The Spread of the Caliphate: The Islamic State (Part 1)

[snooper2]

I recommend everyone watch this...fucking fundies have gone full blown mad



VICE

The Islamic State, a hardline Sunni jihadist group that formerly had ties to al Qaeda, has conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group has announced their intention to reestablish the caliphate and declared their leader, the shadowy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the caliph.

Flush with cash and US weapons seized during recent advances in Iraq, the Islamic State’s expansion shows no sign of slowing down. In the first week of August alone, Islamic State fighters have taken over new areas in northern Iraq, encroaching on Kurdish territory and sending Christians and other minorities fleeing as reports of massacres emerged.

Elsewhere in territory it has held for some time, the Islamic State has gone about consolidating power and setting up a government dictated by Sharia law. While the world may not recognize the Islamic State, in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the group is already in the process of building a functioning regime.

VICE News reporter Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded with the Islamic State, gaining unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria as the first and only journalist to document its inner workings. In part one, Dairieh heads to the frontline in Raqqa, where Islamic State fighters are laying siege to the Syrian Army’s division 17 base.

[PragmaticLiberal]

1. I'm surprised this didn't get any comments.....

[MH1]

2. I was thinking of posting that. Is Vice News reliable? If this is accurate,

it's pretty damn scary.

And horrific for any female human being caught by these f*cking bastards. Oh wait, "female human being" doesn't exist to these animals, a woman is mere property.

I hope the western world and all sane parts of the rest of the world are figuring out how to stop these brutal cretins. The last thing we would want is for them to have a state that somehow obtains a nuclear weapon. The only good news then is that we wouldn't have to worry about climate change any more.

[kwassa]

3. The reporter could only see what they wanted to show him.

This is not independent journalism.

[snooper2]

4. post another news organization that gets this kind of access

[kwassa]

10. and what is the quality of this access?

Access does not mean either truth or real information, if it is guided through handlers.

Rather, the reporter can become a propaganda tool for those that allow so-called access.

[Archae]

5. Their guns are the only thing...

From the 21rst century, not the 11th.

[Puzzledtraveller]

6. sinking like a rock I see but sadly not surprised.

[seveneyes]

7. Raise the flag of Allah in the White House???

Fuck that shit.

[ancianita]

14. My first reaction, as well.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, snooper.

[ancianita]

9. It's sensational, yes, but the more I learn about VICE, the less I trust it as fact-based media.

A clearer view of ISIS' vision can be extrapolated from the timelines from wikipedia, I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Islamic_State

Spike Jonze is the head of VICE filming.

[Uncle Joe]

11. Regarding your wikipedia link on ISIS or IS, that MO seems to match up with the VICE depiction

of them.

What have you learned of VICE that casts shadow on their integrity?

What's the scoop on Spike Jonze?

[ancianita]

12. What casts shadow is how they raised their big money to become a global media presence, with

Gavin McGuinness' shenanigan-like hypes and scams. Or how Shane Smith's own outlook on revising the entire media model of reporting can be predicated on his boredom, enough to make VICE switch its reportage content.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_News#Vice_News

There's no scoop on Spike Jonze except VICE's getting him to oversee their film area. He's a visually exciting filmmaker. I taught an introduction to film class, and have a bit of exposure to both the documentary and the documentary style.

VICE's fascinating visuals, intense stories provide experiential-like reporting. Yet the whole Iraq War embedded feel -- that there's a slickness in its production -- just feels creepy to me. Or globally hipster around the edges.

VICE's visuals are also a perspective, but to me it can't be the only journalistic perspective. Here's a guy whose detractors abhorred his not-very-exciting perspective on the coming Caliphate.

And yet, what is anyone to make of the mashup promo for ISIS that follows?

But I'll take all the information I can get about events that can be seen as both believer wars and resource control wars.

I'll keep paying attention to the VICE perspective, but nothing substitutes for wider reading and context building for all this.

Sorry if this sounds weak. I can do better when I'm not tired.

edit: And then there's Hitchens' take that "“The people who say that the violence of these people is our fault are masochistic and capitulationist.” Here's an example of his argument against that. I think it's worth anyone's time to listen to, visually unexciting as it is.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Thanks, ancianita, I actually agree with you in regards to wider reading and

content building to form the best perspective.

We will see how VICE plays out over time as well, I suppose.

Peace to you.

[ancianita]

15. Please read the extra video I posted in my edit. Peace to you, too.

[Uncle Joe]

16. I just viewed both videos, although it's a little difficult to make out his words

during crosstalk with Stewart, a transcript would be nice.

From what I could understand, Hitchens did predict the rise of this Islamic Caliphate.

From the second video, it seems he was stating that we should quit beating ourselves up over our history as being the cause of their rise or at least it wasn't productive to do so?

Did I a get that right and are there any other pertinent points that you wish to add, that I omitted?