A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

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ghulam muhammed
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A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#1

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Jun 14, 2014 5:38 pm

A powerful and merciless force has emerged on the world stage

It is almost one hundred years since Sir Mark Sykes, an otherwise forgettable British politician, entered into an agreement with a French diplomat called François Georges-Picot (great uncle of the former president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing) to carve up the Middle East after the end of the First World War.

The arrangement was kept secret, and for understandable reasons. In the United States, President Wilson was an enthusiastic advocate of national self-determination. He would have been appalled had he known that the British and French were determined to share out the remains of the collapsed Ottoman empire between them.

Of more immediate importance, Sharif Hussein of Mecca launched the Arab revolt against the Ottomans in June 1916. In return, the British had pledged the Arabs full independence, a promise that Lloyd George casually betrayed once it was over.

Though sordid and cynical, the Sykes-Picot arrangement endured far longer than anyone had a right to expect. Out of it arose the modern states of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon (followed in due course by Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan).

Ninety-eight years later, however, Sykes-Picot is finally starting to collapse. Look at a map and (fortified by the notorious straight lines of the agreement) Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are all still theoretically present and correct. In practice, though, a series of spectacular events are steadily turning their maps into works of fiction.

Yesterday’s fall of Mosul (ironically a key point of dispute between the French and the British 100 years ago, because oil had just been discovered there) shows vividly that Iraq as we have understood it for the past century or so no longer exists.

In the north, the Kurdish region has become an autonomous state, and it cannot be long before it declares itself formally independent. Kurdistan is guarded by a system of checkpoints and command posts that are impossible to penetrate. Indeed, any Arab who enters without proper credentials disappears, and so do all his friends and family. This may sound brutal, but it does explain why Erbil, the Kurdish capital, has been almost as safe from terror attack as London over the past decade.

Meanwhile the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is building a sectarian state around Baghdad and the south capable of commanding the support of most Shia Muslims. The fate of the remainder of his country, however, is of extraordinary interest, because it is falling very fast into the hands of a terrifyingly violent new entity called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis).

Isis recognises none of the rules inherited from Sykes-Picot. Photographs on Facebook show its fighters dismantling border points and burning their passports, thus making a virtue of statelessness. However, Isis does levy taxes and controls a tranche of territory ranging from northern Iraq through to eastern Syria. No local army seems capable of confronting it. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, says he is a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, thus claiming to be more than a mere political leader or general. According to one Arab observer, al-Baghdadi “has designated himself as a global leader of the jihad fighters in particular and Muslims in general, and as a herald of the caliphate”.

He has broken off former links with al‑Qaeda. Bin Laden and his successor, al‑Zawahiri, aimed their fire against what they called “the far enemy” – in other words, the United States and its local allies and clients. Isis, by contrast, more violent than al-Qaeda, is driven by merciless hatred of all sects and minorities that fail to endorse its bigoted and narrow ideology. This has started to terrify the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia, the source of so much of its cash and arms.

Isis fighters deny the legitimacy of any secular power, including the Saudi King Abdullah. And the Saudis fear that one day soon, the Isis jihadists will return home with a vengeance. (As with Soviet Russia and apartheid South Africa, it is obvious the Saud regime will at some stage collapse, but impossible to judge when.)

Isis also has the range and power to strike at will in the West, because so many young Muslims have travelled from Europe to join up. Indeed, it has already started to do so. The recent murder of four people in the Jewish museum in Brussels was carried out by a young Frenchman called Mehdi Nemmouche, who had fought alongside Isis in Syria before returning home on his murderous mission.

These jihadists are able to move more freely and across a greater range than ever before. Their area of operations stretches from northern Iraq, through Syria and across north Africa to Libya and down towards Nigeria. For the first time, they directly control huge swathes of land. As with the Bolsheviks in 1917 or the fascists in the Thirties, a merciless new force capable of deploying horrifying violence has emerged on the world stage.

In order to understand this new phenomenon, it is essential to grasp what brought it into being. Its emergence can be traced straight back to the Iraq invasion. Some of its fighters (who bring formidable military capability) are former Ba’athist soldiers. Others learnt their trade with the so-called “Awakening fighting” groups created by the US to head off an all-out Iraqi civil war back in 2007.

The Western campaign to dislodge President Assad of Syria was another contributing factor. While our leaders were ready to call for Assad to go, they were unwilling to intervene directly to dislodge him. Instead, mainly through allies such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the West supported militant rebel groups which have since mutated into Isis and other al‑Qaeda connected militias.

The comparison with the terrible mistakes made by Western intelligence agencies during the Afghan war against the Soviets is startling. We supported al‑Qaeda, which later turned on us. Thanks to this policy, Pakistan now faces a permanent terrorist insurgency bordering on civil war. It is very likely that Turkey (and probably Jordan and Saudi Arabia) will face the same problem in due course as a result of the Syrian backlash. Meanwhile, jihadists have found a new terror base from which they can mount attacks on the West. All this was predictable at the start of the Syrian war – indeed, President Assad warned of it.

How can the West hope to contain the monster it helped to create? The countries we formed at the stroke of a pen in the Sykes-Picot treaty 98 years ago are being washed away. Only Egypt and Iran, states whose history stretches back for thousands of years rather than decades, are certain to survive intact.

With Egypt facing grave problems, Iran has emerged as the most stable and powerful country in the Middle East. Again and again since the 9/11 attack on the twin towers in 2001, the Iranians have offered cooperation against al-Qaeda and its allies. These entreaties have repeatedly been turned down. It is time for President Obama and David Cameron to acknowledge that we have been helping to sponsor terror for the past few decades. We have to choose new allies, and they must include Iran. If we carry on with our present deluded course, the threat to the West will only grow more dangerous.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... stage.html

tasneempati
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#2

Unread post by tasneempati » Sun Jun 15, 2014 5:28 am

These Napak Wahabis are destined to hell with their Napak financier & supporters in Saudi Arab.

ghulam muhammed
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#3

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Jun 16, 2014 5:04 pm

How ISIS terror group amassed $2B in assets

The jihadist terror group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham has become a powerful military force, wreaking havoc throughout Iraq. But ISIS is more powerful than just its estimated 10,000 fighters and ever-expanding weapons cache: It is also believed to control $2 billion in total assets.

The Guardian reports that the group, whose actions in Iraq could derail the world economy , began its sizable cash reserves with the acquisition of oilfields in eastern Syria . From there, ISIS grew its treasury by smuggling antiquities and resources out of the embattled state. The Guardian said the details were discovered from a trove of flash drives acquired by Iraqi officials less than two days before ISIS conquered Mosul-Iraq's second largest city.

Despite the vast riches detailed on the drives, the group's real windfall came after it took Mosul. After seizing its banks, weapons, and resources, ISIS's total assets reached a staggering sum.

"By the end of the week, we soon realized that we had to do some accounting for them," a senior intelligence official told The Guardian. "Before Mosul, their total cash and assets were $875 million. Afterwards, with the money they robbed from banks and the value of the military supplies they looted, they could add another $1.5 billion to that."

The official went on to tell The Guardian that ISIS had acquired $36 million from one Syrian region alone by selling relics up to 8,000 years old.

https://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/isis- ... 51993.html

tasneempati
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#4

Unread post by tasneempati » Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:16 am

And more than that Saudi Wahabis finance these Napak tafkiris.

tasneempati
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#5

Unread post by tasneempati » Wed Jun 25, 2014 5:53 am

Napak wahabi's in Saudi exposed, read the article :
http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... ar/373181/

Ummul Bani
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#6

Unread post by Ummul Bani » Thu Jun 26, 2014 2:42 pm

Thousands of Indian Muslims sign up to defend Iraq's shrines

By Sruthi Gottipati | Reuters

NEW DELHI: Thousands of Muslims in India have signed up to defend Iraq's holy shrines and, if need be, fight Sunni Islamist militants in the country where the civilian death toll from the Sunni insurgents' advance is estimated at least 1,300.

Denouncing the militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as terrorists, these Indian Muslims have filled out forms, complete with passport-size photographs and photocopied identification documents, to travel to Iraq.

