circulated by e-mail. Jihad Unspun posted it on December 24, 2004.

On January 7, 2005, Islam Memo claimed that Fatima had been killed in an attack that day on Abu Ghraib prison. Conveniently, this meant that she could not be questioned about the letter she had supposedly written. But, there was no attack on Abu Ghraib prison on January 7, just as Fatima herself did not exist.