"His tweets, written under the name Shami Witness, were seen two million times each month, making him perhaps the most influential Islamic State Twitter account, with over 17,700 followers," the channel said and added that account holder was allegedly a marketing executive with an Indian conglomerate, whose first name is revealed as "Mehdi".
Intelligence sources have told NDTV that they have accessed the voice of the person who allegedly runs "@shamiwitness" and it suggests that he has an "Indian accent". "We haven't yet been able to either establish the identity or get a fix on the person," a senior official said. Indian agencies said there is a possibility person could be using Internet tools to mask his location. "While the report appears to be correct, we aren't yet sure whether the person is actually based in Bangalore," the official said.
Channel 4 News revealed that it traced the man after learning that he used the Twitter handle El-Saltador once. The same name was used for a Google Plus and Facebook account. And through these, the channel saw photos of the man and his location.
The man has since shut down the account, which the channel said was a leading source of information between jihadis, supporters, and recruits.
"He spent his mornings, afternoons and evenings sending thousands of tweets of propaganda about Islamic State," the news channel said, claiming that two thirds of all foreign fighters on Twitter followed him.
The channel quoted "Mehdi" as saying he would have joined Islamic State, but his family was financially dependent on him. "If I had a chance to leave everything and join them I might have... My family needs me here," he is quoted as saying. This has led security agencies to conclude that person may be more of a sympathiser and not a hardcore element of the IS. "Most IS hardcore that we have questioned and examined wouldn't have stayed back for sake of their family, they are far more radicalised and committed," a senior security official told NDTV.
Then asked by the channel whether he agreed with the methods of the Islamic State, he replied, "Not all methods, no, but maybe yeah, but mostly."
The channel says the man, on his Facebook pages, "regularly shares jokes, funny images and talks about superhero movies, posting pictures of pizza dinners with friends, and Hawaiian parties at work." He has also spoken out against rape on that account.
via Top Stories - Google News http://ift.tt/1yJ92on
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