I. ISIS – WHO?
According to the Congressional Research Service – CRS (which i had the pleasure of using and learning about while interning for Sen. J.B. Johnston in DC one semester), in an article called The Islamic State and U.S. Policy (2/9/16): “The Islamic State (IS, aka the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL/ISIS, or the Arabic acronym Da’esh) is a transnational Sunni Islamist insurgent and terrorist group that controls large areas of Iraq and Syria, has adherents in several other countries, and disrupts regional and international security with violence and terrorism…”
Another CRS article: Islamic State Financing and U.S. Policy Approaches (4/10/15) states: “The Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, has been described by senior U.S. officials as one of the best-funded terrorist organizations. The Islamic State controls a variety of public resources and infrastructure in parts of Iraq and Syria, enabling it to assemble a “diverse financial portfolio. The Islamic State organization is the successor to Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Established in 2004, AQI pledged loyalty to Al Qaeda and targeted U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. In 2006, AQI changed its name to the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). Following the outbreak of unrest in Syria in 2011, ISI leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi tasked Muhammad al Jawlani with establishing Al Nusrah Front (ANF) in Syria to fight the Asad government. ISI provided Jawlani with funding, manpower, and guidance, although ANF did not publicly acknowledge its ties to Al Qaeda.’
‘In April 2013, Baghdadi unilaterally announced a merger of ISI and ANF, under the name Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS). ANF and Al Qaeda leadership both rejected the merger, and Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri ordered Baghdadi to confine his operations to Iraq. Baghdadi refused, and ISI began fighting in Syria under the name ISIL, eventually coming into direct confrontation with ANF and other Syrian opposition forces. In February 2014, Zawahiri publicly severed ties with ISIL, citing the group’s brutal tactics, infighting with other Sunni groups, and refusal to cede Syria operations to ANF.’
In June 2014 Baghdadi declared the establishment of an Islamic caliphate and changed ISIL’s name to the Islamic State. Headquartered in the eastern Syrian city of Raqqah, the Islamic State operates primarily in northeastern Syria and northwestern Iraq. Through an extended military campaign against both government and opposition forces, the group gradually gained control over a roughly contiguous area along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers spanning hundreds of miles. In February 2015 congressional testimony, U.S. Director for National Intelligence James Clapper reconfirmed the intelligence community’s estimate that the Islamic State can muster ‘somewhere in the range between 20,000 and 32,000 fighters’.”
II. HOW did they become ISIS?
The following Congressional Research Service article would be the exact same one a senator would get if they asked one of their staffers, ‘go get me info. on the history of ISIS.’ According to the CRS article Iraq: Politics and Governance (3/9/16):
“The territory that is now Iraq fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th Century, divided into three provinces: Mosul Province, Baghdad Province, and Basra Province. Ottoman rule lasted until World War I, in which that empire was defeated and its dominions in the Middle East were taken over by the European powers that had defeated the Ottomans in the war. Britain took over Iraq (then still called “Mesopotamia”) under a League of Nations mandate, but ruled via Faysal I, a leader of the Hashemite family (which still rules modern-day Jordan).’
‘Iraq gained independence in 1932, with Faysal as King. Arab nationalist military leaders led by Abd al-Qarim Qasim overthrew the monarchy (King Faysal II) in July 1958, proclaiming a republic. Qasim invited Kurdish leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani to return to Iraq but, beginning in 1961, Barzani led Kurdish forces in a war for autonomy from Baghdad, with the ultimate objective of forming a separate Kurdish state. Separately, the Ba’th (“Renaissance”) Party organized against Qasim and took power briefly in a 1963 coup, but the first Ba’thist government was ousted in late 1963 by nationalist military leaders, who ruled until a successful second Ba’th takeover in 1968. In July 1979, Saddam Hussein ousted then-President Ahmad Hasan Al Bakr and assumed his position.’
‘Saddam Hussein came to power in Iraq about six months after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution ousted the U.S.-backed Shah in neighboring Iran. Saddam apparently perceived Iran’s revolution as an existential threat with a potential to inspire a Shiite-led revolution in Iraq, which is about 60% Shiite Arab, 20% Sunni Arab, and 18% Kurdish. In September 1980, Saddam attacked Iran in a war that bogged down into a rough stalemate until the summer of 1988, when Iraq and Iran accepted a ceasefire encapsulated in U.N. Security Council Resolution 598, adopted a year prior. In August 1990, Saddam ordered an invasion and occupation of Kuwait, which along with the other Persian Gulf monarchies had underwritten Iraq’s war effort against Iran.’
