The US Knows Where ISIS Videos Are Produced – But Does Nothing About It
- The US Knows Where ISIS Videos Are Produced – But Does Nothing About It
by Tyler Durden, www.zerohedge.com
Earlier this month, we brought you an in-depth look inside Islamic State’s sprawling propaganda machine. As outlined extensively by Charlie Winter in a study entitled “Documenting The Virtual ‘Caliphate’”, ISIS produces nearly 40 pieces of propaganda each day in various formats ranging from video, to print, to radio.
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The workload is divided between dozens of individual production units hailing from all corners of the caliphate from Libya to Raqqa to Mosul. ..
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Put simply: recruitment on that scale would be all but impossible in the absence of the al-Hayat Media Center and its myriad offshoots. Importantly, ISIS propaganda isn’t limited to murder montages. In fact, quite a bit of Islamic State media focuses on portraying life in the “caliphate.” The idea, of course, is to project some semblance of normalcy – to show potential recruits that a society governed by Sharia Law can still have the trappings of modernity.
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Given all of this, one would certainly think that the US would be interested in dismantling the network that serves as Islamic State’s recruiting arm. After all, if the group can’t replace the fighters killed on the battlefield, its ranks will shrivel. As it turns out, the US has “spent months” mapping the locations of the various media production units shown in the org chart above. Despite knowing their locations, Washington has refrained from destroying them – supposedly for fear of inflicting civilian casualties.
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Here’s The Washington Times with more:
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Intelligence officials have spent months mapping out known physical locations of media safe houses where the extremist group’s operatives are compiling, editing and curating raw video and print materials into finished digital propaganda products for dissemination across the Internet.
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Most of the locations are embedded in heavily residential areas in Syria, Iraq and Libya and are not being targeted by U.S. airstrikes because of Obama administration concerns about civilian casualties, according to sources who spoke to The Washington Times only on the condition of anonymity.
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As we discussed in the context of the oil convoys, it seems rather odd that The Pentagon, which just two months ago fired indiscriminately on an MSF hospital in Kunduz killing dozens of civilians, and the CIA, which runs a drone program that misses its intended target 90% of the time on the way to claiming countless innocent lives, is suddenly so concerned about collateral damage that the US is helpless to stop Islamic State from getting rich both in terms of blood money and in terms of recruits.
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Those of a skeptical persuasion might be inclined to suggest that the US is deliberately keeping the media units operational just as Washington has avoided hitting the oil convoys. After all, if Islamic State stops recruiting, they may disappear and if the public is no longer subjected to Hollywood-esque executions filmed in sparkling 1080p, Americans may forget why the US needs to be in Syria – and we can’t have that.
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read more.


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