Pan-Islamic merged mega thread

[Old Sweat]

Judging by the look on his face in the photos I was almost expecting to see a set of brass knuckles  on his hands..
If he is in fact going to personally fly combat missions against these scum, I tip my hat to the man.

He is a Sandhurst graduate and is reportedly a qualified AH pilot. Who know?

 

[CougarKing]

The Royal Jordanian Air Force making ISIS pay for what they did to their pilot:

Reuters

Jordanian jets return after striking at IS targets in Syria: sources

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordanian fighter jets flew on Thursday over the hometown of a pilot killed by Islamic State militants after ending a mission against militants in Syria, a security official said.

Jordan's King Abdullah was visiting the pilot's family at the time of the flyover. The show of force came two days after the ultra hardline Islamic State released a video showing a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive.

State television had earlier said the fighter jets had completed a mission without giving the location of their sortie. But a security official confirmed to Reuters the mission was in a location in Syria under Islamic State control.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[Loachman]

The Royal Jordanian Air Force making ISIS pay for what they did to their pilot:

I have always had a liking and respect for Jordan.

This adds.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Don't forget our great war leader;

THAT is some funny shit right there; thanks for a much-needed chuckle.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

And the murder capture of the Jordanian pilot leads to knock on effects ....

The Jordanian pilot was captured by ISIS militants within minutes of his plane crashing in December near Raqqa, Syria, the Times said, quoting a senior U.S. military official.


But UAE officials questioned if American military rescue teams would have been able to reach the pilot even if there had been more time for a rescue effort, administration officials said.


I feel for the pilot, his family.  It was pure shitty ass luck to go down that close to the enemy.  But CSAR assets can't be 'a moments notice' away from every single square meter of ground.  My  :2c:

However, having said that:

US moves pilot rescue aircraft to northern Iraq: official

Washington: The US military has deployed aircraft and troops to northern Iraq to boost capabilities to rescue downed coalition pilots, after a Jordanian airman was captured and killed by jihadists in Syria, a defense official said Thursday. "We are repositioning some assets into northern Iraq," a US defense official told AFP.

 

[Good2Golf]

Jordan's King is indeed a trained attack helicopter pilot. He trained at the US Army's aviation training centre at Ft Rucker,Alabama and qualified on the AH-1 Cobra (shortly before the AH-64A Apached was rolled out), returning to serve in the Jordanian Army while still a Prince.  He is very well respected amidst forces in the region as well as a number of Allied nations around the world.

 

[cupper]

Was listening to an interview on NPR tonight on the way home tonight that was discussing the video ISIS put out. The person being interviewed is with an organization called The Symbol Intelligence Group.

http://www.symbolintelligence.com

They were discussing the symbology of death by immolation within the Islamic world and that death by fire is only in the perview of Allah, and how ISIS is using it as a propaganda tool and so forth.

The SIG person also indicated that shortly after capturing the pilot ISIS tweeted out the hashtag #howshouldthepilotdie (or something
to that effect).

But what was most disturbing about the video in her opinion (and surprised me when she said it) was that at the end of the video they had photos and names of Jordanian pilots and a reward for anyone who killed a pilot on the list. Big question was how were they able to obtain the names and photos?

(will post a link when the story is accessible on their website later this evening)

Here is a link to the audio:

http://www.npr.org/2015/02/05/384119665/video-of-jordanian-pilots-death-as-horrific-as-it-was-symbolic

Will post a transcript once it comes up.

 

[The Bread Guy]

The 100 golden dinar bounty also extends to Canadian pilots - see attached screen capture shared via Twitter.

 

[George Wallace]

But what was most disturbing about the video in her opinion (and surprised me when she said it) was that at the end of the video they had photos and names of Jordanian pilots and a reward for anyone who killed a pilot on the list. Big question was how were they able to obtain the names and photos?

(will post a link when the story is accessible on their website later this evening)

Remember:  Some of the senior members of ISIL were former officers in the Iraqi military and Intelligence.  Through their military connections over the years, they could likely name names of allies they may have worked with in the past from memory.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Was listening to an interview on NPR tonight on the way home tonight that was discussing the video ISIS put out. The person being interviewed is with an organization called The Symbol Intelligence Group.

http://www.symbolintelligence.com

They were discussing the symbology of death by immolation within the Islamic world and that death by fire is only in the perview of Allah, and how ISIS is using it as a propaganda tool and so forth.

