Who "found" those ISIS beheading videos?

[tonym]

Since mid-August 2014 major news organizations have conveyed videos allegedly found online by the SITE Intelligence Group. Unsurprisingly the same media have failed to closely interrogate what the private company actually is and whether the material it promotes should be accepted as genuine.

The Search for International Terrorist Entities Intelligence Group was co-founded by Rita Katz in 2001. Katz is an Iraqi-born Jew. Her father, an Israeli spy, was executed by Iraqis as a result of his intelligence activities.

In 2003 Katz authored a book, Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America, which she published using the pseudonym, “Anonymous.”

In the book Katz explains how she took on the trappings of a Muslim woman to infiltrate the meetings of radical Muslim terrorists. The plot is unlikely, especially when one considers that such secret fundamentalist gatherings are almost always segregated along gender lines and no woman, however elaborate her costume, would be granted entry without her identity being firmly established.

SITE Intelligence Group consists of Katz and two “senior advisers,” one of whom is Bruce Hoffman, the Corporate Chair in Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency at the RAND Corporation and former director of the RAND’s Washington DC office.

The SITE Intelligence Group “constantly monitors the Internet and traditional media for material and propaganda released by jihadist groups and their supporters,” the company’s website announces. “Once obtained, SITE immediately translates the material and provides the intelligence along with a contextual analysis explaining the source of the material and its importance to our subscribers.”[1]

In 2003 and 2004, though claiming to be a 501c3 non-profit, SITE received more than $500,000 from the US government. Also in the early 2000s Katz received $150,000 from the FBI for consulting services.

http://memoryholeblog.com/2014/09/15/probing-site-intelligen...

The statement made by Katz on CNN is particularly telling:

"The location from where the video was obtained from is the location where ISIS usually uploads their original videos to [sic]. The video shows a clear message from ISIS that follows the same message that it had before. And in fact within a short time after our release, ISIS’ account on social media indicated that within a short time they would be releasing the video, only we actually had that video beforehand and were able to beat them with the release."

[nogods]

In 2003 and 2004, though claiming to be a 501c3 non-profit, SITE received more than $500,000 from the US government. Also in the early 2000s Katz received $150,000 from the FBI for consulting services.
"

Neither payment has anything to do with 501(c)(3) status, which raise an issue about the credibility of the author of the article

[BorderBob]

Why is "found" in parenthesis? These groups communicate through the internet. I found three or four real good sites for this sort of stuff more than 10 years ago when the first round of beheading videos were arriving on the scene. And before that they were coming out of Chechnya and Afghanistan (v. Russians). In fact, during the early days of the Iraq war, many of these videos were old Chechen training videos that were repackaged and called American.

Hoffman is something of an ideologue though, rather than a pure intelligence officer. But much of his material is on point once you filter the rhetoric.

What are you suggesting here?




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[tonym]

This is initial info, let's see what more comes of it.

What is here though; who found the beheading is not just some regular guy.

[BorderBob]

This is initial info, let's see what more comes of it.

What is here though; who founders that the beheading is not just some regular guy.

Well, no. It is a guy and an organization that has built a specialty in finding this material and sourcing or selling it to relevant subscribers. Intelcenter is another business which collects and sells intelligence of this nature. Ben Venzke runs that outfit and was following bin Laden for example, years before he was a household name.

Part of what drove me to find these sites was that I was too cheap to pay for his videos. I figured if he could find them, so could I. Nowadays though they are much more security oriented and careful in their communications and releases. Lots of eyes on them.


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