ISIS: The State of Terror Part 13

40.Lister, "The 'Real' Jabhat al-Nusra Appears to Be Emerging."

41.Zelin, "Al-Qaeda in Syria."

42.Aaron Zelin, "Al-Qaeda Announces an Islamic State in Syria," Was.h.i.+ngton Inst.i.tute, April 9, 2013, http://www.was.h.i.+ngtoninst.i.tute.org/policy-a.n.a.lysis/view/al-qaeda-announces-an-islamic-state-in-syria.

43.Bessma Ata.s.si, "Al Qaeda Chief Annuls Syrian-Iraqi Jihad Merger," Al Jazeera, June 9, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/2013699425657882.html.

44."Iraqi al-Qaeda Chief Rejects Zawahiri Orders," Al Jazeera, June 15, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/2013615172217827810.html.

45.Lister, "Profiling the Islamic State"; Rania Abouzeid, "Syria's Uprising Within an Uprising," European Council on Foreign Relations, January 16, 2014, http://www.ecfr.eu/content/entry/commentary_syrias_uprising_within_an_uprising238.

46.Zelin, "Al-Qaeda Disaffiliates with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham."

47.Aaron Lund, "Who and What Was Abu Khalid al-Suri? Part 1," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, February 24, 2014, http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=54618.

48.Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, "Apologies, Amir of al-Qaidah," translated by Aaron Zelin, https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/shaykh-abc5ab-mue1b8a5ammad-al-e28098adnc481nc4ab-al-shc481mc4ab-22sorry-amc4abr-of-al-qc481_idah22-en1.pdf.

49.Alessandria Masi, "ISIS Youth Recruitment: Life in ISIS-Ruled Raqqa So Grim, Parents Are Giving Up Their Children," International Business Times, November 6, 2014, http://www.ibtimes.com/isis-youth-recruitment-life-isis-ruled-raqqa-so-grim-parents-are-giving-their-1719124.

50.Charles Lister, Profiling the Islamic State (The Brookings Inst.i.tution/Brookings Doha Center, 2014), 19.

51.Liz Sly, "Insurgents Seize Iraqi City of Mosul as Secruity Forces Flee," Was.h.i.+ngton Post, June 10, 2014, http://www.was.h.i.+ngtonpost.com/world/insurgents-seize-iraqi-city-of-mosul-as-troops-flee/2014/06/10/21061e87-8fcd-4ed3-bc94-0e309af0a674_story.html.

52.Melissa Block, "In New Iraqi Conflict, 'Sunni Awakening Stays Dormant,'" NPR, All Things Considered (radio), June 26, 2014, http://www.npr.org/2014/06/26/325909167/in-new-iraqi-conflict-sunni-awakening-stays-dormant; Mushreq Abbas, "The False 'Awakening' Model to Deal with ISIS in Iraq," al-Monitor, July 3, 2014, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/iraq-separating-sunni-armed-militants-isis-difficulties.html#.

53.Phillip Smyth, "Iranian Proxies Step Up Their Role in Iraq," Was.h.i.+ngton Inst.i.tute, June 13, 2014, http://www.was.h.i.+ngtoninst.i.tute.org/policy-a.n.a.lysis/view/iranian-proxies-step-up-their-role-in-iraq.

54.Ha.s.san Ha.s.san, "More than ISIS, Iraq's Sunni Insurgency," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, June 17, 2014, http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2014/06/17/more-than-isis-iraq-s-sunni-insurgency/hdvi.

55.Jacob Siegel, "With Friends Like These, ISIS Is Doomed," Daily Beast, July 24, 2014, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/24/with-friends-like-these-isis-is-doomed.html; Mohammad Ballout, "Invasion of Mosul May Backfire on ISIS in Syria," al-Monitor, June 13, 2014, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2014/06/iraq-fall-mosul-isis-regional-repercussions.html.

