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Inside the Islamic State's Propaganda Machine
(Washington Post) Greg Miller and Souad Mekhennet - Abu Hajer al-Maghribi spent nearly a year as a cameraman for the Islamic State. He was among 10 cameramen sent to record the final hours of more than 160 Syrian soldiers captured in 2014. The soldiers were stripped to their underwear, marched into the desert, forced to their knees and massacred with automatic rifles. His footage quickly found a global audience, released online in an Islamic State video that spread on social media and appeared in mainstream news coverage on Al Jazeera and other networks. Hundreds of Islamic State videographers, producers and editors form a privileged, professional class with status, salaries and living arrangements that are the envy of ordinary fighters. Recent U.S. airstrikes have killed several high-level operatives in the Islamic State's media division.