Extreme violence lies in Isis DNA - By Sam Jones - http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/423eb5d2-288e-11e4-8bda-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3B2RiEjjR
It is just over 10 years since Nicholas Berg, an American businessman working in Iraq, was brutally decapitated on video by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the thuggish leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
With the murder of the American journalist, James Foley, on Tuesday, the US and its Western allies were vividly reminded of the worst excesses of the Iraqi insurgency in the wake of the 2003 invasion.
But it is not just in the manner of its bloodlust that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) and AQI share a gruesome symmetry.
The two organizations also share a lineage. The threadbare remnants of AQI - all but crushed by the US troop surge in Iraq of 2007 and the "sons of Iraq" movement to turn Sunni tribes against the jihadis - morphed into the earliest version of Isis.
But more importantly, Isis is also the operational, strategic and ideological twin of its predecessor.
"There is almost no difference in the organizations," says Afzal Ashraf, a former RAF captain in Iraq and now consultant at the Royal United Services Institute.
Mr Ashraf points in particular to the shared heritage of Isis and AQI in drawing on former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime. Both are "parasitic insurgencies" that co-opt disenfranchised factions to their cause, he says.
It is perhaps for this reason that both AQI and Isis have historically shared a primary concern with the "near enemy" - other Arabs - rather than the far enemy - Western infidels - as their main targets. Isis, like AQI, is primarily a sectarian organization, dedicated to eradicating the Shia governments in Baghdad and the Alawite regime in Damascus.
Military analysts also point to the similarity in battleground tactics used by Isis with those used by AQI, in particular the way both deploy force in circles of pressure, particularly around cities, using waves of car and truck bombs.
For Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and an expert in al-Qaeda and Islamic extremism, the defining characteristic of the Isis/AQI approach, however is the their particular "use of violence".
"Groups like al-Qaeda used violence in a tactical way, in a way proportional to their aims," he says. "For Isis and AQI the savagery is the point. The action is what matters, not the ideas. To Zarqawi and Baghdadi [the Isis leader], the spectacle and the limitless force - beheadings, crucifications, people being buried alive - is what matters."
ISIS posts execution of US journalist to deter Obama from further involvement in Iraq war - http://www.debka.com/article/24205/Islamic-State-posts-execution-of-US-journalist-to-deter-Obama-from-further-involvement-in-Iraq-war-
Iraqi Islamic State terrorists released a video online Tuesday night, Aug. 19, purportedly showing the beheading of American photo-journalist James Wright Foley, 40, abducted in Syria 22 months ago, after threatening to punish the US and Britain for air strikes in Iraq.
Also visible was another kidnapped US journalist, Stevent Sotloff, who had been missing from northern Syria since July 2013. Under the caption "A Message to America," it was indicated that Sotlof was being held hostage to the next United States actions in Iraq. It is not clear where the videotaped atrocity had been filmed whether in Syria or Iraq.
It was posted as Iraqi and Kurdish forces awaited tensely for Barack Obama to decide whether to expand US involvement to other sectors of the war against IS, after American and British air strikes tipped the balance of the battle for the Mosul dam. The tape aimed at deterring any foreign intervention in the Iraqi-Kurdish struggle to contain the Islamist advance.
Obama held back from making a public statement about the beheading until the video could be formally authenticated. "If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends," White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.
The audio revealed a voiceover in a pure British accent. This was noted in London and prompted UK Prime Minister David Cameron to cut short his vacation and return to Downing Street Wednesday, to take charge of discussions on the British connection with US efforts in support of the forces fighting IS in Iraq.
At least 500 British Muslims have joined IS - possibly twice that number have joined Islamist forces in Syria and Iraq.
As for the situation in Iraq, it is still not clear if Kurdish Peshmerga troops backed by US air strikes have finally wrested the strategic Mosul dam from Islamist control. After its recovery was reported and confirmed Monday by President Obama, who said in Washington: "Iraqi and Kurdish forces, backed by American air strikes, had captured a strategically important dam near Mosul," witnesses on the spot attested to debkafile's military sources that renewed fighting had erupted.