56.Liz Sly and Ahmed Ramadan, "Insurgents Seize Iraqi city of Mosul as Security Forces Free," The Was.h.i.+ngton Post, June 10, 2014, http://www.was.h.i.+ngtonpost.com/world/insurgents-seize-iraqi-city-of-mosul-as-troops-flee/2014/06/10/21061e87-8fcd-4ed3-bc94-0e309af0a674_story.html.

57.David Zucchino, "Why Iraqi Army Can't Fight, Despite $25 Billion in U.S. Air, Training," Los Angeles Times, November 3, 2014, http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraq-army-20141103-story.html#page=1.

58.Ibid.

59.Ned Parker, Isabel Coles and Raheem Salman, "Special Report: How Mosul fell-An Iraqi general disputes Baghdad's story," Reuters, October 14, 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/14/us-mideast-crisis-gharawi-special-report-idUSKCN0I30Z820141014.

60.Jeremy Bender, "Iraqi Bankers Say ISIS Never Stole $430 Million from Mosul Banks," Business Insider, July 17, 2014, http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-never-stole-430-million-from-banks-2014-7.

61.Patrick B. Johnston, "Countering ISIL's Financing," Congressional Hearing Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, November 13, 2014, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/testimonies/CT400/CT419/RAND_CT419.pdf.

62.Levitt, Statement to the House, Financial Services Committee.

63.David Cohen, "Attacking ISIL's Financial Foundation" (remarks presented at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 23, 2014). Juan Zarate, who served in the U.S. government from 20052009, helped to develop laws and regulations to target sources of funding for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. See Juan Zarate, Treasury's War (New York: Public Affairs, 2013). According to Zarate, Cohen, and Levitt, these instruments are far less useful in regard to ISIS because its main sources of funding are criminal operations, and there is less money laundering to target.

64.David Cohen, Statement to the House Financial Services Committee, Terrorist Financing and the Islamic State, Hearing, November 13, 2014.

65.Peter Bergen, "Should Western Nations Just Pay ISIS Ranson?" CNN Opinion, August 22, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/22/opinion/bergen-schneider-isis-ransom/.

66.Bill Roggio, "ISIS Takes Control of Bayji, Tikrit in Lightning Southward Advance," Long War Journal, July 11, 2014, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/06/isis_take_control_of_1.php; Mehmet Kemal Firik, "ISIS's Weapon Inventory Grows," Daly Sabah, July 3, 2014, http://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2014/07/03/isiss-weapon-inventory-grows.

67."This Is the Promise of Allah," Al Hayat Media Center, 2014, https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/shaykh-abc5ab-mue1b8a5ammad-al-e28098adnc481nc4ab-al-shc481mc4ab-22this-is-the-promise-of-G.o.d22-en.pdf; J. M. Berger, "Gambling on the Caliphate," IntelWire, June 29, 2014, http://news.intelwire.com/2014/06/gambling-on-caliphate.html.

68.Loveday Morris, "Islamic State Seizes Town of Sinjar, Pus.h.i.+ng out Kurds and Sending Yazidis Fleeing," Was.h.i.+ngton Post, August 3, 2014, http://www.was.h.i.+ngtonpost.com/world/islamic-state-seize-town-of-sinjar-pus.h.i.+ng-out-kurds-and-sending-yazidis-fleeing/2014/08/03/52ab53f1-48de-4ae1-9e1d-e241a15f580e_story.html.

69."Who, What, Why: Who Are the Yazidis?" BBC Magazine Monitor, August 7, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28686607.

70.Jane Arraf, "Islamic State Persecution of Yazidi Miniority Amounts to Genocide, UN Says," Christian Science Monitor, August 7, 2014, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0807/Islamic-State-persecution-of-Yazidi-minority-amounts-to-genocide-UN-says-video.

71.Ivan Watson, " 'Treated Like Cattle,' Yazidi Women Sold, Raped, Enslaved by ISIS," CNN World, November 7, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/30/world/meast/isis-female-slaves/.