Leaders of Anjuman E. Haideri, the religious organisation spearheading the effort, said they might march to the Iraqi embassy in New Delhi on Friday to deliver the forms.

A Shia cleric is leading the effort and the volunteers want to protect shrines venerated by the sect in Iraq, but the group's leaders say their cause is not sectarian.

Already at the group's headquarters located off Karbala Road in a leafy New Delhi neighbourhood, picket signs of "It's not Shias vs Sunnis (it's) Iraqis vs Terrorists" have been prepared.

"They aren't Muslims. Jihad means to defend. Jihad doesn't mean to kill," said Syed Bilal Hussain Abidi, a senior member of the group as he showed graphic footage on his cellphone of beheadings and bombs exploding in Iraq.

Complete article can be found here : https://in.news.yahoo.com/thousands-ind ... 58547.html

ghulam muhammed
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#7

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Jun 26, 2014 6:54 pm

'It fell on deaf ears': CIA and MI6 knew about ISIS assault in advance, failed to react

As Iraq’s western border falls beyond the control of the country’s government, a new report suggests the United States and Britain were warned of a burgeoning insurgency months before militants began gaining territory.

According to a report by the UK-based Telegraph, senior Kurdish intelligence officials said they tried to explain to their allies in the CIA, MI6, and the central Iraqi government that the members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) could represent a great threat to Iraq's stability, but that those warnings failed to spark any action.

In addition to calling attention to potential territorial gains in Iraq – a new Reuters report states the “entire Western frontier,” comprising borders with Syria and Jordan, is now “beyond government control” – Kurdish officials warned that ISIS is attracting foreign-born Muslims to its cause. Senior Kurdish intelligence officer Rooz Bahjat said that of the 4,000 estimated foreigners fighting alongside ISIS, somewhere between 400 and 450 were born in Britain and convinced to join the insurgency.

These officials also said a formal alliance between ISIS members and ex-Baathists, who held power under Saddam Hussein, was nearly completed, and that it would lead to an attack on Mosul and other cities in northern Iraq.

“We had this information then, and we passed it on to [the British] government and the US government,” Bahjat told the Telegraph. "We knew exactly what strategy they were going to use, we knew the military planners. It fell on deaf ears.”

Speaking with the Telegraph in a separate article, head of Kurdish intelligence Lahur Talabani said it wasn’t simply the 2003 invasion of Iraq that’s responsible for today’s violence, but that the lack of willingness on the part of Western powers to establish a peaceful government in the war’s aftermath is primarily to blame. The Kurds have called for more substantial intervention from the West, to no avail so far.

"I have completely lost hope in America after listening to President Barack Obama," he said. "I blame him personally for what has happened in Syria, in the Middle East, in Iraq at the moment. I have no hope any more.”

“Both the Americans and the British had options to upgrade their presence on the ground many months before this happened but seem not to have acted on that,” he said to the Telegraph.

http://rt.com/usa/167912-ica-mi6-isis-iraq/

Ummul Bani
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#8

Unread post by Ummul Bani » Sat Jun 28, 2014 3:04 pm

India intensifies efforts to evacuate citizens from Iraq
IANS | Jun 28, 2014, 07.32 PM IST


NEW DELHI, With the situation worsening in violence-hit Iraq, India Saturday said it has flown in officials to three Iraqi cities to help evacuate Indians wanting to return home and asserted that "all national assets are in readiness if required" to be deployed to help the 39 Indians in captivity in militant-held Mosul.

As Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), closed in on capital Baghdad, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said that officials from the ministry have been flown to Iraq to help in the evacuation of Indians from the cities of Najaf, Karbala and Basra "which are in relatively safe zones".

The move comes as more and more Indians from among the 10,000 working in Iraq have said they want to return. The US-based Human Rights Watch, citing satellite imagery and photographs, said the Sunni militants have massacred around 190 Iraqi soldiers in mass executions over the past fortnight in Tikrit.

The spokesperson said the 39 Indian nationals held captive in Mosul are unharmed and being "provided for". The ISIS militants have overrun Mosul and Tikrit, the hometown of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Asked what steps the government is taking to get the captured Indians freed, Akbaruddin said the government has "some leads" about the Indians and that it is a "national endeavour" to get them released.

Complete article can be found here : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 399622.cms

tasneempati
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#9

Unread post by tasneempati » Mon Jun 30, 2014 5:14 am

ISIS Announces New State in Iraq, Syria; Names its Napak Leader Caliph
Declares Its New State 'Restoration of the Caliphate'
by Jason Ditz, June 29, 2014
Reflecting its virtually uncontested control over a broad swath of land in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has announced the formation of a new nation, dubbed simply The Islamic State (TIS).

According to the announcement, TIS has been determined by Shura councils to be the “restoration of the Caliphate,” and Napak ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been declared the Caliph.

While TIS has been a de facto state for quite some time, albeit one with ill-defined borders engaged in multiple wars, the declaration of themselves as the new Caliphate is likely to fuel controversy around the world, and a direct challenge to Islamist factions.

That’s because a Caliphate claims to be the direct successor of the Prophet Muhammad (nauzobillah), and its Caliph would at least claim to be the consensus final religious authority for all of Sunni Islam.

Caliphates have a long history across the Middle East, with dominant Caliphates ruling significant territory and wielding broad influence through much of history. For centuries, Ottoman sultans also held the position of Caliph. In 1924, Turkey dissolved the institution of Caliphate, and there has been no consensus Caliph since. In recent decades several Islamist factions have called for the restoration of the Caliphate, though naturally each has envisioned itself at the head, and none has gained anywhere near this much traction.

With the declaration, ISIS is making an enormous power play, aiming to put itself formally in command of all “faithful” Sunnis on a religious level. While that’s unlikely to matter across the broader Sunni world, except as a slap in the face, among Salafist factions like al-Qaeda this is a direct challenge, and a call for al-Qaeda and other such factions to submit to a position under Baghdadi’s rule.

HirsuteGenuflector
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#10

Unread post by HirsuteGenuflector » Mon Jun 30, 2014 8:48 am

I quite like this piece where Spain and other European acquisitions are coloured in in their 5 year plan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... iance.html

ghulam muhammed
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#11

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Jul 18, 2014 5:46 pm

Who is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi? From Al-Zarqawi to Al-Bagdahdi: “The Islamic State” is a CIA-Mossad-MI6 “Intelligence Asset”

The following article first published ten years in June 2004 pertains to Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the legendary leader and founder of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The name of this mysterious jihadist organization was later renamed the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and in 2013 it became the Islamic State of the Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), largely involved in terrorist attacks inside Syria,

In June 2014, the ISIL became The Islamic State (IS). The present leader and cleric of the Islamic State’s Caliphate is another mysterious figure called Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, formerly also known as Dr. Ibrahim and Abu Du’a

Both Al-Zarqawi and Al-Bagdhadi are fabricated bogeymen.

While Al Qaeda leaders are routinely presented to World public opinion as “terrorist masterminds” threatening the “Free World”, what the media invariably fails to mention is that they were recruited and trained by the CIA, Mossad, Britain’s MI6 and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) acting in liaison with its Western counterparts.


Al Zarqawi had been recruited by the CIA to fight in the Afghan war. This was confirmed by Secretary of State Colin Powell in his historic presentation to the UN Security Council on 5 February 2003.

And now a new legendary terrorist leader of the Islamic State has emerged: Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who allegedly ordered the kidnapping and murder of the 3 Israeli teenagers (which served as a pretext to bomb Gaza) was trained by Mossad: “[He] took intensive military training for a whole year in the hands of Mossad, besides courses in theology and the art of speech.” (Gulf News, July 15, 2014)

Let us be under no illusions, the Islamic State is a CIA-Mossad creation. It is an intelligence asset.

The incursion of IS brigades into Iraq in June was part of a carefully planned military-intelligence operation supported covertly by the US, NATO and Israel. In Syria, the ISIL is said to be part of “opposition” fighting government forces. The Israeli military is directly supporting the ISIL out of bases in the occupied Golan Heights.

It is worth noting that the same strategy of using jihadist death squads to destabilize and foment violence in Iraq (including the numerous suicide attacks) was implemented by Washington from the outset of the US led occupation.

