Tag Archives: Syria

Senator Says U.S. Vulnerable To ISIS

The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said that the United States is “certainly vulnerable” to the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said those who support ISIS see them as a “winning organization” so the U.S. has no other choice but to completely defeat the group.

“The best strategy the U.S. can employ to defeat this is actually defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria so that the reality is conveyed that this is not a winning organization, it is a losing organization,” Johnson said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

Johnson cited the recent failed attack on a cartoon contest in Texas as an example of ISIS supporters seeing them as “winning” despite the attack failing in its goal.  Johnson said it’s also difficult because they can’t easily deal with those who are activity promoting ISIS.

“The problem is, what do you do with the not-guilty-yet? We do have laws, we have a Constitution, and it’s extremely difficult for law enforcement officials when you might have tens of thousands of sympathizers — how do you track them all?” Johnson asked.

Johnson said that up to 90,000 twitter accounts in the United States were promoting ISIS although Twitter has begun to delete them.

FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that the terrorists are trying to recruit “hundreds, maybe thousands” of potential terrorists in the U.S.  Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said the U.S. is in “more serious circumstances today than we were after 9/11.”

“Remember, back then we thought about al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and a few other places? Well, we’ve seen al-Qaeda metastasize,” Ridge told CNN. “It is now a global scourge. And you have the ascendancy of ISIL. The combination of those two groups — their appeal to the lone wolfs and we see them acting in Belgium and in France and in Canada and the United States, so the threat factors and the nature of the threats are far more complicated and far more serious today than on Sept. 12, 2001.”

ISIS Attempting to Eliminate Last Christian Speakers of Aramaic

Islamic terrorist group ISIS is attempting to eliminate any Christian that speaks the ancient language Aramaic in an attempt to wipe out the language that was spoken by Christ.

The Associated Press reported that thousands of Christians in Syria have fled their homes in Syria because of the terrorists but that ISIS has placed a bounty on them.  These Assyrians are so valued by ISIS that kidnapped Assyrians are being held for $100,000 each.

“Assyrians remain the last Aramaic-speaking people of the world. So the disappearance and displacement of these people pretty much spells the closing chapter of Aramaic use in the world,” Middle East historian Eden Naby told the AP.

Pockets of Assyrian communities existed in Turkey and Lebanon, but the majority of the Aramaic speaking Assyrians lived in Syria and Iraq.  The communities belong to Eastern Rite churches that we’re founded by the apostles Thomas, Thaddeus and Bartholomew.

The community of Assyrians has fallen from 1.4 million to an estimated 400,000.

Middle East watchdogs say that ISIS is involved in a systematic cleansing of Assyrians although they do not acknowledge their actions.

“They don’t care what it’s called; they are just following their ideology and that means getting rid of churches and minorities. It is the Islamic State, and there’s no room for anyone else,” said MEMRI Director Steven Stalinsky.

“This has been going on for some time, a systematic campaign to rid the region of any vestiges of Christianity.”

Six Arrested In Plot To Join ISIS

Six men have been arrested in connection with a plot to travel to Syria to become members of the terrorist group ISIS.

While all six men are residents of Minnesota, two were arrested in San Diego.  The other four were arrested in Minneapolis.  The men are Somalis in their late teens or early 20s.

Federal officials identified the six men as Zacharia Abdurahman, 19, Adnan Farah, 19, Hanad Musse, 19, Guled Omar, 20, Abdirahman Daud, 21, and Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 21.

“These were not confused young men,”Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger stated during a press conference on Monday. “These are focused young men who were intent on joining a terrorist organization by any means possible.”

The men had connections to another Minnesota man who was indicted in February on terror charges after he tried to head to Syria.

“This is a very serious issue,”Somali activist Omar Jamal told the International Business Times. “We as a community are concerned about losing our kids to ISIS.”

FBI director James Comey said that every state has people like the ones arrested in Minnesota.

“Those people exist in every state,”he outlined. “I have homegrown violent extremist investigations in every single state. Until a few weeks ago there was 49 states. Alaska had none, which I couldn’t quite figure out. But Alaska has now joined the group, so we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states.”

Australian Model and DJ Killed While Fighting For ISIS

A former model and DJ from Australia that no one knew was fighting for the terrorist group ISIS in Syria has been killed.

The parents of Sharky Jama were informed of their son’s death via text message on Monday according to the Somali Australian Council of Victoria.

Hussein Harakow of the SACV told CNN that Jama had disappeared in August of last year with a former business student named Yusuf Yusuf.  He had been living in the city of Falluja.  Despite making pro-ISIS comments on social media, his family had no idea he was fighting on the front lines with the terrorists.

“He never explained what’s happening over there or what he’s doing,” Harakow told CNN.  “The family lived a simple life. They never discussed these sorts of things.”

The news of the young man’s death comes as Australian leaders are expressing concerns about radicalized residents returning from the Middle East.  Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott addressed the media after the reports of Jama’s death.

“I have a very simple message for those who might be thinking of going overseas to join these terrorist groups: Don’t,” he said.  “They are death cults. … They are not about religion, they are just about death, and it’s just as likely to be your death as anyone else’s death.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that as many as 90 Australians were fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS Terrorists Reportedly Being Attacked By Skin Disease

A horrifically painful and potentially fatal skin disease is reportedly breaking out among the members of the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Leishmaniasis is spread through the bite of female sand fleas.  It causes open lesions on the skin that eat away at flesh.  Without medical treatment, the disease can be fatal.  The final stages of the disease attack the spleen and liver along with destroying red blood cells.