‘A U.S.-led coalition expelled Iraqi forces by the end of March 1991, and Iraq accepted an intrusive U.N.-led inspection regime to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, including a nuclear program that apparently was close to producing enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon. By the end of the 1990s, the inspection regime broke down over Iraqi objections to its intrusiveness and Iraq’s stated frustrations about a worldwide economic embargo imposed on it after the Kuwait invasion. However, Iraq’s WMD program, it was later determined in a late 2002 investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N. inspections mission in Iraq UNMOVIC (U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission authorized by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1284 of December 1999, superseding Resolution 687 of April 1991), had not been revived to any meaningful extent.”
According to the CRS article The Islamic State Crisis and U.S. Policy (9/10/14): “The Islamic State’s ideological and organizational roots lie in the forces built and led by the late AbuMusab al Zarqawi in Iraq from 2002 through 2006—Tawhid wal Jihad (Monotheism and Jihad) and Al Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers (aka Al Qaeda in Iraq, or AQ-I). Following Zarqawi’s death at the hands of U.S. forces in June 2006, AQ-I leaders repackaged the group as a coalition known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). ISI lost its two top leaders in 2010 and was weakened, but not eliminated, by the time of the U.S. withdrawal in 2011. Under the leadership of Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al Badri al Samarra’ (aka Abu Bakr al Baghdadi), ISI rebuilt its capabilities. By early 2013, the group was conducting dozens of deadly attacks a month inside Iraq. The precise nature of ISI’s relationship to Al Qaeda leaders from 2006 onward is unclear. In recent months, Islamic State leaders have stated their view that their group “is not and has never been an offshoot of Al Qaeda,” and that, given that they view themselves as a state and a sovereign political entity, they have given leaders of the Al Qaeda organization deference rather than pledges of obedience. In April 2013, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi announced his intent to merge his forces in Iraq and Syria with those of the Syria-based Jabhat al Nusra, under the name the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS). Jabhat al Nusra and Al Qaeda leaders rejected the merger, underscoring growing tensions among Sunni extremists in the region.”
III. WHO is this Baghdadi and HOW did he rise to such power?
So with and in this environment with its vacuums and volatility, came Baghdadi (bad daddy). But how and who is he and could his efforts have been crushed more efficiently and effectively much sooner? Note Baghdadi is of Sunni Islam which makes up almost 90% of all Muslims.
According to the Brookings Institution in their ‘The Brookings Essay: The Believer… Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, Leader of the Islamic State (9/1/15):’ “Ibrahim (Abraham) Awwad Al-Badri was born in 1971 in Samarra, an ancient Iraqi city… north of Baghdad. The son of a pious man who taught Quranic recitation in a local mosque, Ibrahim himself was withdrawn… and barely audible. Neighbors who knew him as a teenager remember him as shy… but photos of him from those years capture… the dark eyes beneath his thick, furrowed brow.’
‘…Early on, Ibrahim’s nickname was ‘the Believer.’ When he wasn’t in school, he spent much of his time at the local mosque, immersed in his religious studies; and when he came home at the end of the day, according to one of his brothers, Shamsi, he was quick to admonish anyone who strayed from the strictures of Islamic law.’
‘Now Ibrahim al-Badri is known to the world as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ruler of the Islamic State or ISIS, and he has the power not just to admonish but to punish and even execute anyone within his territories whose faith is not absolute. His followers call him “Commander of the Believers,” a title reserved for caliphs, the supreme spiritual and temporal rulers of the vast Muslim empire of the Middle Ages. Though his own realm is much smaller, he rules millions of subjects. Some are fanatically loyal to him; many others cower in fear of the bloody consequences for defying his brutal version of Islam.’
‘Since Baghdadi’s sudden emergence from obscurity in 2014 as the monster who ordered and broadcast on YouTube the beheading and even burning alive of those he deemed his enemies, news articles and books have traced his radicalization back to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Although the American invasion fed the fire and enabled it to spread, in fact, his radicalization began much earlier…’
‘The family patriarch, Baghdadi’s father Awwad, was active in the religious life of the community. It was at the mosque where his father taught that the teen aged Baghdadi got his own start as a teacher, leading neighborhood children in chanting the Quran. (Here) …Baghdadi’s quiet voice would come to life… He devoted countless hours to mastering the subtleties of the art. Despite the religiosity of Baghdadi’s family, some of its members joined the Baath Party, a socialist organization dedicated to the goal of pan-Arab union. Two of Baghdadi’s uncles served in Saddam’s security services, and one of his brothers became an officer in the army. Another brother who served in the military died during the grueling eight-year war that Iraq fought against Iran in the 1980s with tacit U.S. support. Baghdadi might well have shared that fate had the war continued a little longer and his near-sightedness not disqualified him from military service.’