The SIG person also indicated that shortly after capturing the pilot ISIS tweeted out the hashtag #howshouldthepilotdie (or something
to that effect).

But what was most disturbing about the video in her opinion (and surprised me when she said it) was that at the end of the video they had photos and names of Jordanian pilots and a reward for anyone who killed a pilot on the list. Big question was how were they able to obtain the names and photos?

(will post a link when the story is accessible on their website later this evening)

It also included locations in Lat/Long.  I watched the video.

The video can be watched here.  I recommend caution to anyone who watches this - there is extremely disturbing footage from the 18:10 mark to the 19:35 mark.  The portion showing the names, photos and locations of some aircrew begins at approx. the 19:40 mark.

Disturbing in many...many ways. 

RIP Moaz al-Kassasbeh.

 

[cupper]

That was disturbing.

There are no words…..

 

[jollyjacktar]

This says what I've always believed.  The Saudis are our enemies.  It will be interesting to see what the USG will do if and when the American public finally say "enough" to their so called cordial relations with the Kingdom.

Shared under the fair dealings provisions of the copyright act.

Analysis
New 9/11 accusations undermine U.S.-Saudi 'friendship'

Saudi princes accused of being patrons of al-Qaeda by 9/11 conspirator

By Neil Macdonald, CBC News Posted: Feb 06, 2015 5:00 AM ET| Last Updated: Feb 06, 2015 5:00 AM ET

The Saudi embassy in Washington says Zacarias Moussaoui is a deranged criminal.

He may well be; the so-called "20th hijacker" is certainly a criminal, confined to the most secure federal prison in America, and certainly portrayed himself as crazy during his 9/11 trial, 10 years ago in Virginia.

I covered it, and his courtroom rants were either delusional or meant to be perceived as such. (It didn't work; the presiding judge pronounced him competent to stand trial and "extremely intelligent.")

But his most recent testimony, given at the super-max penitentiary in Colorado last year and made public this week, reads like what it is: a detailed accounting by a man who holds a master's degree from a British university.

And what a remarkable account it is.

Moussaoui states that the 9/11 hijackers were supported not only by Saudi Arabian charities, but by Saudi princes and diplomats.

He reels off names he says were in an al-Qaeda database of moneyed donors, making it clear the jihadists couldn't really have accomplished much without them.

Moussaoui was testifying in civil proceedings in support of families of 9/11 victims who are suing the Saudi government.

So far, the White House has protected the kingdom. It has classified part of a congressional investigation — widely believed to have examined Saudi sources of funding for the attackers —  and has never emphasized that most of the attackers were Saudi citizens.

One suspects the feds weren't too keen on allowing Moussaoui to testify in the lawsuit, either.

Deranged or not, though, Moussaoui's testimony is further straining an ugly diplomatic bargain: In return for open gushers of oil and military co-operation, America and other Western nations smile and overlook the sometimes ugly elements of the Saudi regime.

A telling scene

It's instructive to watch video of President Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia last month. He abruptly rearranged his schedule to publicly mourn the dead king and fawn over Salman, the newly installed one.

The official welcoming ceremony was all smiles and fellowship, yet another staged display of American-Saudi solidarity.

(Also among the leaders who sent messages of high praise for the deceased King Abdullah was Stephen Harper, the same fellow who made a big deal of only reluctantly shaking Vladimir Putin's hand.)

But the kingdom's contempt for the West was easy to see.

Michelle Obama, forced to stand away from and behind her husband, keeping her face blank, as a procession of important Saudis conspicuously ignored her.

Most Saudi men practise a fundamentalist version of Islam, and won't publicly touch a woman. Especially one who had the nerve to appear before them with her hair uncovered.

The American first lady no doubt did that quite deliberately; she has covered her hair in other places, notably Indonesia and the Vatican.

Presumably, as a feminist, she disapproves of trying women in terrorism courts for the crime of driving, and hacking the head off a screaming, struggling woman in public, as someone videotaped it all, and a voice on a loudspeaker read from the Qur'an.

(No press releases after that episode about "barbarity" or "mindless violence" of the sort the State Department issues about ISIS beheadings, only diplomatic silence.)