George W. Bush (June 2004 press Conference) candidly admits that the purpose of Al-Zarqawi’s “operational plan” was to sow “cold blooded killing”:

In 2004, the aggressor nations, namely the US and Britain “came to the rescue of the people of Iraq” “so that they can have a brighter future” under a counter-terrorism mandate at “the request” of the Iraqi interim government, in an agreement sanctioned by the UN. What is rarely mentioned by the media is that the US led military alliance has been supporting the Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists.

Washington’s unspoken objective remains “to sow violence and discord by cold blooded killing”.

And in late June 2014, the same scenario has emerged: the Islamic State (IS) has “invaded Iraq” and America –which is covertly supporting the Islamic State– is called to rescue.

The Islamic State rebels are America’s foot soldiers, generously funded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia

Al Qaeda is “Made in America” … lest we forget with the support of Israel. And this includes the entire network of Al Qaeda affiliates in a large number of countries.

Surely the revelations concerning the links of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi to the Mossad, not to mention the overt support of ISIL by the Israeli military and the Netanyahu government should serve to refute once and for all the absurd proposition that Al Qaeda (including its affiliates) is an “independent entity” which threatens America and the Western World.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-is-abu ... et/5391731

ghulam muhammed
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#12

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Sep 05, 2014 5:14 pm

ISIS, Radicalization, and the Politics of Violence and Alienation

The international community is alarmed by the new threats posed by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). ISIS has overtaken vast areas in Iraq and Syria and shocked the conscience of the world with its slaughter of thousands of civilians and the crime of beheading of James Foley, and ISIS is promising to spread its reign of terror to the entire Middle East region and beyond. The phenomenon of ISIS seems new and its success unprecedented, but its causes are not. A key element in the growth of radicalism in Iraq and Syria is the failure of national governments and regional and global powers to address core political issues and grievances. These new radicals are not simply terrorists on the old model, even though they deploy some of the same tactics and rhetoric. Rather, they are a well-funded, advanced military force of tens of thousands of fighters, and growing every day, with well-developed command and control and large ambitions. Their members hail from dozens of countries where democratic transitions have stalled or failed, where corruption is rampant, and where authoritarian leaders privilege political and economic "stability" over freedom, democracy and accountability. Now increasing numbers of alienated youth, some of the same people that spearheaded the Arab spring three and a half years ago, are drawn to this new cause. To understand the ISIS phenomena and the policies in the region that contributed to its rise the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) invited a distinguished panel of experts to discuss this topic.

To defeat ISIS there needs to be a major political undertaking that accompanies military actions. The administration needs to address the clear difference between its priorities and those of its allies in the region who are designating all Islamists as an existential threat. ISIS has tapped into a deep rooted attraction to the caliphate among many Muslims and showed that it could realize its goals, which makes it a very dangerous.

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com ... ae529ce120

ghulam muhammed
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#13

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sun Sep 07, 2014 6:17 pm

Has ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi been killed in US airstrikes?

Thousands of social media users are distributing an unverified photo which claims to show the body of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after he was purportedly killed by US air strikes after three senior members of ISIS, including an aide to al-Baghdadi were also killed by US air strikes. The death of the three senior members and aide to al-Baghdadi were confirmed by a senior Iraqi security official when interviewed by NBC News on Thursday.

Pentagon Spokesman Col. Steve Warren could not confirm the deaths and said ISIS leaders had not been targeted. But he added that if ISIS leaders were embedded “inside troop formations they are likely to be killed.” The U.S. has been carrying out airstrikes across north Iraq after the ISIS gained ground in a murderous sweep in June.

A number of news outlets and websites have published the unverified photo and news about the death of al-Baghdadi by US airstrikes. IraqiNews.com has been unable to verify the photo and claim that al-Baghdadi was killed.

However there is no clear evidence that proves beyond doubt that Al-Baghdadi has been killed. And before people fall into such hype, below are photos that proves that this claim is easily faked:

http://muslimmirror.com/eng/was-isis-le ... irstrikes/

ghulam muhammed
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#14

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Sep 13, 2014 5:19 pm

Let’s Call ISIS “The Un-Islamic State”

Dear ISIS & Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi,

You are not “The Islamic State.”

There is nothing Islamic about beheading foreign journalists, indiscriminately targeting religious minorities and instilling wanton terror within the general civilian population where your terrorist thugs operate.

As I mentioned during a July 2012 CNN television interview, you are so crazy that even Al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri has distanced himself from the actions of your terrorist organization.

Seriously, you know that you’re a bunch of lunatics when even Al-Qaeda says that you are too ‘cray-cray’ for their taste.

For those who are unaware, the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq & Syria (ISIS) currently controls hundreds of square miles in both Iraq and Syria where state authority has evaporated. According to CNN, this group “ignores international borders and has a presence all the way from Syria’s Mediterranean coast to just south of Baghdad.”

After the killing of Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2006 by American forces, the “new Al-Qaeda [in Iraq] was rebranded in 2006 as the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI)”. It would add “and Syria” to its name later. The group gained traction by exploiting a “growing perception among many Sunnis that they were being persecuted by the Shia-dominated government led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, starved of resources and excluded from a share of power.”

In the words of the Soufan Group, a political risk consultancy, “ISIS has become indisputably the most effective and ruthless terrorist organization in the world.”

“It now challenges the authority of two of the largest states in the Middle East, and has attracted significant numbers of fighters, not just from Iraq and Syria, but also from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states including Jordan.”

Ayham Kamel of the Eurasia Group has said ISIS uses “cash reserves from Mosul’s banks, military equipment from seized military and police bases and the release of 2,500 fighters from local jails to bolster its military and financial capability.”

For the last few months, we have witnessed ISIS targeting religious minorities (like Christians and Yazidis) in a campaign to rid their region of these peaceful populations. The United Nations has estimated that ISIS terrorists have trapped up to 40,000 members of Iraq’s minority communities which has many Western and regional players concerned about stability in northern Iraq and Syria.

Most recently, an August 2014 video released by ISIS shows the brutal beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley and threatens the life of another American journalist if President Barack Obama doesn’t end military operations in Iraq. (Editor’s Note: The second captured American journalist – Steven Sotloff- is a longtime Facebook friend of mine.)

From an Islamic perspective, when outlining the rules of engagement for wartime, the Prophet Muhammad said on numerous occasions:
◾“Do not kill any old person, any child or any woman”
◾“Do not kill the monks in monasteries”
◾“Do not kill the people who are sitting in places of worship”
◾“Do not attack a wounded person”
◾“No prisoner should be put to the sword [aka executed or beheaded]“


Prophet Muhammad also prohibited the killing of anyone who is in captivity (like journalists) and also outlawed the mutilating of the corpses of enemies. These clear and concise statements make any violation of these edicts during wartime a clear violation of core Islamic principles.

Most mainstream Islamic scholars also assert that war in Islam is purely defensive in nature (Quran 22:39-40). Also, the Quran prohibits of killing non-combatants (2:190-192) and it advocates kindness to people of other faiths who live in peace in Muslim lands (60:8).

Despite such clear injunctions, some so-called Muslims (like ISIS or Al-Qaeda) who claim to be killing in the name of Islam are, in fact, completely defiling its essence. The extremists and militants who attempt to hide behind the veneer of Islam are, in reality, openly violating many of its core teachings.

For these and many other reasons, the acronym ISIS should stand for “Idiotic Sacrilegious Imbecile Society” or we can just call them “The Un-Islamic State” for short.


http://www.theislamicmonthly.com/lets-c ... mic-state/

ghulam muhammed
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#15

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Sep 26, 2014 6:46 pm

Woman Wears Hidden Camera In Raqqa To Secretly Film Life Under ISIS

A young woman appears to have risked her life to secretly film life in the Islamic State-controlled city of Raqqa, Syria, according to French television. The footage appears to provide a rare glimpse inside the militant group's main stronghold in the country.

The video shows heavily armed men and women on the city's streets as well an internet cafe where fluent French-speaking women tell their families they will not return home.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/2 ... 81368.html

ghulam muhammed
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#16

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Sep 29, 2014 6:18 pm

Here's What We Know About How the Islamic State Is Run

As the Islamic State has risen to power and prominence in recent months, hundreds of reports have emerged about the group, often portraying it as a large, somewhat amorphous band of extremists. While the Islamic State is indeed vast, it's also complex, and made up of a tightly networked, experienced group of men.

