This is what the leading ISIS Twitter propagandist was tweeting before he was unmasked

Until this week, a person using the Twitter handle @ShamiWitness was one of the most vocal and perplexing Islamic State supporters outside of Syria and Iraq.

Now, thanks to an investigative report by Channel 4 news, the world knows that @ShamiWitness is a corporate executive named Mehdi living in Bangalore, India. The reports did not reveal the full name, but internet sleuths quickly identified Mehdi, turning Shami from an avatar into a face.

The revelation that Shami was a white-collar civilian in India was a strange turn of events, but @ShamiWitness has always been a strange case. There are many Islamic State supporters on Twitter, and the group has consistently relied on social media to disseminate information, grow its influence, and recruit new fighters, but Shami's story is a unique and fascinating one.

He started tweeting about Syria's anti-government uprising in 2011, according to Business Insider, and became a seemingly reliable source of information and analysis about what was happening on the ground. Analysts and reporters consulted him or published his work. The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, for example, both quoted him when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the chemical weapons watchdog group that was responsible for destroying Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's chemical weapons stockpile. Both outlets called Shami an anti-Assad "activist."

Over time, though, Shami's support for one anti-Assad force, the Islamic State, hardened, and his Twitter account, still followed by analysts and reporters, became one of the Islamic State's most reliable, widely-read propaganda outlets. 

He spoke to Business Insider in January 2014 and told them he didn't "agree with many ISIS tactics, especially [the] arrest of journalists," but supporter their overall project. By the time he was outed by Channel 4, he had 17,700 followers. Nearly two-thirds of Islamic State's foreign fighters followed him and two million people viewed his account every month.

The Twitter account for @ShamiWitness is gone. But some pages are still cached. Here's a sample of what we found.