CRI Update: Al-Qaeda recruiting suicide bombers online, UN-funded NGO tells kids to replace cigarettes with machine guns, and more...

CRI Publications

Congratulations to CRI summer intern Zack Kousnetz, a second-year student at the New York University School of Law, whose article on Syrian violence against children and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was published by the New York Daily News.

Read Syria Kills Its Kids, But We Can Do More to Protect Ours

CRI News

Al-Qaeda Online Advertisements Recruit Suicide Bombers, DNA (June 7, 2012)

Al-Qaeda has reportedly posted advertisements on several websites offering to recruit and train would-be suicide bombers. The ads state that the intended targets of the suicide-homicide attacks are to be "those who are fighting the Muslims and Islam," further specifying that the targets must be American, Israeli, French, or British. The ads reportedly direct interested persons to send their inquiries to a given email address for additional information.

Because they are so widely and easily accessible, online ads enable terrorist groups like al-Qaeda to recruit and radicalize children and young adults throughout the world, even when in-person interaction with these young victims would be impossible. Use of the Internet to instill extremist ideologies and equip children with the necessary knowledge to carry out suicide attacks ultimately contributes to the phenomenon of homegrown terrorism—that is, terrorist acts planned and executed by individuals born or raised in the United States without significant assistance from overseas networks.

UN-Funded NGO to Kids: Replace Cigarettes With Machine Guns, Palestinian Media Watch (June 11, 2012)

The Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society, a Palestinian NGO that claims to have been supported by various branches of the UN including UNICEF and UNESCO, presented a puppet show for children in East Jerusalem to encourage non-smoking. In addition to "educating" the child audience to replace cigarettes with machine guns, the show glorified violence and characterized Jews as "enemies" who kill Palestinian children.

Côte d'Ivoire Recruits Child Soldiers From Liberia, Mail & Guardian (June 11, 2012)

Children as young as 14 are being recruited and trained by militias loyal to former Côte d'Ivoire president Laurent Gbagbo to carry out increasingly violent attacks across the nation's border with Liberia. Last week, the so-called "small boys unit" launched an attack that killed 15 people, including seven UN peacekeepers.