al-Baghdadi bit was Snowden via Wikileaks, which I read about a couple of weeks ago yet now can't find anything reliable on it at all, strangely, so apologies on that. In regards to the training of Syrian rebels, I should mention that I wasn't implying they were trained by western military for the direct purpose of eventually becoming IS militants, that is just where they've unfortunately been reported to have ended up. On their training:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/08/west-training-syrian-rebels-jordan, though on their defection to IS, I can't really see anything valuable to confirm what i said. I swear I read that somewhere a bit ago, as well. I'll keep looking
Yeah, that is true - their reported haul from Mosul's central bank was pretty substantial. That original vacuum of support (financially and otherwise) did properly set them up though, regardless of whether those original donors are still funding them now. The momentum they have gained and just the swarming of mass allegiance they've been given is pretty insane
