IS revamps recruitment, with savvy, professional broadcasts

[webfact]

IS revamps recruitment, with savvy, professional broadcasts
By LORI HINNANT

PARIS (AP) — After a selection of tunes, the presenter with an American accent offers "a glimpse at our main headlines." IS militants have just seized three Iraqi cities. A bomb blows up a factory, killing everyone inside. Militants destroy four enemy Hummers and an armored vehicle.

The newscast's tone sounds much like National Public Radio in the United States. But this is Al-Bayan, the Islamic State radio targeting European recruits — touting recent triumphs in the campaign to carve out a Caliphate.

All news is good news for Al-Bayan's "soldiers of the Caliphate." In this narrative, the enemy always flees in disgrace or is killed. The broadcasts end with a swell of music and a gentle English message: "We thank our listeners for tuning in."

The tension between the smooth, Western-style production and the extremist content shows how far the hardcore Islamic propaganda machine has come since 2012, when an aging Frenchman posed in front of a black-and-white jihadi flag and threatened France in the name of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. The footage was grainy, with minimal production values, and released on a relatively obscure regional website. By contrast, Al-Bayan reaches thousands of listeners every day via links shared on social networks, helping to swell the ranks of Westerners — projected this year to reach a total of up to 10,000 — fighting for the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

In the time it took to bring the Frenchman Gilles Le Guen to trial, his European successors in violent jihad have overturned the recruitment script in ways that might impress a New York PR agency.

Islamic State videos come with thrumming beats, handsome clear-eyed young men and editing techniques that call to mind tourism commercials or ads for the latest console game. A typical week of recruitment now includes multiple newscasts in three languages, except the "good news" is about suicide attacks instead of traffic reports and baseball scores. A polished video directed at French recruits shows trainees leaping through burning hoops and swinging across monkey bars over flames. Multilingual blog posts by jihadis urge people to follow them. And a metastasizing network of tweets spills forth from the smartphones of armchair cheerleaders.

Cameramen themselves are heroes in this information war: Media, an unnamed fighter says in a video dedicated to these PR muhajedeen, is "half of the battle, if not its majority."

An April video calling for doctors to join IS shows physicians in immaculate scrubs, as well as clean and functioning medical equipment. It features a clean-shaven, blue-eyed Australian moving about in a pristine neo-natal ward, promising new recruits that they will be helping Muslims who suffer from "a lack of qualified medical care." The video has the feel of a daytime television public-service message.

In an exchange on jihadi radio station Ask.fm the same week, a person identifying himself as a British resident of Islamic State territories promised newcomers free medical school with minimal entry requirements. Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, another person purporting to be a Briton praises subsidized gas, free water and dental care superior to anything offered in the West.

"Naturally the arrogance will kick in & they would deny the truth and claim there (sic) way is better. Lol next time you pay your bill smile," the person said, according to a selection of tweets culled by the SITE Intelligence Group.

A handful of people show up repeatedly as key recruiters: a Glasgow woman who reportedly helps British girls reach Syria; a Dutch fighter who gives jihadi interviews and set up a Tumblr page; a blue-eyed Frenchman who appears in multiple videos calling on his countrymen to emigrate to IS territories.

When Le Guen was arrested in April 2013, France's defense minister said the government could "count on the fingers of one hand" those who, like him, wanted to fight alongside Islamic extremists. Now, the mass recruitment of Western Islamic radicals is considered one of the greatest security threats faced by Europe and the United States.

"They want Europeans in general. They want anyone to come, to fight, to create the Islamic state, to make the caliphate," said Sebastien Pietrasanta, a French lawmaker who is spearheading nascent efforts to de-radicalize young extremist recruits. "We estimate there could be 5,000 and within the year, there could be 10,000. ... We are facing not just a problem of security, but a problem of society."

And the group isn't just calling for weathered would-be fighters. As its new multimedia drive shows, anyone willing to help in the war zones of Syria and Iraq is welcome. One-way travel is encouraged, but not mandatory — at least, for men.

Anyone, from anywhere, can recruit for Islamic State. A March study by Brookings Institute researchers J.M. Berger and Jonathon Morgan found more than 46,000 active Twitter accounts supporting Islamic State in a two-month period. As soon as one account is shut down, more emerge.

