Anyone could go out and kill a bunch of civilians, shout allah akbar, and then BAM....suddenly the Islamic State was planning, funding, and executing it. There is no 'hazing' process to become a member - any angsty college student stuck in the friendzone could say they're part of the group. All the mainstream news channels are feeding off people's blind fear and ignorance of the topic.
I'm not saying ISIL/ISIS is fake. Worth taking note of though, is the fact their leader & many other high-ranking members joined the militia after being released from U.S. detention facilities like Guantanamo...
But the only 'real' Islamic State can be seen in the hordes overrunning Iraq & Syria.
The weirdest issue I've noticed is the changes in video production form earlier to more recent - for example (rough descriptions here) the Kobani video featuring John Cantile as
hostage correspondent, and the video of the desert throat-cuttings narrated by a member with a clear British accent (jihadi john). In the Cantile and 'beheading' videos, the background looked distinctly green-screened (lighting differences, background noise inconsistencies; that 'fuzzy outline' around his body noticeable when watching a weatherman/woman). Some screens (different videos with the same inconsistencies) [img=http://imgur.com/SQ5N1m9]http://here[/img] and [img=http://imgur.com/wadB3NO]http://here[/img]. The beheadings were never actually shown, either - very different than their newer releases which prove much more graphic.
All I want to know is who's in charge of production - in Syria, opposition fighters film their attacks (partly in an effort) to receive funding/new weapons from their foreign overlords. Before their (generally Gulf) donors see the videos, video production teams in Qatar will perform some editing - splicing, effects,an intro/ending with professional-level animations (of whatever the group's logo may be). That's gotta take some serious cash...and those videos are put to shame production-wise with ISIS releases. Even more so, if they are in fact using a green screen...if that's the case, I'd wager they force those hostages to make a couple different 'reports' from whatever areas they hope to control, kill the hostage, and release the videos later, tricking people into over-estimating their presence in the region.
