Foreign fighters in Iraq & Syria

**Tukhachevskii** · 04-08-2014

Originally Posted by Bob's World

Carl, actually it is you espousing ideological nonsense. I tolerate your binded shots in my general direction, and I realize many are equally as ideolgogically blinded as yourself and agree in large part with your baseless positions. That does not make those positions correct.

In many ways you are a microcosm of post Cold War US national security strategy, becoming increasingly ideological ourselves to the point where we perceive ourselves to be existentially threatened merely because some other ideolog believes differently.

Personally I am cautious of all ideologs, regardless of their espoused creed. I prefer those who think, seek to understand, and then speak or act; over those who memorize, recite and perform.

These are political struggles. When one loses sight of that reality and over-focuses on "the lipstick" (to borrow your phrase) one forgets its all about the pig. And that pig is politics; and the political competition is driven by fundamental human nature, not fundamentalist ideology. Those denied legal redress will take illegal redress. It is what humans have always done and will always do.

...to this nonsense. Political preferences are non ideiological? Ever hear of the spanish civil war? So politics is purely proceducral? I take it these people travel abroad to risk their lives for such administrative or procedural political goals as wether or not the central government should pick up household rubiish on Tuesday instead of Wednesday? Its crap like this that simply turned me off SWC. Bobs worls and I have debated before. Right now I just can't be bothered. Politics is not ideological?!! Thank god this site doesnt require a subscription.

**davidbfpo** · 04-16-2014

ICSR @ Kings has published this research paper today:

An analysis of social media has shown what a selection of foreign fighters in Syria are liking, following and interacting with. What are their key online influences?....The analysis identifies two relatively unknown clerics who have been acting as online cheerleaders for fighters seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad. It also identifies a new breed of 'disseminators' advising and supporting the men and women who have joined rebel groups. Two preachers, Ahmad Musa Jibril (US-based) and Musa Cerantonio (based in Australia)

From a short article:http://www.theguardian.com/news/data...ighters-syria?

An eight minute video:http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/v...al-media-video

The report via:http://icsr.info/2014/04/icsr-insigh...eign-fighters/

**davidbfpo** · 05-23-2014

A short paper by the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue 'Foreign Fighters, the Challenge of Counter-Narratives', after the introduction a refreshing attempt to consider and provide a counter-narrative. Sadly it has taken three years, with speculation / reporting that hundreds are fighting in Syria and an estimated two hundred and fifty have returned to the UK.

Link:http://www.strategicdialogue.org/For...bsite_v0.6.pdf

**Firn** · 06-01-2014

Brussels Jewish Museum killings: Suspect 'admitted attack'

He said Mr Nemmouche had spent over a year in Syria and had links with radical Islamists.

....

Police found Mr Nemmouche had in his possession a Kalashnikov rifle and a handgun believed to have been used in the attack, the Paris prosecutor told a news conference on Sunday.

With the weapons was a white sheet emblazoned with the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, according to Mr Molins.

He was also sentenced to 5 years for armed robbery, it seems, before going to Syria. Arguably a second marker beside the Syria trip which caused monitoring activities. Similar connections (minus the terrorism at home, so far) have been already mentioned in this thread. This nexus and his criminal past might have facilitated the access to those guns, we will see. There will be lots of question in France, especially within the services.

Mr Nemmouche was also said to be carrying a camera with a 40-second video showing the two guns and a voice recording, claiming responsibility for the killings and expressing regret that the device had not succeeded in capturing the shooting.

Maybe influenced by the Syrian YTwar, in which such cameras are widely used for various reasons, propaganda being not the least among them.

**davidbfpo** · 06-04-2014

A short, six minute CNN interview with Peter Neumann from ICSR and he is very pessimistic about teh impact of foreign fighters. This quote comes after his direct contact with fighters:

They are telling us that the Syrian people do not like them very much. They are telling us that they hate the idea that all this infighting is going on between different groups – they came to Syria in order to fight Bashar Assad; what they end up doing is killing other Sunni rebels. And so there are a lot of powerful messages. If governments paid more attention, these would be very powerful messages to deter people from going to Syria in the first place

Link:http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/0...stan-in-1980s/

**davidbfpo** · 06-09-2014

An update on the French scene:http://jihadology.net/2014/06/09/the...eers-in-syria/

For David Thomson, the French jihadists are leaving to assume a defensive jihad against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, but also because they believe in the Muslim prophecies of the end times, the Apocalypse, to be held in Syria (land of Sham). There is no portrait type of French jihadist even if some are from disadvantaged neighborhoods of large cities, others come from the countryside and have never met a Muslim. Many are offenders, but not all, some being fully inserted into the social fabric. The only common denominator is the role of the Internet and social networks. These helped to streamline the message of jihad and extend it to a wider younger audience. Most of the jihadists become self-taught via the net