ISIS

Drazzil · Post by **Drazzil** » Sat Aug 15, 2015 11:46 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Yup. From a WaPo article:

The disclosure that Mueller was raped by Baghdadi adds to the grim evidence that the exploitation and abuse of women has been sanctioned at the highest levels of the Islamic State. The sexual enslavement of even teenage girls is seen as religiously endorsed by the group and regarded as a recruiting tool.
It helps demonstrate that it's coming from the top and not a behavior or tactic being utilized by fringe elements. It's also an absolutely horrific revelation and I cannot even begin to imagine what her parents must have been dealing with over the last 6 months.

I'm so sick of hearing about ISIS. The middle east need to take care of this on their own, or enter a dark age, either way. Containment should be the order of the day. Either that or lets charge the whole of the middle east enough to make a profit on this war.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 2:45 am

It's like someone gave ISIS an evil checklist and they're enthusiastically ticking the boxes.

Moliere · Post by **Moliere** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 11:02 am

Kraken wrote:It's like Mohammad gave ISIS a Qur'an and they're enthusiastically following it.

Qur'an 4:24 - Rape

"And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you."

Qur'an 5:33 - Murder

"The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"

Qur'an 9:5 - Idolators

"So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them."

Qur'an 9:29 - Dominate The World

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

Moliere · Post by **Moliere** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 5:06 pm

Add archaeologists to the list of banned professions.

Khaled Asaad was a respected scholar who devoted more than five decades of his life to preserving the majestic, 2,000-year-old ruins of Palmyra, a city in the Syrian desert.

On Tuesday, Islamic State extremists beheaded the former chief of antiquities in the city and left his mangled body hanging in public for terrified residents to view, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

The murder of Asaad, confirmed by Syrian activists, marks not just another attack by the puritanical group’s militants on the region’s vast archeological heritage but also an assault on those who look after it. The 82-year-old archeologist was killed after refusing to divulge information on “specific archeological treasures,” according to SANA, which cited comments from the Syrian government’s antiquities head, Maamoun Abdulkarim.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 5:58 pm

The article I read said he was being interrogated by militants and when he refused to provide them with the information they wanted, they cut off his head. So from my article it wasn't so much his profession as it was his non-compliance.

In any case, fuck you, ISIL.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:30 am

Profile: Khaled al-Asaad, Syria's 'Mr Palmyra'

When he retired in 2003, his son Walid took on the mantle of his work at the site - both were reportedly detained by IS last month. Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told AFP that Mr Asaad's other son Mohammed and his son-in-law Khalil actively participated in the rescue of 400 antiquities as the town was being taken over by the jihadists in May.

Mr Abdul Karim said IS militants had tried to extract information from Mr Assad about where some treasures were hidden. Some reports say that he was executed after refusing these requests.

Historian and writer Tom Holland said if the reports were true, Mr Asaad was "not just a martyr, but a hero. "Islamic State is very keen on the idea of martyrdom, but if this is true, it shows that it is not only religiously inspired interpretations of the past that people feel are worth dying for."

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 6:24 pm

Palmyra's Baalshamin temple 'blown up by IS'

Islamic State militants have destroyed Palmyra's ancient temple of Baalshamin, Syrian officials and activists say. Syria's head of antiquities was quoted as saying the temple was blown up on Sunday. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that it happened one month ago.

IS took control of Palmyra in May, sparking fears the group might demolish the Unesco World Heritage site. The group has destroyed several ancient sites in Iraq.

IS "placed a large quantity of explosives in the temple of Baalshamin today and then blew it up causing much damage to the temple," Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told AFP news agency. "The cella (inner area of the temple) was destroyed and the columns around collapsed," he said.

Residents who had fled from Palmyra also said IS had planted explosives at the temple, although they had done it about one month ago, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Mon Aug 24, 2015 1:30 pm

Isn't this a situation where U.N. Peacekeeping forces could be utilized?

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Mon Aug 24, 2015 1:55 pm

Moliere wrote:
Kraken wrote:It's like Mohammad gave ISIS a Qur'an and they're enthusiastically following it.
Qur'an 4:24 - Rape
"And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you."

Sounds a lot more like masturbation than rape, if you ask me. But who could tell, with all the parentheses? Those are implied words I presume? Still not sure how you get rape out of that.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Mon Aug 24, 2015 3:01 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote:
Moliere wrote:
Kraken wrote:It's like Mohammad gave ISIS a Qur'an and they're enthusiastically following it.
Qur'an 4:24 - Rape
"And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you."
Sounds a lot more like masturbation than rape, if you ask me. But who could tell, with all the parentheses? Those are implied words I presume? Still not sure how you get rape out of that.

