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The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant:

Is There More behind the Scene ?

ISIS has become the word to be afraid of (along with Putin, He who must not be named). In it, all fears

and hatreds are now embedded: Islam, terrorism, barbarism, war, insanity, Otherness, fiction. Since

9/11, this has been an ever-growing sentiment of course, but ISIS seems to be just more barbaric than

ever, with its over-publicized beheading videos that make them look as coming straight from scary Dark

Ages. But as one might expect – although not according to the official discourse – there is more to it

than just that. For starters, mainstream media’s coverage of the whole ISIS issue, but also more

particularly of the videos, is highly biased, giving one side of the story only in order to feed this national

– and international – fear of the Other, to keep the war industry and mythology going. Second, when we

focus on the beheading videos, discrepancies come to light – not taken up by mainstream media of

course – and we can very legitimately ponder if the story is that much binary and black & white in

essence. Finally, it all makes sense when we see how intricately linked are the U.S. and ISIS, for the

greatest pleasure of the World’s Policeman.

The videos: what is fake, what is not told?

Let us start with the video of James Foley, American journalist abducted in Syria in 2012 and killed by

ISIS on August 19, 2014. I have now found the video of Foley’s beheading1, however in September 2014,

I was not able to find it anywhere – was it edited and put back online? I don’t know2. The current video

shows Foley on his knees in the middle of a rock desert, not looking excessively troubled as one might

be in such a situation, with his headsman standing beside him. When he starts beheading Foley, the

beheading is slow – the headsman seems to cut his throat with a butter knife, making around 9 back-

and-forth movements onto the victim’s throat (see images in Annex) – and the video then cuts at the

critical moment before fading in again, the head already severed from its body. Many websites and

blogs – not mainstream ones of course – have made relatively good cases of explaining how the video

1 Clash Daily.com, at < http://clashdaily.com/2014/08/beheaded-isis-beheads-us-journalist-james-foley-graphic-

video/ >, retrieved 12/13/2014 2 It is also very hard to stay true to yourself when such external modifications occur, making you think you are the one going crazy or having a faulty memory – just as in 1984. So I will remain careful just for the sake of ethics, but I remain skeptical.

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was photoshopped3, staged on a green background and then transposed on a desert environment –

even though the US government has officially “authenticated” the video, which in the end does not

mean much.

Although he surely has been killed (then again, nothing’s for sure either), it might not be on this video

which is a poor video reconstitution. The New York Times’ coverage of Foley’s death, in any case, was

appealing most certainly to the reader’s emotions and already fixed ideas about the whole ISIS issue:

Kneeling in the dirt in a desert somewhere in the Middle East, James Foley lost his life this week at the hands of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Before pulling out the knife used to decapitate him, his masked executioner explained that he was killing the 40-year-old American journalist in retaliation for the recent United States’ airstrikes against the terrorist group in Iraq.4

It reads like a fiction, with a very descriptive narration and emphasizing the martyr-like perception of the

journalist “kneeling in the dirt”; also, giving more details on Foley like his age puts him closer to the

reader, while the “Islamic State”, “masked executioner” and “terrorist group” give a very dark and

devilish image, fostering a binary reading of the events without any nuance.

But the most interesting is this journalist’s background: it would seem Foley was not a mere journalist,

but working covertly for American intelligence – indeed the CIA is known for using journalists as cover

agents, like they did in mass during the Cold War, and like they are most probably doing now in the

Middle-East. One website posited that The Global Post, the Boston-based newspaper for which Foley

worked, could be a “toned-down version of Voice of America”5, the latter known for its ties with the CIA,

as Carl Bernstein wrote in the 1970s6. Also, three years prior to being abducted, Foley was working in

several USAID-funded developments projects in Baghdad7; however this USAID – US Agency for

International Development – has recently been exposed for its intelligence activities, like the anti-Castro

3 Like bestgore.com at http://www.bestgore.com/beheading/james-foley-beheading-hoax-slow-motion-frame-by-

frame/ (do ignore the ads though….) or nodisinfo.com at http://nodisinfo.com/hard-proof-beheading-alan-henning-fake/ (and here, make sense of things without taking into account of the kind of language like “filthy zionist”– though the underlying points are plausible and links with the Mossad are far from absurd). 4 “ISIS Pressed for Ransom Before Killing Journalist”, in The New York Times, August 21, 2014, p. A1 5 The Slog, at <https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/james-foley-exclusive-his-employers-display-all-the-hallmarks-of-a-cia-front/>, retrieved 12/01/2014 6Carl Bernstein, “The CIA and the Media”, originally published in The Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977.

