News / Human Rights

Fox News working as ISIL’s media arm: Intelligence analyst

Thursday, 05 February 2015 2:38 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 05 February 2015 2:40 AM ]

A screen grab of FoxNews.com showing the full 22-minute video.

An intelligence and policy analyst in New York says Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel is working as a media arm of the ISIL terrorist group.

Malcolm Wrightson Nance, an African American career intelligence officer, combat veteran, author, scholar and media commentator, made the remarks in an interview with The Guardian on Wednesday after Fox News embedded on its website an extremely graphic 22-minute video showing a captured Jordanian pilot being burnt alive in a cage by ISIL.

He said that by posting the video Fox News was propagating “exactly what ISIS (ISIL) wants to propagate,” adding, “The whole value of terror is using the media to spread terror.”

“[Fox News] are literally – literally – working for al-Qaeda and ISIS’s media arm,” Nance told the British newspaper. “They might as well start sending them royalty checks.”

The professionally shot and edited video surfaced on Tuesday showing the Takfiri terrorists purportedly torching 26-year-old Moaz al-Kassasbeh to death.

The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, control parts of territory in Syria and Iraq. They are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

They have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.

Rick Nelson, a terrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Guardian that posting the ISIL video in fact strengths the terrorist group. “These groups need a platform, and this gives them a platform.”

American scholar James Henry Fetzer says the production quality of the video is comparable to the best that Western news media can produce.

“ISIL has released several ‘beheading’ videos in which there is a decided lack of blood or even concern on the part of the alleged victims,” Professor Fetzer told Press TV on Wednesday.

“In this instance, however, the ‘pilot’ appears to be immolated in a cruel act, where the production values of the video (which runs close to 30 minutes) are comparable to the best that Western news media can provide -- and very expensive!” he added.

GJH/GJH

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk