isis
“I’m worried:” FBI counterterror chief says ISIS is recruiting United States teenagers
Australia Conducts Largest Counterterrorism Operation in History
Article By: Kristen Gelineau
Police on Thursday said they thwarted a plot to carry out beheadings in Australia by supporters of the radical Islamic State group. They raided more than a dozen properties across Sydney & were holding 6 people & have identified the suspected ringleader, officials said. 9 other people were detained but were freed before the day was over. The raids involving 800 federal & state police officers — the largest in the country’s history — came in response to intelligence that an Islamic State group leader in the Middle East was calling on Australian supporters to kill, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.
Police on Thursday said they thwarted a plot to carry out beheadings in Australia by supporters of the radical Islamic State group. They raided more than a dozen properties across Sydney & were holding 6 people & have identified the suspected ringleader, officials said. 9 other people were detained but were freed before the day was over. The raids involving 800 federal & state police officers — the largest in the country’s history — came in response to intelligence that an Islamic State group leader in the Middle East was calling on Australian supporters to kill, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.
Police on Thursday said they thwarted a plot to carry out beheadings in Australia by supporters of the radical Islamic State group. They raided more than a dozen properties across Sydney & were holding 6 people & have identified the suspected ringleader, officials said. 9 other people were detained but were freed before the day was over. The raids involving 800 federal & state police officers — the largest in the country’s history — came in response to intelligence that an Islamic State group leader in the Middle East was calling on Australian supporters to kill, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.
Abbott was asked about reports that the detainees were planning to behead a random person in Sydney. “That’s the intelligence we received,” he told reporters. “The exhortations — quite direct exhortations — were coming from an Australian who is apparently quite senior in ISIL to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country.” ISIL refers to the al-Qaida splinter group leading Sunni militants in Iraq & Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant, which now calls itself simply Islamic State. “This is not just suspicion, this is intent & that’s why the police & security agencies decided to act in the way they have,” Abbott said.
New South Wales police did not say why 9 of the detained people were released, or whether they would face charges later. The raids came just days after the country raised its terrorism threat to the 2nd-highest level in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State group. At the time, Abbott stressed that there was no information suggesting a terror attack was imminent. Later Thursday, Attorney General George Brandis confirmed that a person born in Afghanistan who had spent time in Australia & is now working w/the Islamic State group in the Middle East ordered supporters in Australia to behead people & videotape the killings. “If the … police had not acted today, there is a likelihood that this would have happened,” Brandis told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Prosecutor Michael Allnutt said Azari was involved in a plan to “gruesomely” kill a randomly selected person — something that was “clearly designed to shock & horrify” the public. That plan involved an “unusual level of fanaticism,” he said. Azari is charged w/conspiracy to prepare for a terrorist attack. The potential penalty was not immediately clear. In court documents, Azari is accused of conspiring w/Baryalei & others between May & September to prepare for a terrorist attack. Allnutt said the charge stemmed from the interception of a phone call a couple of days ago. Azari did not apply for bail & did not enter a plea. His next court appearance was set for Nov. 13.
The council did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. On its website, it says proposals to expand government surveillance powers would invade privacy. It also denounces the Islamic State group, saying there “is nothing Islamic about their murderous actions.”…The Australian Security Intelligence Organization’s director-general, David Irvine, said the threat of terrorism in the country has been rising over the past year, mainly due to Australians joining the Islamic State movement to fight in Syria & Iraq. Some terrorism experts question, however, whether the extremist group has the capacity to organize a major terror campaign in Australia, far from its base.
A separate series of raids was conducted Thursday in the eastern cities of Brisbane & Logan. Last week, Australian police arrested 2 men in Brisbane for allegedly preparing to fight in Syria, recruiting jihadists & raising $ for the al-Qaida offshoot group Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front. Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin said the raids conducted in Brisbane on Thursday were a follow-up to that operation. Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said the operations in Sydney & Brisbane were linked, but declined to release details.
Police said at the time there was no terrorist threat to the Group of 20 leaders’ summit to be hosted by Brisbane in November that will bring President Barack Obama & other leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies to the Queensland state capital. Australia has estimated that about 60 of its citizens are fighting for the Islamic State group & the Nusra Front in Iraq & Syria. Another 15 Australian fighters have been killed, including 2 young suicide bombers. The government has said it believes about 100 Australians are actively supporting extremist groups from w/in Australia, recruiting fighters & grooming suicide bomber candidates as well as providing funds and equipment.
View full article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/australia-counterterrorism-raid_n_5839766.html
U.S. Central Command Twitter account hacked by ISIS sympathizers
ISIS will issue its own Money
“The self-proclaimed Islamic State announced Thursday that it planned to start minting its own currency. The Islamist extremist group, which is using terrorism & ground warfare in a bid to establish a caliphate in Iraq & Syria, said the move would help it operate outside the “tyrant’s financial system.” ISIS said it would explain exchange rates & other details regarding the currency – 2 gold coins, 3 silver & 2 copper – in a later statement.”
View full article at: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/13/world/meast/isis-currency/
Chicago man accused of trying to join ISIS
Article By: Michael Walsh and Bill Hutchinson of New York Daily News
A 19-year-old man from suburban Chicago was arrested over the weekend for allegedly trying to leave the country to join ISIS, federal law enforcement agents said Monday. The man, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after questioning by FBI agents. Court papers said he left a letter to his parents saying he wanted to live in the Islamist group’s self-declared Islamic State and avoid raising his kids in the “filth” of Western society.
Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. – Revelation 2:10
And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. – Mark 13:11-13
View full article at: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/illinois-man-charged-join-isis-overseas-fbi-article-1.1964946
‘I Am Only Looking Up to Paradise’
The French government doesn’t have to worry about Abu Mariam coming home from the jihad in Syria. He wants to go to heaven.
Article By: Loubna Mrie, Vera Mironova and Sam Whitt
The path from Abu Mariam’s childhood home in Tolouse, France, to this mansion-turned-jihadist-safe house in northwestern Syria has been surprisingly quick. As an adolescent, he drank, took drugs, and had sex. To escape the pressures of the rough neighborhood where he grew up, he converted to Islam at age 19. Five years later, he carries an AK-47 and patrols the mountains on behalf of the Islamic State (IS).
We interviewed in French the man who goes by the nom de guerre “Abu Mariam” at the house he shares with a 28-year-old Saudi jihadist overlooking the Kassab mountains, in an Armenian town not far from the Alawite stronghold of Latakia. When we talked to Abu Mariam, in June, the jihadists were trying to take control of the strategically important territory — it sits between the Mediterranean, government-controlled territory, and Turkey — from the government’s forces. The 24-year-old, French-born construction engineer sported the typical jihadist uniform: camouflage pants, a long shirt, a beard down to his chest. He says he is popular with the local population because he took on the dangerous job of patrolling the village’s perimeter.
When he’s not on patrol or praying, he’s in shooting practice. He says he’s never been happier. Abu Mariam is only one of the estimated 3,000 European fighters in Syria and Iraq right now — up to 500 of them from France. He isn’t only working with the Islamic State, though. He has also fought alongside the Nusra Front. He’s a low-level fighter but is trusted by his commanders, thanks to his zealotry. He sometimes works as an unofficial ambassador for the Islamic State, making contact and trying to build bridges with other jihadist groups.
Moving to Syria has been a dream come true for him. “Now I am leading the best life, and I am so satisfied with it. Life is all about dignity and pride, which is something I am doing now,” he said.
“In the beginning of 2013, the Syrian crisis started, and I had already heard that the Levant is a holy place, recommended for protection by the Prophet (may prayer and peace be upon him). It was then that I flew to Turkey and then on into Syria,” Abu Mariam says. With nothing but a few family photos and about 250 euros, he went to the Syrian border pretending to be an aid worker. He refuses to talk about how he linked up with the jihadist militants once he arrived in Syria.
For Abu Mariam, the Syrian conflict is not a war, but a test of his faith and devotion to Islam. Jihad is the ultimate, purifying expression of faith, culminating in martyrdom and heavenly rewards. “I am but a contribution to the conquest of Islam,” Abu Mariam says, “and I also look forward to reach[ing] paradise via jihad for the cause of Allah. We [Muslims] are all promised paradise because we listened to the words of Allah. Islam is a really great religion. It includes all aspects of life. It gives meaning to human life.”
Abu Mariam’s voice cracks when he discusses his religion. “I have devoted my entire life to jihad,” he says. He claims that he is wounded, though his body doesn’t show any signs of it. “I am only looking up to paradise; is there anything better than this?”
