A Look At The Islamic State's AMAQ News Agency

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Bloomberg: Bin Laden Sent Videotapes. Islamic State Runs a 24/7 News Agency

* Amaq news agency run from within Islamic State, analysts say
* Terrorist group using encrypted platforms to communicate

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had to rely on video and audio messages recorded in remote hideouts and delivered to international television networks by supporters to claim responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Islamic State, today the preeminent terrorist threat to the West, sponsors its own Amaq news agency, producing dispatches on a 24-hour news cycle using mobile technology. The group claimed Tuesday’s bombings in Brussels through the agency, posting reports in English and then Arabic in a detached journalistic style free of images or statements from its leader. Aware of the propaganda value of defining itself as a combatant in an unequal struggle, Amaq said the attacks were part of a wider war with an international coalition.

Amaq is an attempt to seize “information dominance” over enemies, said Charlie Winter, a senior research associate who focuses on Islamist militancy at Georgia State University in Atlanta. The agency is named after a Syrian town mentioned in an ancient prophecy as the site for an apocalyptic victory over non-believers.

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Update: ISIS Is Using the Media Against Itself (Charlie Winer, Defense One/The Atlantic)

WNU Editor: I am surprised that this wretched news agency is still operating. You would think that the people behind this "news agency" would be priority targets.