Paris under attack

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Isis: The munitions trail

The Financial Times / November 30, 2015

As a known arms dealer for rebels fighting Isis in his east Syrian home town, Abu Ali was sure his days were numbered when, a year ago, two jihadi commanders stepped out of their pickup truck and walked towards him.

He was baffled when they handed him a printed paper. “It read, ‘This person is permitted to buy and sell all types of weaponry inside the Islamic State,’” recalls Abu Ali. “It was even stamped ‘Mosul Centre’.”

Rather than being detained or expelled as they had feared when the jihadi group swept through eastern Syria last year, many black-market traders such as Abu Ali were courted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis). They were absorbed into a complex system of supply and demand that keeps the world’s richest jihadi group stocked with munitions across a self-proclaimed “caliphate” spanning half of Syria and a third of Iraq.

“They buy like mad. They buy every day: morning, afternoon and night,” says Abu Ali, who, like others who have operated inside Isis territories, asked not to be identified by his real name.

Isis seized hundreds of millions dollars worth of weapons when it captured Iraq’s second city, Mosul, in the summer of 2014. Since then, in every battle that it has won, it has acquired more material. Its arsenal includes US-made Abrams tanks, M16 rifles, MK-19 40mm grenade launchers (seized from the Iraqi army) and Russian M-46 130mm field guns (taken from Syrian forces).

But dealers say despite this, there is one thing Isis still needs: ammunition. Most in demand are rounds for Kalashnikov assault rifles, medium-calibre machine guns and 14.5mm and 12.5mm anti-aircraft guns. Isis also buys rocket-propelled grenades and sniper bullets, but in smaller quantities.

It is difficult to calculate the exact sums involved in Isis’s multimillion dollar munitions trade. Earlier this year, skirmishes along the front lines near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor — just one of many Isis battlefields — required at least $1m-worth of munitions each month, according to interviews with fighters and dealers. A week-long December offensive on the nearby airport alone required another $1m, they said.

Isis’s need for ammunition reflects its battle tactics: the group relies heavily on truck bombs, suicide vests and improvised explosives during both advances and retreats. But the fast-paced fighting in between — mostly with Kalashnikovs and truck-mounted machine guns — can consume tens of thousands of bullets in a single day. Fighters say that ammunition trucks resupply various front lines every day.

To secure this supply, Isis runs a complex logistics operation, which fighters say is so critical that it is directly overseen by the higher military council that is part of the group’s top leadership. This is similar to the way it controls the trade in oil, the group’s main source of revenue.

The best sources of ammunition are Isis’s enemies. Pro-government militia in Iraq sell some supplies to black marketeers, who then sell on to Isis dealers.

Most of all, Isis fighters rely on their rivals in Syria’s three-way war between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and the rebels fighting to topple both him and Isis. This is where Syrian arms dealers play a critical role. Abu Ali fled when asked to join their ranks but Abu Omar, a veteran black marketeer in his sixties, plunged into the trade.

“We could buy from the regime, the Iraqis, the rebels — if we could buy from the Israelis, they wouldn’t care, as long as they got the weapons,” says Abu Omar. Speaking to the Financial Times while knocking back whiskies at a bar in Turkey, he recounts his year as a gunrunner for Isis. He abandoned the trade in August, he says, after deciding Isis was “oppressive”.

Isis commanders provide stamped IDs for traders who have been officially approved by two members of Isis’s security branches. The group then imposes an exclusivity clause: the gun-runners can move freely and ply their trade — as long as Isis is the only customer.

The jihadis’ opponents are intrigued by the group’s ability to move huge supplies of munitions quickly during fighting. In northern Iraq, Kurdish peshmerga fighters recovered detailed documents of weapons and ammunition shipments outlining orders that had been made for the battles that had just ended.

“Within 24 hours, the ammunition was sent to them by car,” says one security official in Iraq, who asked not to be named.

Fighters and dealers credit the speed to the jihadis’ communications systems. A roving “committee” appointed by the top military council in Iraq speaks constantly with weapons “centres” in each province, they say, which in turn take requests from military emirs.

Exchanges between emirs and the “centres” can sometimes be heard on walkie-talkie frequencies by their enemies. From the Iraqi-Syrian border, Kurdish peshmerga fighters huddle around a device tuned to a crackling Isis frequency, as fighters shout for “kebab”, “chicken tikka” and “salad”.

“Kebab is probably a heavy machine gun,” says Abu Ahmad, a rebel commander from eastern Syria who fought under Isis until he fled to Turkey this summer. “The salad would be Kalashnikov ammunition. You’ve got explosive bullets, penetrating bullets — a mix, just like salad,” he laughs.

Abu Omar says he contacted the centres using WhatsApp, the mobile texting service. Every few days the roving committee issues price lists that the centres use for the bullets and grenades that are most in demand. The centre to which Abu Omar reported would text him any price updates. Dealers say their commission ranged from 10 to 20 per cent.

Prices are rising as US-backed coalition fighters drive the group farther from the Turkish border, limiting potential smuggling routes, Abu Ahmad told the FT. Isis has issued more licences to boost competition and lower prices, one dealer complained, leading arms traders to jostle for the same deals.

Most munitions come from Syria, now a source of weapons for the wider region. Gulf backers send their favourite rebel groups truckloads of munitions over the Turkish border. Corrupt fighters divert some to local dealers; the border provinces of Idlib and Aleppo have now become the biggest black market in the country, say locals.

Ideology hardly matters after five years of war, Abu Ahmad says. “Some (dealers) even hate Isis. But that doesn’t matter when it comes to making a profit.”

Dealers use a network of drivers and smugglers to hide munitions in trucks delivering civilian goods such as vegetables and materials for construction. “You have trucks moving in and out like crazy. They are always using things that aren’t suspect,” says Abu Ahmad. “Fuel trucks are used a lot, because they come back to Isis territory empty.”

Munitions from Moscow and Tehran that are meant for Mr Assad are another top source of weaponry bought on the black market, often in areas such as southern Suwaida. “They like Russian products,” says Abu Omar. “The Iranian stuff they will buy — but only cheaply.”

In an area with few economic opportunities left, stopping the trade becomes all the more challenging. Every time an arms trader flees, many more are desperate for a chance to make money.

“Today, it’s all about money. Nobody cares who you are . . . They just care about the dollar,” said Abu Omar.