At last month's welcoming ceremony, as one VIP after another shook the American president's hand, a man approached, ignored Obama, who seemed to try to shake his hand, too, and spoke directly to the king. It was prayer time.

The monarch and every other Saudi man present abruptly turned and walked away, leaving Obama standing there.

Obama, striving to maintain presidential dignity, turned to a nearby diplomat and began chatting, as though he hadn't just been left hanging.

It was a telling scene, one that belied the mask of amity the two countries wear in public.

The gift of secrecy

Obama, having endorsed the Arab Spring as a wonderful expression of the people's will, also had to look the other way in 2011 when the Saudis sent troops across the causeway into Bahrain to violently crush Shia crowds protesting their treatment by the emirate's Sunni rulers.

Saudi's minority Shias have met with similar treatment; a respected Shia cleric was sentenced to death recently for criticizing the government.

The Saudis, who fund the building of mosques in America and around the world, strictly prohibit the presence of any religion but Islam on their soil, and America, the champion of religious freedom, says nothing.

The Saudis also openly scorned Obama for not being quick enough or generous enough in funding Syria's rebel forces. (As it turned out, of course, much of the Saudi funding ended up being channeled to ISIS and its cohort, but never mind.)

But the American public's willingness to tolerate the hypocrisy around Saudi Arabia is wearing thin. According to reports in U.S. media, Obama was unwilling or unable to form any sort of real friendship with Abdullah, the recently deceased king.

Increasingly, Saudi Arabia is being discussed in the U.S. media with the same tone accorded Pakistan, another official ally with at least informal links to al-Qaeda.

Pakistani officials are still angry that Obama sent a team of assassins to Osama bin Laden's hideaway in Abbottabad without telling them. (They were completely unaware, of course, that bin Laden was living there, just down the road from one of their military bases.)

Now, politicians on both sides of the aisle in Congress have called on Obama to declassify the 9/11 chapter concerning the Saudis.

The American public, they say, has the right to know what their own Congress discovered.

It was ironic that Moussaoui would have testified in support of the 9/11 families; it would be profoundly so if this "20th hijacker," from his captivity in Colorado, forces the White House to lift the gift of secrecy it's extended to the Saudis.


For those wishing to see Moussaoui's testimony in the civil suit, the New York Times provides links to the transcripts from its story.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/the-mask-of-u-s-saudi-friendship-is-finally-slipping-1.2947156

- mod edit to add link to story -

 

[The Bread Guy]

Disturbing in many...many ways. 

Holy crap, indeed  - and I skipped over the murder bits.

 

[tomahawk6]

IS practices a form of sharia law that sanctions death by fire for dropping incendiary weapons.At least thats their cover story.How homosexual activity rates being thrown off a roof top,is beyond my understanding.The bottom line for me is that their brand of islam has no place in my country and must be crushed.If these acts were being perpetrated by Chrisitian zealots I would equally oppose them.

 

[dimsum]

Turns out not all of their folks believe in the method of murder either:

The Islamic State has dumped one of its own clerics, who now faces trial by the Sunni Muslim militant group, for vocalizing his disapproval of the immolation killing of a captured Jordanian pilot.

<snip>

"There's actually a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, who says: 'no one should be burned alive as a form of punishment'," Haris Tarin, spokesman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, told VICE News. "Burning is one type of death that is specifically said to be torture in the religious tradition."

https://news.vice.com/article/islamic-state-cleric-facing-trial-for-objecting-to-jordanian-pilots-death-by-fire?utm_source=vicenewsfb

 

[cupper]

Here is the transcript of the interview I referenced upthread.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

I have watched the video of Lieutenant Muath al-Kaseasbeh's death at the hands of ISIS. I don't recommend your doing it. It is not easy viewing. We're going to discuss it a bit right now, and if you don't wish to hear the discussion, now's a good time to leave us for four minutes or so. The beginning shows Jordan's king in the presence of Americans - President Obama, Charlie Rose. Later, scenes of buildings reduced to rubble presented as coalition airstrikes. It shows bodies of injured adults and children corpses, and for each one, the screen is consumed by a graphic of fire, symbolizing the flames that killed or injured them. Lieutenant Kaseasbeh is then consumed by a real fire, presented as a fitting revenge. He's buried in rubble, as are the victims of the coalition strikes in this video. When we first saw ISIS videos, we turned to Dawn Perlmutter of the Symbol Intelligence Group. She studies the symbolism of such things, and she joins us once again. Welcome to the program.

