The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[garbon]

"Ok, Brain." would have been a better joke.

I can see that.

[Martinus]

I followed the link to see a picture of the kid.

Ok, G.

Feels a bit tasteless in this situation.

Je Suis Charlie.

[garbon]

Oh is that the new line that one can use to short hand the statement : "I know I'm being tacky and I don't give a fuck."?

[KRonn]

That's depressing... I followed the link to see a picture of the kid. He's just a kid

Just tragic.

Try criminal.  Anyway I hope those ISIS people are proud of themselves.

They are, that's the problem

[Jacob]

Oh is that the new line that one can use to short hand the statement : "I know I'm being tacky and I don't give a fuck."?

Seems classic Marty, really. Feel self-righteous rage about something big and important, then immediately drive it into the ground with venal petty banalities.

[CountDeMoney]

Seems classic Marty, really. Feel self-righteous rage about something big and important, then immediately drive it into the ground with venal petty banalities.

At least he didn't run around in a circle, screaming.  But he probably did.

[CountDeMoney]

State paper: China arrests Turks smuggling Uighurs to Syria
By Associated Press January 14 at 6:14 AM

BEIJING — Shanghai police have detained nine terror suspects from an ethnic minority in western China plus 10 Turkish people accused of helping them in an attempt to illegally travel abroad, including to Syria, a state newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Global Times said the Turks were arrested in November when the nine Chinese Uighurs attempted to sneak out of China with altered Turkish passports. The nine Uighurs, plus two other Chinese nationals who allegedly helped them, also were detained.

China is in the middle of a one-year clampdown on what it says are terrorist activities in the western region of Xinjiang, home to Turkic-speaking Uighur minority Muslims, who have complained of being discriminated against and economically marginalized.

Citing Shanghai police, the report said each of the nine Uighurs was charged 60,000 yuan ($10,000) to leave the country via Shanghai Pudong International Airport, in China's east. They also allegedly paid $2,000 to get visas using fake invitation letters at the Chinese Embassy in Turkey.

The Global Times, published by the ruling Communist Party, said terrorism-related videos were found on the suspects' phones and some had confessed that they planned to go to Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Turkish suspects were arrested for organizing illegal border crossings and the Uighurs from Xinjiang were being held for organizing, leading and participating in terrorist organizations, the newspaper said.

Asked if he could confirm the report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters he believed it was "full and accurate" and that he had nothing to add on the case.

Calls to the Shanghai police's press office were unanswered and the Turkish Embassy in Beijing did not immediately comment.

Violence linked to Xinjiang has killed about 400 people in and outside the region within the past two years, according to state media reports. Beijing has blamed the attacks on radical separatists with foreign ties, although critics and human rights advocates say Uighurs have chafed under the repressive rule of the Han Chinese-dominated government.

Turkey has a sizable Uighur diaspora, many of them exiles disgruntled with Beijing.

[garbon]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ohio-man-arrested-alleged-isis-inspired-attack-us/story?id=28227724

Ohio Man Arrested for Alleged ISIS-Inspired Plot on US Capitol, FBI Says

The FBI today arrested an Ohio man for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers, whom he allegedly considered enemies.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, was arrested on charges of attempting to kill a U.S. government official, authorities said.

According to government documents, he allegedly planned to detonate pipe bombs at the national landmark and open fire on any employees and officials fleeing after the explosions.

The FBI first noticed Cornell several months ago after an informant notified the agency that Cornell was allegedly voicing support for violent "jihad" on Twitter accounts under the alias "Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah," according to charging documents. In addition, Cornell allegedly posted statements, videos and other content expressing support for ISIS -- the brutal terrorist group also known as ISIL -- that is wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.

"I believe that we should just wage jihad under our own orders and plan attacks and everything," Cornell allegedly wrote in an online message to the informant in August, according to the FBI. "I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State here and plan operations ourselves."

In the message, Cornell said that such attacks "already got a thumbs up" from radical cleric Anwar Awlaki "before his martyrdom."

Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011, but his online messages calling for attacks on the West live on.

U.S. officials considered Awlaki an operational leader within al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based terror group tied to the deadly assault on a satirical magazine in Paris last week.

Cornell and the informant met in Cincinnati over two days in October, and then another two days in November. During the last meeting, Cornell told an FBI informant that members of Congress were enemies and that he wanted to launch an attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., according to charging documents.

Cornell then allegedly saved money to finance the attack and researched how to build bombs, the FBI said.

Earlier today, while also taking "final steps" to travel to Washington for the attack, Cornell allegedly bought two semi-automatic rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition from a store in Ohio, authorities said.

Within hours of Cornell's arrest, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to law enforcement agencies across the country notifying them of the case.

"The alleged activities of Cornell highlight the continued interest of US-based violent extremists to support designated foreign terrorist organizations overseas, such as ISIL, by committing terrorist acts in the United States," the bulletin read. "Terrorist group members and supporters will almost certainly continue to use social media platforms to disseminate English language violent extremist messages."

[CountDeMoney]

Yes, another stunningly effective FBI arrest.

[Martinus]

The guy looks like a lettow though. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

[Martinus]

Incidentally, this made me thinking - are hipsters and lumbersexuals just a trend designed to cover up jihadists in our midst? 

[Eddie Teach]

The guy looks like a lettow though.

But he's not wearing a pink kimono.

[The Brain]

Christopher Lee no.

[mongers]

No surprise that their brutality is provoking people to desperate measures:

Islamic State 'beheads guerrilla' in eastern Syria

Islamic State (IS) is reported to have beheaded a man who they accused of setting up a guerrilla cell in eastern Syria that attacked its fighters.

His decapitated body was crucified in the town of Mayadin, in Deir al-Zour province, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

IS claimed the man had set off an explosion at a restaurant and booby-trapped vehicles used by the group.

Another four men were reportedly killed by IS in the city of Deir al-Zour.

They were accused of having links with the Syrian government, according to the Syrian Observatory.

"One was arrested for smoking a cigarette," its director, Rami Abdul-Rahman, told the Reuters news agency. "Only later did Islamic State accuse him of being an informer for the regime."

Syria's state news agency, Sana, said IS had killed three civilians and displayed their bodies in Mayadin.

IS 'police' targeted

This is not the first time that there have been reports of resistance to IS in Mayadin.

The group's religious police force - known as the Hisbah - has been targeted recently by armed men.

Earlier this month, the Syrian Observatory said the force's Egyptian deputy commander in the area had been abducted, tortured and beheaded. Days later, several other members of the Hisbah were seized.

And on Saturday, three pro-IS activists were reportedly killed in and around the town of al-Bulil, not far from Mayadin.

The Syrian Observatory says small groups of Syrians are hunting down IS fighters as part of a guerrilla campaign that has emerged as a response to the group's brutality.

The leader of one group, calling itself White Shroud, claimed in October it had killed more than 100 jihadists in Deir al-Zour province.

Full article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30838173

[mongers]

Sisters are doing it; something positive in Syria?

I hope some of the ISIS nutjobs get to see who shot them before they die:

Reuters / Monday, January 26, 2015

Female fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units carry their weapons as they walk in the western countryside of Ras al-Ain, Syria, January 25, 2015. REUTERS/Rodi Said