ISIS’ Media Center Recruiting Western Jihadis
When we posted our Iconoclast article on Iraq disintegrating under pressure of the ISIS blitzkrieg, we noted concern over what half billion dollars in cash and gold from the seizure of banks in Mosul would finance:
What is really worrisome is that the vast treasury that ISIS has seized that will enable them to pay on average $600 a month to attract thousands of foreign jihadis, especially those in the West.
Bill Gertz, noted intelligence columnist at the Washington Free Beacon (WFB) published an article today on how ISIS’ Al Hayat Media Center is engaged in recruiting Western Jihadis in both English and German through websites, videos and brochures, “New Al Qaeda Group Produces Recruitment Material for Americans, Westerners”. The tag line is: “English language appeals raise new concerns of future jihadist attacks in U.S.”, a point emphasized in comments from noted counterterrorism expert, Patrick Poole.
Gertz reports the following:
Al Qaeda’s ultra-extremist Syrian offshoot known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) is stepping up efforts to recruit Americans and other westerners for jihad in Syria and possibly for future domestic terror attacks, according to U.S. officials.
A new media outlet affiliated with ISIL recently began producing recruiting materials in both English and German that U.S. intelligence analysts say is a sign they are targeting western jihadists for recruitment.
It is the first time ISIL, one of the most prominent ultra-violent jihadists among Syrian rebels groups, has set up a western-oriented media arm.
[…]
According to U.S. officials, the new media outlet is called the Al Hayat Media Center that is under the authority of the ISIL’s official propaganda arm, the Al-Itisam Establishment for Media Production.
Analysts say the products appear to have been produced by competent English speakers and are devoid of spelling and grammatical errors, while including Arabic phrases and words.
Patrick Poole commented:
ISIL’s media arm has made a major push over the past month to produce material targeting potential western recruits.
The ISIL appears to be copying a similar propaganda and recruitment model used by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula..
With as many as 70 Americans fighting with Syrian jihadist groups, and thousands of westerners, counterterrorism authorities have been rightfully worried.” “Now that we have known cases of Americans fighting with ISIL, that is considered even too extreme for al Qaeda, and ongoing recruitment inside the U.S., we’re only going to see the potential domestic terror blowback from the Syrian jihad grow even more.
Gertz cites the range of recent Al-Hayat production and anti-Semitic rhetoric:
The center on May 31st produced a seven-page pamphlet called Islamic State News with a series of photographs covered with phrases that condemn military attacks on ISIL and tout the terror group’s operations in Syria and Iraq. It also highlighted the group’s public outreach programs that include humanitarian and education programs, as well a,s showing how the group governs territory.
A second pamphlet of Islamic State News was published June 5th.
The first was an ISIL recruitment video containing photos of the group’s fighters and military operations overlaid with a sound track of an Islamic religious chant.
The June 2 video urges English-speaking Muslims to take up arms in jihad, or holy war.
The videos were produced by Al-Itisam Establishment for Media Production, the official propaganda arm of ISIL in Syria.
Titled, “Soldiers of Truth,” the video contains images of jihadists in the Syrian conflict. Superimposed over the photos are English phrases urging the creation of an “Islamic state,” along with anti-western and anti-Semitic propaganda phrases superimposed over them.
The sound track is an ISIL Islamist chant that includes the phrase “Jewish rabbis will be humiliated.”
Watch the WFB copy of the Al-Hayat video:
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.