<http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php> , retrieved 12/01/2014 7 David Devoss, “James Foley, 1973-2014: A courageous journalist killed by terrorists”, in The Weekly Standard, on Sept. 1, 2014, <http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/james-foley-1973-2014_803537.html> retrieved 12/01/2014

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infiltration of Cuban hip-hop aimed at “radicaliz[ing] the Cuban people to challenge their own

government.”8

Whether Foley was sold by his own employers (the U.S. government) or genuinely caught by ISIS, he was

in any case more a victim of the U.S. State rather than a plain and courageous innocent journalist – or,

worse, a “British cab driver turned charity worker” like Alan Henning, beheaded on October 3, 2014.

Though I haven’t found any versions countering the official one, and though I do believe there are good

people left in this world, on the other hand I do find this story incredibly “too” touching to be true, and

would not be surprised if he, too, had been a cover agent.

While Foley’s video is somewhat risible, other videos have appeared since then9, some of them being

much more credible – and if I may add, too credible, especially the one available on the website

“Tangentcode”10. By that I mean it looks like it is coming straight from Hollywood, the effects being so

cinematographically well done: added sound effects worthy of US thriller TV shows, echoes, slow

motions, fade-out and fade-in cuts, close ups, and an obvious theatrical mise-en-scène much better than

the other ones. This is all rather queer when we compare these videos with actual Iraqi TV shows that

are nothing like it. To comment on the terrorist group’s media use, on September 26 The New York

Times introduced an article with “Along with its surprising military success, the Islamic State group has

demonstrated a skill and sophistication with social media previously unseen in extremist groups.” The

analysis did not go beyond this statement, not pondering further on how/why this was so.

I would like to make a parallel here with the video of French Hervé Gourdel’s beheading on September

24, 2014. I also watched the video – on an obscure Russian website at the time, although now it has

become more available too11, which is just as strange as with Foley’s video – in which we can see the

victim making a little speech directed at the relevant government as always, followed by a speech from

the terrorists all around him (around 5 of them); then the victim is laid on the floor by the others and

fades out quickly, before reappearing to show the body and the severed head held in the air by one of

8 Interview of Trish Wilson (from the Associated Press) by Hari Sreenivasan, “Behind USAID’s Failed Attempt to

Infiltrate Cuban Hip-Hop”, on Dec. 13, 2014, <http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/behind-usaids-failed-attempt-infiltrate-cuban-hip-hop/> , retrieved 12/14/2014 9 Steven Sotloff, on September 3, 2014; David Haines, on Sept. 14; Alan Henning, on Oct. 3; Peter Kassig, on Nov. 16; this is a non-exhaustive list (a more complete one can be found on Wikipedia). 10 Tangentcode, at the webpage < http://tangentcode.org/2014/11/16/18-syrian-soldiers-mass-beheading/ >, retrieved 12/08/2014 11 For instance here: LeakSource, at < http://leaksource.info/2014/09/24/graphic-video-islamic-state-algerian-group-beheads-french-hostage-herve-gourdel/ >, retrieved 12/14/2014

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the terrorists. The New York Times coverage of this was merely descriptive (of both the video content

and the geopolitical context) and non-interrogative.