72.Dan Wilkofsky and Osama Abu Zeid, "US-Backed SRF 'No Longer' in South Idlib After Nusra Victory," Syria: Direct, November 4, 2014, http://syriadirect.org/main/30-reports/1653-us-backed-srf-no-longer-in-south-idlib-after-nusra-victory.

73.Aron Lund, "Syria's Ahrar al-Sham Leaders.h.i.+p Wiped Out in Bombing," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 9, 2014, http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=56581; Email interview with Charles Lister.

74.Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, "Statement by the President on ISIL," September 10, 2014, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/10/statement-president-isil-1.

75.Ashley Fantz, "Who Is Doing What in the Coalition Battle Against ISIS?" CNN World, September 17, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/14/world/meast/isis-coalition-nations/.

76.Martha Raddatz and Luis Martinez, "Airstrikes in Syria That Targeted Khorasan Group Disrupted Plots Against US, Gen. Dempsy Says," ABC News, October 7, 2014, http://abcnews.go.com/International/airstrikes-syria-targeted-khorasan-group-disrupted-plots-us/story?id=26030142.

77.Wilkofsky and Abu Zeid, "US-Backed SRF 'No Longer' in South Idlib After Nusra Victory."

78.Charles Lister, "In Syria, a Last Gasp Warning for U.S. Influcence," Brookings Inst.i.tution, December 5, 2014, http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2014/12/05-syria-united-states-losing-last-gasp-at-leverage 79.Aron Lund, "The Levant Front: Can Aleppo's Rebels Unite?," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, December 26, 2014 http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=57605.

80."Islamic State: Fighting Intensifies in Syrian Town of Kobane," BBC News Middle East, November 29, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30260834; Ben Hubbard, "ISIS Wave of Might Is Turning into a Ripple," New York Times, November 5, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/world/middleeast/isis-wave-of-might-is-turning-into-ripple.html?_r=0.

81.Brian Katulis, "Good News from Iraq: ISIS Setbacks," Wall Street Journal, November 17, 2014, http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/11/17/good-news-from-iraq-isis-setbacks/; "Thirty U.S.-Led Strikes. .h.i.t Islamic State in Syria's Raqqa: Monitoring Group," Reuters, November 30, 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/30/us-mideast-crisis-syria-raqqa-idUSKCN0JE07020141130.

82.Charles Lister, "a.s.sessing Syria's Jihad," Survival: Global Politics and Strategy 56, no. 6 (2014): 87112.

83.Patrick c.o.c.kburn, "ISIS Consolidates," London Review 36, no. 16 (August 21, 2014), http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n16/patrick-c.o.c.kburn/isis-consolidates.

84.Lister, "a.s.sessing Syria's Jihad."

CHAPTER 3. FROM VANGUARD TO SMART MOB.

1.Descriptions of al Qaeda's founding in this chapter derived from al Qaeda internal records obtained by J. M. Berger. Translations of most of the doc.u.ments can be found in Beatings and Bureaucracy: The Founding Memos of Al Qaeda, ed. J. M. Berger (Intelwire Press, 2012).

2.Paul Klebnikov, "Who Is Osama Bin Laden?" Forbes, September 14, 2001, http://www.forbes.com/2001/09/14/0914whoisobl.html.

3.For a fuller discussion of Omar Abdel Rahman and al Qaeda see J. M. Berger, "The Death Dealers (19901993)," ch. 3 in Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam (Was.h.i.+ngton, DC: Potomac Books, 2011).

4.Brynjar Lia, Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al-Qaida Strategist Abu Mus'ab Al-Suri (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 370.

5.For a fuller discussion see J. M. Berger, "War on America (19911999)," ch. 6 in Jihad Joe.

6.The State of the Ummah, online video, As-Sahab Media Productions, 2001.

7."Timeline of al-Qaida Statements," NBC News, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4686034/ns/world_news-hunt_for_al_qaida/t/timeline-al-qaida-statements/.

8.Alan Cullison, "Inside Al-Qaeda's Hard Drive," Atlantic, September 1, 2004, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/09/inside-al-qaeda-s-hard-drive/303428/?single_page=true.

