ISIS’ Virtual Puppeteers How They Recruit and Train “Lone Wolves” … The Islamic State (also known as ISIS) has taken a beating on the battlefield throughout 2016. U.S. officials estimate that the group has lost half of its territory in Iraq and roughly 20 percent in Syria, including key supply routes from Turkey that had been vital to the group’s inflow of foreign fighters. Although ISIS’ territorial holdings continue to dwindle, the threat it poses does not. –Foreign Affairs
In this Internet era, Foreign Affairs reveals its propaganda matrix more and more directly. This article is a good example of it.
For anyone who knows about the wider “war on terror,” this article is not easily believed. Its lack of credibility is a problem but it is indicative of an even larger difficulty, as well.
For many years – decades – in the 20th century, Foreign Affairs propaganda was in a sense covert rather than overt. The speeches and articles were couched in elegant rhetoric that didn’t seem overwhelmingly at variance with other mainstream views.
But the 21st century has been a catastrophe for elite messaging. ‘Net reporting has made the contrasts between truth and falsehoods a good deal clearer.
For instance, a growing number of people worldwide believe little if anything about the “official story” regarding the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11.
A lesser number, but probably still a significant amount, don’t believe the US government’s tale about the execution of bin Laden. Either he was not executed in the manner that the US government presented or he actually died some 10 years earlier due to failing internal organs.
These are just two items where there is considerable disbelief about government narratives. But at this point, there are so many more. Substantial numbers don’t believe in the efficacy of vaccines, in the dangers of global warming, even in the democratic political system itself.
Another area where there is considerable and growing doubt has to do with the “war on terror.” This article in Foreign Affairs takes every part of the “war on terror” narrative at face value. That’s a significant reason why it comes across as phony.
More:
ISIS has proven itself to be an endlessly adaptive organization, utilizing creative measures to shape-shift in its response to external pressures. As the group’s territory shrinks and its leadership is picked off by U.S.-led airstrikes, ISIS will rely increasingly upon its “virtual planners”—members who operate in the dark spaces of the Internet—to inspire and coordinate attacks abroad.
Since at least early 2015, ISIS has been planning high-profile operations against the West, with Europe standing directly in the crosshairs. As has become clearer over time, ISIS’ strategy for external operations in Europe is not haphazard—its methods are deliberate and carefully organized under the direction of one of its wings, the Amn al-Kharji.
Although it is fairly opaque,bit by bit, analysts have been able to piece together this wing’s hierarchical chain of command. According to ISIS defector Abu Khaled, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani—ISIS’ now deceased spokesman—served as the official head of the Amn al-Kharji.
While this sounds credible, perhaps, at a first read, much of it has been debunked by literally thousands of ‘Net reports.
ISIS, like Al Qaeda before it, was a creation of the West. The City’s banking elites in particular funded modern “terrorism” in order to create an enemy for the West to fight against. (All Wars Are Bankers’ Wars.)
ISIS, in fact, is not an endlessly adaptive organization. There’s plenty of evidence that the Pentagon funds and supplies ISIS along with the Mossad, CIA, etc.
Nor is ISIS opaque, many of its members may come from US ally Saudi Arabia. Those involved in the top of the ISIS hierarchy are probably well known to the West and NATO. They may even be double agents, actually working for the Mossad, MI6 or the CIA.
The article goes on to profile one of ISIS’s “most dangerous virtual planners, Rachid Kassim, a 29-year-old French jihadist who inspires and directs ISIS adherents in Europe from his base inside ISIS-held territory.”
Kassim, likely of Algerian origin, is believed to have radicalized sometime in 2011. Prior to that, Kassim reportedly worked at a social center in Roanne in central France and had a passion for rap music.
The article goes on to further describe Kassim’s activities and what he does to “terrorize” the West. But why should we take this article at face value? The information in it is almost certainly supplied via intelligence anlaysis.
In other words, the same people who illegitimately helped set up the “war on terrorism” are now supposedly providing insights on its expansion and direction.
There’s nothing in this Foreign Affairs article that is especially believable in our view. But it is good to read it nonetheless because it shows clearly how Foreign Affairs departs – increasingly – from modern truth and reality.
In the 20th century that was a good deal harder to observe in such a forthright fashion. But the cautious, shaded opinions of 20th century globalism have given way to outright lying easily disproven thanks to ‘Net reporting.
Conclusion: This is not just a problem for Foreign Affairs but a major dilemma for elite media presentations generally. Either those responsible for these publications will have to change how they approach these articles, or they will end up with less and less credibility. That nothing has been done so far seems to show that solutions are not easily available. That may be the worst problem of all.
