#islamic state in iraq and syria (isis)

[nando161mando]

The terror of Solingen: What we should be talking about

What we see right now in Germany is how ruthless the crime is used to legitimize right-wing demands for deportations. Everyone is talking about “terrorism”. A generalization that only serves to conceal the background. The terror in Solingen has a name, a political & organizational background: ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq & Syria.

On Friday, a man in Solingen, Germany killed 3 people with a knife at a city festival & injured 8 people, some of them seriously. The 26-year-old perpetrator, from Syria came to Germany in 2022. The public debate that was sparked after the attack in no way contributes to a realistic assessment of the underlying circumstances. While the debate talks in general terms about ‘terrorism’, it is largely overlooked that the attack in Solingen was carried out by ISIS. Turkey’s support for ISIS is also a central but largely ignored aspect.

Article: https://riseup4rojava.org/the-terror-of-solingen-what-we-should-be-talking-about/

[thenewdemocratus]

Brookings Institution: William Galston: The American People to its Leaders: Ground Troops Against ISIS & a Stronger National Defense

Source:Brookings Institution I think its pretty clear about what we’ve learned in the last thirteen-years or so in our Middle East adventures. That if you try to defend and govern a country that won’t do that for themselves, then they’ll expect you to stay indefinitely especially if you’re also putting up the bills. And the answer to that is don’t fight other people’s wars for them. This is what…

[sayruq]

NOTE: the US does not usually admit to casualties which is why this operation is different and seems like a huge escalation.

Whenever there's an attack on a US base, the US either pretends it didn't happen or insists that there's hardly any damage (soldiers are either lightly injured or having traumatic headaches).

However, rumours have been swirling that the situation is much worse, that there have been many casualties from the almost 200 attacks on bases in Syria and Iraq, and the people who work on these bases are very worried.

Recently, the US has signalled that it will begin to withdraw from Syria and negotiations have began for a withdrawal from Iraq which says a lot

[zvaigzdelasas]

The head of an Iraqi militia participating in a coalition of groups that have waged attacks against U.S. troops and Israel has told Newsweek that his forces are prepared to escalate their campaign significantly if President Joe Biden does not meet their demands.

According to Sheikh Mohammed al-Tamimi, secretary-general of Faylaq al-Waad al-Sadiq, all they are asking for is the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from their country.

The group, whose name translates to the "True Promise Corps," is one of several factions that have banded together as part of the "Islamic Resistance in Iraq," which launched a campaign of near-daily rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces stationed in Iraq and Syria in October, shortly after the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in the Gaza Strip.

The offensive took a deadly turn in January when three U.S. soldiers were killed on the border of Jordan and Syria.

As unrest worsened with Biden ordering intensive airstrikes and the killing of a high-level militia commander last month, the Iraqi government began to harden its calls for a timely exit of U.S. forces. The Pentagon soon commenced talks with Iraqi counterparts over a "transition" in the U.S. military presence, which is officially limited to battling the remnants of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

With these assurances, a number of Islamic Resistance in Iraq militias largely paused their campaign, instead turning their sights on Israel itself. But as weeks pass with little sign of progress and reports of new attacks on U.S. positions, Tamimi has warned U.S. troops will be met with an offensive that goes far beyond even Hamas' devastating October 7, 2023, attack on Israel should "the reckless, senile" Biden ultimately fail to withdraw U.S. soldiers from the country.

"If the agreement is not achieved, we will expel the Americans in their coffins from Iraq, and we will humiliate the 'Black House' administration," Tamimi told Newsweek. "And they will see who the resistance is and what the capabilities of the resistance are, especially now that we have drones and long-range smart missiles."[...]

Iranian officials[...] have denied exerting command and control over such groups, which they argue are involved in legitimate defensive maneuvers.

"The military actions undertaken by the resistance front against the Israeli regime are defensive measures aimed at exerting pressure on the occupying regime, with the goal of halting its crimes in Gaza," the Iranian Mission to the United Nations told Newsweek in response to Hagari's comments.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran staunchly supports such resistance," the Mission added. "However, given the Israeli regime's inability to effectively counter the resistance, it seeks to portray Iran as the occupying force in the countries comprising the resistance front."