‘…Most Salafis preach obedience to Muslim rulers, even bad ones, but Saddam viewed the Salafis as a threat because they condemn secularism and want states to impose Islamic law. So when the Salafis in Iraq began to organize themselves into societies to further their missionary work in the late 1970s, Saddam put them in jail for forming illegal organizations. He backed off in the 1980s during the war with Shiite Iran because he needed to retain the support of Iraq’s Sunni minority, which includes the Salafis. But in 1990, two years after the war with Iran ended, Saddam pressured thousands of Salafis to sign a pledge not to convert other Iraqis to their cause… around the same time, Saddam … founded the Saddam University for Islamic Studies… and (gave) state funds to train 30,000 Quran instructors. Saddam even donated 28 liters of his own blood to be used as ink for a Quran to be housed in the Mother of All Battles Mosque… Unable to study law at the University of Baghdad as he wanted because of his middling grades in high school – he nearly failed English – Baghdadi studied the Quran there instead.’
‘When Baghdadi graduated from the University of Baghdad in 1996, he enrolled in the recently-established Saddam University for Islamic Studies where he studied for a master’s in Quranic recitation… His master’s thesis was to reconcile various versions of an obscure medieval text on Quranic recitation… He received his master’s degree in 1999 and immediately enrolled in Saddam University’s doctoral program in Quranic studies.’
‘During Baghdadi’s time in graduate school, his paternal uncle, Ismail al-Badri, persuaded him to join the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational movement dedicated to establishing states governed by Islamic law. In most countries the Brotherhood, which has both liberal and conservative members, had adopted a cautious approach to political change, confined to working within the system. Many of the Brothers in Baghdad, including the ones Baghdadi fell in with at first, were peaceful Salafis who wanted states to impose Islamic law but didn’t advocate revolt if the states fail to do so. But Baghdadi quickly gravitated toward those few Salafis whose strict creed led them to call for the overthrow of rulers they considered betrayers of the faith. They called themselves jihadist Salafis. Baghdadi’s older brother, Jum`a, was part of this movement. So was Baghdadi’s mentor, Muhammad Hardan, a one-time member of the Brotherhood who had fought in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.’
‘…Between 2000 and 2004… is sketchy. He seems to have had two wives and six children. His first wife, Asma, was the daughter of his maternal uncle. He married his second wife, Isra, later, probably after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Like other conservative Muslims, Baghdadi kept his wives from public view… he taught Quranic recitation to the neighborhood children and chanted the call to prayer over the mosque’s loudspeakers…’
‘The mosque had a soccer club, and Baghdadi was the star, remembered as “our Messi,” a reference to the great Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi. Teammates recall that he often lost his temper when he failed to score. His temper could also be ignited by the sight of what he considered un-Islamic behavior. According to a neighbor of Baghdadi’s at the time, who was quoted in an article published in The Telegraph last year, he became extremely upset one day when he witnessed members of a wedding party engaging in an activity that appalled him. “How can men and women be dancing together like this?” he exclaimed. Baghdadi forced the revelers to stop…’
‘Late in 2003, after the Americans had defeated and disbanded Saddam’s army, Baghdadi helped found Jaysh Ahl al-Sunna wa-l-Jamaah (Army of the People of the Sunna and Communal Solidarity), an insurgent group that fought U.S. troops and their local allies in northern and central Iraq…’
‘Soon after, in February 2004, Baghdadi was arrested in Fallujah while visiting a friend who was on the American wanted list. He was transferred to a detention facility at Camp Bucca, a sprawling complex in southern Iraq. Prison files classified him as a “civilian detainee,” which meant his captors didn’t know he was a jihadist.
For the ten months he remained in custody, Baghdadi hid his militancy and devoted himself to religious instruction. “Baghdadi was a quiet person,” remembers an anonymous fellow inmate interviewed by The Guardian. “He has a charisma. You could feel that he was someone important.” Baghdadi led prayers, preached Friday sermons, and conducted religious classes for other prisoners. Once again he dazzled his comrades—and, no doubt, his jailers—on the soccer field. And yet again he was compared to an Argentinian great: his nickname at Camp Bucca was “Maradona.”