Gourdel, both here and in French media, was presented as a simple Western tourist, who had come to

hike in the Algerian mountains. But in an interview – not widely spread, especially not in the French

mainstream media – to The Algerian Times (“Le Temps d’Algérie”), ex-military Ali Zaoui, expert in issues

relating to security and fight against terrorism12, talks about his view that Gourdel was most probably a

French cover agent and that the kidnapping was orchestrated by the French State in order to push

Algeria to enter the conflict, especially in Lybia, to fight “the terrorism that [the French government]

have supported and financed themselves”. For him, this is very similar to the 2010 “Camatte case”:

Pierre Camatte, an agent from the French external intelligence agency (the DGSE, before known as the

DST), was detained and then freed by Al Qaeda in Mali. He had been presented in the media as a

humanitarian worker and head of a French regional committee, his official cover titles.

Here is what Mr Zaoui said to the Algerian newspaper (translation done by myself):

All indicators suggest that this kidnapping, even though claimed by the group “Djound al Khilafa”, had been planned. How come Pierre Hervé Gourdel has been kidnapped on the day after his arrival in Algeria? And why didn’t he follow safety instructions? The French citizen was hiking in this region that was known for its dangerousness. Why did he choose that location? The kidnapped had rented a lodge in the woods under the name of his Algerian friend so as not to be identified by Algerian secret services.

What’s more, in his last tweet status, one could read “When I come back from Algeria after October 1st - if I come back”, indicating he was certainly called on a specific mission in Algeria13. The first two French nationals that had been abducted in Algeria have already been identified as French spies. For me, there is no doubt.”14

12 Although I haven’t found much information on this person either. 13 This would be actually weird for a secret agent to disclose such comments online – unless, indeed, it was planned that he would be kidnapped. Also, no information on his twitter account is shown anymore, so I could not verify this. 14 «L'enlèvement est monté de toutes pièces par les services secrets français» ("The Kidnapping Is Set Up by French Secret Services"), in Le Temps d’Algérie, August 23, 2014, <http://www.letempsdz.com/content/view/131667/182/> retrieved 11/11/2014

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U.S. mainstream media, more ready than ever to support the official version – and sustain an

amalgamated feeling of fear

Worse than merely not showing the videos, The Huffington Post (on Huffpost Live) has released an

interview where the journalists were advising not to watch those15, not to “give the terrorist this

pleasure”: Huffington Post Executive Religion Editor16 (it is the first time I hear of such a title) reverend

Paul Brandeis Raushenbush indeed said:

I haven’t watched the video and that was intentional. I haven’t sold it out. I’ve chosen not to give the perpetrators that pleasure. Because I think that’s part of it, they want to shock, they want to affect me, they want to get to me and make me fearful. I’ve decided that, for me, the best approach is not to think about the people who did this […], I want to know about the life of the person who died, […] who actually was so brave that they went over there often motivated by deep humanitarian care, and I learned about them and realized that they were really amazing people and I just took a moment to honor their life. […] I don’t need to see [the video] to know it’s brutal.

But here is the thing: you do need to see it to know it. You do not know it is brutal unless you have seen

it with your own eyes. Otherwise you are not doing your job of journalist, checking facts, and you merely

rely on what other people say even though there actually is a means to verify it directly – something you

are supposed to do whenever possible, as a respectable journalist.

The mainstream media play on this lack of available primary source – since most videos were not

available at the time, and now that it has died down nobody cares anymore, the “discovery” of CIA

waterboarding practice being the new trend. They use this lack of direct evidence to put forward the

official and convenient version of things in order to make people hate those terrorists apparently

coming out of nowhere (of course this is absolutely false as we will see) and accept more easily another

war campaign over there, in this far-away land of all evil deeds, full of fanatics. Democracy and human

rights are the new Holy War.

The New York Times, we know it, relies heavily on officials for its information, thereby giving a view very

much biased towards the official line only. Countless “officials said” can be found in any article, all the

15 “Why You Shouldn't Watch The ISIS Beheadings”, hosted by Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani < http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/highlight/why-you-shouldnt-watch-the-isis-beheadings/5407594f78c90a42660000e7 >, retrieved 10/04/2014 16 Or how to further amalgamate religion and terrorism, by inviting a religion specialist to talk about ISIS instead of a terrorism specialist… They don’t want to be “affected” by the perpetrators’ will by not watching the videos, but obviously they buy into their fanatical discourse speaking for the Islamic community anyway, since they are mixing the two here.