Tamimi, too, rejected the notion that he led a state-sponsored group. But he attested to a growing level of coordination among allied international factions of the Axis of Resistance.

"Faylaq al-Waad al-Sadiq is Iraqi, and the mujahideen of the corps are Iraqis," Tamimi said. "We have coordination with the resistance factions in Lebanon, Yemen, or Gaza. We do not have coordination with any country, only with the resistance. We are with the unity of the resistance."[...]

"The Iraqi resistance now stands with the Palestinian people, and our duty now is to stand with them and support them against the crime and genocide against them by the Zionist entity supported by the American government, Britain, and Europe," Tamimi said.

"The change in strategies in the Iraqi resistance was clear, especially after the American deal with the Iraqi government, which was urgently asking us to stop the jihadi operations in Iraq," he added. "In return, there will be immediate withdrawal from Iraq, non-interference in the Iraqi situation, and Iraqi money will be handed over."

Once again, he warned that a failure to meet these conditions would result in all-out escalation against U.S. troops, who he warned would meet their end in Iraq.

"We respect the right of peoples to live in peace, and it is our right to have peace in our country without American military forces on the land of Iraq. The Iraqi people respect all peoples but reject the military presence on the land of Iraq," Tamimi said. "If these forces do not withdraw, they will be sent with coffins, and we will destroy the American bases."

"And we are able to carry out more operations than the Hamas movement in its storming of the bases of the Zionist entity," he said. "We are able to shatter these bases."

Already, reports shared by Faylaq al-Waad al-Sadiq's media channel reported a new attack late Tuesday on a U.S. position near the Conoco gas field in eastern Syria's Deir Ezzor province, the site of yet unattributed explosions apparently targeting the militia presence there just a day earlier.

Meanwhile, a high-level Iraqi delegation visited Washington this week ahead of a scheduled trip by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani next month for talks in which the future of the U.S. military presence is likely to be a central topic.

But Tamimi, in a direct appeal to the U.S. people, affirmed that the wrath of the resistance was reserved only for perceived occupiers, and not civilians.

"We wish peace for everyone, and we want to live in peace in our country," Tamimi said. "We ask you to withdraw your children from our country, Iraq, and let us live in security, prosperity and peace. We welcome the American people to visit our country for a tourist or commercial visit, but we reject their military presence, and they must know that we do not need them."

27 Mar 24

[eternal-echoes]

