By Brian Ashcraft, 6:47 PM on Thu May 4 2006, 1,058 views (Edit post, Set to draft, Slurp)

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Extremist groups like al Qaeda are using military style video games to recruit young Muslims, the US Defense Department told Congress. "What we have seen is that any video game that comes out ... they'll modify it and change the game for their needs," said Dan Devlin, a Defense Department public diplomacy specialist.

Reuters reports that games like EA's Battlefield 2 are getting modded, so that an man in an Arab headdress fights off American invaders with an automatic weapon. A narrator's voice underscores this by saying, "I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters."

Of course Reuters has to add the requisite: "Critics of the U.S. video game industry have long blamed the products for violence among American teenagers in civilian society, including high-profile shootings at public schools."

And now due to these extremists, politicians will have another excuse to blame games. Thanks al Qaeda. Thanks a lot.

Full Article [Reuters] And thanks, CRAW!