Isis

[spaminator]

Former ISIS sex slave details horrors in memoir
Washington Post
More from Washington Post
Published:
November 23, 2017
Updated:
November 23, 2017 12:27 PM EST
Author Nadia Murad is onstage during Glamour Celebrates 2017 Women Of The Year Live Summit at Brooklyn Museum on Nov. 13, 2017 in New York City. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Glamour)
By Anne-Marie O’Connor, Washington Post
LONDON – Islamic State militants have lost the last of their strongholds, but for Yazidi survivor Nadia Murad, a new battle is just beginning.
Three years after escaping militants in northern Iraq, Murad is unveiling a harrowing memoir, The Last Girl, about her ordeal as a sex slave.
Murad’s disturbing personal account is part of her effort, represented by human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, to bring Islamic State members to justice for war crimes and genocide against the Yazidi people.
2 Yazidi women who escaped ISIS win human rights prize
“This is not something I chose,” Murad, 24, said in an interview in the lounge of a posh London hotel. “Somebody had to tell these stories. It’s not easy.”
When the Islamic State swept into northern Iraq in 2014, thousands of Yazidis were killed and thousands more were kidnapped, including women and girls who were taken as sex slaves. UN officials have said the violence committed against the minority sect constituted a genocide, and the UN Security Council has created a task force to collect evidence of atrocities in Iraq.
Murad became the first UN goodwill ambassador for survivors of human trafficking in 2016, and is pressing her concerns about thousands of Yazidi women and girls who may still be captives and survivors she hopes will be moved from camps and resettled.
“The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State” cover. (Supplied)
“The goal of this book is to make sure that everyone knows what happened to the Yazidis and how they suffered,” Murad said. “There are other survivors who dream that one day they will testify about what (ISIS) did to them. Our stories can make a difference.”
When the war began, Murad was a student living a quiet life in the village of Kocho in northern Iraq.
“Everyone was poor,” she said. “We were satisfied with a life that was simple and humble. We were a peaceful, open people.”
The militants arrived in Kocho in August 2014 and ordered everyone to the schoolhouse. The men were then forced to leave, and gunfire soon rang out. Scores of men were killed, including six of Murad’s brothers.
Murad was put on a bus with other young women, relatives and neighbours, and ISIS fighters began groping the women. One fighter put his hand down her shirt and tried to do “things that happen between lovers when they get married.” ISIS gunmen took away Murad’s mother to be killed. They set an elderly woman on fire.
Murad and the other young women were taken to the home of a wealthy family in the city of Mosul, where crowds of men grabbed at them.
One man extinguished a cigarette on Murad’s stomach. Another man chose three women, paying for them in U.S. dollars. The rest were offered up at a chaotic slave market, and Murad was dragged off by the first of her tormentors.
“I put the details in the book so I don’t have to tell the story every time,” she said forlornly.
The Islamic State leadership created a self-styled “religious” rationale to justify the sexual abuse of Yazidi women, and girls as young as nine.
Some Yazidi women took their own lives.
Murad was gang-raped as punishment for trying to escape.
“What gave me strength was the hundreds, if not thousands, of girls in captivity,” Murad said. “I told myself, we will be able to survive this.”
One day an Islamic State gunman left her alone in a house, and Murad found an unlocked door. She stepped out into the courtyard, climbed the wall and dropped down into an empty street, terrified.
“It wasn’t about courage,” she said. “You’re scared of being put to death, or tortured. All you think about is how to survive.”
Murad walked swiftly through the darkening streets of Mosul, her face covered by a long veil. She banged on the door of a house and begged for help.
The family inside let her in and eventually smuggled her out of ISIS territory, passing her off as the wife of one of the men. As they went through the last checkpoint, she spotted her photo on a flier showing wanted escapees.
Murad made her way to a refugee camp and was accepted as a refugee to Germany in 2015. She now lives with her sister, a war widow, in an apartment in Stuttgart.
Murad is still haunted by the failure of people in Mosul to help more Yazidi women.
“There were 2 million civilians in Mosul and 2,000 kidnapped girls there,” she said. “There were thousands of families in Mosul that could have helped other girls, but they didn’t. Women had to wear veils in Mosul. It would have been easy to smuggle Yazidi women out.”
Many of those who did help smuggle Yazidis demanded thousands of dollars – her sister-in-law’s family paid US$20,000 to get her to safety, Murad said.
Last summer, Murad returned to her hometown for a hero’s welcome, and tears streamed down her face as she entered her family’s destroyed home.
“We hoped that our fate would be like the men and we would be killed, but instead Europeans, Saudis, Tunisians and other fighters came and raped us and sold us,” she said, in an improvised speech that was videotaped by news reporters.
Murad hopes that someday she will “look the men who raped me in the eye and see them brought to justice,” and will be “the last girl with a with a story like mine.”
She has another ambition: She wants to become a makeup artist and hairdresser, or even open her own salon – a place that traditionally serves as a haven for women.
“Maybe people will remember me for being a stylist, not a survivor” of ISIS, she said. “They’ll forget that.”
http://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555106/the-last-girl-by-nadia-murad/9781524760434
Former ISIS sex slave details horrors in memoir | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