The phrase "those whom your right hands possess" refers to slaves.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 1:03 pm

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sun Aug 30, 2015 6:45 pm

IS causes 'severe damage' to Palmyra's Temple of Bel

The Islamic State (IS) militant group has destroyed part of another temple at the ancient Syrian site of Palmyra, activists and witnesses say. The extent of the damage to the Temple of Bel is not clear but residents have described a large explosion.

A week ago IS published images of what appeared to be the destruction of another part of the site, the Temple of Baalshamin. IS seized control of Palmyra in May, sparking fears for the site.

"It is total destruction,'' one Palmyra resident told the Associated Press news agency. "The bricks and columns are on the ground." "It was an explosion the deaf would hear," he went on, adding that only the wall of the temple remains.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Mon Aug 31, 2015 2:11 pm

Four wars and counting: Making sense of the anti-IS struggle

Adversity, they say, makes strange bedfellows. This is especially true in the contemporary Middle East.

The rise of so-called Islamic State (IS), which controls a swathe of territory in Syria and Iraq, has prompted the creation of a large, multinational coalition including the US, Turkey, and Washington's Gulf allies, all intent on its destruction. So too of course is Iran and, not surprisingly, Israel. This has resulted, for example, in pro-Iranian militias in Iraq appearing to be on the same side as the US. The struggle against IS in Syria has prompted even more contradictions - with Gulf states suspected of supporting Sunni groups linked to al-Qaeda - while al-Qaeda affiliates like Jabhat-al-Nusrah have battled US-trained moderate Syrian militias.

So what exactly is going on? How are we to make sense of some of these curious alliances and contradictions?

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Mon Aug 31, 2015 7:14 pm

UN Confirms Palmyra Temple Destroyed

A satellite image confirms that a temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra has been destroyed, the United Nations says.

There had been earlier reports of an explosion at the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, which is held by militants from Islamic State (IS). Syria's antiquities chief had earlier said the basic structure of the 2,000-year-old site was intact. But UN satellite analysts say the image shows almost nothing remains. "We can confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity," a statement from the UN's training and research agency, Unitar, said.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Mon Aug 31, 2015 8:45 pm

That sucks. It's amazing how much people suck sometimes, and the batshit crazy things they do in the name of religion.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Mon Aug 31, 2015 9:54 pm

When war crimes aren't enough, go for crimes against humanity. It's like beheading history.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 8:34 pm

American Civilians And Veterans Are Fighting ISIS In Syria And Iraq

The report finds that an estimated 108 Americans from 31 states have joined militant groups that include the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia, and Iraqi peshmerga forces, as well as various Christian militias in Iraq and Syria. Texas, Ohio and Colorado are the most represented states relative to their populations.

About two-thirds of the American fighters have some background in the U.S. armed forces. Others, however, are ordinary civilians, and found groups like the YPG that are willing to accept inexperienced volunteers. Of the 108 fighters included in the report, only one is a woman.

The report attempts to explain what motivates Americans to go fight in Syria and Iraq. It finds that there is no single common reason, although some patterns emerged. Some of the fighters went out of a sense of moral outrage or dismay, the report states, with a few saying they felt compelled to help after seeing video footage of fleeing Yazidi women and children trapped on Iraq's Mount Sinjar after an Islamic State advance.

...
While the Bellingcat report focuses on fighters from the U.S., this isn't just an American issue. Anti-Islamic State fighters from Canada and from countries across Europe have also joined militias, posing unique legal problems for the home countries that have laws against joining certain foreign armed groups.

Canada's government, which has proposed travel bans to certain areas in Syria and Iraq to stop people joining extremist groups, has said there will be an exemption for citizens fighting against Islamic State. Likewise, the Netherlands' public prosecutor has said that members of biker gangs who join Kurdish militias will not face any charges if they return, unlike those who have joined designated terrorist groups. It's not clear what legal consequences, if any, might await U.S. citizens who go overseas to fight the Islamic State and then return home.

Good and all, but doesn't that put them on the side of Assad?

