@ShamiWitness on Twitter since 2011 - Times of India

BENGALURU: The part revelation of the identity and location of Mehdi Masroor Biswas by UK's Channel 4 may have led to the arrest of the man being described as a radical ideologue. But Mehdi's Twitter handle - @ShamiWitness - didn't just pop up in support of ISIS after the group began taking over territories in Syria. The handle, which has been active from early 2011, has been tweeting on issues in the Levantine region, especially Syria, since at least November 2011, playing the role of a 'cheerleader'.

Several blogs and online publications on Jihadism have used information from his handle, which was initially considered credible. Experts like Aaron Zelin, who runs Jihadology, have also published his views, publications like Business Insider say.

Even mainstream publications in the UK like The Telegraph and Daily Mail have quoted posts from the handle, at times describing Shami as an activist tweeting on matters in Syria. The posts from the handle were clearly pro-jihadist.

However, Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a blogger and researcher on jihadist groups, in reaction to Mehdi's arrest, says: "I have no idea about that but the information was correct. I stress that this instance was very early on in Shami's tweeting career and any value as an actual source declined over time. He became more and more of an 'aggregator' as I noted."

Even Bengaluru police, who've said that the man was only in touch with terrorists in the virtual world, reiterated that most of his posts eventually were those sourced from the web.

While Mehdi has confessed that he wanted to support the jihadi movement, news reports before Channel 4 revealed his partial identity location show that many of his earlier tweets were in support of al-Qaida and that he only eventually became a staunch supporter of the ISIS.

"There are relatively few Twitter experts on affairs inside Syria, which has created unusual and sometimes troubling associations between the people who regularly report and discuss events of the ongoing war. Shami Witness, a civilian tweeting about Syria, is perhaps the best example of this phenomenon," the Business Insider said.

http://ift.tt/1BxVaeN Masroor Biswas,ISIS,Channel 4,@ShamiWitness

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