The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[Sheilbh]

First of all, there is a difference between anorexic and slim - none of the women you mention are "rail-thin", they simply are not overweight.

Agreed. They're slim. That's all. Most of my female friends are a similar build. It's not 'rail-thin'.

[Razgovory]

I'm betting she's been dead for months now.  They probably killed her when they couldn't get the ransom back in August.  They are touchy about admitting to killing women.

They seemed to have no problems with admitting they tortured and killed that Iraqi human rights lawyer in Mosul.

Was it a woman, and did they televise it?

[Admiral Yi]

It was, and AFAIK Isis doesn't have TV broadcasts.

[Sheilbh]

And she was killed in a public square.

I think most of the female victims of ISIS have been locals. Thus the international media doesn't really care.

[OttoVonBismarck]

If you track ISIS, back before they cut off James Foley's head and sent us the video of it they largely were following the old hold and ransom model. This meant European (other than British) prisoners were ransomed pretty quickly, and likely would have meant eventually British and Americans being ransomed in the usual way (through some rich person(s) funneling money through a Middle Eastern State as an intermediary--this is how American/British ransoms are typically paid as both governments genuinely will not pay ransoms.) I half suspect that first beheading of James Foley (other prisoners says ISIS hated him especially as he was an extremely unyielding prisoner) ISIS was just wanting its money fast and felt like making a statement about why you shouldn't fuck with paying their ransoms. But I think when they saw how much media response and recruitment/publicity value came from beheading an American I do not believe there was ever again a point when Sotloff/Henning/Haines/Kassig ever had a chance of coming home. Unfortunately for those men ISIS was also hitting its peak in revenue, estimated to have been $2bn last year, so the paltry ransoms that previously would have been very valuable no longer seemed to matter as much, and so those four ended up losing their heads.

It remains strange to me they've left John Cantlie alive and doing bizarre news videos (well, he hasn't in some time), and it was bizarre they kept the woman secret. I almost wonder if for some reason they were unwilling to kill a woman out of fear it might harm their recruitment efforts with Westerners--like has been mentioned they have no problem killing local women in ISIS territories but maybe beheading an American woman on video was a bridge too far for their PR arm which I believe is almost entirely about recruitment. The fact that they told her parents that if her name came out, she would die, makes me think they were still legitimately working to ransom her, but wouldn't do it if it got too much publicity because now ISIS would rather kill Westerners than be seen weak for ransoming them.

[OttoVonBismarck]

It's also interesting that aside from the video in which Kassig's decapitated head is shown, and a bunch of ISIS guys slash captured enemy soldier's throat, most media experts say all the other beheadings are actually staged. "Jihadi John" appears to be cutting their throats, but then later we're shown a decapitated body. The media forensics guys are claiming that John in those videos is not cutting their throats at all (and in the videos where they do it, you can see blood spilling out instantly and heavily, which doesn't happen with John and his staged videos), so for whatever reason ISIS shows Jihadi John mock start to cut someone's head off then later shows us their decapitated bodies. It makes me wonder why they won't show John doing the deed himself.

[citizen k]

A month old, it shows the Battle of Kobane. Kurdish woman is wrapping her bloody hand during firefight at :48. DIY armored car 2:18:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuE9uWUhnis

[alfred russel]

I guess we are all cheering for the terrorist communists. The middle east sure is messed up.

[Valmy]

I guess we are all cheering for the terrorist communists. The middle east sure is messed up.

In the Middle East I find myself cheering for Nationalists, Monarchists, and Communists.  It is pretty bizarre.

[Martinus]

I guess we are all cheering for the terrorist communists. The middle east sure is messed up.

In the Middle East I find myself cheering for Nationalists, Monarchists, and Communists.  It is pretty bizarre.

There is a simple explanation for that. Nationalism, Monarchism (whether in the form of Absolutism or Constitutional Monarchy) and Communism are all Englightenment or post-Enlightenment ideologies. Each is preferable to Theocracy or Feudalism.

[Sheilbh]

I cheer on democrats and Hashemites.

[Valmy]

I cheer on democrats and Hashemites.

I do cheer on the cute little liberal parties that get like 0.0001% of the vote in Middle Eastern elections.

[Sheilbh]

Liberals

[Valmy]

Liberals

Wait so who are the democrats in your view?

[alfred russel]

I guess we are all cheering for the terrorist communists. The middle east sure is messed up.

In the Middle East I find myself cheering for Nationalists, Monarchists, and Communists.  It is pretty bizarre.

What I was getting at is that everyone is cheering for the Kurdish fighters in Kobane against ISIS, and citizen k is posting propaganda videos from the YPG, which is affiliated with the PKK which has a communist ideology and is considered by the US and EU to be a terrorist organization.