Meanwhile, Western government warnings about the dangers of joining Islamic State have barely dented the rate of departures. Those who have lived unhappily under IS rarely offer a competing narrative, in mortal fear of retaliation. And Western nations are having a hard time combatting rhetoric that they — and the Western media that IS so successfully mimics — are untrustworthy.

Islamic State recruits skew young. In France, the West's largest source of extremists heading to Iraq and Syria, they average in their mid-20s, with female recruits tending to be even younger. Whatever they are looking for, Islamic State promises: Shariah law, a deeper purpose in life, a fight against a dictator, aid work, automatic weapons, pathological violence for those so inclined.

The top U.S. military man in Europe attributes the success of Islamic State recruiting to its understanding of what many young people yearn for, as well as the group's ability to harness cutting-edge technology and personal connections. Western recruits tend to cluster, like the 20-odd young men from the small French town of Lunel who left in groups of two or three and rejoined each other in Syria; the three British schoolgirls who followed months after the departure of a friend; or the group of young Spaniards accused of plotting attacks at home when they realized they would be blocked from going to Syria.

"They are able to reach and find out what is important to these people, what motivates these people, and then they create an ability to fill that need, initially through the social media, Internet," Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, said recently. "And then when they bring them on board, they continue to address these basic wants, of value, of a purpose — a sense of something as a part of a larger good. And whether it's right, wrong or indifferent, they are able to reach into these people and find that motivation."

Governments have failed at countering the tailor-made messages. John G. Horgan, of the University of Massachusetts' Center for Terrorism and Security Studies, thinks it's because Western intelligence agencies are looking at the caliber of recruits, instead of the sophisticated and enticing grooming process.

"It is phenomenally exciting for them to be part of this, this secret club," Horgan said. "And once that takes root ... that excitement completely outweighs anything we can do to try to counter it."

An e-book of travel advice feeds on the excitement, advising people to bring military-grade knives, a compass and solar chargers because "you will be minimizing wastage and polluting less." It recommends bringing an extra set of clothes for changing after the dash under barbed wire.

Few who have abandoned life under Islamic State are willing to talk about it, although security officials say about a third of European fighters have returned home. The group threatens traitors with death and has carried out that threat in Syria, if not in the West. But Peter Neumann of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at Kings College London says their voices will ultimately be the most effective at dissuading more departures, if governments can ensure they face no risk.

"Right now it's really only Islamic State who is telling a story," he said. "To have a counter-story being told by a former fighter would be potentially very powerful."

There will be no counter-story from the young man from Belgium who joined Islamic State after becoming convinced that his Arab name torpedoed any future in his homeland.

The man's mother said she found him a few small jobs and tried to convince him that his place was in Belgium — "that he had a future ... that jihad was to have the courage to look every day for work." She spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity for fear of what might happen to her government job if it became known that she had raised an Islamic extremist.

The people the young man met hanging around Brussels-area mosques, coupled with the videos he saw online, had a more alluring pitch.

"They told him he could help people in Syria," the mother said. In a phone call home, he told her of his intention of building the caliphate and dying as a martyr. At age 19, Anis, also known as Abu Ibarhim al-Belgiki, was reported killed on the last day of February in the battle for Deir al-Zour airport in Syria.

His mother was told he was hit in the head by a bullet — and buried near the spot where he fell.
___

Associated Press writer John-Thor Dahlburg in Brussels contributed.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-06-02

[RustBucket]

Al Jazeera ran an online poll recently which found that 83% of Muslims worldwide support ISIS and what they are doing.

They seemed to be shocked..... I wasn't.

[ezzra]

Al Jazeera ran an online poll recently which found that 83% of Muslims worldwide support ISIS and what they are doing.

They seemed to be shocked..... I wasn't.

And yet, the world is very busy in joining hands with groups like the BDS to de legitimize and isolate

Israel...questioning it's creation and it's existence.. never mind the atrocities committed in Iran,

ISIS, N. Korea, the Sudan, Syria, Nigeria, Yeman and Iraq, let's us all condom and boycott

Israel, the source of evil in this world.....

[simple1]

Al Jazeera ran an online poll recently which found that 83% of Muslims worldwide support ISIS and what they are doing.

They seemed to be shocked..... I wasn't.

A manifestation of the centuries old Sunni / Shia conflict. The votes were by Sunni Muslims, who support ISIS fighting Shiite forces in Iraq and Syria.

Sunnis are also targeted for killing by DAESH. There have been a number of reports of Sunni tribe members being mass murdered for refusing to swear allegiance to DAESH. I suggest it would be a very different poll result if the question asked was do you support DAESH within your home country.

