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sana8410
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September 03, 2014, 01:55:58 PM |
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Outside of that, most of what I have read recently has been reports released by various agencies and NGO's (Would be happy to share if you have a specific subject you wanted to read on, most are related to conflict, terrorism, economic development, or women's rights). I could also recommend fiction books like classic Sci Fi or fantasy which I also read a lot of depending on what you are interested in.
Have you read any reports on IS/ISIS that you'd recommend? I pretty much just read up on middle-east history whenever I get the chance. There are a number absolutely. I mostly get by ISIS news from the Institute for the Study of War which has published several in depth papers on the organization in both Iraq and Syria, the Combating Terrorism Center, and the Jamestown Foundation. Also for some decent (though more conservative) reading, there is the Long War Journal. Depending on how far back you'd like to go I'd be happy to suggest some specific papers that I found useful. I'm getting more interested in this. If you wouldn't mind sharing, I would like to read up. One of the reasons is I was just told something I wasn't aware of, and it conflicts with what is commonly assumed. This al Baghdadi guy...someone just suggested to me that he was formerly with Saddam, and was trained by US forces in Jordan around 2006. Now it's possible I misunderstood who was being referred to, but it certainly was someone high up in ISIS. Does that make any sense to you? I'll post some when I get home. To answer your question though: yes and no. The person talking to you got the wrong Baghdadi (if they were referring to the current caliph). They are thinking of Abu Bakr Baghdadi's predecessor: Abu Omar Baghdadi. A quazi fictional character played by an actor who was loosely associated with (operationally speaking, not in terms of acting) a man named Hamed Dawood Mohammed Khalil al Zaw. It was this guy who used to work for the Iraqi security forces. Then again they may have been thinking of someone else. Al Zaw "headed" AQI prior to Baghdadi though and seems a likely candidate given the information you presented. |
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Rigon
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September 03, 2014, 02:05:06 PM |
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Outside of that, most of what I have read recently has been reports released by various agencies and NGO's (Would be happy to share if you have a specific subject you wanted to read on, most are related to conflict, terrorism, economic development, or women's rights). I could also recommend fiction books like classic Sci Fi or fantasy which I also read a lot of depending on what you are interested in.
Have you read any reports on IS/ISIS that you'd recommend? I pretty much just read up on middle-east history whenever I get the chance. There are a number absolutely. I mostly get by ISIS news from the Institute for the Study of War which has published several in depth papers on the organization in both Iraq and Syria, the Combating Terrorism Center, and the Jamestown Foundation. Also for some decent (though more conservative) reading, there is the Long War Journal. Depending on how far back you'd like to go I'd be happy to suggest some specific papers that I found useful. hmm, I'm not sure. Do you have anything that focuses on their funding/recruitment? Otherwise, if you've read any reports pertaining to their attacks on lebanese soil I'd be interested in that as well. |
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zolace
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September 03, 2014, 02:11:26 PM |
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Outside of that, most of what I have read recently has been reports released by various agencies and NGO's (Would be happy to share if you have a specific subject you wanted to read on, most are related to conflict, terrorism, economic development, or women's rights). I could also recommend fiction books like classic Sci Fi or fantasy which I also read a lot of depending on what you are interested in.