Drazzil · Post by **Drazzil** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 9:48 pm

And yet a lot of the people of the middle east are too cowardly or complicit to say or do anything against ISIS.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:17 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote:American Civilians And Veterans Are Fighting ISIS In Syria And Iraq

The report finds that an estimated 108 Americans from 31 states have joined militant groups that include the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia, and Iraqi peshmerga forces, as well as various Christian militias in Iraq and Syria. Texas, Ohio and Colorado are the most represented states relative to their populations.

About two-thirds of the American fighters have some background in the U.S. armed forces. Others, however, are ordinary civilians, and found groups like the YPG that are willing to accept inexperienced volunteers. Of the 108 fighters included in the report, only one is a woman.

The report attempts to explain what motivates Americans to go fight in Syria and Iraq. It finds that there is no single common reason, although some patterns emerged. Some of the fighters went out of a sense of moral outrage or dismay, the report states, with a few saying they felt compelled to help after seeing video footage of fleeing Yazidi women and children trapped on Iraq's Mount Sinjar after an Islamic State advance.

...
While the Bellingcat report focuses on fighters from the U.S., this isn't just an American issue. Anti-Islamic State fighters from Canada and from countries across Europe have also joined militias, posing unique legal problems for the home countries that have laws against joining certain foreign armed groups.

Canada's government, which has proposed travel bans to certain areas in Syria and Iraq to stop people joining extremist groups, has said there will be an exemption for citizens fighting against Islamic State. Likewise, the Netherlands' public prosecutor has said that members of biker gangs who join Kurdish militias will not face any charges if they return, unlike those who have joined designated terrorist groups. It's not clear what legal consequences, if any, might await U.S. citizens who go overseas to fight the Islamic State and then return home.
Good and all, but doesn't that put them on the side of Assad?

The Kurds are no friend of Assad.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:17 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote: Good and all, but doesn't that put them on the side of Assad?

Yes, but...the Syrian civil war is about a lot more than Assad now.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:40 pm

It's amazing how the name Assad has all but disappeared from the narrative at this point.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 10:26 pm

I'm sure deposing Assad is still the defining issue for the Syrians. It's just that their civil war got hijacked and their tyrant, inconveniently, is the lesser evil as far as us outsiders are concerned.

Alefroth · Post by **Alefroth** » Mon Sep 07, 2015 10:56 pm

Drazzil wrote:And yet a lot of the people of the middle east are too cowardly or complicit to say or do anything against ISIS.

What would you do in their situation?

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 10:59 am

Kraken wrote:I'm sure deposing Assad is still the defining issue for the Syrians. It's just that their civil war got hijacked and their tyrant, inconveniently, is the lesser evil as far as us outsiders are concerned.

Exactly this. Heard a report this morning that mentioned a Pentagon initiative to try and recruit Syrians to fight ISIS, and about 85% less than expected agreed to do so, because they wanted to focus on Assad, not ISIS.

WE want ISIS cleared out more than we want Assad cleared out, but that is not true for many that actually live in the area.

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:27 pm

A few months old, but I noticed this in my newsfeed:

U.S. intelligence documents released to a government watchdog confirms the suspicions that the United States and some of its so-called coalition partners had actually facilitated the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as an effective adversary against the government of the Syrian dictator President Bashar al-Assad. In addition, ISIS members were initially trained by members and contractors of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at facilities in Jordan in 2012. The original goal was to weaken the Syrian government which had engaged in war crimes against their own people, according to a number of reports on Sunday.

link

It's Afghanistan all over again.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:32 pm

That's the rub in situations like this. Do you idly by while the ruthless dictator crushes people fighting against his tyrannical rule, without so much as supplying them with weapons or training? Or do you help the rebels, knowing that people capable of winning armed revolutions are usually assholes of some unpredictable stripe?

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:34 pm

Based on our record, the answer seems to be "yes, stand idly by" because we are statistically HIGHLY likely to make shit worse by intervening.

I'd like to see a spreadsheet with:
# times US has intervened in another countries' affairs with direct intervention (boots on the ground or air strikes)
# times US has intervened in another countries' affairs with indirect intervention (arming or training opposition groups)
# times US has done both
Results of those actions in a single sentence summary

Maybe cross reference that with other nations as well (Russia, China, etc). I'll wait while you whip that up, Is.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:48 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote:Based on our record, the answer seems to be "yes, stand idly by" because we are statistically HIGHLY likely to make shit worse by intervening.