Ordinary Palestinians want to build a prosperous, functioning society. Hamas, in its obsession with annihilating Israel, doesn't care about that. It wishes only to bring about a genocidal Islamist dystopia. It is Hamas, after all, that holds Palestinians hostage in Gaza, setting up military installations in — and launching rockets from — civilian areas in the full knowledge that counterstrikes will kill innocent people. It is Hamas that impoverishes Palestinians by stealing humanitarian aid to fund its terror. This is what 'by any means necessary' truly signifies: supreme callousness towards Palestinian life. If you genuinely want to see peace between Israelis and Palestinians, or more generally between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East, then Hamas should be your enemy. And even if — like many in the West, as we can now see — you don't care at all about Israeli or Jewish lives, even if you care only about the lives of Palestinians, Hamas is still your enemy. After all, Hamas ruthlessly persecutes any Palestinians who disagree with it: a 2022 U.S. State Department report found that, among other abuses, Hamas detained and assaulted critical journalists. It is especially hostile to public figures associated with its rival Fatah, the Palestinian party voted out of office in Gaza in 2006, but which still runs the West Bank. Hamas harasses its own dissidents, and has invaded the home of at least one young critical activist, telling his parents to keep their son under control — or else. As a Dutch MP in 2004 and 2005, I travelled to the West Bank and met Palestinians. In public, they spouted all the usual lines about Israel being their 'oppressor'. But once the cameras were switched off, they spoke more truthfully. They complained bitterly about their treatment by Hamas and other radical groups, and told me how money meant to feed the people was being taken to fund those organisations' activities and their leaders' luxurious lifestyles. Arabs and Palestinians alike told me how fed up they were with conflict, and how ready they were for peace. Hamas, like other Islamist groups, has done its best over the course of decades to stomp all over those wishes. And it has been successful. The shocking rise in anti-Semitism in the West owes much to the entrenched Islamist networks that have spent years stirring up this ancient hatred. Europe must now wake up to these fifth columnists who shamelessly celebrate violence and bigotry, promoting hatred of the Jewish minority in Europe. The West must also wake up to the moral corruption of its own Hamas supporters, from Left-wing university students to flag-waving street thugs. Meanwhile, elite human-rights organisations need to do far more to name terrorism when they see it. It is horrifying to see Amnesty International claiming that one of the 'root causes' of the crisis is 'Israel's system of apartheid imposed on Palestinians'. Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, should do more than merely equivocating in its insistence that no injustice can justify another. This is not to argue that Israel should be immune from criticism. My point is that much of the criticism is at best misguided and at worst thinly veiled anti-Semitism. Hamas, like Lebanon's Hezbollah, Isis in Syria and Iraq, Nigeria's Boko Haram, Somalia's Al-Shabaab and several other groups, are fighting not for the liberty and prosperity of Muslims but, ultimately, for the annihilation of Israel and the imposition of an Islamic state. If Palestinians and other Muslims have to suffer for that aim, then so be it.

Full article

The emphasis are mine.

[secular-jew]

There's a long list genocidal situations ongoing throughout the world, so why are accusations leveled only against Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day?

Assad's Syrian Army bombed a city full of civilians because they don't recognize the regime as legitimate but no condemnation came out of the UN.

Why isn't the UN condemning true genocides taking place, largely (but not exclusively) at the hands of jihadi armies?

The "Early Warning Project" identified 10 ongoing episodes of nonstate led mass killing as of the end of 2020. The affected countries, with the perpetrator group and date of onset in parentheses, are the following:

Afghanistan (Taliban, Haqqani network, and associated armed groups, 2001)

Central African Republic (various armed groups, including anti-Balaka, 2013)

Democratic Republic of the Congo (various militias in the northeast, 1998)

India (Maoist rebels, 2004)

Iraq (ISIS, Islamic State, 2003)

Nigeria (Boko Haram, 2010, Fulani Muslim Militias 2023, 2024)

Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan and associated militias, 2001)

Somalia (Al Shabaab and associated militias, 2007)

South Sudan (Machar supporters, SPLM in Opposition, Nuerthnic militias, and others, 2013)

Syria (Islamic State and associated militias, 2012)

Ref: Holocaust remembrance website

[wojakgallery]

Title/Name: ISIS Grug Known As: ISIS, Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria): a radical Sunni Muslim organization whose aim is to restore an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the region encompassing Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, and southeastern Turkey. Wojak Series: Grug (Variant) Image by: Unknown Main Tag: Grug Wojak

[girlactionfigure]

*ISRAEL REALTIME* - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

▪️CORRECTION & UPDATE - MEITAR not MITAR, previous report on school vandalized was in Meitar, near Be’er Sheva, not Mitar, near Netanya.  Two women from Hora who work at the school are suspected and were arrested by police. 

▪️HOSTAGE BABY KFIR TURNS ONE.. where is he?  Is he alive?  Why are we delivering aid and medicines with no proof of life or return?

▪️JORDAN ATTACKS INTO SYRIA.. The Jordanian Air Force attacked targets identified with drug dealers and border smugglers again tonight in southern Syria.  According to reports from Syrian opposition sources, there are about 10 dead as a result of the Jordanian attacks in Syria. Most of them are women and children.

▪️IRAN TRAINED GAZA SNIPERS.. A Shabak investigation of a terrorist showed that Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists from Gaza were trained on Iranian soil to be snipers.