These men manage the structures that keep the Islamic State running, overseeing hundreds of towns, thousands of fighters and millions of dollars in finances. To better understand what dismantling the Islamic State's network might look like, it's important to look at what we know about how it actually works.

The Leader

At the head of the Islamic State is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Reportedly born Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra in 1971, Baghdadi grew up a Sunni in a devout family. As The New York Times reports, Baghdadi obtained a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the Islamic University of Baghdad and began a career as a preacher.

Baghdadi's first appearance on international radars was likely after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when reports say he was detained in Camp Bucca by U.S. forces. The precise timing and nature of his arrest is unknown, but it is usually dated somewhere between 2004 and 2005, with a release in 2009.

Following his internment, Baghdadi rose through the ranks of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), becoming its leader in 2010 in the wake of U.S. strikes that wiped out the former chiefs. Baghdadi's elevated status also landed him on the U.S. State Department's terror list, with a $10 million bounty on his head.

AQI went through a series of important changes under Baghdadi, joining the battlefield in Syria's civil war, breaking away from al-Qaeda to become "ISIS" and eventually declaring it had restored a period of historic Islamic rule known as a caliphate and re-naming itself the Islamic State.

Now calling himself Caliph Ibrahim, Baghdadi is the self-styled religious and political ruler of the territory his group seized. A reclusive leader, his last public appearance was a lengthy sermon in July in which he urged his followers to fight "the enemies of God."

His beliefs and image are part of what analysts see as a distorted version of a fundamentalist 18th century form of Islam known as Wahhabism, texts of which are circulated in areas under Islamic State control.

The Deputies

Aiding Baghdadi's rule are two deputies: Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, who manages Iraqi operations, and Abu Ali al-Anbari, who manages Syrian operations. Reportedly, both are veteran military men and were generals under Saddam's regime.

According to the Terrorism Research and Analysis Centre, these deputies act as top administrators over their relative territories -- speaking with local governors, coordinating with councils and overseeing the many different bits of bureaucracy the Islamic State has set up. These deputies are ostensibly the second in command, and one likely would succeed Baghdadi were he to die.

The Cabinets and the Councils

In addition to the deputies, other important bodies help run the Islamic State, though there's very little information available about their central leaders. Those include a leadership cabinet that advises al-Baghdadi on matters of state, and a Shura council that advises him on matters of religious law -- which the Islamic State considers the only law.

The Shura council is especially prominent, and a TRAC director recently told CNN it's thought the council reviewed the Islamic State's decision to behead Western journalist hostages.

The Governors and Middle Management

The Islamic State is allegedly split up into seven vilayets, or provinces, with a local governor at the head of each. These governors work with local leaders who also report to the deputies to carry out different initiatives and laws, from fixing potholes to cutting off people's hands.

It's at this local level that the bizarre and often horrific reality of Islamic State rule becomes most evident. Along with a large number of councils in charge of the group's finances, media strategy and military actions, the mid-level governance of the Islamic State involves keeping a semi-functioning civil society while still imposing harsh and brutal laws on its population.

It may seem strange that a group that has crucified people for apostasy also runs a post office and gives out traffic tickets, but keeping services intact is a key way group maintains control over its seized cities.

Available information on life under the Islamic State in these towns is based on intelligence gathered by analysts and taken from secretive sources within the cities. Since news on what happens inside ISIS territory is so hard to come by, there is an unavoidable degree of uncertainty in these accounts.

In spite of these different structures and bureaucratic measures, the Islamic State is still not a legitimate state. It has no international recognition, its thousands of foreign fighters mean it has dubious claims on a permanent population, and its territory has been subject to rapid change.

Yet what this structure does show is that the Islamic State seems intent on playing the long game of keeping -- and governing -- the territory it controls. It may not be a real state, but in this regard, it has taken a lot of steps to act like one.

http://www.newageislam.com/radical-isla ... un/d/99287

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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#17

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sun Oct 05, 2014 6:24 pm

Iraqi Pilots Mistakenly Drop Supplies Instead Of Bombs On ISIS

Members of Islamic State recently received an unexpected surprise from the Iraqi military’s inexperienced pilots: an airdrop of food, water and ammunition.

A senior security official told NBC News on Tuesday that an investigation has been launched into how supplies meant for Iraqi soldiers fighting the terrorist group were dropped at the wrong location in Anbar province.

“Those soldiers were in deadly need of these supplies, but because of the wrong plans of the commanders in the Iraqi army and lack of experience of the pilots, we in a way or another helped [Islamic State] fighters to kill our soldiers,” said Hakim Al-Zamili, a Sadrist lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament, NBC reported.

Mr. Al-Zamili also works as a security liaison for service members and commanders formed by the religious leader Muqtada Al-Sadr.

A brigadier-general in Iraq’s Defense Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the botched military operation, NBC reported. The incident is said to have occurred Sept. 19.

- See more at: http://govtslaves.info/iraqi-pilots-mis ... m4VDf.dpuf

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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#18

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Oct 09, 2014 4:26 pm

Biden’s Admission: US Allies Armed ISIS

Speaking to students at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy Forum Thursday, US Vice President Joseph Biden committed what the US media characterizes as a “gaffe.” In other words, he told an embarrassing truth about US government policy, one that is usually obfuscated in the remarks of government officials and the commentaries of media pundits.

Asked about US policy in Syria, Biden touched on the dirty secret of the current US-led war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. ISIS (or ISIL as the Obama administration terms it) is essentially the creation of the United States and its allies who fomented civil war in Syria against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Referring to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Biden said,


“They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad—except that the people who were being supplied were al Nusra and al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.”

“Now you think I’m exaggerating,” he continued, to emphasize his point. “Take a look! Where did all of this go?” Biden claimed that the US opposed arming these al Qaeda-linked groups, which included ISIS, adding, “We could not convince our colleagues to stop supplying them.”

It is testament to the degeneracy of the American political system that the circumstances behind ISIS’s rise, alluded to in Biden’s remarks, have not been the subject of any investigation. There have been no calls in Congress for hearings to examine the origins of an organization whose actions have been seized on to proclaim a new war in the Middle East.

As for the media, it merely serves as a government mouthpiece. Significantly, no US media source reported or commented on these portions of Biden’s remarks at Harvard. But once the comments were publicized, first by the Russian-based RT network, then throughout the Middle East, Biden hastened to mend fences with the offended client states.

Whatever the level of “intentionality” involved, ISIS was the recipient of the US-supported arms aid to the Syrian rebels, routed by the CIA through Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and other Mideast client states. The State Department and CIA were well aware that the Syrian rebels included many Islamic militants, including those linked to al-Qaeda, because it had previously employed many of these fighters in the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in Libya in 2011.

Originally established as Al Qaeda in Iraq during the eight years of warfare that followed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the group only took the name ISIS in April 2013, long after it had built up significant strength in Syria as part of the US-backed rebel forces fighting the Assad regime.

In other words, as Biden admits, ISIS was created by the methods pursued by the US government and its allied reactionary regimes, both the Islamist government of Erdogan in Turkey and the Gulf monarchies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

As long as ISIS gathered strength in Syria, as part of the US-backed “rebels” opposed to Assad, it was encouraged in its ambitions. It was only when ISIS moved its forces back across the border from Syria into Iraq—and in particular threatened oil-rich regions in northern Iraq—did the Obama administration move against it.

The contradictions in US policy persist. Even as it seeks to forestall ISIS’s advance, the US is arming and promoting “moderate” forces within Syria that are openly allied with al-Nusra and other Islamic fundamentalist groups. The main target of American imperialism remains the Syrian government, which is also the reason why Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and other countries that fostered ISIS and are hostile to the Assad regime are now supporting the operation.

