• The EU-Russia-China co-op plan to avert Iran oil sanctions
• Washington fears Russia could outflank sanctions against Iran
• Iran planning ways to bypass SWIFT payment system & US sanctions
• Adapting: Iran develops new oil import markets as counter to US sanctions

• Putin pledges to continue protecting Russian interests with counter sanctions
• Putin signs decree allowing Russia to target Ukrainian companies with counter-sanctions
• Cut off from Russian markets, Ukraine's economy shrinks by 20%
• Thanks to the U.S. Ukraine's 'shadow economy' is nearly 50% of official GDP

• Trump to migrant caravan: 'This is an invasion, our military is waiting for you'
• United Nations says Trump needs to allow migrant caravan into the US
• Republicans & Democrats May Bark And Bite, But The Migrant Caravan Moves on

• Remembering the Golan Heights
• Israel plans to populate Syria's Golan Heights further and develop it more amid 'security danger'
• Syrians in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights protest against Tel-Aviv's imposition of local elections

A new report has exposed the past collaboration of Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat and influential neo-conservatives with the "most influential Twitter account" of the terror group Daesh, also known as the Islamic State (ISIL, ISIS). That collaboration helped promote the account, which posted under the Twitter handle @shamiwitness, as an "expert" on foreign jihadists while also helping to promote the account's pro-Daesh messaging.

However, instead of being an "expert," the account was run by an Indian marketing executive living in Bangalore by the name of Mehdi Biswas. Biswas used the account to help recruit foreign extremists and lead them to Syria - where they participated in the slaughter of religious minorities, among other atrocities.

The explosive report, written and self-published by journalist Mark Ames, extensively details how Western accounts and figures closely associated with influential government-funded think tanks helped to elevate the ShamiWitness account from "a cretinous troll" into a credible "ISIS expert" who was subsequently promoted by Middle East correspondents from The New York Times and other mainstream publications.

At the height of his popularity, the ShamiWitness account - which was voluntarily deleted in 2014 by its owner after a Channel 4 News exposé - had over 17,000 followers and was followed by two-thirds of foreign jihadists with a presence on Twitter. When Twitter would ban an extremist's account, ShamiWitness was key to promoting the new account created to replace the banned one. ShamiWitness also helped guide foreign extremists to battlefields in Syria and actively recruited individuals to join Daesh through his social media accounts, according to a report published earlier this year by George Washington University.

• Anatomy of a NATO troll: Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat
• Atlantic Council want us to be propagandized - for our own good
• MIT professor accuses Bellingcat's Higgins of enabling war criminals to walk free in Syria