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more so in articles dealing with issues that are sensitive for the State, like ISIS. One instance can even be

taken directly from a headline, among others: “U.S. Is Carrying Out Vast Majority of Strikes on ISIS,

Military Officials Say”17.

In the issue of September 23, 2014, The New York Times published a small article, not mentioned in the

front page, at the bottom of page A12. It talks about another video, no beheading involved but only a

“warning” read by another American journalist, John Cantlie, who was kidnapped at the same time as

James Foley – the two were travelling together. In this article, it is said that Cantlie began the video by

quoting a former CIA officer: “So, let’s get straight to the point with a quote from former- C.I.A.-chief-

turned-vigorous anti- intervention-campaigner Michael Scheuer: ‘President Obama does not have the

slightest intention of defeating the Islamic State,’ ” Mr. Cantlie says.”18 There is no mention of this quote

in the title of the article though, and is no further discussed in it either.

It can be interesting to point out that the said Mr Scheuer has resigned from the CIA in 2004, and since

then has set up his own website to discuss foreign policy more freely, one of the reasons being that “[no

U.S. political leader in either party] will tell the American people that we are at war because of what the

U.S. government does in the Muslim world — unqualified support for Israel, support for Arab tyrannies,

invading Iraq, etc. — and not for who we are and how we live here in North America.”19

All this is true. Far from me the idea of being on the side of the Islamic State: it is not by blaming the U.S.

for their actual responsibility in all this that I automatically support the other side – this is the danger of

the much-relayed dual discourse by the media started with Bush back in 2001: “either you are with us,

or with the terrorists”. Rather, I am on neither side and would simply like to know the truth in the U.S.

Government’s motives, as any person and citizen is entitled to.20

Another article from The New York Times was entitled with the broad statement “In Airstrikes, U.S.

Targets Militant Cell Said to Plot an Attack Against the West”, it is hard not to see the sensationalizing

17 From The New York Times, p. A14, September 24, 2014 18 “As U.S. Bombs Fall, Islamic State’s British Hostage Warns of Another Vietnam”, in The NYT, page A12, Sept. 23, 2014 19 Michael Scheuer’s Non-intervention.com, “About” <http://non-intervention.com/about-2/> retrieved 11/14/2014 20 I recommend reading this excellent article in The Guardian of January 26th, 2015 by Gary Younge: “American Sniper illustrates the west’s morality blind spots” <ttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/26/america-morality-blind-spots-guantanamo-bay-king-abdullah-hypocrisy-civilisation?CMP=share_btn_tw>

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aspect of such a headline (appearing on the front page as well). Inside there was no much more real

news, since officials, again, “offered no details in public and did not provide specifics on how soon an

attack might be carried out”. Was there one at all in the first place? Interestingly, in the middle of the

article discreetly lies the following sentence: “But one senior counterterrorism official, who insisted on

anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the group might not have chosen the target, method or

even the timing for a strike”, while all other officials claimed the threat was imminent. Nothing more is

said on this counter-suggestion, while at the very end of the article is mentioned rather dismissively that

“evident elsewhere was a familiar current of cynicism about the motives behind the strikes”, quoting an

Egyptian newspaper angry at the US for shedding the “cheap Arab blood” to “achieve their goals and

purposes”21. Its placement at the end, which no one reads contrary to the first paragraphs on the front

page22, also tells a lot on the newspaper’s estimation of this information since this slot is usually

reserved for the least important information in news journalism.

