Hillary Clinton was right. Donald Trump is a terrorist recruiter now
At the last Democratic debate held on December 19, Hillary Clinton had confidently stated that Donald Trump had appeared in recruitment videos for ISIS.
Experts at the time calmly refuted Clinton’s claim that "Trump is Becoming ISIS’s best recruiter," saying she had not produced any evidence.
The conventional wisdom was that Clinton, who seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2016 Presidential election was just trying to make Trump, who is hoping to clinch the Republican nomination, look bad.
And predictably, Trump attacked Clinton aggressively, saying that she "lies like crazy about everything."
The ugly feud had raged on with Trump insisting that they show proof of the outrageous allegation and Clinton’s camp refusing to back down. They said they did not have concrete evidence but they said that ISIS was using Trump as a "recruitment tool" on social media.
Trump had demanded an apology from Clinton, who did not personally respond but her staff had said she would not apologize. "Hell, no" was how they paraphrased their refusal.
And today, a terrorist group Al-Shabab released a new recruitment video featuring Trump. .
Al-Shabab is described as "an al-Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia." They are known for the deadly attack on a mall in Kenya in September 2003.
Evan Kohlmann, analyst with NBC News and Chief R&D Officer for the private intelligence firm FlashPoint was one of the first to identify the new video and numerous experts, such as Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, agree with him.
SITE (Search for International Terrorist Entities) is the world’s leading non-governmental counterterrorism organisation and Katz has tracked and analysed global terrorism and jihadi networks for nearly two decades, and is well-recognised as one of the most knowledgeable and reliable experts in the field.
Kohlmann’s added that the use of Trump shows that "jihadists hope to use him to specifically solicit American recruits."
A new video from al-Shabab in Somalia shows Donald Trump calling for a ban on Muslims and warns "basic human rights do not apply" in the US.
— Evan Kohlmann (@IntelTweet) January 1, 2016The new Shabab video featuring @realDonaldTrump appears clear evidence jihadists hope to use him to specifically solicit American recruits.
— Evan Kohlmann (@IntelTweet) January 1, 20163) New #Shabaab vid shows #Trump proposing Muslim travel ban & Awlaki predicting bigotry & "concentration camps" pic.twitter.com/2KMpzYf3ui
— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) January 1, 2016The 51-minute propaganda video runs for about ten minutes before Trump shows up.
He is proceeded by a warning from al-Qaeda militant Anwar-al-Awlaki, who was killed by a US drone in 2011: "Muslims of the West: Take heed and learn from the lessons of history. There are ominous clouds gathering in your horizon. Yesterday America was a slang of slavery, segregation, lynching and Ku Klux Klan. Tomorrow it will be a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps."
The video features Trump’s now famous sound bite in which he is calling for a "ban of Muslims." Or as he had explained "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."
In the video, the word "hell" is bleeped out and it returns to Al-Awlaki, who adds, "The West will eventually turn against its Muslim citizens."
While Clinton and Trump’s staff members have not made any official comments on the Al-Shabaab video, it is quite clear that Clinton was ahead of the curve and that she had a valid point.
That Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric has and will continue to be used by jihadists as a recruitment tool.