Have you read any reports on IS/ISIS that you'd recommend? I pretty much just read up on middle-east history whenever I get the chance. There are a number absolutely. I mostly get by ISIS news from the Institute for the Study of War which has published several in depth papers on the organization in both Iraq and Syria, the Combating Terrorism Center, and the Jamestown Foundation. Also for some decent (though more conservative) reading, there is the Long War Journal. Depending on how far back you'd like to go I'd be happy to suggest some specific papers that I found useful. hmm, I'm not sure. Do you have anything that focuses on their funding/recruitment? Otherwise, if you've read any reports pertaining to their attacks on lebanese soil I'd be interested in that as well. These three dispatches provide a nice overall summary for their general funding and recruitment. Obviously, like other violent terror organizations, additional funding derives from small-scale operations like kidnapping and ransom and extortion. I would definitely recommend reading articles from The Small Wars Journal, ForeignPolicy, and Jihadica for some great, great reading. The RAND Corporation also puts out some very dense articles about the group, which are free to download or view online. 1. http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/saudi-funding-of-isisPRIVATE DONATIONS
There is a misconception that the kingdom does not get in the way of private Saudi financing of terrorist groups operating in Syria, including ISIS. Yet one of Riyadh's most observable counter-terrorism financing activities is its monitoring of the country's formal financial sector in order to block suspect donations. Indeed, social media fundraising campaigns highlight the challenges of sending such funds from Saudi Arabia to Syria. To ensure that their contributions actually reach Syria, Saudi donors are encouraged to send their money to Kuwait, long considered one of the most permissive terrorism financing environments in the Persian Gulf. |
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zolace
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September 03, 2014, 02:16:21 PM |
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2. http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/R-SANA/SANA-Dispatch4-Syrian-Jihadism.pdfISIS’s advantages: funding
ISIS’s recruitment efforts have continued to increase its numbers of foreign fighters. Its solid funding—based in part on its own activities, primarily refining oil drilled in Syria’s ‘liberated’ areas (Hubbard, Krauss, and Schmitt, 4 SANA Dispatches · April 2014 Foreign Jihadism in Syria: The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham Small-calibre Ammunition in Libya: An Update ng 2014), and in part on sums that volunteers bring with them (often derived from the Muslim custom of zakat)—is rumoured to allow it to pay its fighters a salary.18 In a sense, ISIS’s increasing visibility and wealth have become self-sustaining: the more foreign fighters it has in its ranks, the more newly arrived foreign fighters seek to join, preferring to fight for a well-funded and consequently well-armed organization. As the ranks swell, the more educated and wealthy foreigners also gravitate to ISIS, taking up leadership positions in the field and bringing yet more money and networks of contacts to the group [...]
Box 1 Anatomy of recruitment
In practice, much of the recruitment is tied to local mosques, although not necessarily organized by mosque authorities. A given mosque may prove fertile ground for both recruitment and fundraising. The latter may be formally encouraged: in popular mosques in Fatih (the historic conservative quarter of Istanbul), for example, believers are regularly and strongly reminded of the third pillar of Islam: zakat or compulsory charity. The groups receiving donations may not necessarily be formally connected to the mosque and their charitable purpose may not be clear, e.g. donations taken to ‘ease the suffering’ of fellow Muslims in Syria may be used for travel expenses for volunteer fighters and even the purchase of weapons. The same ‘charity’ organizers (or people affiliated with them) may also provide volunteers with contacts in Syria and even ‘recruit’ interested young men to go and fight. Nevertheless, the presence of fundraising organizations–even informal recruitment by people associated with these organizations– should not be understood to equate with the existence of a formal recruiting network. 3. http://www.foi.se/Global/V%C3%A5r%20kunskap/S%C3%A4kerhetspolitiska%20studier/Asien/Rapporter_och_memon/FOI%20Memo%204947.pdfWhilst little suggests that wages are used to recruit combatants, relying on well-established
and well-funded networks in part inherited from Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), allows JN and ISIS
to procure access to effective weaponry, offer humanitarian support to civilians and provide
fighters with training and logistical support. ISIS benefits from pre-existing funding sources
inside Iraq (including extortion in Mosul), whilst JN seems to receive support from donors in
the Gulf countries, and both organizations derive revenues from controlling oil wells in Syria,
a method previously developed in Iraq. Based on what is known about AQI, the financial
support structure is hierarchical, bureaucratic, exerts close monitoring of incomes and is able
to collect money in stable areas and channel them to militarily contested regions. |
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sana8410
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September 03, 2014, 02:21:52 PM |
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sana8410
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September 03, 2014, 02:39:24 PM |
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As for McGavin's links, I'm not a big fan of the Small Wars Journal, but Jihadica and Foreign Policy are pretty good sources.