9."Bin Laden on Tape: Attacks 'Benefited Islam Greatly,'" CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/ret.bin.laden.videotape/, last modified December 14, 2001.

10.Jane Novak, "Arabian Peninsula Al-Qaeda Groups Merge," Long War Journal, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/01/arabian_peninsula_al.php, last modified January 26, 2009.

11.Gregory D. Johnson, The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia, 1st ed. (New York: Norton, 2013).

12."Al-Qa'ida in Iraq (AQI)," National Counterterrorism Center, http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/aqi.html, accessed September 20, 2014.

13."Al-Qa'Ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)," National Counterterrorism Center, http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/aqim.html, accessed September 20, 2014.

14."Al-Qa'Ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)," National Counterterrorism Center, http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/aqap.html, accessed September 20, 2014.

15."Al-Shabaab," National Counterterrorism Center, http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/al_shabaab.html, accessed September 20, 2014.

16."Al-Nusrah Front," National Counterterrorism Center, http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/al_nusrah.html, accessed September 20, 2014.

17.Ayman al-Zawahiri, "Announcing a New Branch of Al Qaeda Al Jihad," As-Sahab Media, September 3, 2014.

18.Zachary Abuza, "Balik-Terrorism: The Return of the Abu Sayyaf," Army War College Strategic Studies Inst.i.tute, 2005, 1415.

19.For a fuller discussion see J. M. Berger, "Project Bosnia (19921995)," ch. 4 in Jihad Joe.

20.For example, House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, "Jihadist Safe Havens: Efforts to Detect and Deter Terrorist Travel," July 24, 2014. A July 24, 2014, Nexis search for AQAP and "most dangerous" produced more than 1,600 results.

21.Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens and Peter Neumann, "Al Qaeda's Most Dangerous Franchise," Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2012, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304203604577395611014467928.

22.Special Agent Theodore James Peisig, "United States of America v. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab," Huffington Post, Big a.s.sets, December 25, 2009.

23."$4,200," Inspire, November 2010.

24.Lia, Architect of Global Jihad, 422.

25.Louis Beam, "Leaderless Resistance," http://www.louisbeam.com/leaderless.htm; Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Leaders.h.i.+p vs. Leaderless Resistance: The Militant White Separatist Movement's Operating Model," Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, February 18, 2010, http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/leaders.h.i.+p-vs-leaderless-resistance-the-militant-white-separatist-movement/.

26.Shane Dennan, "From 'Abdullah 'Azzam to Djamel Zitouni," CTC Sentinel 1, no. 7 (2008), https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/constructing-takfir-from-abdullah-azzam-to-djamel-zitouni, accessed September 5, 2014.

27.Ayman Zawahiri, "Zawahiri's Letter to Zarqawi," trans. Center for Combating Terrorism at West Point, July 9, 2005, https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/zawahiris-letter-to-zarqawi-english-translation-2.

28.Nasir al Wuhays.h.i.+ to Osama bin Laden, August 27, 2010, in Don Ra.s.sler et al., "Letters from Abbottabad: Bin Laden Sidelined," Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 2012, https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/letters-from-abbottabad-bin-ladin-sidelined.

29.Bill Roggio, "African Al-Qaeda Leader Side with Zawahiri in Syrian Dispute," Long War Journal, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/05/african_al_qaeda_lea.php., last modified May 1, 2014.

30.Aaron Zelin, "The War Between ISIS and Al-Qaeda for Supremacy of the Global Jihadist Movement," Research Notes, Was.h.i.+ngton Inst.i.tute, 2014.

31.Farouk Chothia, "Ahmed Abdi G.o.dane: Somalia's Killed Al-Shabab Leader," BBC News Africa, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29034409.

32.Berger, Jihad Joe, 17074.

33.J. M. Berger, "Me Against the World," Foreign Policy, May 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/25/me_against_the_world; J. M Berger, "Omar and Me," Foreign Policy, September 2013, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/16/omar_and_me.