From a broader perspective, the newspaper also conveys common amalgams – either consciously or

not, but the consequences are the same anyway – which are therefore accepted as holy truth since they

have gone under the blessing of the most popular and respected newspaper of the nation. One instance

is when The New York Times said that the Islamic State was “establishing Sharia courts”23: by casually

writing this down, this subtly fosters this association between Sharia law and “dangerous fanatic

Muslims”. While “Sharia” has been taken up by the mainstream media everywhere as a dangerous

radical phenomenon, it is actually only a term describing the fact that politics and any other chosen

topic usually dealt with by the State (or sometimes personal matters) are dealt according to the moral

code of any prophetic religion (it does not even originally applies to Islam only). But, therefore, much

like “conspiracy” has become a term heavily negatively connoted by undifferentiated usage, “Sharia” is

now seen as something only seen in devilish Muslim lands like ISIS. However, there is not one Sharia

implementation only, just like there is not one democratic system only; and indeed Sharia law as

enforced in Jordan, one of the most peaceful countries in the Middle-East, is not comparable with Sharia

law as enforced in Sa’udi Arabia or, the Islamic State.

21 “In Airstrikes, U.S. Targets Militant Cell Said to Plot an Attack Against the West”, in The New York Times, p. A14, Sept. 24, 2014 22 But that is just a speculation 23 “Weeks of American Airstrikes in Iraq Fails to Dislodge the Islamic State”, in The NYT, p. A12, Sept. 23, 2014

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The U.S. and ISIS: Frankestein and his creature

Another blogger goes as far as to say that ISIS leader Al-Baghdadi is from Jewish descent and works for

the Mossad – and is called Simon Elliot. I might sound very skeptical here, but only because other

features of this website are rather far-fetched – talking about the “Zio-Nazis” that have managed to

colonize the US… Although it sounds like the famous Russian “Jewish world conspiracy” (the blog is, by

the way, in English and… Russian), then again who are we to judge, when we know the Nazis found a

safe haven in America where they were recruited, as is told in Christopher Simpson’s Blowback.

An article in The New York Times from October 6, 2014, indicates that ISIS’s ammunitions come for a

large part from the U.S. and China, the use of the majority of cartridges coinciding with those sold by the

U.S. to Iraqi security forces in the 2000s. Of course this is not necessarily a direct informal supplying by

the U.S., those might very well have been stolen from Iraqi forces by ISIS – which is the explanation put

forward by the newspaper. But not even needing to go as far as saying that ISIS is controlled by the U.S.,

it is very possible to say that there are indeed links between the two, and that the U.S. are basically

responsible of the foundation of this movement.

That is what Barry Chamish, investigative journalist focusing on Israel and the Middle-East, says about

his findings on the matter:

It has been almost a year since, relying on sources I trusted, I reported that US Special Forces were running a camp in the northern Jordanian town of Iswafa, to train, fund and equip forces to supposedly bring down the Assad regime in Syria, with covert Israeli military co-ordination and obvious Jordanian co-operation. These troops made their way from Syria to Turkey and in a miracle of military tactical genius, were transformed into ISIS, which in a mere three years captured half of Syria and Iraq. And even better, with some well publicized decapitations, brought the US back to the Middle East to fight the beheading beasts. In short, the US, with Israeli help, created their own worst enemies.24

Indeed this makes a lot of sense – much more sense than the binary official version putting ISIS as the

newest Evil driven by folly and Islamic fanaticism. Indeed those numerous videos were a bit odd – even

though officials and the mainstream media did not think it was odd that, all of a sudden, such videos

were released for the mere will of “terrorizing” and “provoking” the U.S., as if a small rising terror group

had nothing better to do than thoughtlessly provoking the most powerful country in the world.

24 Barry Chamish, “Isis, the US and Israel” < http://www.barrychamish.com/Newsletters_2014/isis-the-us-and-israel.html >, retrieved 12/09/2014

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Clamish also gives voice to Russian officials, who think that the Israeli Mossad has very likely

“transferred some of its ‘spying experience’” to ISIS fighters. This is obviously not a version that would

ever be supported or even mentioned seriously in news outlets such as The New York Times or any other

mainstream media. We also understand a bit more the growing opposition between the two world

leaders, the U.S. and Russia, and why the former tends to demonize the latter on every possible issue.

Again, need I say that it is not because I give blame to the U.S. government that I automatically support

Russia and think Putin is an absolutely lovable person.

I will stop here for I do not believe I have enough background in politics and foreign policy to make a

strongest claim – and do not want to fall into a perspective biased from the other side, or simply too

blurry. I do not pretend to understand all of the underlying plots and unofficial doings; rather, I am

aiming at broadening the existing view by giving more tools to understand the bigger picture.