It appeared that IS had raised reinforcements from Mosul, just 15 km away to take the strategic dam, the largest in Iraq, back, because they own a strong interest in holding onto it. Blowing it up would inundate large parts of the country and cause tens of thousands of deaths. And so the threat itself is a powerful psychological lever. On the other hand, IS would think twice about carrying it out, because most of the victims would be Sunni Iraqis, whose support and sympathy the group courts.
Control of the dam also provides the town of Mosul, which the Islamic State captured two months ago, with a good defense line as well as a jumping-off position against the Kurdish capital of Irbil, headquarters of the Peshmerga and some 1,000 US servicemen deployed there.
debkafile's military and intelligence sources report that the Al Qaeda Iraqi wing has been sighted gearing up for a counter-offensive against the Peshmerga and Iraqi army. Their commander, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, has taken some of Saddam Hussein's most professional and experienced army officers as advisers.
It is almost impossible for US and British spy satellites and aerial surveillance to predict where the Islamists will strike next after the shocking video. They already control vast areas of northern western, central and eastern Iraq, roughly the size of Britain and Ireland combined, with a front line 1.600 km long.
They have proved they are able to flit across long distances at speed, mingling with indigenous populations, which are friendly enough to keep the Sunni jihadis supplied with intelligence, food, fuel and medical care.
The Islamic State therefore enjoys a substantial strategic advantage on the ground, to offset its relatively small numbers (estimated at 35,000) - even when pitted against the far larger Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga supported by US and British air strikes.
The Peshmerga has mustered some 200,000 fighting men, drawing on its Turkish PKK brethren and Syrian Kurdish militias, as well as Kurdish volunteers from other countries, intent on saving the only Kurdish semiautonomous republic, the KRG, from being overrun by Islamic terrorists.
But Kurdish troops are starved of weapons and ordnance; they have no air force or even helicopters for air cover, and lack armor and self-propelled artillery.
The Islamists in contrast are heavily armed with the latest American tanks and self-propelled artillery taken booty from the 30,000 Iraqi soldiers who fled from their advance.
Tuesday, Iraqi forces launched and halted an offensive to recapture Tikrit, home town of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, in the face of fierce resistance from Islamic State fighters. This was the seventh Iraqi military bid to recapture the predominantly Sunni town of Tikrit, which fell to IS in late June, and which commands the highways linking Baghdad to the north and the east.
This attempt had special significance, because it was the first Iraqi military operation since Haidar Al-Abadi took over as prime minister of Iraq last week from fellow-Shiite Nouri al-Maliki. The new man was heavily backed by the Obama administration in the belief that he would have better luck than his predecessor in persuading Sunni leaders to support a major campaign to halt the Islamic State.
But the operation was doomed from the start by the composition of the assault units. They consisted of poorly trained Iraqi Shiite militiamen, accompanied by Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers, under the command of Al Qods Brigades chief Gen. Qassam Soleimani.
Sending a Shiite force commanded by Iranian officers to recapture a Sunni town like Tikrit was scarcely likely to appeal to the town-dwellers, draw the Sunni factions fighting with IS over to the national Iraqi army, or indeed make them fans of the new prime minister.
Why Aren't Americans Taking The ISIS Threat 'To Drown All Of You In Blood' Seriously? - By Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/why-arent-americans-taking-the-isis-threat-to-drown-all-of-you-in-blood-seriously
If some psychopaths were running around crucifying and beheading lots of people and then they said that they wanted to drown my family "in blood" I would be inclined to take them seriously. But so far, most Americans seem to be completely and totally unconcerned about ISIS. Perhaps that is because we had so many years where we were told that al-Qaeda was a major threat but nothing ever seemed to happen. Well, the truth is that ISIS is a far different creature than al-Qaeda ever was. After 9/11, we never heard of al-Qaeda doing much of anything except for supposedly hiding in caves. But ISIS is out there every single day taking over territory and hacking innocent people to pieces. At this point ISIS controls vast swaths of both Syria and Iraq, and they just posted a video on the Internet of the beheading of a prominent American journalist. These jihadists are absolute nutjobs, and if given the opportunity, there is probably very little that they would not be willing to do to us.