▪️HAMAS CONDEMNS U.S… The senior member Hamas, Abu Zohri, condemned the classification of the Houthi rebels in Yemen as a terrorist organization by the Biden administration.

🚨 RED SEA-Houthis Front 

 ▪️HOUTHIS CLAIM.. The military spokesman of the Houthis:  As part of the response to the American-British attack against us, we launched several missiles at the American ship Genco Picardy in the Gulf of Aden. Target hits were achieved.  An Indian Navy ship in the Gulf of Aden responded to a distress call from a ship flying the flag of the Marshall Islands that was attacked by a drone.​​​​ The ship that was attacked in the Gulf of Aden is the MV Ginko Picardi and it flies the flag of the Marshall Islands.

 ▪️US / UK ATTACK HOUTHIS.. fourth attack by the Americans and the British against the Houthis in Yemen, targets were attacked early in the morning in Sana'a, Tez, Bicha'a, Hudaydah, Damar and Zada.

🚨 REGIONAL War 

▪️PAKISTAN ATTACKS IRAN.. the Pakistani army attacked 7 targets, some of them near the bases of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in the Sawaran region of southeastern Iran.   According to its statement, Pakistan attacked "terrorist bases" of “terrorist organizations” in the Sistan region of Balochistan.  Pakistan: “We fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran.”

(( Noting that Pakistan has a very large military, is at constant conflict with India, has nuclear weapons, and buys and is trained on American weaponry including F-16’s. ))

▪️CONFLICTING REPORTS OF US EVACUATING OR REINFORCING SYRIA BASES.. one report states US moved an additional 1,500 troops to Syrian ‘anti-ISIS’ bases.  Another report (Arab media) says “US forces have evacuated the Hemo base in Syria, which is west of the city of Qamishli in Al-Hasakah countryside, after it came under multiple attacks by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.  The forces have reportedly moved to the Tal Baydar base West of Al-Hasakah.  It is considered one of the US occupation forces' most vital bases, as it is close to Qamishli airport and contains a training camp for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).”  

🔶 GAZA-HAMAS Front 

▪️Air and artillery strikes by our forces in the area of ​​Jabalia and Sheikh Radwan in the Gaza Strip.  The IDF left these areas, the residents began to return, and the terrorists along with them.

🔶 JUDEA-SAMARIA Front 

▪️NOOR-SHAMS, firefight, security forces are demolishing terrorist houses in the El Manashia neighborhood, for the 2nd day.  During the activity, terrorists throwing IED’s at the troops and using IED’s on vehicles.

[satellitebroadcast]

The US military has transferred large amounts of weapons and military equipment, including defense systems, to its illegal bases in Syria over the past month in an attempt to prevent the recurrence of resistance attacks against its bases and soldiers, Al-Akhbar reported on 7 September.

Local sources speaking with the Lebanese newspaper revealed that "in the last month, the Americans brought 22 batches of weapons and equipment to the bases in Hasaka and Deir Ezzor, including 19 batches that arrived by air to the Kharab al-Jir, Al-Shaddadi, Conoco, and Al-Omar bases, and three batches that arrived by land via the illegal Al-Walid crossing with Iraq."

The sources added that "most of the weapons transported are surveillance and monitoring systems, in addition to equipment designated to confront close air targets such as drones and medium and short-range missiles." [...] "the American bases used laser systems for the first time in missions to monitor, observe, and target drones and missiles.

In addition, the US has carried out additional military exercises. The sources stated that "the [US] coalition carried out more than 15 live training exercises on the use of these weapons and selecting their readiness, most of which were at the Omar field bases and the Conoco gas plant."

The sources believed that "these unprecedented movements in Syria, at least in terms of density, reveal American intentions to strengthen Washington's military presence in Syria," adding that "there is a great focus on the need to curb the resistance factions in Syria and Iraq, and neutralize their weapons."

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) coalition, made up of Iraqi resistance factions who banded together in October last year, began attacking US bases in Iraq and Syria following the start of the war in Gaza. US efforts to reinforce its forces illegally occupying Syria follow attacks carried out by five Iraqi resistance factions against US bases in Syria during the month of August.