ISIS Bombs

The bombs that have made Isis infamous in battle are also the most difficult part of the group’s supply chain to disrupt.

Experts at the UK-based Conflict Armament Research group (CAR), which has been working with the Kurdistan Region Security Council in Iraq to track Isis munitions, say Isis buys and uses almost anything to make bombs.

“We’ve seen everything from mobile phones and Motorola walkie-talkies to garage door openers and circuit boards of laptops,” says James Bevan, director of CAR, which is tracking Isis ammunitions and explosives on abandoned battlegrounds with the support of the Kurdistan Region Security Council in Iraq.

Many of the goods that the group is buying — such as electronics that are made into bomb triggers — are so innocuous they are near-impossible to control. Other materials, such as aluminium oxide and fertiliser, which CAR has found to be chemicals that Isis often seeks beyond its borders, have legitimate commercial uses in mining or agriculture, making them difficult to to crack down on.

These materials come from all over the world, says one Iraqi official: “Just put your finger on a map, and they’ve got something from there.”

There are a number of conduits used to get these materials to Isis. The biggest by far is Turkey. CAR discovered that some Turkish companies buying demolition and mining materials, for example, are selling to clients who then secretly pass them on to the jihadi group.

The range of materials that Isis accesses through its frontmen gives a sense of how difficult it is to stop the flow. The FT has discovered the case of a businessman in the southern Turkish town of Akcakale who disappeared four months ago after it was discovered he was purchasing plumbing pipes and fertiliser that his employees say were sent on to Isis.

CAR has also documented cases of chemicals and agricultural products such fertiliser coming into Isis hands after passing through Lebanon and Iraq. The group uses these materials to make large quantities of bombs. CAR researchers entered an abandoned bomb facility in Iraq with Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces and found enough explosives to fill half a 20-foot shipping container.

Abu Ahmed, a rebel commander who fought with Isis for a year, says the group even has facilities to make armour for the vehicles that it makes into car bombs.

“They want to be sure the suicide bomber driving the car reaches his target without being shot,” he says.

“Whereas I’ve almost never seen them armour the vehicles they actually use to drive around.”

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Russia arms Su-34s with air-to-air missiles in Syria for 1st time

Russian Su-34 bombers, additionally equipped with air-to-air missiles, have set out on their first mission in Syria.

The decision results from the downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by Turkish F-16s on November 24.

“Today, Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers have made their first sortie equipped not only with high explosive aviation bombs and hollow charge bombs, but also with short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles," said Igor Klimov, spokesman for the Russian Air Force.

"The planes are equipped with missiles for defensive purposes," he added.

The missiles have target-seeking devices and are “capable of hitting air targets within a 60km radius,” he said.

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Where might terrorists source their weapons?

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Weapons stolen from Army Reserve center in Massachusetts

CNN / November 16, 2015

Weapons were stolen from an Army Reserve center in Worcester, Massachusetts, the FBI said.

The agency and local police are searching for the weapons, spokeswoman Kristen Setera said late Sunday. They were found to be missing after a break-in at the Lake St. Army Reserve Center.

CNN affiliate WCVB reported that the break-in occurred late Saturday.

"We have entered those weapons into NCIC, a national database, and alerted our federal, state and local law enforcement partners," Setera said.

"There is no indication that these missing weapons are connected to any kind of terrorism threat whatsoever. Nevertheless, every effort will be made to recover these weapons immediately," she said.

The FBI refused to say what types of weapons went missing.

U.S. offers reward for guns stolen from Massachusetts Army center

Reuters / November 30, 2015

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Monday it was offering a $15,000 reward for tips leading to the recovery of six handguns stolen from a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Massachusetts earlier this month.

Sixteen weapons, including six M-4 rifles and 10 9 mm Sig Sauer pistols, were stolen from the facility in Worcester, about 45 miles (72 km) west of Boston, on Nov. 14.

Ten of the weapons, including all the rifles, were recovered in New York early last week, following the arrest of a suspect in the theft.

"We're asking anyone with information about the location of these weapons to come forward, and anyone who may have access to these weapons to turn them in to either the FBI or their local police department," said Harold Shaw, the FBI's special agent in charge in Boston.

The suspect, 34-year-old James Morales was arrested on Nov. 19 and charged with stealing the guns after breaking into the facility through a kitchen window, federal prosecutors said, citing surveillance video and an electronic monitoring bracelet Morales had been ordered to wear by a court.

Morales had gone to the facility earlier that week to pick up copies of his military discharge papers.

[41chevy]

Russia arms Su-34s with air-to-air missiles in Syria for 1st time

Russian Su-34 bombers, additionally equipped with air-to-air missiles, have set out on their first mission in Syria.

The decision results from the downing of a Russian Su-24 bomber by Turkish F-16s on November 24.

“Today, Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers have made their first sortie equipped not only with high explosive aviation bombs and hollow charge bombs, but also with short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles," said Igor Klimov, spokesman for the Russian Air Force.

"The planes are equipped with missiles for defensive purposes," he added.

The missiles have target-seeking devices and are “capable of hitting air targets within a 60km radius,” he said.

All seems to be going along as planned. Turkey, the Black Market and O must protect the arms and ammo pipe line to ISIS

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Iraqi Militias: We will fight U.S.

Reuters / December 1, 2015

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealed on Tuesday that a permanent new Iraq-based U.S. "specialized expeditionary targeting force" will target ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, operating independently of local troops in Iraq and Syria for the first time.

The ratcheting up of Washington's campaign against ISIS was quickly rejected by Iraq's government.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the deployment of such a force was not acceptable without Iraq's approval, raising questions over how closely Washington coordinated the plan with Baghdad. Powerful Shi'ite Muslim armed groups pledged to fight any new deployment of U.S. forces to the country.

Carter said the deployment of the new special operations troops was being carried out in coordination with Iraq's government and would aid Iraqi government security forces and Kurdish peshmerga forces.

"These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence and capture ISIS leaders," Carter told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

“It puts everybody on notice in Syria,” Carter said. “You don’t know at night who is going to be coming in the window.”

"This force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations into Syria."

Kurdish fighters say US forces in Iraq have secretly been blurring this line for months by taking an increasingly active role on the frontline, but the creeping ground mission once expressly ruled out by Barack Obama now seems to be spreading to Syria.

The force is separate from a previously announced deployment of [allegedly] up to 50 U.S. special operations troops in Syria to coordinate on the ground with U.S.-backed rebels.

