French Ex-Soldiers Joining ISIS in Iraq and Syria

Jihadists fighting in Iraq and Syria with the Islamic State have a bunch of French ex-soldiers joining the battle. Apparently, around 12 former special forces and Foreign Legion soldiers have made the trek to Iraq and Syria.

Reports of French ex-military turning to jihad first appeared on Radio France Internationale (RFI) and in L'Opinion daily on Wednesday.

An anonymous defense ministry source later confirmed the information to AFP.

"We estimate around a dozen former troops have joined these networks," the source said. "Our concern is not former soldiers... It's preventing the phenomenon of radicalization within our forces."

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, however, would not directly comment on the issue at a Wednesday press conference on France’s new anti-terrorism measures.


"The cases of former soldiers being tempted by jihadist adventure are extremely rare," was all he said.

And they're not all Arab/Muslim immigrants.

“Others are explosives experts, young people in their twenties. Some have been converted [to Islam], others are from Arab-Muslim culture,” the RFI report says.

The Defense Ministry is worried about radicalization within its forces, not just former soldiers.

The Defense Ministry plans to monitor its recruits as well as ex-soldiers more closely to prevent possible radicalization. The army’s 1,000-strong internal intelligence unit will get 65 extra staff for that purpose, Le Drian announced on Wednesday.

Wow.

Source: RT

Charlie Hebdo Gunman Was Hash Smoking, Hip Hop/Rapper Wannabee

Long before he allegedly gunned down innocents at the Charlie Hebdo offices, Paris-born 32-year-old Cherif Kouachi was a hash-smoking, hip-hop/rapper wanna-be. Until he found radical Islam. His affiliation with extremist groups dates back to 2008. He was sentenced to 3 years, with 18 months suspended. Prior to his arrest, he had hopes of heading on out to Iraq to join al-Qaeda.  He was again arrested in 2010 when it was thought he might be affiliated with a group planning a prison break of a jailed Islamist.

It beggars the question...  why was he not still in jail, or under surveillance.

More on the brothers Kouachi.

Afghan Students Inspired By ISIS

Even though Afghanistan has the barbaric Taliban still vying for Islamic rule over the country it once governed, it's the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which is inspiring young men (and a few women.)

A quiet student at Kabul University, 25-year-old Abdul Rahim has a dream: to join Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Syria and fight for the establishment of a global caliphate - a new, alarming form of radicalism in war-weary Afghanistan.

“When hundreds of foreigners, both men and women, leave their comfortable lives and embrace Daish, then why not us?” he asked, using a word for Islamic State common in the region.

Although ISIS is not believed to have operations in Afghanistan, its influence is growing in a country already mired in daily bombings and attacks by Taliban insurgents.

With most foreign combat troops leaving the country by the end of the year, there is growing uncertainty over what direction Afghanistan will take, with the emergence of ISIS ideology adding a new risk.

A few dozen students have set up an underground group a few months after ISIS started making inroads into Central and South Asia this year.

Several hardline insurgent groups in tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan have pledged allegiance to ISIS, propaganda leaflets have been distributed and some local commanders are said to have met ISIS members.

But the formation of the clandestine student group is the clearest indication yet that ISIS ideas are taking hold more broadly.

“Several students who are close to us went to Syria to join our brothers for a holy cause,” said student Gul Rahman, holding a mobile phone with ISIS’s black flag logo on the screen.

The students interviewed want to join the fight in Syria, not bring the fight to Afghanistan. But who knows. And the radicalization process has already begun.

The rest here.

We wasted so many years there.

Al-Qaeda Planning To Blow Up 5 European Bound Passenger Planes Over Christmas

The U.K. is bracing for terror strikes, and has strong intel that Al-Qaeda is planning to blow up five passenger planes headed to Europe over Christmastime:

The warning comes as Whitehall officials admit that a terror strike on the UK is now "almost inevitable" particularly with British jihadis returning from fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

An airport security source told the Sunday Express: "We've been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas. They've been waiting for the big one.