DAWN PERLMUTTER: Thank you.

SIEGEL: This is a far better production - I mean, just looking at it as a piece of video. It's much more sophisticated than anything we saw before out of ISIS.

PERLMUTTER: Correct. It also is different from the beheading videos in that it shows the actual murder. The beheading videos would cut to black and then show the body. This one shows a ritual killing.

SIEGEL: You say ritual killing. I have read that the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad include a saying cited by Saudi cleric yesterday that God alone has the right to punish by fire. Even Saudi where they behead convicted criminals - immolation is not a punishment.

PERLMUTTER: It may not be exempted in Islam, but it's very prevalent in this area of the world. In Iraq there's been hundreds of women that have been ritually killed in the same manner. The Pakistani school killings - there were - 140 children were murdered. They literally set the teacher on fire in front of the kids. The Islamic State has adopted these types of primal, ritual events.

SIEGEL: As we've heard today in Jordan, it's thought that this video just went too far - that this has actually unified the people of Jordan against the Islamic State. Do you think it's possible that this time ISIS has just overdone it?

PERLMUTTER: No, unfortunately, I do not think that. I think the video is very effective for their target audience. I think that it's essentially a recruitment video that they want to provoke attacks so that it can become this cycle of reciprocal violence. Then they can show more dead children and say that they're the victims and turn it all around. But I think the most disturbing thing other than the ritual murder was the images of the rewards for the pilots at the end of the video.

SIEGEL: Yes, at the end it says here are the other crusader pilots, meaning Jordanians, presumably, who fly with the coalition forces. It shows pictures and names and offers a reward for anyone who would kill them.

PERLMUTTER: Yes. That's extremely disturbing. First of all, how did they get the intelligence? How did they get those pictures? They have name, rank. They are trying to be provocative.

SIEGEL: I suppose one could say that a bombing is louder than a video no matter what. But there does seem to be something asymmetric about the kind of messages coming out of ISIS and whatever any government would ever do. I mean, that is not a video that I could ever imagine an organized state promulgating on the web. Can governments actually compete with this sort of thing?

PERLMUTTER: We can compete with this, but we have to understand that this is information warfare. When they first captured the Lieutenant, they actually tweeted out, hashtag, suggest a way to kill the Jordanian pilot pig. I mean, they turn everything into a reality show, and they know how to appeal to perspective recruits. And we're not counteracting in the same way.

SIEGEL: Well, Doctor Perlmutter, thank you very much for talking with us.

PERLMUTTER: You're welcome.

SIEGEL: That's Dawn Perlmutter who is director of the Symbol Intelligence Group based in Philadelphia.

 

[a_majoor]

Indoctrinating youth is a very old technique. One can think of the "Children's Crusade", the Hitlerjugend or the Soviet Young Pioneers for some examples. Iran used this technique when they developed the Basji in 1979, so to see ISIS reviving tghe technique is hardly surprising. Perhaps because most reporters (and people in general) really have no historical reference to compare this too do they find this unusual in scale and scope. I am still of the opinion that isolating the area and frying all modern conveinience items using EMP devices on power stations, population centers and every where else these people choose to do their thing will bring the problem to far more manageable levels: if they want to dispute theology based on 7th century principles let them fight it out with swords....

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/24/children-of-the-caliphate/

The Islamic State is raising an army of child soldiers, and the West could be fighting them for generations to come.
By Kate Brannen
October 24, 2014
Kate.Brannen
@K8brannen

They stand in the front row at public beheadings and crucifixions held in Raqqa, the Islamic State’s stronghold in Syria. They’re used for blood transfusions when Islamic State fighters are injured. They are paid to inform on people who are disloyal or speak out against the Islamic State. They are trained to become suicide bombers. They are children as young as 6 years old, and they are being transformed into the Islamic State’s soldiers of the future.

The Islamic State has put in place a far-reaching and well-organized system for recruiting children, indoctrinating them with the group’s extremist beliefs, and then teaching them rudimentary fighting skills. The militants are preparing for a long war against the West, and hope the young warriors being trained today will still be fighting years from now.

While there are no hard figures for how many children are involved, refugee stories and evidence collected by the United Nations, human rights groups, and journalists suggest that the indoctrination and military training of children is widespread.