"The Iraqi government stresses that any military operation or the deployment of any foreign forces - special or not - in any place in Iraq cannot happen without its approval and coordination and full respect of Iraqi sovereignty," Abadi said in a statement.

Carter offered few details, and declined to say how many U.S. troops would be deployed.

Jafaar Hussaini, a spokesman for Kata'ib Hezbollah, one of the main Shi'ite militant groups, said that any such U.S. force would become a "primary target for our group."

"We fought them [the U.S.] before and we are ready to resume fighting," he said.

Carter said Turkey should become more active in the air war against ISIS, secure its border and go after the militant group's facilitators who "intrude" into the country.

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US pushes Turkey to seal border with Syria

The Financial Times / December 1, 2015

The US publicly called on Turkey to do more to close its border with Syria, which has been a major conduit for the Isis to bring fighters and arms into the country.

As the US announced it would send more special operations forces into Iraq and Syria to take on Isis, Obama said on Tuesday he has had “repeated conversations” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging him block off the border to Isis.

The signs of friction between the US and Turkey come as the US-led coalition is trying to launch a military operation to expel Isis from the last 98km strip of the Syria-Turkish border that it still controls.

The US and Turkey have been discussing the operation for months and US-trained forces have begun fighting Isis in part of the area, however the military plans have been partly hampered by continued disagreements between Washington and Ankara.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says “Turkey must do more to control its often porous border”.

A senior US official said that the discussions with Turkey about the border zone had been a “hard slog”.

The Turks have been pushing for a broader plan that would turn the area into a safe zone for refugees and rebel soldiers once Isis has been expelled.

Carter said that the US was against the idea of a safe zone because of the difficulty of retaining control. He added that the Turks “have not offered a force of the size that would do that [secure the zone]”.

The comments about Turkey’s role in the anti-Isis campaign came as Carter said a “specialized expeditionary targeting force” would be deployed to help Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting Isis and which could also be used in Syria as well.

Carter also urged Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to do more to help the fight against ISIS, saying that in recent months they had been more focused on Yemen.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Sunday it would send ground troops to Syria. Anwar Gargash, UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, said the UAE was pushing for a political deal, but would also back international efforts to set up a regionally led coalition to intervene on the ground to fight terrorism.

Gargash said foreign interference such as a US-led ground intervention was no longer “feasible”, but the Saudi-led coalition — which includes the UAE — that is fighting Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen was “an alternative model for us as nations”.

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Many Iraqis believe the U.S. is helping ISIS

The Washington Post / December 1, 2015

On the front lines of the battle against the Islamic State, suspicion of the United States runs deep. Iraqi fighters say they have all seen the videos purportedly showing U.S. helicopters airdropping weapons to the militants, and many claim they have friends and relatives who have witnessed similar instances of collusion.

Ordinary people also have seen the videos, heard the stories and reached the same conclusion — one that might seem absurd to Americans but is widely believed among Iraqis — that the United States is supporting the Islamic State for a variety of pernicious reasons that have to do with asserting U.S. control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil.

“It is not in doubt,” said Mustafa Saadi, who says his friend saw U.S. helicopters delivering bottled water to Islamic State positions. He is a commander in one of the Shiite militias that last month helped push the militants out of the oil refinery near Baiji in northern Iraq alongside the Iraqi army.

The Islamic State is “almost finished,” he said. “They are weak. If only America would stop supporting them, we could defeat them in days.”

U.S. military officials say the charges are too far-fetched to merit a response. “It’s beyond ridiculous,” said Col. Steve Warren, the military’s Baghdad-based spokesman. “There’s clearly no one in the West who buys it, but unfortunately, this is something that a segment of the Iraqi population believes.”

The perception among Iraqis that the United States is somehow in cahoots with the militants it claims to be fighting appears, however, to be widespread across the country’s Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide, and it speaks to more than just the troubling legacy of mistrust that has clouded the United States’ relationship with Iraq since the 2003 invasion and the subsequent withdrawal eight years later.

At a time when attacks by the Islamic State in Paris and elsewhere have intensified calls for tougher action on the ground, such is the level of suspicion with which the United States is viewed in Iraq that it is unclear whether the Obama administration would be able to significantly escalate its involvement even if it wanted to.

In one example of how little leverage the United States now has, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi pushed back swiftly against an announcement Tuesday by Defense Secretary ­Ashton B. Carter that an expeditionary force of U.S. troops will be dispatched to Iraq to conduct raids, free hostages and capture Islamic State leaders.

Iraq’s semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, where support for the United States remains strong, has said it would welcome more troops. But Abadi indicated they would not be needed.

“There is no need for foreign ground combat troops,” he said in a statement. “Any such support and special operations anywhere in Iraq can only be deployed subject to the approval of the Iraqi Government and in coordination with the Iraqi forces and with full respect to Iraqi sovereignty.”

The allegations of U.S. collusion with the Islamic State are aired regularly in parliament by Shiite politicians and promoted in postings on social media. They are persistent enough to suggest a deliberate campaign on the part of Iran’s allies in Iraq to erode American influence, U.S. officials say.

In one typical recent video that appeared on the Facebook page of a Shiite militia, a lawmaker with the country’s biggest militia group, the Badr Organization, waves apparently new U.S military MREs (meals ready to eat) — one of them chicken and dumplings — allegedly found at a recently captured Islamic State base in Baiji, offering proof, he said, of U.S. support.

“The Iranians and the Iranian-backed Shiite militias are really pushing this line of propaganda, that the United States is supporting ISIL,” Warren said. “It’s part of the Iranian propaganda machine.”

The perception plays into a widening rift within Iraq’s ruling Shiite elite over whether to pivot more toward Iran or the United States. Those pushing the allegations “want to create a narrative that Iran is our ally and the United States is our enemy, and this undermines Abadi, who is America’s ally,” Sowell said.

Iraqi government officials say they don’t believe the charges and point out that Abadi regularly pushes back against them. But Abadi’s own position has weakened in recent months. He is battling for his political survival against a variety of Shiite militia leaders whose power has been bolstered by the increasingly dominant role played on the battlefield by the militias, collectively known as Hashd al-Shaabi, or popular mobilization units.

Iraqi officials complain that their task is hampered by what is universally perceived as the lackluster U.S. response to the threat posed by the Islamic State.