So I don't get it. I don't understand why most Americans are not taking ISIS seriously. These guys seem to revel in killing their opponents in some of the most gruesome ways imaginable. And they are now threatening to attack U.S. targets and to drown all of us "in blood"...
Islamic State militants have threatened to attack U.S. targets 'in any place' in revenge for American air strikes against them in Iraq.
The extremist group posted a chilling video showing a blood-spattered Star and Stripes next to the jihadist flag with the message in English: 'We will drown all of you in blood'.
The message was accompanied by photographs of an American who was beheaded during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and victims of sniper shootings.
In case we were tempted to dismiss their threats, ISIS has just underscored their intentions by beheading journalist James Foley and posting a video of it on the Internet...
A video released by ISIS shows the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley and threatens the life of another American if President Barack Obama doesn't end military operations in Iraq.
In the video posted Tuesday on YouTube, Foley is seen kneeling next to a man dressed in black. He reads a message, presumably scripted by his captors, that his "real killer" is America.
"I wish I had more time. I wish I could have the hope for freedom to see my family once again," Foley can be heard saying in the video.
He is then shown being beheaded.
To me, it seems clear that they actually intend to do what they are saying.
But are they capable of doing it?
Are they actually capable of coming over here and conducting attacks?
That is a legitimate question.
Some would claim that ISIS possesses no ability to conduct operations outside of the Middle East.
Others would point to indications that ISIS may already be here.
For example, just the other night a man held up an ISIS sign during the protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
And there was also a recent report that a man in New Jersey had an ISIS flag flying in front of his home.
But much more chilling was a photo of an ISIS flag that was recently posted to Twitter by @Sunna_rev...
ISIS In Front Of The White House - Posted to Twitter by @Sunna_rev
Under the photo on Twitter, the following message was shared...
#AmessagefromISIStoUS
We are in your state
We are in your cities
We are in your streets
You are our goals anywhere
So could they actually be here?
Well, even the most hardcore skeptic has to admit that anything is possible considering how porous our borders are. In fact, earlier this month a filmmaker dressed up as Osama bin Laden and crossed the Rio Grande River.
If ISIS jihadists wanted to get into this country, border security would not be an issue. If the Obama administration had any concern for our national security whatsoever, it would secure the border, but of course that will never happen.
And without a doubt they know that men from the Middle East are constantly crossing our southern border. An abandoned Islamic prayer rug was found near the border in Arizona just the other day, and according to one expert U.S. Border Patrol agents are reporting that Mexican gang members are getting up to $50,000 a head to bring "Middle Easterners" into the United States...
Dennis Michael Lynch directed and produced "They Come to America" and "They Come to America II" and has extensive, daily contact with U.S. Border Patrol agents about the true state of the U.S.-Mexico border. He said there are essentially four groups of people pouring across the border: families of various sizes, unaccompanied minors, drug smugglers and career criminals and terrorists. Lynch said while the media focus on the kids, really bad people are easily slipping into the country.
"I can tell you from the people I speak to in the Border Patrol who are in the intelligence unit, they have told me that gang members are receiving as much as $50,000 per head to bring a person through. Those people are typically from the Middle East or from China," said Lynch, who predicts the people waltzing into the country will perpetrate an attack on the U.S. that will rival or exceed Sept. 11.
And members of Congress know exactly what is going on as well. The following is a very disturbing excerpt from a November 2012 House Committee on Homeland Security report...
U.S. Government officials who are directly responsible for our national security continue to affirm the vulnerability. In August 2007 former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell stated that not only have terrorists used the Southwest border to enter the United States but that they will inevitably continue to do so as long as it is an available possibility. In a July 2012 hearing before the full U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano confirmed that terrorists have crossed the Southwest border with the intent to harm the American people. Additionally, the U.S. Border Patrol regularly apprehends aliens from the 35 "special interest countries" designated by our intelligence community as countries that could export individuals that could bring harm to our country in the way of terrorism." From Fiscal Years 2006 to 2011, there were 1,918 apprehensions of these special interest aliens at our Southwest border.