[NeverSure]

Gee, when I was young the big and shocking desire was to run away to San Francisco and join the Beatniks or the Hippies. If one was really over the top a bra might get burned. Oh, wear some flowers in your hair and be a flower child. How times have changed.

[JDGRUEN]

Recently in the last few days the BBC TV has been running a lengthy report on the origin and maturation of IS or ISIS or ISIL as they are called. This includes the preventable (at the time) planting of seeds of resentment and the inadvertent facilitating of IS Indoctrination - all quite complicated. Faulty procedures and bad policy led to the fledgling formation of IS in Irag -- not intent - just blindness and ignorance of the American Government and Military and the Iraq Military and Government. Later outrageously stupid American policy gave rise to the organization and funding of IS in Syria - all of which led to a powerful and effective Terrorist Machine laying waste all over Iraq and Syria...

The emphasis and opinion is mine taken from what I saw in this fine BBC Report ... you may make a different set of conclusions.

IMO - copies or links to this report should be sent to every Department of State of every Western Nation as I doubt many of them are paying proper attention to the massive buildup and the seemingly never ending ability for IS to devise ways to getting large scale funding of hundreds of millions of dollars that has led to billions. It actually should be sent to every Department of State of Every Country - especially Thailand.

The blind U.S., U.K. and EU Governments seem to have succumbed to the NIMBY effect - It won't happen in my back yard... An attitude beyond dangerous - actually it is stupidity fueled by ignorance.. This runaway plague of monstrous fiends in the tens of thousands and growing by leaps and bounds everyday make me even more proud that American Citizens will never relinquish their hundreds of millions of guns. This IS threat can come across our porous Mexican Border - quite easily.

IS will not outright invade the U.S., the U.K. or the EU but they can easily infiltrate hundreds or even thousands of well armed squads of terrorists and reek terror all over the countryside as they did in Paris -- but on a much larger scale. Remember the IS is very cult like and are indoctrinated to an extreme degree. They are currently 'recruiting' thousands of children and putting them through - even torture to make them become foot soldiers, assassins, spies, suicide bombers and sex slaves.

I give kudos to the BBC for this report. It is a must for everyone to watch. I always have my misgivings about news media these days - and the BBC has its own bias which shows up often -- but I did not detect any particular bias in this well done report ...

If anyone can find an online Link to this video report - please post it here. IT IS VERY RELEVANT to the OP...

The BBC is showing excerpts of this report on a daily basis.

Edited June 2, 2015 by JDGRUEN

[konying]

So with all the bombing , Isis got bigger, smarter and stronger ?

[Credo]

It's great fun to blame all the gov'ts for the rise of ISIS. This is a religions conflict and is currently not a threat to the West. They can get large swaths of land, but they can't hold it. They will be many, many years fighting with one another before they can impact on the West. There first order of business is Sunni-Shia. It will be a while before they get that settled.

The recruits they are getting are mostly fairly young, poorly educated fighters. They are dangerous, but there are few who have the wits to screw in a light bulb, let alone make a bomb.

[sdanielmcev]

Recently in the last few days the BBC TV has been running a lengthy report on the origin and maturation of IS or ISIS or ISIL as they are called. This includes the preventable (at the time) planting of seeds of resentment and the inadvertent facilitating of IS Indoctrination - all quite complicated. Faulty procedures and bad policy led to the fledgling formation of IS in Irag -- not intent - just blindness and ignorance of the American Government and Military and the Iraq Military and Government. Later outrageously stupid American policy gave rise to the organization and funding of IS in Syria - all of which led to a powerful and effective Terrorist Machine laying waste all over Iraq and Syria...

The emphasis and opinion is mine taken from what I saw in this fine BBC Report ... you may make a different set of conclusions.

IMO - copies or links to this report should be sent to every Department of State of every Western Nation as I doubt many of them are paying proper attention to the massive buildup and the seemingly never ending ability for IS to devise ways to getting large scale funding of hundreds of millions of dollars that has led to billions. It actually should be sent to every Department of State of Every Country - especially Thailand.

The blind U.S., U.K. and EU Governments seem to have succumbed to the NIMBY effect - It won't happen in my back yard... An attitude beyond dangerous - actually it is stupidity fueled by ignorance.. This runaway plague of monstrous fiends in the tens of thousands and growing by leaps and bounds everyday make me even more proud that American Citizens will never relinquish their hundreds of millions of guns. This IS threat can come across our porous Mexican Border - quite easily.