Child soldiers aren’t new to war. Dozens of African armies and militias use young boys as fighters, in part because research has shown that children lack fully formed moral compasses and can easily be persuaded to commit acts of cruelty and violence.

The young fighters of the Islamic State could pose a particularly dangerous long-term threat because they’re being kept away from their normal schools and instead inculcated with a steady diet of Islamist propaganda designed to dehumanize others and persuade them of the nobility of fighting and dying for their faith.

"[The Islamic State] deliberately deny education to the people who are in the territory under their control, and not only that, they brainwash them," said Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who’s tasked with thinking about future threats and planning for the Army’s future. "They engage in child abuse on an industrial scale. They brutalize and systematically dehumanize the young populations. This is going to make this a multigenerational problem."

Ivan Simonovic, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, recently returned from a visit to Iraq, where he interviewed displaced Iraqis in Baghdad, Dohuk, and Erbil. He said there is a "large and dangerously successful recruitment" program.

Speaking to a small group of reporters at the U.N., he said the fighters "appeal" to some of the youngsters and that they have approved adept at "manipulating young men and children." He explained that "they project an image of being victorious" and offer the promise that those who fall in battle will "go straight to heaven."

"What is striking for me is to meet mothers who [tell us], ‘We don’t know what to do,’" he said. "Our sons are volunteering and we can’t prevent it."

On the front lines of Iraq and Syria, the boys who join or are abducted by the Islamic State are sent to various religious and military training camps, depending on their age. At the camps, they are taught everything from the Islamic State’s interpretation of sharia law to how to handle a gun. They are even trained in how to behead another human and given dolls on which to practice, Syria Deeply, a website devoted to covering the Syrian civil war, reported in September.

Children are also sent into battle, where they are used as human shields on the front lines and to provide blood transfusions for Islamic State soldiers, according to Shelly Whitman, the executive director of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, an organization devoted to the eradication of the use of child soldiers.

Eyewitnesses from the Iraqi towns of Mosul and Tal Afar told United Nations investigators they have seen young children, armed with weapons they could barely carry and dressed in Islamic State uniforms, conducting street patrols and arresting locals.

U.N. human rights experts have "received confirmed reports of children as young as 12 or 13 undergoing military training organized by ISIL in Mosul," according to a report written jointly by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and the human rights office of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq.

In al-Sharqat district in Salah al-Din, the number of youngsters manning checkpoints "drastically increased" during the last week of August, the report said. And in the Nineveh Plains and Makhmour, male teenagers were swept up in August in a recruiting drive by advancing fighters from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Some of these boys reported that they "were forced to form the front line to shield ISIL fighters during fighting, and that they had been forced to donate blood for treating injured ISIL fighters," according to the report.

Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, the pseudonym of a 22-year-old man who lived in Syria until about a month ago, is the founder of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a Twitter account and Facebook page that documents the brutality of life in Raqqa, the city where he grew up. In addition to him and three others now living outside of Syria, there are 12 people inside of Raqqa, who contribute photos and information about what’s going on inside the city.

Reached via Skype, he told Foreign Policy that the Islamic State has stepped up its youth recruitment program, including a boot camp for young boys where they’re taught combat skills.

He said teenagers from Raqqa were being trained and then quickly sent to fight in Kobani, the Syrian-Turkish border town where the Islamic State has been in a brutal fight with Kurdish fighters for several weeks. U.S. and coalition aircraft have conducted more than 135 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in and around the town, killing hundreds of the militants.

In Raqqa, where poverty is widespread after more than three years of war, the group often persuades parents to send their children to the camps in exchange for money, Raqqawi said. Sometimes, the Islamic State appeals directly to the children themselves, holding public recruiting events or parties and then offering the children money to attend training. With all of the schools closed in Raqqa, there is little else for children to do, Raqqawi said.

There are several well-known youth training camps across Raqqa province, he said, including al-Zarqawi Camp, Osama Bin Laden Camp, al-Sherkrak Camp, al-Talaea Camp, and al-Sharea Camp.

Raqqawi estimated that there are between 250 and 300 children at al-Sharea Camp, which is for kids under the age of 16.

He provided photos of children at this camp, including one of young boys sitting down to a meal together, and another of a young boy smiling as he completed an obstacle course.

When there is a big battle, like the one in Kobani, the training is accelerated, Raqqawi said.