"We have many scares but this one nearly got hand baggage pulled from all airlines. The threat is still alive and real."

The plot, which has been known about for the past two months, is thought to involve Islamists smuggling bombs on to planes bound for major European destinations before Christmas.

They may ban electronics, including cellphones, from carry-on baggage, if the baggage itself is not outright banned.

And there is talk about sleeper cells, many of whom could be white, blue-eyed, blond-haired converts, and middle-class females.

Dr. Leivesley, a former Home Office risk adviser, said that terrorists are now more likely to be "white, blond and blue eyed" who are radicalized in as little as five weeks.

She also claimed that female terrorists were becoming a significant risk, adding: "Crime profiling shows that white, middle class women, who are better than averagely educated, are susceptible to the terrorist narrative.

"They see themselves at the forefront of attempts to change the world and are represent a very dangerous tool for the terrorists.

Britain should really do something about people like hate-preachers and ISIS sympathizers like Anjem Choudary, or that country is headed for major disasters.

Scary times

The rest of the story here.

Aussie Imam- Over 100 Extremists Capable Of Violence Living In Sydney

A moderate Australian imam, Afroz Ali, admits that there are well over 100 radicalized young Muslim men living in Sydney suburbs who are on the verge of going over to the dark side of terrorism, and there's nothing he can do about it, although he's tried his damnedest.

Ali voiced his concern to 20 other imams during the April National Imam's Consultative Forum, which has the backing of the Aussie government.

"We have had a program for the last seven years now in which we have had 240 people who were considered to be moving in a direction which may have led them to violent radicalisation - to terrorism," Imam Afroz told the national forum.

"What we have found is, of the 240 people, 120, exactly half of them, are people who have changed their thinking, their mindset. That is something that I don't necessarily share too widely in public, but I am happy to share it here."

The videotaped conference is only just  airing on Channel 7's Today Tonight, and they were unable to contact Afroz for comment.  However, ex-radical Maajid Nawaz was available to talk.

He said he did not consider it a success that there were still 120 young radicals potentially headed for terrorism.

"I find it astonishing we've got one centre that has 240 radicals," Mr Mawaz told Today Tonight

"If 120 can become violent in one Islamic centre, that tells me the scale of the problem. It's massive because that's only one centre."

Read more here.

Australians should be very scared.

The Internet And Muslim Radicalization versus Acceptance Of Western Culture

It seems that the Internet is both a great way to either radicalize Muslims, at least the young, lone-wolf types:

Older Muslims are at a loss as to how the Internet, more than the mosque, is influencing the radicalization of their youth, according to Peter Neumann, the founding director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London.

Neumann, at a New America Foundation panel this week, argued that Muslim extremists considered to be “lone wolves” are “people who are extremely active and extremely social” online.

Socially isolated, lone actors — who are typically thought of as “lone wolves” — are “only a very small minority,” he said.

[snip]

“But that’s what these people do. They’re hanging out in online extremist forums for 10-12 hours a day, and if you asked them, Who are your best friends,’ they would give you five names of people they’ve never met and whose real names they actually don’t know,” said Neumann.

Or,  according to a Pew Research, get them to not hate Western culture so much. That is, I would assume, if they have access to the Internet, and Western sites are not censored.

Muslims outside the United States who use the Internet are more likely to have a favorable opinion of Western popular culture than those who don’t go online, the Pew Research Center said Friday.

[snip]

Focusing on 25 countries with enough Muslims using the Internet to allow a detailed analysis, Pew found that Muslims who go online are more inclined to like Western movies, music and television.

“They are (also) somewhat less inclined to say that Western entertainment is harming morality in their country,” said Pew, which posted its analysis on its www.pewforum.org website.

Who would have thought the Internet had such power to influence in both a positive and negative manner.

Read more on the Internet and  radicalization.
Read more on the Internet and Western acceptance.