Yes, I know that the U.S. government has funded and trained ISIS fighters at various times. The goal was to use them to topple governments (such as Syria) that the Obama administration did not like.
And yes, I know that ISIS is using captured American weapons to take over Iraq.
But at this point it appears that nobody can control what ISIS is doing. This is an organization that seems to have absolutely no fear, and their savagery is unprecedented. For example, just check out what Franklin Graham recently told Fox News about what ISIS is doing to Christians in Syria and Iraq...
Asked by Fox's Greta Van Susteren about how quickly the situation had changed in Iraq, particularly in the north and eastern regions since December of last year, Rev. Graham said, "It's intensifying. We are seeing now across Syria. And I will get reports out of Syria where Christians, and also in Iraq, where Christians have been crucified. They have been beheaded."
"I have heard incidences where entire families have been buried alive because of they refused to convert to Islam," said Rev. Graham. "Greta, these people are dying for their faith. They believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son, who died for our sins, who was buried for our sins, who God raised to life."
Other reports are even more disturbing. For example, the Anglican Vicar of Baghdad recently stated that a child that he had personally baptized was "cut in half by ISIS".
Who in the world would do such a thing to a little child?
And what ISIS did to one particular Christian family in Mosul was absolutely unspeakable...
A Christian father who watched his wife and daughter get brutally raped by members of the militant group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) because he couldn't pay them a poll tax in Mosul, Iraq, killed himself under the weight of the trauma this past weekend.
A report from the Assyrian International News Agency said ISIS began enforcing Islamic laws in the northern Iraq city which they overran on June 10.
Dr. Sallama Al-Khafaji of the Iraq High Commission for Human Rights said the incident happened on Saturday after ISIS began asking Christians in Mosul for a poll tax.
Look, we need to realize that these guys are far more dangerous than al-Qaeda ever was.
If they get the opportunity, they will kill as many of us as they possibly can and they will celebrate while doing it.
If you are deluded into thinking that "Obama can stop them", then I feel very sorry for you.
We are facing an entire army of suicidal maniacs that are more than willing to die to advance their cause. And they hate America with a passion that is so intense that most Americans cannot even comprehend it.
If these psychopaths are able to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction and are able to get them into the United States, I am fully convinced that they will not hesitate to use them.
And if that ever happens, a lot more Americans will start taking their threat to "drown all of you in blood" a lot more seriously.
Prophecy in the making - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com
While much of the attention of Americans and their "leaders" is focused on race riots in Ferguson, Mo., Reuters reports that the Islamic State (IS,once called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and Islamic State of Syria and the Levant) has issued a chilling video warning that it will attack Americans "in any place" if US airstrikes hit its terrorists. The video, showing photographs of an American beheaded during the Iraq War, stated in English, "we will drown you in blood." Meanwhile ABC News and others report the US Secret Service is investigating a tweet showing a smartphone screen displaying the Islamic State's logo held up in front of the White House, containing the hashtag #target.
In an August 7 video, a spokesman for the IS said, "I say to America that the Islamic Caliphate has been established. Don't be cowards and attack us with drones. Instead send your soldiers, the ones we humiliated in Iraq. We will humiliate them everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House." My immediate response is that the American people beat them to it by virtue of the past two presidential elections. Looking deeper into the Islamic State, however, is at least in part an invention of the current White House, which approved the release of its leader after closing an Iraq prison in 2009. There are reports that the US also trained many current leaders of IS in Jordan with to fight Syria.
The US "president" has refused to enforce border security amid warnings from many, including Texas Governor Rick Perry, that Islamic terrorists are crossing into the US from Mexico. There is a publicized threat aimed toward the White House. The US is in the sights of the Islamic State. No president in the history of America has assisted, aided and abetted Islam more than the current "president." Yet these terrorists continue to see the US as "the Great Satan." So much for "New Beginnings" that the "president" discussed in his Cairo speech in June 2009. Those new beginnings appear to have more in common at America having a new beginning toward receiving Islam and Sharia Law than peace with Islam.