“We don’t believe the Americans support Daesh,” said Naseer Nouri, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. “But it is true that most people are saying they do, and they are right to believe that the Americans should be doing much more than they are. It’s because America is so slow that most people believe they are supporting Daesh.”

U.S. warplanes routinely fail to respond to requests for air support because of U.S. rules of engagement that preclude strikes if there is a risk civilians may be hit, he said. According to Warren, that standard frequently is not met. The United States has conducted more than 3,768 strikes in Iraq as of Nov.­ 19, according to the U.S. military, and the tempo of strikes has increased lately, U.S. officials say.

But it also appears that the fighters are unaware when they do receive U.S. air support. The U.S. military reported near-daily strikes in support of the offensive to recapture Baiji last month and continues to respond regularly to requests for strikes in the vicinity, Warren said.

The fighters there insist there have been no strikes by the Americans at all. “We’d be better off without them,” said 1st Lt. Murtada Fadl, who is serving with the Iraqi elite forces in Baiji. He said that the only air support had come from the Iraqi air force and that he wishes the government would ask the Russians to replace the Americans.

In a part of the world where outcomes are often confused with intentions and regional complexities enable conspiracy theories to thrive, the notion that the United States is colluding with the Islamic State holds a certain logic, according to Mustafa Alani, director of the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. Most Arabs are too in awe of American might to believe that the United States is deliberately adopting a minimalist approach, he said.

“The reason is that the Americans aren’t doing the job people expect them to do,” he said. “Mosul was lost and the Americans did nothing. Syria was lost and the Americans did nothing. Paris is attacked and the Americans aren’t doing much. So people believe this is a deliberate policy. They can’t believe the American leadership fails to understand the developments in the region, and so the only other explanation is that this is part of a conspiracy.”

On the streets of Baghdad, most Iraqis see no other explanation.

“The image of the U.S. was damaged in the region, so they created Daesh in order to fight them and restore their image,” said Mohammed Abdul Khaleq, a journalist for a local TV station who was drinking coffee in a cafe favored by writers, most of whom said they agreed.

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The Local DE / December 2, 2015

Only 29 out of Germany's 66 Tornado jets (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Panavia_Tornado_IDS_of_Luftwaffe,_static_display,_Radom_AirShow_2005,_Poland.jpg) – the type slated to see action on reconnaissance flights over Syria – are airworthy, a Defence Ministry report showed on Wednesday.

"The state of our flying systems remains unsatisfactory," Bundeswehr (German army) chief of staff General Volker Wieker wrote in the report, although he added that the army had managed to "stabilize" its deteriorating readiness.

Germany's Tornados, fighter-bombers designed to fight Soviet forces during the Cold War, are all between 23 and 34 years old and are seen as on their way out of service.

But Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen insisted that Germany would be able to fulfil its commitments to ally France for the fight against Isis.

"Thirty Tornados are ready for action, and we need six of them. That gives us a wide margin," von der Leyen said.

Equipment troubles have plagued the Bundeswehr for years, especially the Luftwaffe (air force), several of whose aircraft ran into technical problems while delivering weapons to Kurds fighting Isis in northern Iraq and field hospitals to West African countries battling the Ebola outbreak.

The full parliament is set to vote on Friday on whether to go ahead with the government's plans to join the battle against Isis in Syria with 1,200 soldiers.

As well as the Tornados outfitted with reconnaissance equipment, Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to send an air refuelling tanker and a navy frigate to join the coalition.

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Russia outlines Turkey’s involvement in ISIS oil trade

Reuters / December 2, 2015

Russia's defense ministry on Wednesday shared evidence that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his family were benefiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from ISIS-held territory in Syria and Iraq.

At a briefing in Moscow, defense ministry officials displayed satellite images showing columns of tanker trucks loading with oil at ISIS-controlled installations in Syria and Iraq, and then crossing the border into neighboring Turkey.

"Turkey is the main consumer of the oil stolen from its rightful owners, Syria and Iraq. According to information we've received, the senior political leadership of the country - President Erdogan and his family - are involved in this criminal business," said Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov.

"Maybe I'm being too blunt, but one can only entrust control over this thieving business to one's closest associates."

"In the West, no one has asked questions about the fact that the Turkish president's son heads one of the biggest energy companies, or that his son-in-law has been appointed energy minister. What a marvelous family business!"

"The cynicism of the Turkish leadership knows no limits. Look what they're doing. They went into someone else's country, they are robbing it without compunction," Antonov said.

The Russian defense ministry also explained how the same criminal networks which were smuggling oil into Turkey were also supplying weapons, equipment and training to Islamic State and other Islamist groups.

"According to our reliable intelligence data, Turkey has been carrying out such operations for a long period and on a regular basis. And most importantly, it does not plan to stop them," said Sergei Rudskoy, deputy head of the Russian military's General Staff.

Despite evidence of ISIS oil smuggling, the US-led coalition in Syria and Iraq is not striking convoys of oil trucks heading to Turkey, Russia’s General Staff has said.

“It’s hard not to notice” the thousands of trucks used by terrorists for oil smuggling, says Lieutenant General Sergey Rudskoy, deputy commander of the General Staff.

“However, we see no strikes on those convoys by the coalition - only a tripling in the number of strategic UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) has been observed,” he said.

The deputy commander stressed that defeating IS would be impossible without curbing its main source of income - the illegal oil trade - and urged the coalition to strike IS oil infrastructure.

Since September 30, when its airstrikes in Syria began, Russia has destroyed 32 ISIS oil complexes, 11 refineries, 23 oil pump stations and 1,080 tanker trucks.

“The income of this terrorist organization was about US$3 million per day. After two months of Russian airstrikes their income was about $1.5 million a day,” Rudskoy said.

Also on Wednesday, a prominent Iraqi politician said he had addressed the US military on the issue of stopping the illegal IS oil trade, but had received a negative reply.

“I have personally contacted US representatives asking them to target ISIS trucks transporting Iraqi and Syrian oil to Turkey, only to be told that they were civilian targets so they [the US] could not attack them,” says Mowaffak al-Rubaie, leader of the State of Law Coalition party in the Iraqi parliament.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said U.S. information was that ISIS was selling oil at the wellheads to middlemen who were involved in smuggling it across the frontier into Turkey.

Russian officials described three main routes by which they said oil and oil products were smuggled from Islamic State territory into Turkey.

The ministry said the Western route took oil produced at fields near the Syrian city of Raqqa to the settlement of Azaz on the border with Turkey.

