by Michael Ledeen
[PJMedia] Who are they anyway? IS, the Islamic State, that is.
There are two big components: religious fanatics and totalitarian leaders. The secret of IS' success lies in combining the two ideologies and methods of enlisting and controlling millions of people. Sometimes the two merge in fanatical leaders, as took place in the latter years of Saddam's Iraq (the dictator himself had a personal imam, even). Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seems a case in point. This appears to be rare, however; for the most part the Islamic Staters are one or the other, with fanatics populating the rank-and-file and politburo-style regime builders dominating the elite. We hear a lot about the faithful, but not so much about the nomenklatura. Here's a look-see at what we might call the caliphate's political class.
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