Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS Page #4

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called something ba'athi

Nobody would follow,

but once they discovered,

"hey, if you, if we say that

we fight in the name of islam,

In the name of jihad

against the foreign occupiers,

We have something

that resonates."

.

Robin yassin kassab:

Their propaganda owes a lot to

Hollywood action

films and to computer games

That kids grow

up on these days.

Isis knows that if they make

a high production video shot

From various angles,

if they get a white guy,

Put him in a guantanamo

style orange jumpsuit,

They get a child or

an english speaker to cut his

Head off with a knife,

they know that that night,

Maybe the film will not

be shown on mainstream tv,

But they know that the story

of the film will be headline

News everywhere in the world.

Lester holt:
There

is breaking news tonight of a

Chilling new

isis propaganda video.

Reporter:
The men believed

to be syrian were shackled and

The video shows the egyptian

prisoners being marched onto a

Beach by militants

dressed in black then the

Prisoners are

beheaded brutally.

Robin yassin kassab: Nobody

will be talking about assad on

The same day he may have

incinerated a hundred people

In barrel bombs, but we

don't see those people dying.

We've, nobody has made

a high-production video of it

And followed it up

with a threat to the west.

It's very effective at

striking fear into the hearts

Of their enemies because the

prospect of being captured by

These people is too

horrific to contemplate.

Daniel koehler:
The way they

use social media sites like

Facebook, twitter, youtube,

and messenger services is so

Incredibly sophisticated.

They have a type of

member that only engage in

Online jihad.

This is the place where

they spread the ideology,

Peter bergen:
You know, 6900

westerns have gone to join.

So, you know, it's not

an insignificant number.

Some of these kids

who are joining, you know,

Fairly living pretty humdrum

lives in belgium, France,

London, United States,

and they're joining isis and

They're part of something

bigger than themselves and

It's exciting.

Will mccants:
The men

who run the islamic state

For all of its pretense to

be a religious organization, uh,

And all its

quotation of scripture,

When you look at how they

behave as an organization,

Um, in many ways,

uh, it resembles, uh,

The rough and tumble politics

of a criminal organization.

I mean, they put

hits out on people,

They extort people,

Raising millions of dollars

a year by these activities.

Christoph reuter: They went

into an area and the first

Thing they would do is

the flour mill, the bakery,

The concrete

factory has to be taken

Without damage immediately.

They thought about "what

do we need to maintain the

Infrastructure of this area?"

Christoph reuter:

For example, for the,

From a policeman and

soldiers on the iraqi side,

They told him,

"you're an infidel."

Theoretically, you have

to die, but you can buy

A "forgiveness card."

The forgiveness card and the

money you have paid for shows

That you are repenting and

every checkpoint will know if

You show them the

forgiveness card that

You have been forgiven.

So everybody bought for

$400 a forgiveness card.

A few months later,

the decree came out and,

"oh, the forgiveness

cards have expired."

You can buy a new one,

but it costs a bit more.

So everything,

everything is costly.

Robin yassin kassab: The

vast majority of the syrian

People see, um, isis as

a foreign occupation force.

In January

2014, the free army,

The islamic front

militias, and al-qaeda,

All of them

declared war on isis.

Robin yassin kassab: They

kicked isis out of the whole

Of western syria out of

latakia, idlib, out of aleppo,

But then in iraq, because

the iraqi state had become so

Dysfunctional because the

sunni arabs in iraq had become

So alienated, they

welcomed these people back in,

Or some of them did.

Christoph reuter: They started

their blitzkrieg in iraq,

Taking over mosul,

tikrit, shirgat, hawija.

And they managed to overrun

the weapon depots of about

Four iraqi army divisions.

They were drowning in weapons,

they couldn't even take all

The weapons with them

and burned some of them.

But now, they were a

full-fledged army with

Humvees, with

strikers, with tanks.

Robin yassin kassab: They

captured all the money in the

Banks in the north of

iraq and they used this money

And the weapons to

surge back into syria.

And they took large

parts of the country.

Christoph reuter: It was

the peak of their power.

And they used this moment

to declare the caliphate.

Sebastian junger: Only a few

centuries after the birth of

Christ, the muslim

world started expanding.

They were at the

forefront of the arts,

Of the sciences,

of astronomy.

They really were the center

of knowledge in the world.

There's a real yearning to

return to those days of glory,

Understandably.

They have been enduring

enormous oppression by

Dictators that are often

propped up by the west and

Completely dominated

by western technology

And western culture.

Part of what isis is doing

is trying to regain the former

Glory of the caliphate and

of the worldwide dominance that

Muslim society enjoyed

many, many centuries ago.

Charlie rose:
Reports from

iraq today say the isis army

And other sunni muslim forces

captured another major target.

It is the oil refinery

in baiji that produces

One-third of iraq fuel.

Christine romans: Isis

militants have seized a major

Uh, the field produces

75,000 barrels of oil a day.

It's the latest.

Amos hochstein:
From the

early days of the conflict,

Gaining territory control

over areas that have energy

Infrastructure were of

primary focus because they

Give revenue, but they

also give semblance of a state

To be able to provide

natural resources, electricity,

Fuel, cooking oil.

All those things is

what a government does.

They had people that were able

to handle the expertise part.

There are enough syrians in

the local areas that have been

Working on these

oil fields for decades.

Amos hochstein:
And while

they controlled a relatively

Smaller portion of the

overall syrian territory,

They controlled an

overwhelming percentage

Of the oil and gas

infrastructure and fields.

George kiourktsoglou:

Based on our research,

We came up with a number

of 45,000 barrels a day.

You are looking at a ceiling

of roughly two million dollars

A day income for daesh.

George kiourktsoglou:

Daesh is a different beast.

Daesh has a whole

portfolio of financial resources

And of course, the

smuggling of crude oil is

Just a part

of this portfolio.

This portfolio also

include weapons trafficking, uh,

Human trafficking, smuggling,

and of course, antiquities.

Doctor al-azm:
Looting of

antiquities in the region,

Not just in syria,

in the region as a whole,

Is a time-honored tradition.

In times of hardship,

what do people do?

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