The Islamic State between facts and exaggeration & the role of U.S. intelligence and secretive agencies in the war against terrorist organizations

The Islamic State (IS), The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), or its most used version in English-speaking countries as The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) is wildly known for its barbaric and oppressive practices. Still, it is also known for promoting such practices in the media in general and on social media, which is mainly considered and used as a tool of psychological warfare against the enemy and as a source of funding. This work deals with ISIS and its foundation. It examines the origins, background, ideology, and propaganda used and the cyber activities of this terrorist group. It also touches on the U.S. intelligence and secretive agencies and their way of handling the battle against these Jihadis. Therefore, this dissertation focuses on ISIS propaganda and the types of off-line and online activities (real space and cyberspace activities) conducted since its creation to examine the extent of its threat to the security services, governments, and international bodies, besides studying the level of severity of its offensive strategy and how security and intelligence agencies, governments and international bodies work to protect and safe the global information infrastructures before the cybernetic assaults, and the lives of civilians against terrorists' active targeting. So, this work aims to understand and analyze the deep reasons behind the emergence of such a movement and to understand its nature and thus understand its structure and method of expansion. This work also discusses and re-analyses the missteps and moves of the American security servers in their dealings with Al-Qaeda, which caused the emergence of a more violent movement such as ISIS. The dissertation uses a secondary research method, based on past data and longitudinal studies to review, re-analyze, and interpret events and facts spanning different periods, mainly between the 1980s and 2019, in addition to relying on historical references dating back to the 1200s. The data presented in this work are on an official and professional basis. Thus, it provides a large scope of expertly gathered and processed information. This research has represented conclusions that revolve mainly around these points; the ISIS ideology is not a spur of the moment, but it goes back to the era of the 1200s, and there is a clear gradation in violence and terrorism. International laws and American security services dealt with suspicious methods and double standards which worsened the security situation in the Middle East, specifically in Iraq and Syria, which contributed to the expansion and incursion of extremist terrorist ideology, and the phenomenon of ISIS. This work contributes to understanding the roots, references, and backgrounds of Sunni terrorist movements, to avoid the birth of similar movements shortly or at least facilitate the understanding of its intellectual and field ideology.