On 10 August, a drone attack on the Kharab al-Jir base in northeastern Syria injured several US and coalition personnel. In late August, resistance factions targeted a US patrol consisting of six vehicles with direct gunfire on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in the Deir Ezzor countryside. The Syrian army controls territory in the same area on the western bank of the river.

Despite the attacks, US Assistant Deputy Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and the official in charge of the Syrian file at the US State Department, Ethan Goldrich, said on 5 September that "US forces will not withdraw from Syria." When asked whether there was a timetable for the withdrawal of these forces, he said: "Currently, our focus is on the goal, which is to prevent ISIS from reappearing."

US forces in Syria rely on support from US forces in neighboring Iraq for support and resupply. The US has used the presence of ISIS in eastern Syria and western Iraq as a pretext to maintain troops in both countries despite having covertly supported the terror group in its blitzkrieg conquest of territory in 2014.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani has stated multiple times this year that ISIS is no longer a threat to Iraq and has been leading negotiations with Washington for the withdrawal of the US troop presence in Iraq.

However, Washington has been reinforcing its presence in Iraq, including in oil-rich Kirkuk, and recently suspended negotiations with Baghdad over the US troop withdrawal, amid the ongoing possibility of a regional war between the US and Israel on the one hand, and Iran and the Axis of Resistance, on the other.

[dougielombax]

Just leaving this here.

Poor buggers are still suffering, thanks to Turkey’s fuckery in Iraq (and Syria) and the remnants of Isis.

They deserve better and I don’t think compensation alone is gonna do much.

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

Project2025 #CorpMedia #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #MeToo #Humanity #FeelTheBern

JinJiyanAzadi #BijiRojava [VIDEO] ISIS 'caliphate' near collapse as most of Raqqa taken by U.S.-backed forces [UPDATES]

The end for the Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate is near, three years after the terrorist group announced its vision for creating a nation state across Iraq, Syria and the wider region…

RELATED UPDATE: Rise and fall of Isis: its dream of a caliphate is over, so what now?

RELATED UPDATE: Isis terror attacks 'could increase' after group's loss of last major stronghold in Syria

RELATED UPDATE: Insurgents Again: The Islamic State’s Calculated Reversion to Attrition in the Syria-Iraq Border Region and Beyond

RELATED UPDATE: No Longer Under ISIS Control, How Has Raqqa Changed?

RELATED UPDATE: A REVIEW OF ISIS IN SYRIA 2016 – 2019 - Regional Differences and an Enduring Legacy

RELATED UPDATE: Jin - Jiyan - Azadi « Women, Life, Freedom

https://phmuseum.com/submissions/jin-jiyan-azadi-women-life-freedom

RELATED UPDATE: November 29, 2023; The anniversary of the government killing of Ebrahim Sharifi-Far, one of the martyrs of the revolutionary uprising of Jin, Jiyan, Azadi in Bokan

RELATED UPDATE: Sardasht; Barzin Hamzezadeh, one of the Kurdish children arrested in the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi movement, died as a result of injuries caused by torture

FURTHER READING:

[tentacion3099]

[mariacallous]

The Islamic State has created fake videos mimicking the look and feel of mainstream news outlets CNN and Al Jazeera, according to a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue shared exclusively with WIRED.

Launched in early March, the campaign was orchestrated by War and Media, a pro–Islamic State media outlet that typically creates long-form videos pushing the group’s ideology and history. The Islamic State, or ISIS, is a UN-designated terror group that perpetrated a genocide of the Yezidi population in Iraq and conducted multiple terrorist attacks, including the 2015 attacks in Paris that left 131 people dead; it has also promoted videos of its members beheading journalists and soldiers.

Central to the campaign were two YouTube channels. One was falsely branded as CNN and pushed English-language videos, and the other was branded with the Al Jazeera logo and pushed Arabic-language videos. The videos featured the logos of the real news outlets, and in the case of CNN, the videos also featured a real-time ticker along the bottom of the screen which changed to match the content being shown. The campaign also deployed a network of social media accounts branded to look like they were affiliated with news outlets, in what appears to be an effort to push ideology to new audiences.