The “war against ISIS,” America’s erstwhile ally against the Assad regime, is only the latest episode in the intervention of US imperialism in the Middle East, whose goal is not freedom, or democracy, or the struggle against “terrorism,” but the domination of the oil-rich region and the preparation of new and even bloodier wars against Iran and against the main targets of Washington: Russia and China.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/bidens-adm ... is/5406539

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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#19

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Thu Oct 16, 2014 4:33 pm

Austrian youth flocking to ISIL

European nation hit by a wave of Islamophobia as many young fighters join ISIL in Syria and Iraq.

Vienna, Austria - Five street signs surrounding a Vienna mosque were plastered with inflammatory labels such as "Shariastreet" and "IS Recruitment" last week - one among a rising number of anti-Muslim incursions recently.

The Muslim community is sounding the alarm over a new wave of Islamophobia in the wake of a polarising public discourse over the growing number of young Austrians who have joined the ranks of the group calling itself Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

Austria witnessed the biggest percentage increase in anti-Muslim sentiment among EU member states between 1999 and 2008, according to a comprehensive, cross-country study conducted by academics.

As part of the survey, 31 percent of Austrians indicated they did not want Muslims as neighbours. This development coincided with a 49 percent increase in Austria's Muslim population between 2001 and 2009, who now comprise six percent.

More than 140 young Austrians are thought to have gone to Syria and Iraq to join ISIL, according to the Ministry of Interior, a number expected to rise as long as the conflict there continues. While this presents a small share of the 12,000 foreign fighters estimated to have been recruited by ISIL so far, Austria with its population of only 8.4 million tops European countries on a per-capita basis, including France and Germany with 700 and 500 fighters, respectively.

This high proportion of Austrian ISIL recruits, many of whom are minors including girls, has given rise to concerns about the extent to which radicalisation has infiltrated the country's Muslim youth. This fear has been further compounded by media coverage, which many Muslims have criticised for feeding into the propaganda of groups such as ISIL.

Mainstream Austrian media have been filled with screen shots of Facebook profiles and posts of Austrians who have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq. One newspaper even published a Facebook interview with one of Austria's foreign fighters.

"Those who have gone to Syria and Iraq didn't attend religious classes or prayers. They are easily manipulated because they have no idea what Islam really is," says Mamdouh El Attar, an imam and religious teacher in Vienna who recently dissuaded a newly converted teenager from joining ISIL.

Polarisation of Austrian society has been partly nurtured by the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the right-wing Freedom Party, which won 20.5 percent in last year's parliamentary election.

The party's election campaigns have featured slogans such as "Daham statt Islam" (Home instead of Islam), "Heimatliebe statt Marokkanerdiebe" (Love for the homeland instead of Moroccan thieves), and "Liebe den nächsten, für mich sind das die Österreicher" (Love thy neighbour, which for me are the Austrians").

Full Article :-

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/featur ... 55506.html

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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#20

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Nov 21, 2014 6:10 pm

Islamic State announces its own currency Islamic dinar

The Islamic State group said its leader has ordered that the organisation start minting gold, silver and copper coins for its own currency the Islamic dinar.

A website affiliated with the militant group said late on Thursday that its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has instructed his followers to start minting the coins to “change the tyrannical monetary system” modelled on Western economies that “enslaved Muslims.”

The posting said the order was approved by the group’s Shura Council, an advisory board.

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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#21

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Nov 21, 2014 6:23 pm

Continent of the Islamic State

The tectonic shifts that continue to create the Islamic State are to be found in the harsh repression of ordinary grievances, whether against corruption or for better wages

Saved from the wrath of a U.S. air strike on November 8 near Mosul, Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Caliph of the Islamic State, returned less than a week later with a defiant audio message. He called upon his soldiers to “erupt volcanoes of jihad everywhere.” The sharpest words were for the U.S., which al-Baghdadi said was “terrified, weak and powerless.” The aerial bombing had accomplished little, and the U.S. is “unable to send ground forces to fight the mujahideen.” Al-Baghdadi took the opportunity to announce that his Islamic State (IS) has accepted the oath of loyalty (bay’ah) of the Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis of Egypt, of the al-Qaeda operation in Yemen and of the city of Derna in Libya. Al-Baghdadi’s was a terrifying sermon of triumph — “divide their gatherings, split their body, dismember them completely.” Out of northern Iraq and Syria, the IS spills over into the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.

As al-Baghdidi released his audio message, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel went before the U.S. Congress to brief them on the U.S. mission in Iraq and Syria. After 130 air strikes, Mr. Hagel said, the IS remains a “serious threat” to the U.S. He said that the U.S. knew that the IS would “adapt, they will adjust by manoeuvring in smaller groups, sometimes making it more difficult to identify targets, hiding large equipment and changing their communication methods.” Jihadi groups had in recent years described their tactics with the colourful phrase, “we are like serpents amongst the rocks,” slithering here and there, on the move. Aerial bombardment is insufficient against such canny tactics. Mr. Hagel said that the U.S. is unwilling to commit ground troops into the morass of northern Syria.

The steady pledges of loyalty from North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula strengthen the IS’s position. It is no longer like al-Qaeda, the conspiratorial group that sat in the shadows and used isolated cells to strike at the “near enemy” (Arab governments) and the “far enemy” (the U.S.). The IS has become true to its name. Significantly, al-Qaeda in Yemen signed up to its agenda. It had held large parts of the Abyan Governorate, including the city of Ja’ar, from March 2011 to June 2012. The experience in Yemen had shown that al-Qaeda need not remain merely a terrorist group, but could become the rulers of large tracts of land with large populations (Abyan has half a million residents). Northern Syria has already been in IS hands since May 2013 and substantial parts of northern Iraq since December of that year. No wonder that al-Baghdadi sees his movement as superior to that of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s al-Qaeda.

The IS has been able to drain the reservoirs of discontent among pious people who see no justice coming from the strong-armed states in Iraq or Egypt, or indeed amidst the chaos of Libya and Syria.

Al-Baghdadi, a small time preacher in Iraq’s Diyala province who was a minor member of Iraq’s armed forces and then the insurgency against the Americans, is now a major figure in the Arab world. This role could have been taken by the phoenix that arose in the squares of the Arab capitals in 2011. That was a social force that did not soak its rhetoric in blood and in hatred of minorities. It was, however, defeated at the hands of the perfidy of the Gulf Arabs and their Western allies. The tectonic shifts that continue to create the Continent of the Islamic State are to be found in the harsh repression of ordinary grievances — whether amongst the people of al-Hawija, who camped out against corruption and violence, or amongst the oil workers of Libya, who had demonstrated for better wages and working-conditions. The hard end of the stick fell on both, driving them onto the Continent of the Islamic State.

READ FULL ARTICLE :-

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/c ... elatedNews

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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#22

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Dec 20, 2014 6:15 pm

Battle with the Islamic State for the minds of young Muslims

Fighting the 'Invisible' arm of the Islamic State.

The story of a Berlin Mosque illustrates Muslim communities battle to save youths from the pull of extremists
.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eur ... ml?hpid=z1

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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#23

Unread post by qutub_mamajiwala » Mon Dec 22, 2014 8:31 am

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 602681.cms

The first western journalist in the world to be allowed extensive access to Isis territories in Syria and Iraq has returned from the region with a warning: the group is "much stronger and much more dangerous" than anyone in the west realises.

Jurgen Todenhofer, 74, is a renowned German journalist and publicist who travelled through Turkey to Mosul, the largest city occupied by Isis, after months of negotiations with the group's leaders.

He plans to publish a summary of his "10 days in the Islamic State" on Monday, but in interviews with German-language media outlets has revealed his first impressions of what life is like under Isis.

Speaking to the website Der tz, Todenhofer revealed that he actually stayed in the same hotel in Benghazi as James Foley, the US journalist who was beheaded on camera by Isis in August.

READ ALSO: 'ISIS has killed 100 foreigners trying to quit'

"Of course, I've seen the terrible, brutal video and it was one of my main concerns during the negotiations as to how I can avoid (the same fate)," he said.

Once within Isis territory, Todenhofer said his strongest impression was "that Isis is much stronger than we think here". He said it now has "dimensions larger than the UK", and is supported by "an almost ecstatic enthusiasm that I have never encountered in any other warzone".