'Die Hard' for jihadists? ISIS targets Westerner recruits with heroic tales
Associated Press
More from Associated Press
Published:
November 24, 2017
Updated:
November 24, 2017 8:29 PM EST
This image made from video posted on a militant website July 5, 2014, purports to show the leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq during his first public appearance. The Islamic State is targeting Western recruits with videos suggesting they too can be a hero like Bruce Willis' character in "Die Hard."(Militant video via AP, File)
WASHINGTON — Beyond the slick, Hollywood-style cinematics, the Islamic State is targeting Western recruits with videos suggesting they, too, can be heroes like Bruce Willis’ character in “Die Hard.”
That’s the conclusion of The Chicago Project on Security and Threats, which analyzed some 1,400 videos released by IS between 2013 and 2016. Researchers who watched and catalogued them all said there is more to the recruitment effort than just sophisticated videography, and it’s not necessarily all about Islam.
Instead, Robert Pape, who directs the security centre, said the extremist group is targeting Westerners — especially recent Muslim converts — with videos that follow, nearly step-by-step, a screenwriter’s standard blueprint for heroic storytelling.
“It’s the heroic screenplay journey, the same thing that’s in Wonder Woman, where you have someone who is learning his or her own powers through the course of their reluctant journey to be hero,” Pape said.
The project at the University of Chicago separately has assembled a database of people who have been indicted in the United States for activities related to IS. Thirty-six per cent were recent converts to Islam and did not come from established Muslim communities, according to the project. Eighty-three per cent watched IS videos, the project said.
The group’s success in using heroic storytelling is prompting copycats, Pape said. The research shows al-Qaida’s Syria affiliate has been mimicking IS’ heroic narrative approach in its own recruitment films. “We have a pattern that’s emerging,” Pape said.
Intelligence and law enforcement officials aren’t sure the approach is all that new. They say IS has been using any method that works to recruit Westerners. Other terrorism researchers think IS’ message is still firmly rooted in religious extremism.
Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks messaging by militant groups, agrees that IS makes strong, visual appeals resembling Hollywood movies and video games, making its media operation more successful than al-Qaida’s. And IS videos can attract hero wannabes, she said.
“However, these features of IS media are only assets to a core message it uses to recruit,” Katz said. “At the foundation of IS recruitment propaganda is not so much the promise to be a Hollywood-esque hero, but a religious hero. There is a big difference between the two.”
When a fighter sits in front of a camera and calls for attacks, Katz said, he will likely frame it as revenge for Muslims killed or oppressed somewhere in the world. The message is designed to depict any terror attack in that nation as justified and allow the attacker to die as a martyr, she said.
The promise of religious martyrdom is powerful to anybody regardless of whether they are rich or poor, happy or unhappy, steeped in religion or not at all, she said.
Pape said he knows he’s challenging conventional wisdom when he says Westerners are being coaxed to join IS ranks not because of religious beliefs, but because of the group’s message of personal empowerment and Western concepts of individualism.
How else can one explain Western attackers’ loose connections to Islam, or their scarce knowledge of IS’s strict, conservative Sharia law, he asked. IS is embracing, not rejecting, Western culture and ideals, to mobilize Americans, he said.
“This is a journey like Clint Eastwood,” Pape said, recalling Eastwood’s 1970s performance in “High Plains Drifter” about a stranger who doles out justice in a corrupt mining town. “When Clint Eastwood goes in to save the town, he’s not doing it because he loves them. He even has contempt for the people he’s saving. He’s saving it because he’s superior,” Pape said.
“That’s Bruce Willis in ‘Die Hard.’ That’s Wonder Woman. … Hollywood has figured out that’s what puts hundreds of millions in theatre seats,” Pape said. “IS has figured out that’s how to get Westerners.”
Pape said the narrative in the recruitment videos targeting westerners closely tracks Chris Vogler’s 12-step guide titled “The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers.” The book is based on a narrative identified by scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama and other storytelling.
Step No. 1 in Vogler’s guide is portraying a character in his “ordinary world.”
An example is a March 25, 2016, video released by al-Qaida’s Syria branch about a young British man with roots in the Indian community. It starts: “Let us tell you the story of a real man… Abu Basir, as we knew him, came from central London. He was a graduate of law and a teacher by profession.”
Vogler’s ninth step is about how the hero survives death, emerging from battle to begin a transformation, sometimes with a prize.
In the al-Qaida video, the Brit runs through sniper fire in battle. He then lays down his weapon and picks up a pen to start his new vocation blogging and posting Twitter messages for the cause.
Matthew Levitt, a terrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says it doesn’t surprise him that IS would capitalize on what he dubs the “zero to hero” strategy because the organization is very pragmatic and accepts recruits regardless of their commitment to Islamic extremism.
Heroic aspirations are only one reason for joining the ranks of IS, he said. Criminals also seek the cover of IS to commit crimes. Others sign up because they want to belong to something.
“I’ve never seen a case of radicalization that was 100 per cent one way or the other,” Levitt said.
‘Die Hard’ for jihadists? ISIS targets Westerner recruits with heroic tales | Toronto Sun