‘Baghdadi ingratiated himself with both the Sunni inmates and the Americans, looking for opportunities to negotiate with the camp authorities and mediate between rival groups of prisoners. “Every time there was a problem in the camp,” recalls The Guardian’s source, “he was at the center of it. He wanted to be the head of the prison—and when I look back now, he was using a policy of conquer and divide to get what he wanted, which was status. And it worked.”
‘Many of the 24,000 inmates at Bucca were Sunni Arabs who had served in Saddam’s military and intelligence services. When Saddam fell, so did they, a consequence of the American purge of the Baathists and the new ascendency of Iraq’s long-oppressed Shiite majority. If they weren’t jihadists when they arrived, many of them were by the time they left. Radical jihadist manifestos circulated freely under the eyes of the watchful but clueless Americans.’
“New recruits were prepared so that when they were freed they were ticking time bombs,” remembers another fellow inmate, who was interviewed by a reporter with Al Monitor. When a new prisoner came in, his peers would “teach him, indoctrinate him, and give him direction so he leaves a burning flame.” Baghdadi would turn out to be the most explosive of those flames, a man responsible for much of the conflagration that would engulf the region less than a decade later.’
‘Many of the ex-Baathists at Bucca, some of whom Baghdadi befriended, would later rise with him through the ranks of the Islamic State. “If there was no American prison in Iraq, there would be no [Islamic State] now,” recalled the inmate interviewed by The Guardian. “Bucca was a factory. It made us all. It built our ideology.” The prisoners dubbed the camp “The Academy,” and during his ten months in residence, Baghdadi was one of its faculty members. By the time Baghdadi was released on December 8, 2004, he had a virtual Rolodex for reconnecting with his co-conspirators and protégés: they had written one another’s phone numbers in the elastic of their underwear’.”
Detainees pray at Camp Bucca, a U.S.-run facility that closed in 2009
Camp Bucca was closed in 2009, but rebuilding began again in 2011. After the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, many detainees were transferred to Camp Bucca, Iraq. It had a U.S. Army run hospital and many sections, from which there were at least a dozen escapes. Late 2007, a $ 110 million budget was given to increase its capacity from 20,000 to 30,000 detainees. There were roughly (best i could discover) about 34 compounds holding up to 1,000 inmates each. When Baghdadi was at the Camp – under the guise of Islamic (priest) self-proclaimed caliph (leader) – he was allowed to visit inmates in EVERY compound. Yet, according to The New York Post article, ‘How a US prison camp helped create ISIS (5/30/15):
“Al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic state, spent 10 quiet months at Bucca. According to Pentagon records, he was released in December 2004. He was such a model inmate, a military review board deemed him not to be a significant threat. Bucca also housed Haji Bakr, a former colonel in Saddam Hussein’s air-defense force. Bakr was no religious zealot. He was just a guy who lost his job when the Coalition Provisional Authority disbanded the Iraqi military and instituted de-Baathification, a policy of banning Saddam’s past supporters from government work. ccording to documents recently obtained by German newspaper Der Spiegel, Bakr was the real mastermind behind ISIS’s organizational structure and also mapped out the strategies that fueled its early successes. Bakr, who died in fighting in 2014, was incarcerated at Bucca from 2006-’08, along with a dozen or more of ISIS’s top lieutenants.”
According to former guard Mitchell Gray: “You never see hatred on the faces of Americans like you saw on the faces of these detainees,” Gray remembers of his 2008 tour. “When I say they hated us, I mean they looked like they would have killed us in a heartbeat if given the chance. I turned to the warrant officer I was with and I said, ‘If they could, they would rip our heads off and drink our blood.’ ”
From part of the Muslim Brotherhood to ISIS:
2004: Two months before Baghdadi’s release, al-Qaida established a branch of its terror network in Iraq by absorbing a jihadist militia run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and putting him in charge of it.
June 2006: Zarqawi was killed in US airstrike in Baghdad and Masri succeeded him.
October 2006: Masri turns al-Qaida in Iraq into the Islamic State in Iraq.
April 2010: Masri was killed in US/Iraqi forces raid.
May 2010: Baghdadi becomes head of the Islamic State.
The IS or ISIS/ISIL was designated a terrorist organization by the UN.