In total, the campaign created eight original videos, four in each language, that discussed topics like the Islamic State’s expansion in Africa and the war in Syria.

One video also focused on the deadly attack on the Crocus City Hall in Moscow in March. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, and the video attempted to combat a disinformation narrative promoted by the Kremlin that Ukraine, not the Islamic State, was accountable.

“It was essentially fake news to debunk fake news,” Moustafa Ayad, the executive director for Africa, the Middle East, and Asia at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, tells WIRED.

Ayad also believes the campaign was a test run to ascertain how successful it would be in circumventing censorship efforts on mainstream Western platforms.

“It's the first time we've really seen a concerted effort by an Islamic State outlet to create this fake ecosystem of news that isn't branded as something that's affiliated with the Islamic State,” says Ayad. “It was very much a test of the system and now they know where there are weaknesses in their strategy.”

The videos remained on YouTube for a month and a half before they were removed by the company, but during that time, the videos were also downloaded and republished by Islamic State supporters on their own accounts. Some of those videos are still circulating online today, because they have not been added to the hash-sharing database that platforms use to coordinate the takedown of terrorist content.

“What they did was essentially build this entire little fake ecosystem of social media channels that are doppelgängers of news outlets,” Ayad says.

Each of the videos on YouTube racked up thousands of views, and while none of them went viral, it was “enough for the group to get some traction in circles outside where they would normally get [traction] and saw real people commenting under the videos,” says Ayad.

YouTube did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

In the past, some ISIS supporters have sought to circumvent tech platforms’ moderation by placing the logo of services like Netflix or Amazon Studios on their videos. This attempt appeared to be more sophisticated.

“Those were just simply taking a logo and plugging it on top of the existing Islamic State logo,” says Ayad. “[The new campaign] was actually creating channels as those media outlets and then creating an entire newscast around a specific issue, using footage from a range of different sources—not just the Islamic State, but footage that you could find online or other news channel footage. We really saw it take off right after the Moscow attacks.”

The campaign is just the latest sign of the Islamic State’s growing sophistication in circumventing content moderation efforts. This report comes just a week after the Washington Post revealed that the group has been deploying an AI-generated news anchor in weekly news dispatches that are designed to reach English-language audiences.

“I have no doubt in my mind we will see more of this in the future,” says Ayad. “AI allows them to create more realistic graphics for news that mimic a lot of the new channels. We're gonna see more of that and it's going to get more and more difficult to identify this content.”

[offender42085]

Post 0525

Justin Nolan Sullivan, Federal inmate 30200-058, born 1996. incarceration intake in 2017 at age 21, sentenced to life

Attempting to commit Terrorism

Justin Nojan Sullivan, of Morganton, North Carolina, was sentenced to life in prison for attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, in support of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Sullivan pleaded guilty to the charge on Nov. 29, 2016.

“Sullivan is a convicted terrorist who plotted with now-deceased Syria-based terrorist Junaid Hussain to execute acts of mass violence in the United States in the name of ISIS,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Boente. “Counterterrorism remains our highest priority and we will continue to identify and hold accountable those who seek to commit acts of terrorism within our borders. I want to thank the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who are responsible for this result.”

“Sullivan was actively planning the mass killing of innocent people with an attack designed to inflict maximum casualties and maximum pain in the name of ISIS, a sworn enemy of our nation. Sullivan’s allegiance to ISIS did not stop there. He also planned to film and send a video of his deadly attack to now-deceased Junaid Hussain, a prominent ISIS member based in Syria, and further expressed his wish to create a new branch of the so-called Islamic State in the United States. The life sentence imposed on Sullivan reflects the seriousness of his crimes, protects the public from the danger he poses, and serves as a deterrent to others who wish to harm civilians within our borders. Our fight against terrorism continues whether against those who commit crimes on behalf of ISIS or any other foreign terrorist organization,” said U.S. Attorney Rose.