In Iraq, there is also substantial evidence that children are being forced into military training.

Fred Abrahams, special advisor at Human Rights Watch, interviewed Yazidis in Iraq who had escaped Islamic State detention. They said they had witnessed Islamic State fighters taking boys from their families for religious or military training.

One Yazidi man who escaped said he watched his captors separate 14 boys ages 8 to 12 at a military base the Islamic State had seized in Sinjar and take them off to learn how to be jihadists.

This summer, Vice News gained extraordinary access to the Islamic State, producing a five-part video documentary about life under the group’s control. The second installment focused on how the Islamic State is specifically grooming children for the future.

"For us, we believe that this generation of children is the generation of the caliphate. God willing, this generation will fight infidels and apostates, the Americans and their allies," one man tells Vice.

The video shows a 9-year-old boy saying that he’s headed to a training camp after Ramadan to learn how to use a Kalashnikov rifle.

An Islamic State spokesman told the Vice journalists that those under 15 go to sharia camp to learn about religion, but those older than 16 can go to military training camp.

The Islamic State’s command of social media also helps it convince people from all over the world to travel to Iraq or Syria to join the group.

Part of this effort involves using children as propaganda tools, posting photographs on social media sites of them dressed in Islamic State uniforms marching alongside grown-up fighters. "In mid-August, ISIL entered a cancer hospital in Mosul, forced at least two sick children to hold the ISIL flag and posted the pictures on the internet," the U.N. report said.

The Islamic State’s online recruitment has proved successful, drawing more than 3,000 Europeans. The FBI says it knows of roughly a dozen Americans fighting with the group, but acknowledges there could be more.

Three American high school girls from Colorado were caught last week in Frankfurt, Germany, apparently on their way to join the Islamic State in Syria. Reports say they were radicalized online.

The Vice News video shows a Belgian man who traveled to Raqqa with his young son, who appears to be 6 or 7 years old.

The father coaches his son to tell the cameraman that he’s from the Islamic State and not Belgium, and then asks him whether he wants to be a jihadist or a suicide bomber. The young boy says, "Jihadist."

Raqqawi told FP that when he was still living in Raqqa he saw an American woman, her Algerian husband, and their daughter, who looked to be about 4 years old.

He says he also saw a French fighter with two kids: a blond boy who looked to be 6 years old and a daughter who was about a year old.

"We see a lot of foreign fighters inside the city. It is shocking," he said.

In Syria and Iraq, children are not just being radicalized, but are also being exposed to extreme levels of violence every day.

Raqqawi provided FP photos he took while still living in the city, of children watching crucifixions.

He said the children have become so accustomed to these executions that the sight of a head separated from a human body no longer seems to faze them.

"The Islamic State destroys their childhood, destroys their hearts," he said.

Misty Buswell, who’s based in Jordan as the Middle East regional advocacy officer for Save the Children, said, "It’s not an exaggeration to say we could lose a whole generation of children to trauma."

Buswell said the child refugees she’s interviewed are having nightmares, avoiding interactions with their peers, and showing signs of aggression toward other children.

"I have met children who have stopped speaking, and who haven’t spoken for months, because of the terrible things that they witnessed," Buswell said. "And those are the lucky ones who actually made it across the border to safety."

With time and the right kind of intervention those children can be helped and can be able to have somewhat more of a normal life, Buswell said. "But for the kids who are still inside and who are witnessing this on a daily basis, the long-term effects are going to be quite significant."

Buswell said that refugees almost always want to return home once the situation there stabilizes and peace returns.

When she asked refugees from Sinjar that question a few weeks ago, however, she was surprised by their answer. "It’s one of the first times I’ve actually heard people telling me that the things that they saw and experienced were so horrific and traumatic — and the things that their children saw — that they didn’t want to go back, because there are too many bad memories."

Colum Lynch contributed reporting to this article.

 

[CougarKing]

The UAE stepping up again after temporarily withdrawing their planes from the coalition weeks ago:

Fox News

UAE rejoins airstrikes on ISIS after 'abominable' execution

Published February 07, 2015

The United Arab Emirates announced Saturday it is sending a squadron of F-16 fighter jets to Jordan, resuming its participation in U.S.-led airstrikes on The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The announcement was made by UAE’s official government news agency, following the U.S. State Department's announcement Friday that the Arab country had reaffirmed its commitment to the coalition and that suggested that “positive news” on the matter would be announced within the next few days.