October 2011: US State Dept. finally list Baghdadi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and announces a $10 million reward for his capture or death.
June 2014: Baghdadi was elected by majlis al-shura (Shura Council) to be the Caliph over the Islamic State.
2015, at the age of 44, al-Baghdadi was on the cover of TIME as a runner up for Time Person of the Year.
October 11, 2015 (before CNN reports it) the Russia Insider breaks: ‘ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ‘killed in air strike’ near Iraq-Syria border. However, Israelnationalnews.com at the same time says, ‘Iraqi security forces claimed Sunday to have struck the convoy of ISIS terror group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi… he may have survived. Citing hospital sources and residents, Reuters reported that the airstrike targeted a gathering of Islamic State members and killed several leaders but Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was not among them.’
October 12, 2015: IBT press reported, ‘Eight Senior ISIS leaders were killed in the bombing, said Abu Saad al-Karbouli, a senior local Islamic State policeman. Reports that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in U.S.-led coalition airstrikes have not been confirmed.’
IV. HOW do they stay this strong?
According to previous CRS articles: “The U.S.-led campaign to degrade and ultimately destroy the Islamic State organization in Iraq and Syria (IS, aka ISIL/ISIS or the Arabic acronym Da’esh) appears to be entering a new phase in early 2016, as Administration officials implement planned changes in military strategy and tactics, pursue new diplomatic and coalition building initiatives, and consider alternative proposals. The conflicts in Iraq and Syria remain focal points in this regard, but a series of terrorist attacks inspired or directed by the Islamic State have claimed hundreds of lives on four continents since November 2015, creating a more global sense of urgency about combating the group and reversing its spread.”
So, though ISIS is obviously a very significant player in these last days (years, decades), notice they are Sunni Islamist as opposed to having Shiite dominance. If the Antichrist comes out of these nations, in the long run i am not sure it will matter which Muslim group holds current dominance; however, as to their current beliefs, actions and politics – it most certainly matters; especially to those receiving the ‘Islamic test of 4 questions’ to see if they will lose their head or not. Though the test is beyond the scope of this article, basically many terrorist have started or follow a tradition of asking certain Arabs, etc… 4 questions to determine if they are Sunni or Shia: what is your name? where are you from (or where do you live)? How do you pray? and What kind of music do you listen to [and be careful of your cell ringtone while in the Levant (specifically parts of Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey)]?
One reason Trump has seizing Iraq’s oil fields as a military consideration is that according to the CRS article Islamic State Financing and U.S. Policy Approaches (4/10/15): “The Islamic State’s system of financing is likely shaped by the experiences of the group’s predecessor organizations, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Captured battlefield documents and media reports provide the basis for what researchers know about how precursors to the Islamic State were funded… While IS funding streams remain fluid, the group’s largest revenue sources appear to include oil sales, taxation and extortion, and the sale of looted antiquities (i add: including very ancient museum artifacts). Oil sales initially provided the majority of the group’s revenue, but gradually declined as a percentage of overall IS profits due to an extensive campaign of airstrikes by the U.S. and coalition partners against oil and gas facilities used by the group.’
