The Islamic state

[butchersapron]

Some detail in the article on the changes to IS finances would be useful. Presumably, the loss of refineries will have dented funding. However, the reduction in the costs of running the calpihate would set this off, I suppose.

Most ISIS funding always came from taxing populations and trade/movement/protection - that, of course, was also dependent on control of territory and populations.

 

[Poi E]

Amazing how the free market works.

 

[likesfish]

i.s. will probably die jihadist headchoppers will continue for a long time to come need a pissed off muslim who thinks paradise awaits kind of difficult to stop a plot that reloves around grab a knife and hire truck and start stabbing.
the more convulated the plot the easy it is to foil.

 

[teqniq]

'Persistent, Expanding and Worrisome': ISIS Rebounds in Afghanistan

 

[hot air baboon]

missed this story at the time...still on-going

Former CEO of Lafarge under investigation over Syria terrorism funding

David Keohane DECEMBER 8, 2017

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Bruno Lafont, the former head of Lafarge, was placed under formal investigation by French prosecutors over allegations the company helped finance terrorism in Syria*.

Mr Lafont, who was CEO of Lafarge until 2015, is being investigated in relation to possible terrorism financing, endangering the lives of others and customs offences on Friday evening in Paris, according to a judicial source. His successor at the head of the company, Eric Olsen, was placed under formal investigation on Thursday night.

The investigation is part of a scandal that already led to the exit of Mr Olsen as chief executive of LafargeHolcim earlier this year. It surrounds a Lafarge plant the company kept running as Syria descended into civil war during 2013 and 2014.

LafargeHolcim, which was formed by a €41bn merger between France’s Lafarge and Switzerland’s Holcim in 2015, has previously admitted that “unacceptable measures” had been taken to keep the Syrian plant running, including payments to intermediaries to avoid disruption by local armed groups. The company has said “selected members of group management” were aware of possible violations of business conduct standards. However, despite an internal investigation, the company has not been able to say if funds ultimately ended up with militant group Isis.

 

[butchersapron]

Interesting in-depth piece directly related to the above:

The Factory: A Glimpse into Syria’s War Economy

After the October 2017 fall of Raqqa to U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab guerrillas, the extremist group known as the Islamic State is finally crumbling. But victory came a cost: Raqqa lies in ruins, and so does much of northern Syria.1

At least one of the tools for reconstruction is within reach. An hour and a half’s drive from Raqqa lies one of the largest and most modern cement plants in the entire Middle East, opened less than a year before the war by the multinational construction giant LafargeHolcim. If production were to be resumed, the factory would be perfectly positioned to help rebuild bombed-out cities like Raqqa and Aleppo.

However, although the factory may well hold one of the keys to Syria’s future, it also has an unseemly past.

 

[butchersapron]

Terry Eagleton used Walter Benjamin's 'Every emergence of fascism bears witness to a failed revolution' quote yesterday in The Guardian, referencing ISIS.

Leila Al-Shami and Robin Yassin-Kassab have also just used it to end their new chapter of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War but somehow manage to put an optimistic spin on the terrifying thoughts of what comes next.

 

[Dogsauce]

“Hello? Is that the ghost of Norris McWhirter? Do you still have that violin measuring tool to hand?”

Islamic State 'Beatles' duo complain about losing UK citizenship

 

[likesfish]

You could make the argument they deserve a fair trial and consulate representation but as they rejected the Uk went to join the Islamic state and then committed atrocities which even the Koran forbids people who bring Muslims aid can’t be murdered frankly look to IS for legal support.

 

[butchersapron]

...I wouldn't even neccessarily single out Assad...the blurb fails to mention Iraq & the role of the ex-Sadam Hussein bad-guys like the late Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri - and the rest of the old bastard's dirty orchestra that carried on playing on the sinking ship long after the Conductor had left the stage :

The hidden hand behind the Islamic State militants? Saddam Hussein’s.