IS will not outright invade the U.S., the U.K. or the EU but they can easily infiltrate hundreds or even thousands of well armed squads of terrorists and reek terror all over the countryside as they did in Paris -- but on a much larger scale. Remember the IS is very cult like and are indoctrinated to an extreme degree. They are currently 'recruiting' thousands of children and putting them through - even torture to make them become foot soldiers, assassins, spies, suicide bombers and sex slaves.

I give kudos to the BBC for this report. It is a must for everyone to watch. I always have my misgivings about news media these days - and the BBC has its own bias which shows up often -- but I did not detect any particular bias in this well done report ...

If anyone can find an online Link to this video report - please post it here. IT IS VERY RELEVANT to the OP...

The BBC is showing excerpts of this report on a daily basis.

No one, including countries, forces anybody into heinous acts.

[canuckamuck]

It's great fun to blame all the gov'ts for the rise of ISIS. This is a religions conflict and is currently not a threat to the West. They can get large swaths of land, but they can't hold it. They will be many, many years fighting with one another before they can impact on the West. There first order of business is Sunni-Shia. It will be a while before they get that settled.

The recruits they are getting are mostly fairly young, poorly educated fighters. They are dangerous, but there are few who have the wits to screw in a light bulb, let alone make a bomb.

Everything's OK folks nothing to see here. Just some boys letting off steam.

[NeverSure]

Wow. History apparently means nothing. How far back do we want to go? The (Muslim) Ottoman Empire? Great Britain colonizing and breaking up the ME and installing a guy named Mohammad Ali as leader of Egypt? Great Britain carving Jordan out of Palestine and creating a Muslim state?

In WWI Britain and France encouraging what is called the Great Arab Revolt, in which Egypt and what is known as Greater Syria - Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian region to revolt?

Ever heard of Lawrence of Arabia? There was a movie made about that.

I don't think this is anyone's fault except the perps of the insane killings and terrorism. This has been coming for centuries. There were terrorist attacks before 9/11 but no one paid attention or called them what they were. 9/11 was just the world's wake up call.

Yes, several western nations have made mistakes but this was coming anyway and the bad guys are the Islamic extremists. No ME leader can control these people because they are inside the gate. No Egyptian or Syrian or Saudi or Saddam or Qaddafi could control these guys right now. They couldn't control Al Qaeda or the Taliban and they aren't going to control these guys.

I agree with one thing. I'm glad Americans are armed. We aren't going to put up with their shit. Not in my neighborhood or my local store or restaurant and not in Texas, Arizona or Montana. They will be Whac-A-Mole pieces. End of.

[FangFerang]

Jam the radio broadcasts...duh. ISIS is the Frankenstein of the GW Bush Iraq Fiasco (and Big Lie).

I wonder why thy don't jam the broadcasts.

I wonder why they won't.

[simple1]

So with all the bombing , Isis got bigger, smarter and stronger ?

You may recall its claimed that DAESH strategy was designed by Sunni ex Iraqi senior military officers for political power & money purposes after Bremer disbanded the Iraqi army. al-Baghdadi is the religion bit & a front for gaining recruits / cannon fodder.

http://jordantimes.com/iraqi-officer-under-saddam-masterminded-rise-of-daesh----spiegel

Its been reported in recent days Coalition forces are not attacking HQ location/s in Syria of DAESH for fear of killing hostages. Another example is Oz airforce is not bombing targets in Syria, as to use the words of the PM its an "ungoverned area". Additionally its claimed DAESH have modified their tactics to minimise the effect of coalition air strikes. It is claimed only one out of four missions are completed due to concern for killing non combatants.

Edited June 2, 2015 by simple1

[JDGRUEN]

Recently in the last few days the BBC TV has been running a lengthy report on the origin and maturation of IS or ISIS or ISIL as they are called. This includes the preventable (at the time) planting of seeds of resentment and the inadvertent facilitating of IS Indoctrination - all quite complicated. Faulty procedures and bad policy led to the fledgling formation of IS in Irag -- not intent - just blindness and ignorance of the American Government and Military and the Iraq Military and Government. Later outrageously stupid American policy gave rise to the organization and funding of IS in Syria - all of which led to a powerful and effective Terrorist Machine laying waste all over Iraq and Syria...