I'd like to see a spreadsheet with:
# times US has intervened in another countries' affairs with direct intervention (boots on the ground or air strikes)
# times US has intervened in another countries' affairs with indirect intervention (arming or training opposition groups)
# times US has done both
Results of those actions in a single sentence summary

Maybe cross reference that with other nations as well (Russia, China, etc). I'll wait while you whip that up, Is.

You're allowing for a full sentence for the summary? How generous of you.

Anyhow, you do have to allow that these are necessarily fucked up situations to begin with, so in no event is the end result going to be "Jeffersonian democracy the following year." The helpful, most recent comparison is this:

(1) Libya: U.S. and international intervention via air strikes to help rebels. Rebels topple dictator. Libya is currently generally a mess, including an ongoing civil war.

(2) Syria: no intervention to aid rebels; limited aid. Rebels and dictator grind out a massive, ongoing civil war, with the dictator (for the moment) still in power.

Pick one!

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:50 pm

Rip wrote:
The Kurds are no friend of Assad.

Sun Tzu would beg to differ.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:52 pm

I meant for the past 40 years or so, to see any patterns that might present themselves with a longer series.

Feel free to make it 2 sentences instead of one.

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 12:33 pm

Defiant wrote:link

It's Afghanistan all over again.

And/or Iraq.

Exclusive: 50 Spies Say ISIS Intelligence Was Cooked:

TheDailyBeast.com wrote:More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military's Central Command have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered by senior officials, The Daily Beast has learned.

The complaints spurred the Pentagon’s inspector general to open an investigation into the alleged manipulation of intelligence. The fact that so many people complained suggests there are deep-rooted, systemic problems in how the U.S. military command charged with the war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State assesses intelligence.

“The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command,” one defense official said.

Two senior analysts at CENTCOM signed a written complaint sent to the Defense Department inspector general in July alleging that the reports, some of which were briefed to President Obama, portrayed the terror groups as weaker than the analysts believe they are. The reports were changed by CENTCOM higher-ups to adhere to the administration’s public line that the U.S. is winning the battle against ISIS and al Nusra, al Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the analysts claim.

That complaint was supported by 50 other analysts, some of whom have complained about politicizing of intelligence reports for months. That’s according to 11 individuals who are knowledgeable about the details of the report and who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity.

The accusations suggest that a large number of people tracking the inner workings of the terror groups think that their reports are being manipulated to fit a public narrative. The allegations echoed charges that political appointees and senior officials cherry-picked intelligence about Iraq’s supposed weapons program in 2002 and 2003.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 1:36 pm

I'm not sure which is worse. doctoring intel so that you can go to war, or doctoring it so that you don't have to go to war.

In either case, WTF?

Facts are facts. You can use them or ignore them, but don't change them and pretend they don't exist in their original form.

That way leads to decisions based on what is made up, not on what is, and that's a sure way to fail.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 1:55 am

GreenGoo wrote:
Facts are facts. You can use them or ignore them, but don't change them and pretend they don't exist in their original form.

Even a slow study like Einstein could grasp this.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:15 am

Yeah, but he meant to literally change the facts. The old facts are replaced by new facts, not by lies.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 10:29 am

Lies, damned lies, and upper level intelligence.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:10 am

GreenGoo wrote:Yeah, but he meant to literally change the facts. The old facts are replaced by new facts, not by lies.

Everything is a fact until proven otherwise.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:34 am

Rip wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:Yeah, but he meant to literally change the facts. The old facts are replaced by new facts, not by lies.
Everything is a fact until proven otherwise.

Well, if that's the case, the modified intel was already proven wrong by the very intel that was modified.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:38 am

GreenGoo wrote:
Rip wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:Yeah, but he meant to literally change the facts. The old facts are replaced by new facts, not by lies.
Everything is a fact until proven otherwise.
Well, if that's the case, the modified intel was already proven wrong by the very intel that was modified.

Proven by someone on the outside.

From the inside facts are whatever advances your agenda.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:57 am

You just made every atheist on earth wet themselves.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:01 am

President Barack Obama warned Russia on Friday against doubling down on sending support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, casting recent buildup of Russian military equipment and personnel in Syria in an effort to help prop up the embattled leader.

"The strategy they're pursuing right now of doubling down on Assad is a mistake," Obama said during a town hall with U.S. military personnel.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09 ... tcmp=hpbt1

Poor Putin must be literally quaking in his boots.

No one takes Obama's warnings seriously. At this point everyone already knows it is just rhetoric with no teeth.