Do We REALLY Know the Terrorists?

An interesting essay here.  Out-take:

....The appearance of the Islamic State as a major force in Iraq and Syria, with threats of terrorist attacks on the West, has concentrated minds again to a degree. But unwillingness to ask difficult questions persists in many quarters. Despite the fact that we have more than circumstantial evidence that the Islamic State is being manipulated by Syrian intelligence, and Iran’s too, these notions are dismissed out of hand by too many Westerners who study terrorism. Yet if we want to defeat the Islamic State, it would be wise to actually understand it. That Washington, DC, continues its bipartisan blocking of release of the full 9/11 Commission Report, which includes troubling details of Saudi misconduct regarding Al-Qa’ida, is not an encouraging sign.

This week we have yet another appalling beheading by terrorists linked to the Islamic State, this time the victim was a French tourist in Algeria. Given that the Islamic State has been cast out of the Al-Qa’ida family for its takfiri ways, including mass murdering of civilians — just as GIA was in 1997 — any serious analyst should be asking questions about what is really going on here, particularly given Algeria’s murky counterterrorism track record. Don’t let the Credulous Number-Crunching Brigade win, the stakes are too high.

The author's claims that both Syrian and Iranian intel outfits are manipulating ISIS, as had been done with the Algerian terrorists (GIA) are part of a larger parcel:  that the "terrorists" are often played by other countries for their own interests.

IOW, it ain't as simple as the idiot-box chatterers would have you think it is.

ADDED:  For a parallel to this item, see Malkin's exposition of the student strife in Colorado.  The concept of utilizing third parties as sacrifice is not restricted to spy-v-spy war games.