In the aforementioned video, IS fighters are indeed attacking the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, using American military equipment. They are also using that equipment to expand their Caliphate toward Baghdad, massacring Christians and others along the way. Captured or provided, American weapons are being used. The US "president" assisted in establishing IS through the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda. So far, IS is focused on killing infidels, seizing land and taking spoil as does the union of Turks, Assyrians, Persians, and Arabs in Ezekiel 38:12, "To take a spoil, and to take a prey." If and when IS is strong enough and big enough, the prey will be Israel. Prophecy in the making? Perhaps.
Nearing Midnight: All the Demons Are in Iraq - Todd Strandberg - http://www.raptureready.com/rap16.html
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has become the most powerful religious terrorist group in modern history. Like locusts invading a field, the single focus of ISIS is to consume everything before it.
Anyone that ISIS views as an enemy faces summary executions. This militant organization has proven it will even kill fellow Muslims who fail to adhere to its version of Islam. ISIS has been most vicious in targeting Iraqi Christians and members of the Yazidi religious sect. Some 700,000 Yazidis are believed to have been displaced.
The barbarity of ISIS is a throwback to the carnage of medieval times. They have hanged children and placed their heads on posts, abducted young boys forcing them to fight, and girls are being used as sex slaves.
What makes me wonder if these people are part of the human race is the glee they have in showing their genocidal acts. They use social media sites to post endless streams of photos and videos of themselves brutalizing their innocent victims.
Recently, ISIS seized control of the vitally important Mosul dam. Because this group seems to have no limit in its capacity for evil, there is great concern that ISIS may hold an option that could dramatically change the future of the Middle East. By placing detonation charges on the dam, a massive flood would wash over southern Iraq. In a worst-case scenario, a breach could send a 15-foot wall of water crashing into Baghdad.
The situation in Iraq reminds me of the Rwandan Genocide, and a comment made by a missionary to that nation. I remember seeing the quote in TIME magazine saying: "There are no demons in hell. They are all in Rwanda." (Actually, there are no demons in hell.) The statement is profound in describing the extent at which forces of darkness had taken over that nation.
Back in 1994 for approximately 100 days, demonic insanity had Rwanda in its grip. The Hutu tribe suddenly began killing members of the smaller Tutsi tribe. During this time of madness, an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 Rwandans were slaughtered, constituting as much as 20% of the country's total population. Most of the Tutsis were hacked to death with machetes.
Even today, people marvel at how quickly the carnage swept over Rwanda. Just like the genocides carried out by Nazi Germany and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the global community was left wondering how people could stoop to this level of cruelty.
The Bible repeatedly makes it clear that demonic forces have a strong influence over the material world. It's not that people can say, "The devil made me do it." The demons provide the motivation and humans act on that impulse.
Demonic activity is like a drug addiction. Once demons are allowed to take over, they become very difficult to resist. The ability of 300 fighters to defeat 10,000 Iraqi soldiers has all the markings of demonic empowerment. The mass confusion in Iraq's capital is another indication that fallen angels are working on the side of ISIS.
Iraq is one of the worst places on earth because it is a venue for flare-ups of demonic driven despotism. The area has long been a hotbed of underworld activity. Babylon was the fountainhead all Luciferian and pagan religions. The Prince of Persia was a demon so mighty, he was able to withstand the archangel Michael for twenty-one days. Somewhere along the Euphrates river are bound four demons that are so powerfully evil. When they are released, they will kill one-third of the world's population.
"And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, 'Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.' And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men" (Revelation 9:13-15).
As we get closer to the Tribulation hour, we're likely to see more situations where it appears that all the demons have gathered together in one place for a campaign of devastation and destruction. Of course, once the Rapture takes place and the restraining power of the church is lifted, the entire world will look like Iraq.
"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Revelation 16:13-14).
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