Jurgen Todenhofer, the German journo who returned from #IS last week, is publishing summary of his trip on Monday. pic.twitter.com/I3h9CNa8Om

— Charlie Winter (@charliewinter) December 20, 2014

"Each day, hundreds of willing fighters arrive from all over the world," he told tz. "For me it is incomprehensible."

Todenhofer claims to have been able to move among Isis fighters, observing their living conditions and equipment. On his Facebook page, he has posted images which he said show German Heckler & Koch MG3 machine guns in the hands of Isis. "Someday this German MG could be directed to us," he said.

Isis's fighters themselves sleep, he said, in barracks formed from "the shells of bombed-out houses". They number around 5,000 in Mosul, and are spread so widely that were the US to bomb them all "they would have to reduce the whole of Mosul to ruins", he said.

Todenhofer says that this ultimately means Isis cannot be beaten by Western intervention or air strikes - despite US claims last week that they have proven effective. "With every bomb that is dropped and hits a civilian, the number of terrorists increases," he said.

More photos of Jurgen Todenhofer, journalist from #Germany who just returned from visiting lands controlled by #IS pic.twitter.com/oa1ZmWgQpW

— Charlie Winter (@charliewinter) December 19, 2014

READ ALSO: Isis 'executes 150 women for refusing to marry militants' and buries them in mass graves

Speaking in a TV interview with RTL's Nachtjournal programme two days after his return to Germany last week, Todenhofer said Isis has worked hard to establish itself as a functioning state. He said it has "social welfare", a "school system", and that he was even surprised to see it has plans to provide education to girls.

Most concerning of all, he said, was Isis fighters' belief that "all religions who agree with democracy have to die".

He said the view that kept being repeated was that Isis want to "conquer the world" and all who do not believe in the group's interpretation of the Quran will be killed. The only other religions to be spared, Todenhofer said, were the "people of the book" — Jews and Christians.

"This is the largest religious cleansing strategy that has ever been planned in human history", he told RTL.

READ ALSO: ISIS justifies enslaving, having sex with non-believers: Report

Most concerning of all, he said, was Isis fighters' belief that "all religions who agree with democracy have to die".

He said the view that kept being repeated was that Isis want to "conquer the world" and all who do not believe in the group's interpretation of the Quran will be killed. The only other religions to be spared, Todenhofer said, were the "people of the book" - Jews and Christians.

"This is the largest religious cleansing strategy that has ever been planned in human history", he told RTL.

Another photo of Jurgen Todenhofer, the journalist from #Germany who just got back from 10 day trip to #IS in #Syria. pic.twitter.com/PSWQJh4LxS

— Charlie Winter (@charliewinter) December 19, 2014

Charlie Winter, a researcher for the anti-extremism thinktank Quilliam, said such comments about Isis being "a group that is formidable militarily and politically" were quoted by pro-Isis accounts because it is "a bitter pill for policymakers to swallow".

READ ALSO: British 'Vicar of Baghdad' claims ISIS beheaded four children for refusing to convert to Islam

"That said, Todenhofer's comments on the massacre of the Yazidis and displacement of hundreds of thousands in Mosul have been routinely ignored by Isis supporters," Mr Winter said. "The facts are being cherry-picked to give a very narrow view of the situation that Todenhofer was met with in Syria and Iraq."

Jurgen Todenhofer met ISIS police forces, also heavily armed child officers among them. pic.twitter.com/NXBIo17QOF

— Erasmus Institut (@Erasmus_Vogel) December 22, 2014

Todenhofer plans to use his first-hand experience of Isis in a book he is writing about the group. He says on Facebook that he has always "spoken to both sides" in his 50 years reporting from war zones, including interviews with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and al-Qaida, with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai and with leaders of the Taliban.

In his view, Isis will soon come to the west to negotiate a level of co-existence. "The only ones who could stop this now are the moderate Iraqi Sunnis," he said, adding: "If you want to defeat an opponent, you must know him."

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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#24

Unread post by qutub_mamajiwala » Sun Dec 28, 2014 6:33 am

'Kill infidels or they'll rape your mother'

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 664478.cms

BAGHDAD: Before war convulsed his hometown in Syria, Usaid Barho played soccer, loved Jackie Chan movies and adored the beautiful Lebanese pop singer Nancy Ajram. He dreamed of attending college and becoming a doctor.

His life, to say the least, took a detour.

On a recent evening in Baghdad, Usaid, who is 14, approached the gate of a Shiite mosque, unzipped his jacket to show a vest of explosives, and surrendered himself to the guards.

"They seduced us to join the caliphate," he said several days later in an interview at a secret Iraqi intelligence site where he is being held.

Usaid described how he had been recruited by the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State from a mosque in his hometown, Manbij, near Aleppo. He said he joined the group willingly because "I believed in Islam."

"They planted the idea in me that Shiites are infidels and we had to kill them," he said in the interview, which took place in the presence of an Iraqi intelligence official.

If he did not fight, he was told, Shiites would come and rape his mother.

He soon found himself in Iraq, but he quickly had misgivings and wanted to escape. His best chance, he decided, was a risky deception: volunteer to be a suicide bomber so he could surrender to security forces.

The wars in Syria and Iraq have set grim new standards for the exploitation and abuse of children. Thousands of them have been killed or maimed through indiscriminate bombings, in crossfire and, in some cases, executions. Young girls from minority groups, especially Yazidis in Iraq, have been captured as sex slaves by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Young boys have been given rifles and told to staff checkpoints or patrol neighborhoods — or have been recruited, as Usaid was, to become suicide bombers.

In the areas it controls in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State has established centers for the military and religious training of children, in an effort to indoctrinate them and build a new generation of warriors.

One of the group's videos, depicting a camp near Mosul, in northern Iraq, calls the children the "cubs of the caliphate." At the camp — named for the brutal leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by an American airstrike in 2006 — children are shown doing physical fitness exercises and reciting the Quran, while an instructor explains that they are being trained to fight "hate-filled Shiites."

The United Nations wrote in a report last month that "ISIS prioritizes children as a vehicle for ensuring long-term loyalty, adherence to their ideology and a cadre of devoted fighters that will see violence as a way of life."

The United Nations has released a catalog of horrors inflicted on children by the Islamic State. In Raqqa, Syria, the militants' de facto capital, the group has gathered children for screenings of execution videos. It has forced children to participate in public stonings. And in many of the group's grisly execution videos, children are seen among the audience. (Usaid said that his parents did not allow him to attend the public executions in his town, typically held after Friday Prayer.)

Continue reading the main story

In the aftermath of one videotaped beheading in Deir al-Zour, Syria, children are seen playing with the victim's head and mocking the corpse, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the communications of extremist groups.

Referring to past wars and the role of children, Laurent Chapuis, the regional child protection adviser for the Middle East and North Africa for the United Nations Children's Fund, or Unicef, said: "When it comes to recruitment, in the past, kids were predominantly supporters — messengers or spies. It seems now they are pushed to take a more active role."

Mr. Chapuis said that all parties in the wars, including pro-government militias in both countries, were guilty of abuses of children. What sets the Islamic State apart, he said, is how "public and aggressive" they are in their exploitation.

Usaid's account of how he went from a Syrian childhood that he said was not particularly religious to become a jihadist held in an Iraqi cell is one of the few firsthand accounts from an Islamic State child soldier turned defector.

The Iraqi authorities have increasingly showcased Islamic State detainees to the public, as part of a strategy to demonstrate that the government is making progress in the fight, although they have not typically made detainees available for interviews with journalists. The details of Usaid's personal background could not be independently verified, but his surrender at the mosque gate was captured on cellphone video by a bystander.

First, after the Islamic State took control of his town, Usaid was drawn to the local mosque. "We started being taught that Shiites were raping Sunni women, and that Shiites were killing Sunni men," he said.

He now says he was brainwashed. But he admitted that he willingly ran away from home one morning on his way to school and joined a training camp in the desert. For about a month, he was put through military training, and he was taught how to shoot an assault rifle and how to storm a building. He had two meals a day, mostly cheese and eggs.

Soon, though, he said, "I noticed things I saw that were different from Islam."

