© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
New York Times: ISIS Media Output Drops as Military Pressure Rises, Report Says
WASHINGTON — The vaunted propaganda operations of the Islamic State, which helped lure more than 30,000 foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq, have dropped off drastically as the extremist group has come under military pressure, according to a study by terrorism researchers at West Point.
In addition, the researchers found, there has been a striking shift away from publications and social media portraying a functioning state with competent bureaucrats, thriving businesses and happy citizens. The Islamic State, also called ISIS and ISIL, claims that it is building a new caliphate — or unified Muslim land — a claim that has become increasingly threadbare.
“It’s not just the numeric decline,” said Daniel Milton, director of research at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point and the author of the new report. “The caliphate was their big selling point. Now there’s an inability to say we’re doing the things that make us a state. And that was behind their broad appeal.”
At the peak of the Islamic State’s media output, in August 2015, the group released more than 700 items from official outlets in Syria and several other countries. During the month of August 2016, after a year of airstrikes and other assaults, that number had declined to under 200, according to the study.
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Update: ISIS propaganda crippled by military defeats, study finds (RT)
WNU Editor: This was long overdue.
1 comment:
When ISIS first arose, it captured and held territory faster and more efficiently than the US military ever could have even at it's prime before it became badly worn down from continuing operations. It's easy to see how a layperson could have missed this. It's not so easy to understand how intelligence professionals could have missed this. Of course US intelligence has a long track record of spectacular incompetence. As such, then again perhaps it's not hard to see how the missed it but a group that, at the outset captured and held territory faster than the very best of "western" forces could have done may have been hard to anticipate especially for people who have an overinflated view of American capabilities.
It seems ISIS chief problem was they were unable to adjust to behaving like a normal state once they captured territory. Had they managed to do so they probably could have achieved their caliphate.
Essentially the Middle East is crying out for stability. Had they been able to adjust to behaving like a normal state the world especially the "west" for better or worse would have welcomed their caliphate.
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