Politico published a report stating that the Islamic State is only scaring off followers, not attracting them, with the bloody beheadings and violent acts associated with the group.

The report analyzes the most recent actions of IS (formerly ISIS) and is penned by Evan Kohlmann, co-founder of Flashpoint Global Partners, which tracks terrorist Internet use. It comes after days and weeks of speculation about the growing threat of the militant group, who aims to create their own caliphate and restructure the map of the Middle East.

Of those analyzing the appeal of IS is hostage negotiator James Alvarez, who wrote in The Telegraph recently that it was no coincidence that Foley's executioner was British, and that it is all part of a marketing scheme by IS.

"Islamic State chose somebody from England to have the maximum publicity effect. If they didn't want the world to know that the killer was British, they would have told him to keep his mouth shut," Alvarez wrote in The Telegraph.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel echoed similar thoughts about the strength of IS.

"[The Islamic State] is as sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen," he told the U.S. News and World Report. "They're beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess, [and] they are tremendously well-funded. This is beyond anything that we've seen. We must prepare for everything. We have to look at this ... from the reality of what's out there, but also what could be out there and what could be coming. This is a long-term threat."

The Algemeiner reported that the video of Foley is a way to attract followers because it shows potential recruits they will abolish divisions among Muslims.

Kohlmann said the online executions are a method to intimidate the American public, but "the politics of savagery are unlikely to be a winning strategy for the Islamic State in the long term."

Kohlmann used the example of al-Qaida in Iraq in 2007, whose televised beheadings of locals grew tiring to the Iraqi people and "destruction spun out of control."

It is inevitable for a similar backlash to happen to IS, once they start punishing minor offenses as major crimes, Kohlmann said. But when that will begin is unknown.

"[IS] has only just begun to dramatically enforce its reign of terror on local Sunni communities. But when the Islamic State reportedly begins to dole out 70 lashes for anyone who even dare calls it by its old official name ('the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant'), it doesn't take a deep insight into local culture to recognize the inevitable blowback that awaits the Islamic State at some point in the future," Kohlmann said.

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