“We believe in the afterlife,” Abu Mariam explains. “A blissful life in the vicinity of Allah. Martyrdom is probably the shortest way to paradise, which is not something I was told. I did witness my martyred friends, noticing contentment on their faces and the smell of musk coming out of their corpses, unlike those of the dead disbelievers, the enemies of Allah, whose faces only exhibit ugliness, and whose corpses smell worse than pigs.” “I’ll give you the example of my friend, Abu Ahmed al-Maghrabi, who was martyred by my side,” he says. “From night till morning, his face still wore a bright smile and his corpse smelled pleasantly. How can we ever cast doubt? The only thing left for us to go through in order to reach paradise is death. We are praying Allah for victory and then martyrdom. We will conquer them, God willing, and we will liberate Syria from oppression. God willing, one day, Muslims will gain possession of this land.”
We asked if the deaths of his friends upset him. “I am not at all sad. I am rather extremely happy, a happiness that will double up once I get martyred and meet my friends. Thirty-seven of my friends have been martyred in 10 days, and I swear that I did not see anyone of them dying without a smile on his face!”
When Abu Mariam was 20, he moved to Morocco to learn Arabic and study the Quran. That’s where he met his first wife. (He married a second last year in Syria.) His first wife still lives in Morocco with his daughter. He misses them, but they don’t keep in touch. He doesn’t allow his wife in Morocco to use the Internet because he fears that somebody could hack into her computer and see her. (He does talk to his mother in France on Skype, though.)
Still, he has no plans to return home. Even if he survives the Syrian conflict, he worries he is now on a terrorist watch list in several Western countries. He says he tried to sell his French passport in Syria, but couldn’t find a buyer. Abu Mariam believes that if he returns to France or Morocco he’ll be arrested. But that doesn’t concern him. “How could I leave such a glorious life and return to the animalistic one? Never!” he says.
Life back in France didn’t satisfy him, anyway. “I do not live at my own pace in the Western countries because they are racist and they do not believe in religious freedom,” he says. “They intervene in my affairs and even prevent me from exercising my religious rights.” “[Europeans] sin for 24 hours and seven days a week, but they deprive me of a five-minute prayer. For example, in France, women are not allowed to wear niqab, which is one of the Islamic dictations. Every single woman caught wearing it is fined 150 euros, whereas if you decide to go out naked, nobody will utter a word about this, claiming it to be ‘freedom.’ It has turned into a war with Islam; they have a problem with it. It even became a war between Muslims and non-Muslims. All we want is religious freedom.”
His mind turns to his family. “My family and my wives are able to afford life after I am dead. Allah will never give up on us because he answers our needs, not me. I do not want my wife to work; I don’t want her to experience any exhaustion. She is a queen; every Muslim wife is a queen! And my wives will get married after my death, God willing. They have the right to, if they ever consider doing it. It is something that Islam grants them. The wife is a human being, not an angel, and she needs a man to protect her and love her for the rest of her life.” “But you never know,” Abu Mariam adds. “Allah may grant me the chance to return to them and die in my house.”
Obama says the U.S. misjudged ISIS’ rise
Article By: PETER BAKER and BRIAN KNOWLTON
President Obama conceded that U.S. intelligence “underestimated” the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The U.S. put too much trust in Iraq’s military’s ability to handle the surging Sunni Muslim extremist group, giving it a chance to make the region “ground zero for jihadists around the world,” Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes. Obama said former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki alienated Sunnis and “squandered” the chance to strengthen the country’s fledgling democracy.
View full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/29/world/middleeast/president-obama.html?_r=1
Pretending we’re not at war
Article By: William Falk
Presidents no longer ask Congress to declare war when ordering the military into action. That suits most Americans just fine.
Americans have lost their taste for collective sacrifice & for prolonged conflicts that produce no satisfying conclusion. So when a frightening enemy like al Qaeda or ISIS threatens our sense of security, it suits nearly everyone for the president to promise to blow up the bad guys w/out asking 99% of us to interrupt our pursuit of happiness. Bombs away, turn on the TV & pass the guacamole.
View full article at: http://theweek.com/article/index/268371/pretending-were-not-at-war
Endings In Beginnings 