Back home he saw the group inflict severe punishments on men who were caught smoking cigarettes, yet in the camp, he said, he saw fighters smoking. He said he saw men having sex with other men behind the tents in the desert night. And, he said, he was increasingly put off by "the way they are killing innocent people."

At the end of the training, he was told his trainers wanted him to go fight in Iraq. He was driven, with other new fighters, in a minibus to Mosul.

There, the recruits were given a choice: be a fighter or a suicide bomber.

"I raised my hand to be a suicide bomber," he said. That, he figured, would give him the best chance at defecting.

"If I were a fighter and tried to surrender to security forces they might kill me, with my gun in my hand," he said.

Within a few days, he was taken, along with a German volunteer, on a circuitous journey to Baghdad. He said he was passed from one Islamic State operative to another and stayed at various safe houses along the way — including a photography studio and a house covered by reeds. He spent a week in Falluja, waiting. Finally, he arrived in the early morning at an apartment in Baghdad, where he had tea and kebabs for breakfast.

Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story

Continue reading the main story

He was shuttled to another apartment, where he took a nap. Two hours later, he was shaken awake.

"Wake up, wake up, it is time to put your vest on," he was told.

He was given his target: a Shiite mosque in the neighborhood of Bayaa.

A few hours later, at dusk, he walked up to the mosque gate.

"I opened up my jacket and said, 'I have a suicide vest, but I don't want to blow myself up.' "

The chaotic scene that unfolded, as a plainclothes officer snipped off the vest, was captured on cellphone video by a bystander and distributed over social media. "Keep the people away!" one officer yelled.

What happens now to Usaid is unclear. He said he wanted to be reunited with his family in Syria, but the Iraqi authorities have not tried to reach them. The intelligence officer who has been interrogating him said he needed more time to investigate the case.

During the interview, the officer playfully tapped Usaid on the knee and the top of his head, and urged him to eat baklava. "Eat more sweets, they are good for you," he said.

Usaid said he still planned to become a doctor, and hoped to study in Turkey. He said that he missed his mother, and that the Iraqis had promised to return him to his parents one day.

Before the war, he said: "We were a normal family. It was just a normal life."

Whether he has a chance at a normal life again depends, in part, on how the Iraqis treat him: as a terrorist or as an exploited child.

During the interview, Usaid was dressed in a gray sweatshirt and cargo pants, and he was not handcuffed. A few days later, though, he appeared on state television in handcuffs and a yellow prison jumpsuit. The television host labeled him a terrorist, and he was made to re-enact his surrender.

Yet Saad Maan, the spokesman for both the Interior Ministry and the Baghdad Operations Command, appeared on Tuesday on state television and described Usaid as a victim of the Islamic State.

And the intelligence officer who has been interrogating Usaid, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of his work, said he and other intelligence agents would oppose any efforts to prosecute Usaid.

"Even if he was brought to court, we would be on his side, because he saved lives," he said.

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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#25

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Tue Jan 13, 2015 6:11 pm

NYPD On High Alert After New Threat By ISIS

Officials said ISIS posted a video on Twitter on Saturday calling for attacks on police officers and soldiers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and France.

Speaking Monday on “CBS This Morning,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the NYPD takes the threats seriously.

“There are a number of people who are in the process of being radicalized,” he said. “Something like this can be the last straw to move them forward. Additionally, they are continually working to attract new recruits.”

“Pay attention to your surroundings and pay close attention to approaching vehicles,” the memo reads in part. “Pay close attention to people as they approach and look at their hands.”

Miller said the NYPD has not detected a threat specific to New York, but security has been stepped up in many locations, including Times Square, and at some facilities in the Jewish community, CBS2’s Tony Aiello reported.

And federal officials were probing a hack into the U.S. Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube sites by a group that purported to represent a part of ISIS.

The hack apparently started at 12:30 p.m. with a message sent via the Twitter account for the U.S. Central Command, or Centcom, that read, “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back. ISIS.”

A message went on to say that “ISIS continues its CyberJihad,” adding “we broke into your networks and personal devices and know everything about you.”

“ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base,” the message read. “We know everything about you, your wives and children.”

Further Tweets on the page included names, phone numbers and email addresses of various military commanders. An outdated list of retired generals and their contact information was also posted.

Various military scenarios involving North Korea and China were also posted.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/01/12/ ... t-by-isis/

qutub_mamajiwala
Posts: 1051
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2013 4:17 am

Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#26

Unread post by qutub_mamajiwala » Wed Jan 21, 2015 4:05 am

ISIS executing 'educated women' in new wave of horror

The UN on Tuesday decried numerous executions of civilians in Iraq by the Islamic State group, warning that educated women appeared to be especially at risk.

The jihadist group is showing a "monstrous disregard for human life" in the areas it controls in Iraq, the UN human rights office said.

The group, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and in neighbouring war-ravaged Syria, last week published pictures of the "crucifixions" of two men accused of being bandits, and of a woman being stoned to death, allegedly for adultery.

Numerous other women have also reportedly been executed recently in IS-controlled areas, including Mosul, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters.

READ ALSO: ISIS throws 'gay' men off tower, stones woman accused of adultery and crucifies 17 young men

She said "educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office, seem to be particularly at risk."

"In just the first two weeks of this year, reports indicate that three female lawyers were executed," Shamdasani said.

READ ALSO: IS threatens to kill Japanese hostages, Tokyo vows not to give in

A number of other groups are also targeted by the jihadists, Shamdasani said, pointing to "the ruthless murder of two men, who were thrown off the top of a building after having been accused of homosexual acts by a so-called court in Mosul."

Minorities are not the only ones suffering, with IS meting out "cruel and inhuman punishments" to anyone accused of violating its "extremist interpretations of Islamic Sharia law, or for suspected disloyalty," she said.

Four doctors were recently killed in central Mosul, allegedly after refusing to treat ISIS fighters.

READ ALSO: ISIS has fighters 'just waiting for order to attack the west'

The group also reportedly executed 15 civilians in front of a large crowd in Fallujah on January 1, on suspicion they had cooperated with Iraqi security forces, and 14 more in a public square in Dour, north of Tikrit, for refusing to pledge allegiance to IS, Shamdasani said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 962684.cms

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#27

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Jan 23, 2015 5:34 pm

The ISIS comedy continues…

ISIS’s string pullers in Washington and Tel Aviv are trying to drag the whole world into their farcical stage-play. Thanks to a slew of ‘beheading videos’ and contrived ‘terror incidents’ that struck a number of Western capitals in recent months, much of the Western world has reluctantly signed up with America’s counterfeit crusade against the radical group.

One can’t help but laugh at the way in which our loathsome leaders try to pull the wool over our eyes time and again.

These cowards in high places have resorted to fantastical lies and clownish frauds to keep us complacent and ignorant.

This latest chicanery should make you grin.

Just hours after Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an “anti-terrorism” pact with Israel and pledged $200 million towards the anti-ISIS coalition led by the United States, ISIS released a video threatening to kill two Japanese hostages.

The infamous British-accented Islamic State fighter, who allegedly beheaded a string of hostages over recent months including American photojournalist James Foley, appears in a new video demanding a ransom of $200 million in exchange for the release of the two Japanese captives.

“[Israeli PM] Netanyahu warned [Japanese PM] Abe that Japan could become a target of terrorism,” writes Dr. Patrick Slattery in an article on David Duke’s website, “and almost on cue, within a matter of hours ISIS released a video featuring two Japanese hostages in orange jumpsuits and a knife-wielding masked man who announced in British English that the Japanese [captives] would be killed if a $200 million ransom is not paid in 72 hours.”

What timing! What convenience!

ISIS seems to have ready-made beheading videos designed to whip up a furor in every country on god’s green earth. Americans, Frenchmen, Brits and now Japanese – it’s like they have a repository of prisoners from around the world, at-the-ready to be used as bait for further incitement.

ISIS’s string pullers in Washington and Tel Aviv are trying to drag the whole world into their farcical stage-play. Thanks to a slew of ‘beheading videos’ and contrived ‘terror incidents’ that struck a number of Western capitals in recent months, much of the Western world has reluctantly signed up with America’s counterfeit crusade against the radical group. And now Japan has been suckered into the madness.