I would like to finish on a last parallel with George Orwell’s 1984: to follow up on what we had seen in

class, in the end this issue does seem to support the case that the U.S. need a constant state of war, and

will do anything to make it happen. Indeed the three not-so-much fictional superstates of Oceania,

Eurasia and Eastasia are constantly in a state of war, so that the people will submit more easily to the

governing systems. They know what to do, they protect the people, they surely know better – and who

are we to judge, in a state of war, instead of trusting the higher power? A constant danger of death

pushes people to be obedient and comply with the available living conditions, it does not leave room for

critical thinking, only “survival” thinking. The danger is when people have the time to be more educated

and critical. In the present case of the U.S., this constant state of fear is not conveyed through an overtly

oppressive superstate, but subtly conveyed through everyday mainstream media in our beautiful system

that we call “democracy”. This, coupled with the idea that Northern America is the best example and

has the duty to bring freedom to other countries oppressed by dark forces, results in a Holy War-like

discourse perfect to make people agree with the official motive. Of course, we now may have reasons to

think twice about the exact identity of these oppressive “dark forces” abroad.

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Bibliography

Books:

Borjesson, Kristina. Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002, 2004

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four, London: Penguin Classics, 1949, 2010

Simpson, Christopher. Blowback: The First Full Account of America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Disastrous Effect on The cold war, Our Domestic and Foreign Policy, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988 (Kindle edition)

Articles:

The New York Times: - “ISIS Pressed for Ransom Before Killing Journalist”, in The New York Times, August 21, 2014, p.

A1 - “As U.S. Bombs Fall, Islamic State’s British Hostage Warns of Another Vietnam”, in The NYT,

page A12, Sept. 23, 2014 - “Weeks of American Airstrikes in Iraq Fails to Dislodge the Islamic State”, in The NYT, p. A12,

Sept. 23, 2014 - “In Airstrikes, U.S. Targets Militant Cell Said to Plot an Attack Against the West”, in The New York

Times, p. A14, Sept. 24, 2014 - “U.S. Is Carrying Out Vast Majority of Strikes on ISIS, Military Officials Say”, September 24, 2014,

p. A14

Bernstein, Carl. “The CIA and the Media”, originally published in The Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977. <http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php> , retrieved 12/01/2014 Devoss, David. “James Foley, 1973-2014: A courageous journalist killed by terrorists”, in The Weekly Standard, on Sept. 1, 2014, <http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/james-foley-1973-2014_803537.html> retrieved 12/01/2014 Sreenivasan, Hari. Interview of Trish Wilson (from the Associated Press), “Behind USAID’s Failed Attempt to Infiltrate Cuban Hip-Hop”, on Dec. 13, 2014, <http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/behind-usaids-failed-attempt-infiltrate-cuban-hip-hop/> , retrieved 12/14/2014 «L'enlèvement est monté de toutes pièces par les services secrets français» ("The Kidnapping Is Set Up by French Secret Services"), in Le Temps d’Algérie, August 23, 2014, <http://www.letempsdz.com/content/view/131667/182/> retrieved 11/11/2014

Websites:

Barry Chamish, World-Class Investigative Journalist: http://www.barrychamish.com/

Best Gore – Incredibly Graphic Video, Image and Movie Galleries of Blood. http://www.bestgore.com/

Clash Daily│Politics. Culture. Attitude: http://clashdaily.com/

Guardian (The): http://www.theguardian.com/

LeakSource | Your Source for Leaks Around the World!: http://leaksource.info/

Michael Scheuer Non-Intervention.com: http://non-intervention.com/

NODISINFO – Uncovering the Truth: http://nodisinfo.com/

Slog.│Deconstruct lies, reconstruct Decency (The): https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/

Tangentcode│oppositive over adjacent: http://tangentcode.org/

HuffPost Live: http://live.huffingtonpost.com

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Annex : James Foley’s alleged beheading

(the victim barely moving as his throat is being cut)