The emphasis and opinion is mine taken from what I saw in this fine BBC Report ... you may make a different set of conclusions.

IMO - copies or links to this report should be sent to every Department of State of every Western Nation as I doubt many of them are paying proper attention to the massive buildup and the seemingly never ending ability for IS to devise ways to getting large scale funding of hundreds of millions of dollars that has led to billions. It actually should be sent to every Department of State of Every Country - especially Thailand.

The blind U.S., U.K. and EU Governments seem to have succumbed to the NIMBY effect - It won't happen in my back yard... An attitude beyond dangerous - actually it is stupidity fueled by ignorance.. This runaway plague of monstrous fiends in the tens of thousands and growing by leaps and bounds everyday make me even more proud that American Citizens will never relinquish their hundreds of millions of guns. This IS threat can come across our porous Mexican Border - quite easily.

IS will not outright invade the U.S., the U.K. or the EU but they can easily infiltrate hundreds or even thousands of well armed squads of terrorists and reek terror all over the countryside as they did in Paris -- but on a much larger scale. Remember the IS is very cult like and are indoctrinated to an extreme degree. They are currently 'recruiting' thousands of children and putting them through - even torture to make them become foot soldiers, assassins, spies, suicide bombers and sex slaves.

I give kudos to the BBC for this report. It is a must for everyone to watch. I always have my misgivings about news media these days - and the BBC has its own bias which shows up often -- but I did not detect any particular bias in this well done report ...

If anyone can find an online Link to this video report - please post it here. IT IS VERY RELEVANT to the OP...

The BBC is showing excerpts of this report on a daily basis.

No one, including countries, forces anybody into heinous acts.

I am not sure if you are agreeing or disagreeing with a point in my post - but the conditions in the huge confinement camps in Iraq - one especially (as the report covers) gave rise to the ability to self-indoctrinate in the confinement of thousands in a camp -- plot for revenge against the West / America and against the Shiites.. Seems after Obama executed the pull out - soon after when the prison camps were turned over to the Iraq Government -- they left them all go - almost at one time ..The infant command structure of IS just walked off and found places to regroup and effect revenge and capitalized on the events going on in Syria to evolve and advance their cause.

The fierce religious hatred toward the Shiites and Infidels became the target. Plundering oil wells and pipelines and selling ancient artifacts gave them fortunes.

You are right -- I agree for the most part - no country forced them - IS found reason for extreme violence and heinous acts deep in their interpretation of Islam ..

[JDGRUEN]

Anyone making comments about what I posted - reference the BBC ISIS Report ... should view the long video report before embarrassing yourself with dumb comments. Flippant analysis about how IS came about -- are just that FLIPPANT.

Edited June 2, 2015 by JDGRUEN

[Steely Dan]

Al Jazeera ran an online poll recently which found that 83% of Muslims worldwide support ISIS and what they are doing.

They seemed to be shocked..... I wasn't.

A manifestation of the centuries old Sunni / Shia conflict. The votes were by Sunni Muslims, who support ISIS fighting Shiite forces in Iraq and Syria.

Sunnis are also targeted for killing by DAESH. There have been a number of reports of Sunni tribe members being mass murdered for refusing to swear allegiance to DAESH. I suggest it would be a very different poll result if the question asked was do you support DAESH within your home country.

I see. So if I follow your line of reasoning ISIS would receive less support if they were slaughtering Jews, Christians or any other assorted infidel?

p.s Yazidi survivors of ISIS conquest have stated how their Sunni neighbors were only too ready to help ISIS in attacking them.

[simple1]

Al Jazeera ran an online poll recently which found that 83% of Muslims worldwide support ISIS and what they are doing.

They seemed to be shocked..... I wasn't.

A manifestation of the centuries old Sunni / Shia conflict. The votes were by Sunni Muslims, who support ISIS fighting Shiite forces in Iraq and Syria.

Sunnis are also targeted for killing by DAESH. There have been a number of reports of Sunni tribe members being mass murdered for refusing to swear allegiance to DAESH. I suggest it would be a very different poll result if the question asked was do you support DAESH within your home country.

I see. So if I follow your line of reasoning ISIS would receive less support if they were slaughtering Jews, Christians or any other assorted infidel?

p.s Yazidi survivors of ISIS conquest have stated how their Sunni neighbors were only too ready to help ISIS in attacking them.

Wrong, not the point I was making.