‘Before protests against the Syrian government began in March of 2011, the oil sector played an important role in the national economy and government accounts. Although not a large oil producer or exporter in the world market, Syria produced approximately 400,000 barrels per day… 25% of Syrian gov. revenues…’
‘Some analysts claim that the second largest source of revenue for the Islamic State is the sale of antiquities looted from areas under the group’s control. This includes items stolen from national museums, storage depots, or private collections, as well as those newly excavated from among the hundreds of archeological sites in the area. One archeologist from the Iraqi government’s Department of Antiquities stated that a third of Iraq’s archaeological sites are now under IS control. Items from these sites are sold in neighboring states or smuggled into Europe. As of early 2015, nearly a hundred Syrian artifacts looted by the Islamic State reportedly had been smuggled into Britain for sale, including Byzantine coins and Roman pottery and glass…’
‘Bank looting. The U.S. Treasury Department estimates that the Islamic State in 2014 gained access to at least a half billion dollars in cash by seizing control of state-owned banks’ branches in the Iraqi provinces of Ninevah, Al-Anbar, Salah Din, and Kirkuk. The Islamic State approached private Iraqi banks differently, choosing instead to levy a tax of 5% on all customer cash withdrawals…’
‘Customs tax and passage fees. The Islamic State’s control of select border checkpoints has enabled the group to collect passage fees from those seeking to transport goods in or out of IS held areas… Business tax. The Islamic State requires individuals wishing to do business in its territory to pay a percentage of their earnings to the group. Pharmacies in Mosul are taxed 10% to 35% of the value of drugs sold…’
‘Religious tax. The Islamic State has imposed a protection tax, known as jizyah, on some Christian communities. Christians in Iraq reported that IS militants threatened them with death if they did not convert to Islam or pay jizyah. Reports conflict over the precise amount of the tax—some reports state that the Islamic State demanded that Christians pay half an ounce of pure gold to secure their protection, while other reports describe the tax as a few dollars per month…’
‘The Islamic State has generated significant income through the use of kidnapping for ransom. The United Nations estimates that the Islamic State collected $35-$45 million in ransom fees in 2014 alone—a higher annual yield than both Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (an estimated $20 million in ransom between 2011 and 2013) and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (an estimated $75 million since 2010). Reported ransoms amounts have varied. The Islamic State reportedly demanded a ransom of $100 million euros ($132.5 million USD) from the family of U.S. journalist James Foley, who was eventually killed, and requested the same amount from the families of two other American hostages. In contrast, France may have paid $18 million for four of its captured journalists in April 2014, and locals are said to be ransomed for anywhere between $500 and $200,000 each.
While the U.S. and British governments refuse to pay ransom as a matter of policy, other European governments reportedly have paid to secure the release of their citizens… Targeting the Islamic State’s finances is one of five core lines of effort to degrade and defeat the terrorist organization.”
V. WHAT NEXT?
Due to modern technology, i.e. the internet, cell phones, weapon technology, etc. we will until the end of time have Islamic Terrorist, terrorist cells and coordination of those and other groups. What is next, it that the next US president with or without the UN will seek to eliminate ISIS. In the sense that ISIS or IS in an Islamic State – as in territory, then yes, although extremely expensive, with certain military casualties on our side and military and civilian on their side – along with many innocent Arabs (children and adults) who will be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a very long-term and complex mission, the Islamic State can be brought into submission and even quenched.
In the last 12 months at least 600 American ‘security advisers’ have been sent to Iraq and Syria. The next move by the next administration will likely be much stronger.
However, what is next for the Islamic State, and more importantly Islamic Terrorist cell groups is forever going forward until there laws reign over all Palestine, the Levant, and now that they are a force in the EU – populationally speaking – even with the first Muslim mayor of London – maybe even the world is the goal for some of these extremist. They see victories, money, hope and possibilities. Many of them see or have no other real opportunities to provide for their families, keep their families alive, and or achieve religious goals, than serving on radical caliphs.
In the last couple of years, about 150 Americans have gone to Syria and joined ISIS. Just in the last 18 months at least 50 Americans were charged in the US for helping or trying to help ISIS. According to The Fiscal Times (6/21/15), “a recent government report revealed that 73 terrorism suspects were employed at U.S. airports. One of them traveled to Syria in Sept. 2014 where he was killed. Security procedures at the airports failed 95% of the time when investigators at the Dept.of Homeland Security tried to smuggle fake bombs and weapons through airport checkpoints.”
With wars and battles and billions to back them – not even speaking about the future moves of Iran and the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – current leaders of IS / ISIS / ISIL will ALWAYS have a venue in one or more of the dozen countries they current operate cells in – or in more countries to come. For example, through the Saudi have led air strikes against Shiite rebels and killed hundreds and even 1,400 civilians by one report, the rebels still inhabit Yemen’s second largest city. And currently, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula (AQAP) in controlling as much as 15% of the reign. Afghanistan is still an active area as well. Suicide bomb in May 2015 killed more than 100 people in Saudi Arabia. Nov. 2015, 43 citizens were killed by a suicide bomber in Beirut, Lebanon.
In Egypt, ISIS is responsible and or claims responsibility for killing 200 soldiers, police officers and civilians from Nov. 2014 to Nov. 2015. And another two dozen or so in Libya. They also are responsible for attacks in Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Nigeria. And they are more active in Libya, Somalia and Algeria than these aforementioned African nations. In Sept. 2014, certain Islamic militants kidnapped and beheaded a tourist. In March 2015, 22 people (mostly European tourists) were killed in Tunisia. Again in June 2015, 40 people are killed at a hotel in Tunisia (most British Tourist). October 2015, a Russian passenger jet was blown up over Egypt killing 224 people; ISIS claimed it was responsible.