34.Berger, "Omar and Me."

35.Aaron Zelin, "The State of Global Jihad Online: A Qualitative, Quant.i.tative, and Cross-Lingual a.n.a.lysis," New America Foundation, 2013, http://www.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/Zelin_Global%20Jihad%20Online_NAF.pdf.

36.Philipp Holtmann, "The Different Functions of IS Online and Offline Pledges," Jihadology, November 15, 2015, http://jihadology.net/2014/11/15/guest-post-the-different-functions-of-is-online-and-offline-plegdes-bayat-creating-a-multifaceted-nexus-of-authority/.

37.Berger, "Omar and Me."

38.Tony Busch, "How Twitter Is Messing with Al-Qaeda's Careful PR Machine," Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/05/how-twitter-is-messing-with-al-qaedas-careful-pr-machine/275697/, last modified May 14, 2013.

39.Abdullah bin Mohammed, "Strategy Affairs," Twitter account, https://twitter.com/Strategyaffairs.

40.Omar Hammami to J. M. Berger, Twitter message.

41.Hamsa Omar and Sarah McGregor, "U.S. Al-Qaeda Member Rebuked by Somalia Militia over Criticism," Bloomberg, December 18, 2012, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-18/u-s-al-qaeda-member-rebuked-by-somalia-militia-over-criticism.html; hundreds of tweets to Hammami by Shabab members archived by J. M. Berger; many of these accounts are now suspended.

42.Majid Ahmed, "Open Letter to Al-Zawahiri Rocks Foundations of Al-Shabaab," Sabahi, April 12, 2013, http://sabahionline.com/en_GB/articles/hoa/articles/features/2013/04/12/feature-01.

43.Sa'eed Bin Jubayr, Twitter post, May 18, 2013, https://twitter.com/IbnJubayr/status/335786202542268417, accessed September 20, 2014.

44.Berger, "Omar and Me."

45.Zelin, "The State of Global Jihad Online."

46.Forum activity tracked over time by J. M. Berger; additional information was provided by two a.n.a.lysts who track online jihadist activity but spoke under conditions of anonymity.

47.Zelin, "The War Between ISIS and Al-Qaeda."

48.Ayman Zawahiri. "A Testimony to Save/Preserve Blood of the Mujahideen in Sham," Jihadology, Aaron Zelin, 2005, https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/dr-ayman-al-e1ba93awc481hirc4ab-22testimony-to-preserve-the-blood-of-the-mujc481hidc4abn-in-al-shc481m22-en.pdf; see also, Ayman Zawahiri, "Eulogy for the Martyr of the Fitnah Shaykh Ab Khlid Al-Sr," Jihadology, Aaron Zelin, 2014.

49.Hashtag activity tracked and a.n.a.lyzed by J. M. Berger March 2527, 2014.

50.Aaron Zelin, "Member of Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shm Leaks Unpublished Video Message from Adam Gadahan: 'Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shm: Extremists,'" Jihadology, March 29, 2014, http://jihadology.net/2014/03/29/member-of-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-al-sham-leaks-unpublished-video-message-from-adam-gadahan-islamic-state-of-iraq-and-al-sham-extremists/. On the forum infiltration, members of al Qaeda's media team were identified by their activity uploading videos to popular file-sharing forums, including account information that could be correlated back to both Twitter and to the names used by prominent forum members; a.n.a.lysis of forum Twitter feeds over time pointed to s.h.i.+fting allegiances. Additional information was provided by two a.n.a.lysts who track online jihadist activity but spoke under conditions of anonymity.

51.Zelin, "Member of Islamic State"; Bill Roggio, "Al Qaeda's American Propagandist Notes Death of Terror Group's Representative in Syria," Long War Journal, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/03/al_qaedas_american_p.php, last modified March 30, 2014.

52.For example, SayfulAdl, Twitter post, April 22, 2014, 1:28 p.m., https://twitter.com/SayfulAdl/status/458658509434146816.