From there the columns of tanker trucks pass through the Turkish town of Reyhanli, the ministry said, citing what it said were satellite pictures of hundreds of such trucks moving through the border crossing without obstruction.

"There is no inspection of the vehicles carried out ... on the Turkish side," said Rudskoy.

Some of the smuggled cargoes go to the Turkish domestic market, while some is exported via the Turkish Mediterranean ports of Iskenderun and Dortyol, the ministry said.

Another main route for smuggled oil runs from Deir Ez-zour in Syria to the Syrian border crossing at Al-Qamishli. The trucks then took the crude for refining at the Turkish city of Batman.

A third route took oil from eastern Syria and western Iraq into the south-eastern corner of Turkey.

[41chevy]

From The Watch on The Rhine 3rd Division news letter.

Michael Brendan Dougherty is puzzled as to why Republicans and journalists haven't hit Hillary Clinton on this one key issue- the transformation of Libya into a terrorist playground:

Just 350 miles from the tiny European member state Malta, ISIS has set up a colony in Surt, Libya. This Libyan outpost is now receiving veteran fighters and administrators from the burgeoning theocratic blob that has spread across Syria and Iraq. It is from this redoubt in Surt that the Islamic State can project power across North Africa, according to an in-depth report from The New York Times.

Now that we've seen the Islamic State lash out on European soil, the prospect of them establishing a statelet 400 miles from Italy should give us pause. How did they get there? How was Surt made ready to be the Islamic State's caliphate away from the caliphate?

Look no further than the woman most likely to become our next president, Hillary Clinton. Using American power to help overthrow Moammar Gadhafi's government was her signature idea as secretary of state. Surely, the Arab Spring rebels would handle the mop up. Alas, it didn't turn out that way.

However, beyond a tut-tutting tweet from Jeb Bush, don't expect any of Clinton's 2016 rivals for high office to criticize her for it. The Republican Party is now congenitally unable to criticize the result of a war without consequences. As for President Obama, it appears his plan to stop the spread of terrorism is to cool the planet. -

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European Parliament warns ISIS planning to wage chemical and biological war on West

Associated Press / December 6, 2015

A European Parliament report (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2015/572806/EPRS_BRI%282015%29572806_EN.pdf) says ISIS has recruited experts with chemistry, physics and computer science degrees to wage war with weapons of mass destruction against the West.

ISIS 'may be planning to try to use internationally banned weapons of mass destruction in future attacks'.

The document, which was compiled in the aftermath of the deadly attacks on Paris, claims ISIS has already smuggled WMD material into Europe.

Experts fear that ISIS will be able to exploit a failure of EU governments to share information on possible terrorists.

Already, British police forces have been conducting exercises on how to deal with various types of terrorist attack. But the EU report says governments should 'consider publicly addressing the possibility of terrorist attack using chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear materials'.

The report, ISIL/Da'esh and 'non-conventional' weapons of terror warns:

'At present, European citizens are not seriously contemplating the possibility that extremist groups might use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) materials during attacks in Europe. Under these circumstances, the impact of such an attack, should it occur, would be even more destabilising.'

Rob Wainwright, head of Europol said after the attacks on Paris: 'We are dealing with a very serious, well-resourced, determined international terrorist organisation that is now active on the streets of Europe.

'This represents the most serious terrorist threat faced in Europe for 10 years.'

Mr Wainwright warned that ISIS had serious capabilities in terms of resources and manpower.'

Wolfgang Rudischhauser, Director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Non-Proliferation Centre at NATO said: 'ISIS actually has already acquired the knowledge, and in some cases the human expertise, that would allow it to use CBRN materials as weapons of terror.'

The report says 'ISIL/Da'esh has recruited and continues to recruit hundreds of foreign fighters, including some with degrees in physics, chemistry and computer science, who experts believe have the ability to manufacture lethal weapons from raw substances.'

EU governments have been warned to watch out for 'other radicalised individuals, who have access to, or work in, sensitive areas'.

Intelligence services have also been warned to screen returning Jihadi fighters for 'specialist CBRN knowledge'.

The European Parliament study states that 150 cases of nuclear or radiological trafficking are reported annually.

Worse still: 'CBRN substances have been carried undetected into the European Union.

'Interpol's monthly CBRN intelligence reports show numerous examples of attempts to acquire, smuggle or use CBRN materials.'

[david wild]

Don't expect O crap for brains to lift a finger to stop the scum, he is one of them, actions speak louder than any word, watch his actions.

[kscarbel2]

German government slams Saudi Arabia

Associated Press / December 6, 2015

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Sunday said Saudi Arabia must stop financing fundamentalist mosques abroad which are accused of breeding extremism.

“From Saudi Arabia, Wahhabi mosques are financed throughout the world,” said Gabriel.

“In Germany many extremists considered dangerous persons emerge from these communities,” he said.

Gabriel, head of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), urged decisive steps in Germany against radical mosques associated with Wahhabism.

“This radical fundamentalism taking place in Salafist mosques is no less dangerous than right-wing extremism,” he said.

The head of the SPD parliamentary group, Thomas Oppermann, also urged steps against preaching that contradicts the basic freedoms guaranteed in the German constitution.

“We will prevent Saudi help in the building or financing of mosques in Germany where Wahhabi ideas are to be disseminated,” he said.

Wahhabism provided the “complete ideology of ISIS and contributes in other countries to a radicalisation of moderate Muslims,” he said, adding that “this is something we don’t need and don’t want in Germany”.

A damning report on Saudi Arabia by Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, accuses Saudi Arabia of an increasingly “impulsive” foreign policy with the goal of becoming the “leaders of the Arab world”.

[kscarbel2]

The Isis papers: leaked documents show how Isis is building its state

The Guardian / December 7, 2015

Blueprint lays bare new contours of Islamic state, complete with civil service, regional government and Soviet levels of economic control

A leaked internal Islamic State manual (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/07/islamic-state-document-masterplan-for-power) shows how the terrorist group has set about building a state in Iraq and Syria complete with government departments, a treasury and an economic programme for self-sufficiency, the Guardian can reveal.

The 24-page document, obtained by the Guardian, sets out a blueprint for establishing foreign relations, a fully fledged propaganda operation, and centralised control over oil, gas and the other vital parts of the economy.