As Slattery points out in the aforesaid article, the new ISIS video, like the myriad of replicas before it, appears to have been faked. The shadows are wrong and the wind affects the two Japanese captives differently. Slattery observes that,

“The video seems to be a composite as the three men were clearly not filmed in the same place at the same time. The hostage of the left, free-lance journalist Kenji Goto, has shadows on the right side of his face, while self-styled military consultant and former homeless person Haruna Yukawa has shadows on the left side of his face. Also, Yukawa’s jumpsuit billows in the wind, while Goto’s is mostly still. Furthermore, both hostages fail to show the slightest emotion as the masked man points a knife at each of their heads and threatens to kill them.”

All of ISIS’s HBO-quality productions look to be shot in some sort of professional studio, perhaps even in Hollywood. Everything about the group, from its menacing black flags, Toyota trucks and masked Kalashnikov-wielding ‘bad-guys,’ appears calibrated to fit a cinematic stereotype of the ‘Muslim radical’ and ‘violent Arab.’ This is not reality, it is carefully choreographed theater, produced and directed by the US-Israeli Military Industrial Complex.

The lead antagonist of this mediocre action flick, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, may not even exist at all. According to a New York Times report, the self-styled ‘caliph’ may have been a fictional character from the outset.

Entitled “Leader of Al Qaeda group in Iraq was fictional, U.S. military says,” the 2007 Times report explains that Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, the head of ‘Islamic State in Iraq’ (precursor to ISIS), was a wholly fabricated personality whose public declarations were voiced by an elderly Iraqi actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima.

US military spokesman Brigadier General Kevin Bergner acknowledged this fact, but tried to lay the blame for the hoax on al-Qaeda itself, suggesting that the purpose of the ruse was to put an ‘Iraqi face’ on a foreign-backed group, thereby drawing in more recruits from local militants opposed to the US invasion.

But even if that is to be believed, al-Qaeda itself, from its inception, was nothing more than a loose conglomeration of Jihadist mercenaries on the payroll of the CIA. The group’s leaders are, for the most part, double agents for the CIA, Mossad and MI6, fronting as ‘Islamic radicals’; a phantom enemy manufactured to serve the geopolitical objectives of the true ‘Axis of Evil’ ­– the US, Britain and Israel.

Is this phantom ‘al-Baghdadi’ from 2007 the residual chieftain of ISIS? If the previous head of ‘Islamic State in Iraq’ was merely a performer putting on a spectacle for the credulous masses, as the US military admits, then what makes this latest incarnation of the shadowy terror kingpin any less chimeric?

“Debunkers” will of course say that the admittedly mythical ‘al-Baghdadi’ and his present-day doppelganger are two different persons. But absent any kind of hard evidence that the terrorist ringleader is a real person with a real background, and considering his group’s dubious antecedents, it would be foolish to have any faith in the whole delusory affair.

All of this follows a pattern of US and Israeli intelligence psy-ops. In 2002, Israel exposed its hand behind a bungled operation to establish a counterfeit ‘al-Qaeda cell’ in the Gaza Strip. In December of that year Ariel Sharon asserted the presence of al-Qaeda in the Strip, and then had Mossad agents go out and recruit Gaza Arabs into a fake faction of al-Qaeda loyalists with promises of money and other allurements. The existence of the phony ‘terror cell,’ cultivated by Mossad itself, was then used by Sharon and company as a pretext to attack the beleaguered coastal enclave.

That Israeli deception signifies a broader stratagem of duplicity employed by Western secret services that willingly do Israel’s bidding free of charge. In the name of ‘exporting democracy’ – code speak for ‘eliminating threats to Israel’ – the Zionist-controlled West fakes threats and engineers crises in order to steer their populations into the neocon ideological fold, thereby easing the public into consenting to endless wars of aggression and constant curtailments of civil liberties.

It’s the same old game, over and over again, but people keep falling for it.

http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2015/ ... continues/

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#28

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:14 pm

Saudi Arabia Builds Another "Apartheid Wall" to Keep Out Terrorists

The Washington Times reports that Saudi Arabia has decided to build a 600 mile security barrier in response to concerns that ISIS and other terrorists may try to seize control of Mecca and Medina. The Saudis already have in place a 1000 mile security barrier to keep out terrorists from Yemen.

The article compares the Saudi fence-building fervor to China's Great Wall that was constructed to keep out marauders beyond China's northern border. But the design of the system of security fences and monitoring posts suggests the Saudis have taken their cue from another Middle Eastern nation's attempt to stop terrorists from infiltrating. Israel devised a similar design to stem the epidemic of suicide bombers infiltrating into Israel from the West Bank during the Second Intifada. The Saudis apparently took note of the barrier's role in virtually ending suicide bombings in Israel.

Unlike the furor that erupted over Israel's decision to construct its security barrier, to date no demonstrations against the Saudi's "apartheid wall" have transpired on American or European university campuses.

http://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/01 ... er_fe.html

qutub_mamajiwala
Posts: 1051
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2013 4:17 am

Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#29

Unread post by qutub_mamajiwala » Thu Jan 29, 2015 3:56 am

An ISIS fighter has threatened to behead Barack Obama "in the White House and transform America into a Muslim province" before murdering a Kurdish soldier in a gruesome propaganda video.

The footage, entitled "Bombardment of Peaceful Muslims in the City of Mosul" showed damage from shelling allegedly carried out by Peshmerga forces in the Iraqi city earlier this month before killing the captive in retaliation.

The masked ISIS fighter threatened attacks on the US, France, Belgium and the Kurds, claiming that the group's followers will kill the American and Kurdish presidents as well as detonating car bombs and explosives in European countries that are part of the international coalition fighting against it.

He claims Peshmerga forces "shells the peaceful Muslims of Mosul with American Crusader bombs, and has poisoned dozens of them with asphyxiating gases" as images are shown of damaged buildings, bodies and injured children.

Then the jihadist issues "a message to the entire world" in Kurdish, translated by the Memri Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor.

"This is the fate of anyone who opposes Islam. Know, oh Obama, that we will reach America. Know also that we will cut off your head in the White House and transform America into a Muslim province," he says.


US President Barack Obama

"And this is my message to France and its sister, Belgium. We advise you that we will come to you with car bombs and explosive charges and we will cut off your heads."

The fighter then beheads the captive with a knife to cheers from the gathered crowd, threatening to send Kurdish president Masoud Barzani a soldier's head for every missile the Peshmerga launch.

ISIS, which has overrun swathes of Iraq and Syria, has made a number of similar statements since a US-led coalition mounted air strikes against its fighters last year and frequently uses beheading videos as a platform for its propaganda.

As well as the filmed murders of foreign hostages James Foley, David Haines, Alan Henning and most recently, Japanese aid worker Haruna Yukawa, public beheadings have become commonplace in its territories where death is the penalty for numerous unproved "crimes".

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), the video threatening Obama was released by ISIS on Monday, two days after heavy Peshmerga shelling and coalition air strikes were reported in its stronghold of Mosul.

It is the largest city controlled by Isis and one of its longest-standing strongholds in Iraq.

On Saturday, news agencies reported an increase in US air strikes around Mosul aiming to disrupt Isis supply routes ahead of an expected operation later this year to re-take it from militants.

Coalition airstrikes hit at least two dozen locations around Mosul, destroying dozens of vehicles, buildings, fighting positions and insurgent units, military officials said.

The US has claimed that the coalition has "halted the momentum" of ISIS, which made most of its gains largely unchallenged last year.

No foreign armies have yet sent group troops to fight Islamists in the region as fears increase of more Isis-inspired terror attacks following the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Ottawa shootings, Sydney siege and numerous failed plots in the UK, Belgium and across Europe.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 051320.cms

topiwala
Posts: 150
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Re: A Powerful & Merciless Force Has Emerged On World Stage

#30

Unread post by topiwala » Thu Jan 29, 2015 5:56 am

Moula (TUS) Muminen ne ISIS si bachawjo. e aj dua chhe. Maula ma meiyye dua araz kidhi chhe ke aa isis ne nesto naboot thai jay aa ISIS pan wahhabi chhe tamara jivoo. sagla Mumineen dua kare Maula na wasila si ke ISIS khatam thay jay. Ameen...