In Europe, ISIS members are being discovered daily. Countries like France, the United Kingdom, Russia and Germany had been thought to have a few hundreds ISIS fighters each, but some newer estimates put the figure at more than a thousand. Additionally, they heavily recruit in Bosnia and Albania. In Jan. 2015, a Danish-born gunman inspired by ISIS killed 2 strangers and wounded 5 police officers. March 2016, 2 Americans are confirmed dead among 31 killed and 270 wounded by terrorist bomb.
In Asia, ISIS is recruiting in Burma and Malaysia. Moreover, a former al-Qaeda offshoot group in Indonesia has switched to ISIS and tried to set off a large chemical bomb in Jakarta in February 2015. In July 2015, a Turkish citizen with ties to ISIS killed 32 people at a public center.
And the effects and desires of ISIS are not limited to these nations. In 2014, on behalf of ISIS a gunman seized 17 hostages in a Sydney cafe in Australia. In Feb. 2015, 2 men in Brooklyn were arrested and charged with plotting to fight for ISIS. In May 2015, 2 men opened fire in Dallas, and were acknowledged by ISIS as ‘soldiers of the caliphate.’ In France, 129 people were killed at several locations in Paris. Dec. 2015, 14 people were killed and 22 seriously wounded in San Bernardino, California. Farook was a US citizen who grew up in CA with a ‘troubled childhood;’ two weeks before the attack he told a co-worker that ‘Islam is a peaceful religion.’ Farook, met Malik through an internet dating website. She grew up near Islamabad, Pakistan. Malik study pharmacology at a Pakistan University, and graduated in 2012; and in 2013 enrolled in an 18 month Quranic Studies Course with Al-Huda International Seminary; online Islamic Courses. By May 2014, she told administrators she was leaving to get married. Farook and Malik married about a month after he traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet her. According to their U.S. marriage certificate they married 8/16/14 in Riverside, California. Malik had entered the US on a K-1 (Fiance’) visa with a Pakistani passport. In 2014, the Dept. of State issued about 36,000 K1 visas and other 5,000 for children of fiancee’s. K1 visa original started due to Vietnamese citizens marrying US soldiers during the Vietnam Conflict (War). At the time – it was a method to help about 100 soldiers and their wives – it has grown to tens of thousands per year.
If men moved by spirits will do this; what won’t they do?
VI. WHY ISLAMIC TERRORISM will continue until the end of the world?
Because as long as there are Jews, Christians and Muslims arguing over land; and as long as Jews, Christians and Muslims believe their holy prophets (and misinterpret false prophets) and holy books, there will be not only clashes, but holy wars versus one another. Moreover, both the Koran and Bible prophesy it will be so.
MAY 21, 2016: Islamic State calls for attacks on the WEST, specifically namely ‘the United States and Europe’ during their most sacred Ramadan (Koran 2:185). Reports translate an audio said to be from the zealot leader Abu Muhammad al-Adnani: “Ramadan, the month of conquest and jihad. Get prepared, be ready … to make it a month of calamity everywhere for the non-believers … especially for the fighters and supporters of the caliphate in Europe and America… The smallest action you do in their heartland is better and more enduring to us than what you would if you were with us. If one of you hoped to reach the Islamic State, we wish we were in your place to punish the Crusaders day and night.” Ramadan 2016 begins the evening of Sunday, June 5 and continues to July 5. During Ramadan the faithful Muslims fast from all food, drink and pleasures during the daylight. Fasting during the month of Ramadan is considered one the 5 Pillars of Islam (which basically follow Judeo-Christian Scripture / traditions – yes; we Christians are supposed to at least occasionally Fast and fall on our faces before the Creator of the Universe; and the Jews began fasting on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur; Lev. 23:27-; Acts 27:9) 2,000 years before Muhammad made Ramadan the Muslim month of fasting).
Update: October 26, 2019: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ‘the world’s Number One terrorist leader,’ who in 2006 became the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, who in 2014 got al-Qaeda to claim him as Caliph of ISIL, is reported to have blown himself up as U. S. special operation forces raid his compound in Syria Saturday. No U.S. personel were killed, but ‘a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him.” Two of Abu’s wives detonated suicide vests; and though 11 children survived, there were “more dead than alive.” Abu had taken three of his children down a tunnel with him and detonated his suicide vest, killing them as well. A DNA test confirmed it was Abu.
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