The manual, written last year and entitled Principles in the administration of the Islamic State, lays bare Isis’s state-building aspirations and the ways in which it has managed to set itself apart as the richest and most destabilising jihadi group of the past 50 years.

Together with other documents obtained by the Guardian, it builds up a picture of a group that, although sworn to a founding principle of brutal violence, is equally set on more mundane matters such as health, education, commerce, communications and jobs. In short, it is building a state.

As western aircraft step up their aerial war on Isis targets in Syria, the implication is that the military task is not simply one of battlefield arithmetic. Isis is already far more than the sum of its fighters.

The document – written as a foundation text to train “cadres of administrators” in the months after Isis’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria on 28 June 2014 – sketches out how to organise government departments including education, natural resources, industry, foreign relations, public relations and military camps.

Dated some time between July and October 2014, it details how Isis will build separate training camps for regular troops and veteran fighters. Veterans, it says, should go on a fortnight’s refresher course each year to receive instruction in the “latest arts of using weapons, military planning and military technologies”.

It says they will also be given a “detailed commentary on the technologies” of the enemy and “how the soldiers of the state can take advantage of them”.

The statecraft manual recommends a department for administering the military camps, a complex arrangement that, as described, goes well beyond the capabilities of al-Qaida in Afghanistan during the time it plotted the 9/11 attacks.

The document reveals for the first time that Isis always intended to train children in the arts of war. Isis propaganda from this year has clearly shown children being drilled, and even made to shoot captives.

But the text, authored by an Egyptian called Abu Abdullah, is explicit about the intention to do so from mid- to late 2014. Children, it says, will be receive “training on bearing light arms” and “outstanding individuals” will be “selected from them for security portfolio assignments, including checkpoints, patrols”.

The text highlights the need for Isis to achieve a unified culture encompassing foreigners and natives and sets out the need for self-sufficiency by establishing its own independent “factories for local military and food production” and creating “isolated safe zones” for providing for local needs.

The document came from a businessman working within Isis via the academic researcher Aymenn al-Tamimi, who has worked over the past year to compile the most thorough log of Isis documents available to the public.

For safety reasons, the Guardian cannot reveal further information about the businessman but he has leaked nearly 30 documents in all, including a financial statement from one of Isis’s largest provinces.

Isis has suffered military setbacks in recent weeks, and some Sunni Arabs from Raqqa have indicated that its statecraft might be better on paper than it is in practice.

But Tamimi said the playbook, along with a further 300 Isis documents he has obtained over the past year, showed that building a viable country rooted in fundamentalist theology was the central aim. “[isis] is a project that strives to govern. It’s not just a case of their sole end being endless battle.”

Gen Stanley McChrystal (retired), who led the military units that helped destroy Isis’s predecessor organisation (ISI) in Iraq from 2006 to 2008, said: “If it is indeed genuine, it is fascinating and should be read by everyone – particularly policymakers in the west.

“If the west sees Isis as an almost stereotypical band of psychopathic killers, we risk dramatically underestimating them.

“In the Principles in the administration of the Islamic State, you see a focus on education (really indoctrination) beginning with children but progressing through their ranks, a recognition that effective governance is essential, thoughts on their use of technology to master information (propaganda), and a willingness to learn from the mistakes of earlier movements.

“It’s not a big departure from the works of Mao, the practices of the Viet Minh in Indochina, or other movements for whom high-profile actions were really just the tip of a far more nuanced iceberg of organising activity.

Charlie Winter, a senior researcher for Georgia State University who has seen the document, said it demonstrated Isis’s high capacity for premeditation.

“Far from being an army of irrational, bloodthirsty fanatics, IS [isis] is a deeply calculating political organisation with an extremely complex, well-planned infrastructure behind it.”

Lt Gen Graeme Lamb, former head of UK special forces, said the playbook carried a warning for current military strategy.

Referring to sections of the statecraft text in which Isis repeatedly claims it is the only true representatives of Sunni Arab Muslims in the region, Lamb said it was all the more important to ensure wider Sunni leadership in the fight with Isis, or risk “fuelling this monster”.

“Seeing Daesh [isis] and the caliphate as simply a target to be systematically broken by forces other than Middle Eastern Sunnis … is to fail to understand this fight.

“It must be led by the Sunni Arab leadership and its many tribes across the region, with us in the west and the other religious factions in the Middle East acting in support.

“It is not currently how we are shaping the present counter-Isis campaign, thereby setting ourselves up for potential failure.”

Related reading - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/07/isis-papers-guardian-syria-iraq-bureaucracy

[41chevy]

House Dem: Obama Could Cause ‘Devastating War’ With Russia
Washington Post

Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii) suggested that Obama’s decision to place American fighter jets equipped “to target armed Russian planes” on the border between Turkey and Syria, and his stated opposition to Russian-backed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, could lead the U.S. into a war with Vladimir Putin’s regime.

“Russia’s installation of their anti-aircraft missile-defense system increases that possibility of — whether it’s intentional or even an accidental event — where one side may shoot down the other side’s plane,” Gabbard told Carter. “And that’s really where the potential is for this devastating war.”

Carter characterized the U.S. disagreement with Russia as a diplomatic problem, not a military danger. “We have a different view, a very different view from Russia about what would be constructive for them to do in Syria,” he said. “That’s not the same as the United States and Russia clashing.”

Now that the President has place "his" people in command positions and made a new ISIS - ISL Tsar, the yes men are letting a CIC make his own military decisions with what seems to me, little regard of consequences..

[kscarbel2]

Government response time........slow as molasses

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

House tightens controls on visa-free travel to US

Associated Press / December 8, 2015

The House has approved legislation tightening controls on travel to the U.S. and requiring visas for anyone who's been in Iraq or Syria in the previous five years.

(Of course it still needs to to go to the Senate and be signed by the President. Perhaps in five years they’ll have it done. The program should have been suspended after 911, much less within 48 hours of the Paris attack)

The bill was approved 407-19. It takes aim at the "visa waiver" program, which allows citizens of 38 countries to travel to the U.S. without first obtaining a visa. Belgium and France, home to most of the perpetrators of the Paris attacks, are among the participating countries.

The Syrian refugee bill, which the administration said was unnecessary because the small number of Syrian refugees are (allegedly) extensively screened, has not gone anywhere in the Senate and looks unlikely to advance.

The visa waivers bill, on the other hand, may be added to a must-pass year-end spending bill now being finalized on Capitol Hill. There is a different version in the Senate by Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona.