The UAE stopped flying airstrikes over Iraq shortly after Jordanian pilot Lt. Moath al Kasasbeh was shot down in a mission over Syria and captured by ISIS in December. News reports suggested the UAE dropped out because the United States did not have enough search-and-rescue assets in place to assist downed planes.

[...]

Jordan has pledged harsh retaliation and said it would intensify strikes on Islamic State group targets. Starting Thursday, Jordanian jets have carried out daily attacks, according to the military and state media.

Jordan’s interior minister, Hussein al-Majali, told the state-run al-Rai newspaper in comments published Saturday that his country will go after the militants “wherever they are.”

The most recent airstrikes are “the beginning of a continued process to eliminate them and wipe them out completely,” he said of the militants who control about a third of neighboring Syria and Iraq.

[...]

 

[a_majoor]

Short article about pro western fighters arriving to fight against ISIS. Some embedded links in article:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rebeccafrech/2015/02/the-media-may-ignore-them-but-theyre-fighting-isis-and-winning.html

The Media May Ignore Them, But They’re Fighting ISIS and WINNING

February 9, 2015 by Rebecca Frech 8 Comments

The news broke last week that the monsters of ISIS had burned a Jordanian pilot to death, and the King of Jordan responded with airstrikes and a public vow to wipe ISIS from the face of the Earth. Upon hearing this promise, social media exploded with gushing admiration for the badassery of the Jordanian king.

“At last there’s some real leadership on this,” people seemed to be saying as they celebrated the fact that someone was standing up to the Islamic State at long last. Which must have been news to the people who’ve been going toe-to-toe with ISIS for the past 146 days.

Five months ago, the Islamic State attacked the Kurdish territory of Kobane. The military pundits on the American news expected it to fall within days, and the gruesome images of beheadings and torture to follow, driving ratings and public disgust for days. But then it  didn’t fall.

Tales of Kurdish bravery, and women fighters, began to trickle out into the media, but it was overshadowed by the horrors of ISIS. Blood and gore drive ratings more than bravery and valor, and out media was mostly silent about the fighting in Kobane.

While we in the west were regaled with stories of Europeans and Americans rushing to Syria to join the jihad, no one mentioned that there were also men and women from the west who were rushing to fight against it. It wasn’t until I began following them on social media that I saw just how many there were. These were not young kids looking for adventure, but seasoned veterans who were resolute in their determination to fight evil.
 
When, after five long months of fighting, the YPG/YPJ declared that Kabane was at last free from the scourge of ISIS the people of that region literally danced in the streets and our media was mostly silent.

Which is why I’m telling you about them. Their sacrifice is too great for us  to ignore them any longer. As they continue to drive the ISIS forces further and further from their homeland, we should be praying for their continued successes, and for the health and safety of our own men. We should know about these men and women who have put their lives on hold in order to help protect the women and children of Iraq, Syria, and the Kurdish territories. May God bless them all in their fight.

If you want to learn more about the YPG/YPJ, you can visit their Facebook page and their website.

Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rebeccafrech/2015/02/the-media-may-ignore-them-but-theyre-fighting-isis-and-winning.html#ixzz3RNTOzGE0

 

[Force]

Here's a mini mini overview about the sunni/shia communities in the middle east and abroad.

First thing to know about the sunni communities is that Saudi Arabia Qatar and Turkey are the biggest financers of the sunni communities, and they do it big. Mosques/schools/tv channels all over the world that teach youngsters about how "evil" shias are. Because of this, alot of sunnis are driven into the hatred against shias.  The saudi wahhabi ideology that got created in the 19th century is being thought and promoted. Unfortunately, real moderate sunnis and figures are not given the spotlight and their voice is not heard. They have almost no source of funding, you don't hear about them.

Because saudi arabia/qatar/and turkey share the same interests as the USA, Iran, the biggest threat to their influence in the middle east, is pictured as a demon that must be brought down. Since iran is 95% shia, the sunni governments allied to the USA raised a whole generation on the hatred towards iran and its allies (syria and hezbollah). We are witnessing today the fruits of this hatred-filled generation. Brainwashed youngsters from all over the world uniting in Turkey to fight shias in syria and irak.

Theres alot more details, but that's a small overview.