He ain't late no more. He has just re-surfaced yet again (been on run since 2003) declaring a new resistance against the Safawid occupation. In his baath gear - it seems he is still party leader.

 

[teqniq]

Originally published yesterday.

 

[butchersapron]

Huge two days of attacks in Iraq under a new name but in old areas. And re-badged as anti-Safawid resistance. How odd that Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri re-appears from the dead and declares a resistance against the safawid just before.

 

[teqniq]

 

[teqniq]

I am guessing that the Russian logic behind this is that they will be somebody else's problem when they go, most likely the SDF and the Americans.

ISIS accepts withdrawal from southern Damascus - Observatory

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that ISIS organization announced through the negotiating intermediaries, that they will comply with terms of agreement which was reached between them and Russian representatives and the Syrian regime to depart from the south of Damascus.

The agreement came after intensive artillery and missile strikes, accompanied by violent clashes between the regime forces and ISIS’s loyal supporters....

 

[teqniq]

i think there could be plenty of other things that could be talked about here including how IS have predictably reverted to guerrilla warfare (who saw that coming?) but this is pretty crazy. How come these guys are now in Germany wandering around at large?

 

[teqniq]

The Leader of the Islamic State's New Recording - The Atlantic

 

[sim667]

I watched Path of Blood the other day which is a pretty dark look at Al Qaida, its all made from home videos shot by themselves, and then captured.

 

[twentythreedom]

Was wondering earlier if anything has been heard of John Cantlie. No news almost certainly bad news

 

[teqniq]

Whilst the last fighters of the Caliphate are being defeated in Syria, this is happening in Iraq. It probably doesn't come as a massive surprise to people on here who have had an interest in IS.

Undefeated, ISIS Is Back in Iraq

 

[teqniq]

 

[teqniq]

 

[teqniq]

 

[Riklet]

The brutal repression thats been unleashed in Iraq against suspected ISIS members, other Jihadis and unlucky sunni iraqis in the wrong place is pretty shit and likely to keep ISIS as a powerful force even with this surrender.

Dont get me wrong, I'm all in favour of prosecuting them and pushing them when appropriate, but it seems like it's been really fucked up in Iraq. No surprise the guys in the vid are keener to surrender to and be imprisoned by SDF forces in Northern Syria.

What the hell is going to happen next, in any case, consider they're now prisoners in a poor underfunded revolutionary state which isn't recognised officially?

 

[petee]

horrifying

More than 100 Mali villagers killed by gunmen

islamist groups nowhere near done, both giving and getting.

 

[Don Troooomp]

brogdale, Aug 16, 2014

Several years have gone by, the death and misery have gone way past anything anyone can count, but all they managed was nothing.
The only slightly good thing out of any of this is a whole bunch of extremist idiots have died - pity about all the innocents that were killed in the process.
What a set of plonkers IS were - let's hope they're all dead and out of the way.

So, who will be the next lot to be armed and trained by foreign powers to bring peace and goodness to the arms dealers' bank accounts?

 

[teqniq]

horrifying

More than 100 Mali villagers killed by gunmen

IS groups nowhere near done, both giving and getting.

That, if you read is not an attack by an IS affiliate.

 

[teqniq]

What a set of plonkers IS were - let's hope they're all dead and out of the way.

They are not, see linked article above.

So, who will be the next lot to be armed and trained by foreign powers to bring peace and goodness to the arms dealers' bank accounts?

Enough with the conspiracy bullshit.

 

[petee]

That, if you read is not an attack by an IS affiliate.

thank you professor.

 

[teqniq]

thank you professor.

I do not claim to be an expert on this, not in any way whatsoever. But that report has nothing to do with the Islamic State.

 

[Don Troooomp]

They are not, see linked article above.


Enough with the conspiracy bullshit.

What conspiracy?

'I gave the US trucks and ammunition to Al Qaeda': The chaotic US effort to arm Syrian rebels

OK, that's Fox but there are plenty of other non-Fox stories from real news outlets. The US armed and trained several 'moderate' groups that all immediately joined ISIS.