According to information contained in court documents, starting no later than September 2014, Sullivan sought out and downloaded violent ISIS attacks on the Internet, such as beheadings, and collected them on his laptop computer. Court records indicate that Sullivan openly expressed support for ISIS in his home and destroyed religious items that belonged to his parents.

Sullivan previously admitted that he took substantial steps towards carrying out terrorist attacks in North Carolina and Virginia by: (1) recruiting the UCE; (2) obtaining a silencer from the UCE (undercover FBI employee); (3) procuring the money that would have enabled him to purchase the AR-15; (4) trying to obtain a specific type of ammunition that he believed would be the most “deadly”; (5) identifying separate gun shows where he and the UCE could purchase AR-15s; and (6) obtained a coupon for the gun shows he planned for himself and the UCE to attend on June 20 or 21, 2015.  

3f

[septembriseur]

would you be willing to explain more about what was yikes to you about that crime novel? I don’t understand and would like to

1. “Al Jalil” is an Arabic place name. Arabic isn’t spoken in Afghanistan. It’s not totally out of the realm of possibility that a place might have been, IDK, named after a guy with an Arabic name, but it would be weird. And if you look at the Wikipedia list of places in Afghanistan, you can easily see that none begin with the Arabic article “al.”

2. The only IS that America really fought in Afghanistan was the currently-in-the-news ISIS-K, which only emerged in the last years of the US war. So, for starters, it’s unusual that an American soldier in Afghanistan is talking about fighting ISIS rather than the Taliban (who are never mentioned). For him to refer to them as “the IS” is bizarre for two reasons: at the time, “the Islamic State” was a territory in Iraq and Syria, and all of the military and security guys I know would refer to the group ruling it as “IS” or “Daesh,” not “the IS.” People in Afghanistan talking about ISIS-K would say “ISIS-K” to differentiate the group that they were talking about from ISIS, since they’re different groups in ways that are especially important to military/security forces.

Basically, what it looks like to me is that this author thinks that Iraq and Afghanistan are basically the same place, and took a backstory set in Iraq and just labeled it “Afghanistan” instead.

[beardedmrbean]

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi court issued a death sentence Wednesday against one of the wives of the late brutal Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, alleging that she was complicit in crimes committed against Yazidi women captured by the militant group.

The ruling comes weeks before the 10-year mark since IS launched a series of attacks against the Yazidi religious minority in the northern Iraqi region of Sinjar in early August 2014, killing and capturing thousands — including women and girls who were subjected to human trafficking and sexual abuse. The United Nations said the campaign against the Yazidis amounted to genocide.

A statement by Iraq’s judicial council said the Karkh Criminal Court sentenced the woman for “detaining Yazidi women in her home” and facilitating their kidnapping by “the terrorist ISIS gangs in Sinjar district.” It also said the ruling was issued in accordance with Iraq’s anti-terrorism law and its “Yazidi survivors law."

The statement did not name the defendant, but two court officials identified her as Asma Mohammed, who was arrested in 2018 in Turkey. An Iraqi security official told The Associated Press Wednesday she was handed over to Iraqi authorities last year. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Survivors of the IS attacks in Iraq have complained of a lack of accountability and have criticized the decision — made at the request of the Iraqi government — to wind down a U.N. probe into IS crimes, including the alleged use of chemical weapons.

At the same time, human rights groups have raised concerns about the lack of due process in trials of alleged IS members in Iraq and have particularly criticized mass executions of those convicted on terrorism charges. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said the convictions are often extracted under torture and urged Iraq to abolish the death penalty.

On June 29, 2014, al-Baghdadi, known as one of the most ruthlessly effective jihadist leaders of modern times, declared the militant group’s caliphate in large swaths of Iraq and Syria. In 2019, he was killed in a U.S. raid in Syria, dealing a major blow to the militant group which has now lost its hold on all the areas it previously controlled though some of its cells continue to carry out attacks.