Medical centers in the region have closed because of the terrorists.  Doctors Without Borders had clinics in the region to treat the disease that was almost at epidemic levels before their departure but it was deemed unsafe for their staff to continue operations.

However, the London Daily Mirror reported that many of the terrorists are refusing to accept medical help for their infections, contributing to the spread among the terrorists fighting the Iraqi army.

The disease is common in areas where people suffer from extreme poverty, malnutrition and deforestation.   The disease gained international exposure in 2008 when a British TV host contracted it on a shoot and was hospitalized for three weeks to fight the disease including rounds of chemotherapy.

Air Force Veteran Charged With Attempting To Join ISIS

A U.S. Air Force veteran is jailed on charges of attempting to join the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh is facing charges of attempting to provide material support to terrorists and providing resources to a terrorist organization.  He also was charged with obstruction of justice for destroying thumb drives containing evidence of his online interaction with the terrorist group.

Pugh had lost his job as an airplane mechanic, which was based in the middle east.  After the job loss, he traveled from Egypt to Turkey with the intent of sneaking into Syria.

“Pugh, an American citizen and former member of our military, allegedly abandoned his allegiance to the United States and sought to provide material support to ISI[S],” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin said. “Identifying and bringing to justice individuals who provide or attempt to provide material support to terrorists is a key priority of the National Security Division.”

U.S. intelligence officials say that at least 150 Americans are fighting with the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.

Experts Say ISIS Suffering From Infighting

On the heels of losing the key city of Tikrit to Iraqi forced backed by U.S. airstrikes, intelligence experts say that ISIS is suffering from infighting that is causing overall weakening in the ranks.

“The key challenge facing ISIS right now is more internal than external,” The Washington Post quotes Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, as saying. “We’re seeing basically a failure of the central tenet of ISIS ideology, which is to unify people of different origins under the caliphate. This is not working on the ground. It is making them less effective in governing and less effective in military operations.”

One of the problems is that ISIS recruits in Iraq feel that preferential treatment is being given to the ISIS recruits in Syria.  Also the living conditions of ISIS recruits in rural areas are considered to be much less favorable than those in urban centers.

Also, the group has executed 120 of its own members for various perceived failures in loyalty, which has caused dissention among the ranks.

ISIS was driven out of Tikrit by a force of 30,000 Iraqi troops and militia which has also delivered a blow to the morale of the terrorist army.

Canadian Terrorist Made Video Explaining Attack

The terrorist who attacked a soldier and then stormed the Parliament before being killed by security forces left behind a video made moments before the attack explaining his intentions.

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, said in the video that Canada had no business in Afghanistan and that Canadian troops were “not even safe in your own land.”

“Canada’s officially become one of our enemies by fighting and bombing us and creating a lot of terror in our countries and killing us and our innocents,” Zehaf-Bibeau says in the video he made in his car, which was released by police on Friday. “So we [are] just aiming to hit some soldiers just to show you’re not even safe in your own land and you got to be careful.”

Police say that the terrorist had applied for a passport with the intention of fleeing Canada and joining ISIS in Syria.

Ironically, the killer had reconnected with his family just before the attack.  He had lunch with his mother two days before the assault, the first time he had contacted her in five years.

“No words can express the sadness we are feeling at this time,” Susan Bibeau said in a statement on behalf of herself and Bibeau-Zehaf’s father, Bulgasem Zehaf, after the shooting.

“We are so sad that a man lost his life. He has lost everything and he leaves behind a family that must feel nothing but pain and sorrow. We send our deepest condolences to them although words seem pretty useless. We are both crying for them,” said Bibeau, who works as a federal public servant for the Immigrant & Refugee board and lives in Montreal.

American Fighting Alongside ISIS Dies In Homicide Bomb Attack

A new release from the terrorist group ISIS claims that an American carried out a terrorist bombing earlier this week.

“The brother Abu Dawud al-Amriki (may Allah accept him) launched himself with his explosives-laden truck,” an ISIS bulletin read, according to AFP news agency.

CNN claims that U.S. government officials have not confirmed the identity of the bomber but did admit that at least 150 Americans have made their way to Syria and Iraq to fight with the terrorists.

However, two senior Iraqi officials confirmed the attack.

The news of the attack has further stirred up concern on Capitol Hill concerning potential domestic terrorists.  Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said that Syria has the largest collection of Islamic terrorists in world history.

“I am worried about our ability to combat this threat abroad, but also here at home. I wrote to the president recently as part of my ongoing investigation and raised concerns that we have no lead agency in charge of countering domestic radicalization and no line item for it in the budgets of key departments and agencies,” McCaul, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said at the time.

A CNN report says most Americans who joined ISIS are in their late teens or early 20’s who had expressed online and in conversations with friends conflict between western life and the teachings of Islam.

Teacher Sentenced To 6 Years For Attempting To Join ISIS

A British teacher who was plotting to join ISIS in Syria has been sentenced to six years in prison for his efforts.

Jamshed Javeed came to the attention of local officials after he was turned in by his family.  His sister recorded arguments between Jamshed and his family on her iPad and provided those recordings to officials.

“It was clear from the evidence in this case that the family were absolutely set against him joining this terrorist group in Syria,” Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole said. “They took (what) I consider to be some brave steps in terms of hiding his equipment … And absolutely without doubt they confronted him on his desire to go out and expressed their desire that he does not travel and join this group.”

Police say the family hid Jamshed’s passport so when he attempted to gain a second one authorities were able to arrest him for attempting to join ISIS.

Jamshed claims he was just “trying to help the people of Syria.”

The judge dismissed Jamshed’s claims noting that he wanted to leave even after finding out his wife was pregnant.