The travel industry, which backs the House bill as a balanced approach, says the Senate bill goes too far in adding new biometric requirements for all visa waiver travelers that might be difficult to enact. (There you go.....the needs of the travel industry outweigh all else)

The legislation would institute a series of changes, including the new visa requirement for citizens of Iraq, Syria and other countries that are home to extremist groups or anyone who's traveled to those countries in the previous five years.

Countries in the visa waiver program would also be required to share information on extremists with the U.S. and face expulsion from the program if they don't (good luck with that).

"You have more than 5,000 individuals that have Western passports in this program that have gone to Iraq or Syria in the last five years," said Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. "Those are gaps that we need to fix." (so why did it take congress 5 years and a Paris attack to address it?)

Some 20 million “visitors” come to the U.S. annually under the visa waiver program. They are screened through an online system maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.

But in past years, the (open door policy) program has been used by would-be terrorists, including "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, who boarded a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001 without a visa and attempted to set off a bomb. Zacarias Moussaoui, the "20th hijacker" from 9/11, also flew from London to Chicago with a French passport and no visa in February 2001.

A handful of Democratic lawmakers spoke against the visa waiver legislation before its passage. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said the bill is overbroad in stripping visa waiver privileges from all Syrian and Iraqi nationals and said it should include more exceptions for more people, such as journalists and researchers. "Our focus should be on terrorism, not just country or origin," Ellison said.

Separately some lawmakers are also talking about looking at the fiancé visa program utilized by the shooters in San Bernardino, California. That program is already being reviewed by the Homeland Security Department.

[kscarbel2]

In the wake of Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S., Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., said yesterday:

“I think stricter scrutiny is a good idea.”

Paul disagrees with having a religious test. “But I think if we want to say there is no religious aspect to this war, I think that’s a big mistake.”

“I think there are a lot of people hell-bent on attacking us, and we do have to review who is coming, and how many people come, and where they come from,” said Paul. “I’m no big fan of Donald Trump. … But I also think it’s unfair to say he’s the biggest recruiter for ISIS.”

Paul sponsored the Stop Extremists Coming Under Refugee Entry (SECURE) Act, which called for a pause on immigration from 34 countries he says have a “high risk” of terrorism. Fellow presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, voted for the act. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., voted against it, and it failed 10-89 on Dec. 3.

“Right now, all of Europe can come and visit our country with no visa,” said Paul. “I think that’s a recipe for disaster and we are eventually going to be attacked by people who come from Europe. Why? Because Europe has a significant population now of those who believe that violence is justified.”

Paul said he would still begrudgingly support Trump if he becomes the Republican nominee. “I won’t be enthusiastic about it, I won’t be excited about it, but what I have said is I will support the nominee.”

Paul blamed the media, polling and debates for Trump’s lead in the GOP race. “Really we have nobody to blame but ourselves if this ends up happening, that he is the nominee.”

[kscarbel2]

Russia has, for the first time, hit ISIS targets in Syria with Kalibr land-attack cruise missiles launched from a submarine in the Mediterranean Sea.

The 3M-54 Kalibr missiles were launched from the Kilo-class diesel-electric submarine “Rostov-on-Don”.

Russian warships based in the Caspian and Mediterranean seas launched similar cruise missiles strikes on ISIS positions in late November, but this is the first time that Russia has targeted ISIS from a submarine.

“[The missiles] targeted two major terrorist positions in the territory of Raqqa,” Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

“We can say with absolute confidence that significant damage has been inflicted upon ammunition warehouses and a mine production plant, as well as the oil infrastructure.”

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said: "We were given advanced notice that they would be carrying out strikes."

He added: "We appreciate that," particularly because the Kremlin was not required to do so under a memorandum of understanding signed by Russia and the US to avoid the two sides clashing over Syria.

The advanced notice on the cruise missiles was "an additional measure of safety," said Cook.

Russia has ratcheted up airstrikes.

[kscarbel2]

Yesterday, house speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said:

“Some of our best and biggest allies in this struggle and fight against radical Islam terror are Muslims.”

And that would be who?

[kscarbel2]

Ex-Australia PM Tony Abbott says Islam must reform

BBC / December 8, 2015

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has sparked criticism by saying Islam has a "massive problem" and needs to reform.

Writing in Australian media, Mr Abbott said "not all cultures are equal" and the West should stop apologizing for defending its values.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said the comments were "counterproductive". [shorten believes speaking in terms of reality is counterproductive]

Current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the vast majority of Muslims were "appalled" by extremism. [Turnbull lives in a dream world]

Turnbull said it was "absolutely vital to ensure that we don't make the mistake, which is what the terrorists want us to do, of tagging every single Muslim with the responsibility for the crimes of the few".

While it was "no revelation" that there were violent elements in the Muslim world, the religion is compatible with democracy and an open society, he said, and most victims of extremist groups are Muslims.

Turnbull said his comments on extremism were always "carefully calculated" to "make Australia safer and to make the work of our security services less difficult than it already is".

Abbott was removed as prime minister by a party vote in September amid poor poll ratings and is now a backbench MP. Before his political career he had trained to be a Catholic priest.

Abbott’s letter cautioned against "demonizing" Muslims, but said the West "can't remain in denial about the massive problem within Islam".

"Although most Muslims utterly reject terrorism, some are all too ready to justify 'death to the infidel'," Abbott said.

"Islam never had its own version of the Reformation and the Enlightenment or a consequent acceptance of pluralism and the separation of church and state.

"It's not culturally insensitive to demand loyalty to Australia and respect for Western civilisation. Cultures are not all equal.

"We should be ready to proclaim the clear superiority of our culture to one that justifies killing people in the name of God."

Abbott also said only Muslims could tackle supporters of violent extremism, and that "everyone interested in a safer world should be reaching out to 'live and let live' Muslims and encouraging them to reclaim their faith from the zealots".

Nail Aykan, executive director of Islamic Council Victoria, told the BBC Mr Abbott's comments were "completely unhelpful at a time when we are trying to foster unity and social cohesion in Australian society".

He advised Mr Abbott to "go out and meet some real local Muslims and get their perspective before you start patronising a whole population".

[kscarbel2]

Why are people protesting across the street from the White House with Arabic language flags? (English is the language of the United States)

.