For the most part, ISIS funds itself internally. Primary means of money are: smuggling, extortion / "taxation", kidnapping, the sale of oil both to Assad and to other parties through Iran, and the capture of monetary reserves in Mosul.
Other smaller sources include private funding (mostly from persons in Gulf States).
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Rigon
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September 03, 2014, 02:46:42 PM |
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As for McGavin's links, I'm not a big fan of the Small Wars Journal, but Jihadica and Foreign Policy are pretty good sources.
For the most part, ISIS funds itself internally. Primary means of money are: smuggling, extortion / "taxation", kidnapping, the sale of oil both to Assad and to other parties through Iran, and the capture of monetary reserves in Mosul.
Other smaller sources include private funding (mostly from persons in Gulf States).
Thanks for the links, both of you. I was wondering what you meant by sale of oil through Iran? I have a hard time seeing IS and Iran working together on anything, really. |
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sana8410
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September 03, 2014, 02:52:49 PM |
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As for McGavin's links, I'm not a big fan of the Small Wars Journal, but Jihadica and Foreign Policy are pretty good sources.
For the most part, ISIS funds itself internally. Primary means of money are: smuggling, extortion / "taxation", kidnapping, the sale of oil both to Assad and to other parties through Iran, and the capture of monetary reserves in Mosul.
Other smaller sources include private funding (mostly from persons in Gulf States).
Thanks for the links, both of you. I was wondering what you meant by sale of oil through Iran? I have a hard time seeing IS and Iran working together on anything, really. Iran is just a smuggling route, like the Kurdish regions are. The Assad government is directly involved in buying oil straight from the ISIS, while Iran and Kurdish regions are mostly smuggling routes for black market transactions. There are already supply lines established up north through Kurdish black market deals as well that the ISIS can tap into. ISIS now also has access to significant grain resources that it can sell internally in Iraq for money. |
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umair127
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September 09, 2014, 10:54:35 AM |
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so, is this real or fan-fiction? http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.co.il/2014/09/abbas-to-tamim-mishaal-lies.htmlAbbas to Qatari Emir Tamim: Meshaal is lying
During the war and destruction in Gaza, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) arrived on August 21 in Doha, to complain to the Qatari emir about “(Khaled) Meshaal the liar,” whose group he accused of trying to stage a coup in the West Bank. Mahmoud Abbas seemed tense. He brought to Emir Tamim bin Hamad “two issues that we cannot resolve”: The failed negotiations with Israel and the relationship with Hamas. “Hamas wants to drive me mad,” Abbas said. He relayed to the emir what the Israelis had told him, that “[They] have arrested 93 members of Hamas who were preparing to stage a coup in the West Bank, with help from Saleh al-Aruri from Turkey, while the liaison person between them in Amman was a man called Jawad.” |
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zolace
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September 09, 2014, 11:12:15 AM |
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so, is this real or fan-fiction? http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.co.il/2014/09/abbas-to-tamim-mishaal-lies.htmlAbbas to Qatari Emir Tamim: Meshaal is lying
During the war and destruction in Gaza, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) arrived on August 21 in Doha, to complain to the Qatari emir about “(Khaled) Meshaal the liar,” whose group he accused of trying to stage a coup in the West Bank. Mahmoud Abbas seemed tense. He brought to Emir Tamim bin Hamad “two issues that we cannot resolve”: The failed negotiations with Israel and the relationship with Hamas. “Hamas wants to drive me mad,” Abbas said. He relayed to the emir what the Israelis had told him, that “[They] have arrested 93 members of Hamas who were preparing to stage a coup in the West Bank, with help from Saleh al-Aruri from Turkey, while the liaison person between them in Amman was a man called Jawad.” This strikes me as reasonable in the context. It makes me think a bit more highly of Abbas. I have very little respect for Hamas leadership, so that remains unchanged. |
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