[RedBullDog]

Is that the site of the next democrat debate? Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[kscarbel2]

Feds Arrest 'Emir' of ISIS Recruitment Effort in Minnesota

ABC News / December 10, 2015

The FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force has arrested a Minnesota man for leading an effort inside the United States to send others to join ISIS in Syria.

Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame,20, was arrested Wednesday night and charged with conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

He is among over 10 people from Minnesota's Somali-American Muslim community who began planning to join ISIS more than a year ago. Nine have now been arrested, and one -- 18-year-old Abdi Nir -- made it to Syria, where since May 2014 he has been recruiting and assisting others inside the United States to join ISIS.

Warsame’s arrest comes several months after a round of arrests in the case.

Warsame and others began watching propaganda videos together in the spring of 2014, when they also began talking about how to get to Syria.

At one point, when one of the leaders of the group was planning to leave for Syria imminently, Warsame was appointed “emir” of the effort, and he subsequently began encouraging and helping others plan to join ISIS.

Warsame and Nur considered robbing people to pay for travel to Syria, but Nur rejected the idea and said they should steal from the government instead, prosecutors allege.

Warsame called Nur “a genius. Nur described risks involved in the entire effort this way to Warsame: “It’s like playing a game of chess, bro. One thing you move you can be in danger, or you could win.”

Warsame is one of 90 people from inside the United States identified by the FBI as having been inspired to take action on behalf of ISIS.

.

[kscarbel2]

New York Rep. Peter King:

"What {White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said} said about the vetting of the refugees is untrue. There is virtually no vetting cause there are no databases in Syria, there are no government records. We don't know who these people are."

Florida Sen. and Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio:

"It's not that we don't want to -- it's that we can't, because there's no way to background check someone that's coming from Syria."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ISIS printing genuine Syrian passports for jihadists

U.S. authorities are now warning that ISIS members may have infiltrated American borders with authentic Syrian passports that ISIS has printed itself with its own machines.

A 17-page Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Intelligence Report, issued to law enforcement last week, says ISIS has been able to print legitimate-looking Syrian passports since taking over the city of Deir ez-Zour last summer, home to a passport office with “boxes of blank passports” and a passport printing machine.

Another passport office was located in Raqqa, Syria, which has long been ISIS’s de facto capital.

“Since more than 17 months have passed since Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour fell to ISIS, it is possible that individuals from Syria with passports ‘issued’ in these ISIS controlled cities or who had passport blanks, may have traveled to the U.S.”

Testifying before lawmakers Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey first publicly revealed the nation’s top security officials’ very real anxiety over the problem.

“The intelligence community is concerned that ISIS has the ability, the capability to manufacture fraudulent passports, which is a concern in any setting,” Comey said.

Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intelligence official John Cohen said, “If ISIS has been able to acquire legitimate passports or machines that create legitimate passports, this would represent a major security risk in the United States.”

Fake Syrian passports have already been discovered in Europe, most notably two used by suicide bombers in the horrific terrorist attack on Paris last month. The two men are believed to have slipped into Europe with a flood of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence in their homeland.

According to the source that provided the passport information to homeland security officials, Syria is awash in fake documents.

“The source further stated that fake Syrian passports are so prevalent in Syria that Syrians do not even view possessing them as illegal,” the report says. “The source stated fake Syrian passports can be obtained in Syria for $200 to $400 and that backdated passport stamps to be placed in the passport cost the same.”

The report included one example in which law enforcement officials said that a Syrian passport discovered in Turkey was printed with a designator number indicating it had been printed in an ISIS-controlled area earlier this year.

Recently international news outlets have reported that their journalists have been able to purchase fake Syrian passports for a few thousand dollars.

The DHS report says it is unclear what state the “blank” passports stolen from Deir ez-Zour were in or if they were completely blank. It also notes that the “whereabouts of the passport machine(s) remain fluid,” since they are portable.

The HSI report’s last page contains a warning: “If ISIS ability to produce passports is not controlled, their operations will continue to increase and expand outside of their operational controlled areas.”

[kscarbel2]

Reuters / December 10, 2015

A New Jersey man pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiring to support ISIS. Nader Saadeh, 20, is among six young men in New York and New Jersey arrested by federal authorities since June.

Saadeh faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court in Newark.

U.S. authorities have arrested over 70 people in the last two years for suspected ties to ISIS.

Saadeh expressed support for ISIS and its use of brutality and spent time viewing the group's online propaganda.

He traveled to Jordan in May with the intention of making his way to either Iraq or Syria to join the group, but was detained by Jordanian authorities.

His guilty plea comes after his brother, Alaa Saadeh, and another New Jersey man, Samuel Topaz, both pleaded guilty to their role in the same conspiracy.

Alaa Saadeh and Topaz admitted in court they had also discussed traveling overseas to join ISIS.

Federal agents have arrested three other men in the probe.

Munther Omar Saleh, a college student in New York City, also talked with the Saadeh brothers and Topaz about joining ISIS. He was arrested alongside a 17-year-old in June when the two got out of their car and ran at federal agents who had been following them in a surveillance vehicle.

Saleh and the teenager, who has not been identified, had discussed plans to build an explosive device to set off in New York. A U.S. judge recently granted the government's request to try the teenager as an adult.

Fareed Mumuni, a New York man also accused of conspiring with Saleh, was arrested in June after he tried to stab an FBI agent executing a search warrant at his home.

[kscarbel2]

Reuters / December 9, 2015

An Illinois man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to plotting with his cousin, a National Guard member, to attack an Illinois military installation as part of a conspiracy to support ISIS.

Jonas Edmonds was charged along with his cousin, Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds, of planning to carry out an armed attack on the military facility where Hasan Edmonds had been training in Joliet, 34 miles (55 km) southwest of Chicago.

Jonas Edmonds pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and making a false statement to law enforcement on an offense related to terrorism.

Edmonds faces up to 23 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled on Jan. 27.

Hasan Edmonds is expected to plead guilty on Monday.

Jonas Edmonds has been detained in federal custody since his March 25 arrest.

Hasan Edmonds was arrested at Chicago's Midway airport on March 25 as he tried to fly to Egypt. The plan was for Hasan to leave the United States and join ISIS fighters while Jonas carried out the attack.

The cousins were arrested after discussing their plans with an undercover employee of the FBI.

As a member of the Illinois National Guard since 2011, Hasan Edmonds reported to the Joliet base one weekend a month and performed two weeks of active duty training per year. He lived in Aurora, about 41 miles (66 km) southwest of Chicago.

.