 

[Johnnny]

^---- the sad thing is that kids will read it

 

[MHz]

The sad thing is the ones that call themselves adults won't read that and more about this particular individual that ends up having a long history with the US before appearing on the scenes as the instant leader.


Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declassified Iraq prison file - Business Insider
Relatively little is known about Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the jihadist group Islamic State (also known as ISIS and ISIL). However, newly declassified military documents obtained by Business Insider on Wednesday reveal several new details about the ISIS leader.
The records come from time Baghdadi spent in US Army custody in Iraq. They were released through a Freedom of Information Act request. In these files, Baghdadi was identified by his birth name, Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Al Badry.
There have been conflicting reports about the time Baghdadi spent as a US detainee. These files identify his "capture date" as Feb. 4, 2004 and the date of his "release in place" as Dec. 8, 2004. According to the records, Baghdadi was captured in Fallujah and held at multiple prison facilities including Camp Bucca and Camp Adder.



The believer: How Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became leader of the Islamic State | Brookings Institution

“If there was no American prison in Iraq, there would be no Islamic State now.”
- former camp bucca inmate​

“New recruits were prepared so that when they were freed they were ticking time bombs,” remembers another fellow inmate, who was interviewed by a reporter with Al Monitor. When a new prisoner came in, his peers would “teach him, indoctrinate him, and give him direction so he leaves a burning flame.” Baghdadi would turn out to be the most explosive of those flames, a man responsible for much of the conflagration that would engulf the region less than a decade later.
Many of the ex-Baathists at Bucca, some of whom Baghdadi befriended, would later rise with him through the ranks of the Islamic State. “If there was no American prison in Iraq, there would be no [Islamic State] now,” recalled the inmate interviewed by The Guardian. “Bucca was a factory. It made us all. It built our ideology.” The prisoners dubbed the camp “The Academy,” and during his ten months in residence, Baghdadi was one of its faculty members.
By the time Baghdadi was released on December 8, 2004, he had a virtual Rolodex for reconnecting with his co-conspirators and protégés: they had written one another’s phone numbers in the elastic of their underwear.
The Confidant

Just two months before Baghdadi’s release, al-Qaida established a branch of its terror network in Iraq by absorbing a jihadist militia run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and putting him in charge of it. Zarqawi, a Jordanian who wanted to create an Islamic state, thought he could use al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) to provoke a sectarian civil war between Iraq’s minority Sunnis and the majority Shiites, which would force the Sunnis to turn to his group for protection. Once AQI emerged victorious from the ensuing bloodbath, as he expected it to do, there would be no serious obstacles to establishing the Islamic state he dreamed of. Al-Qaida’s leaders reluctantly agreed to Zarqawi’s brutal program because they wanted a hand in the new insurgency against the Americans. But they quickly came to regret their endorsement when the shocking violence of Zarqawi’s group, which he publicized online, alienated the Muslim masses whose support al-Qaida cultivated to prosecute its global war on America and its allies.

 

[DaSleeper]

 

[MHz]

Point out a flaw or two in this guy's summation and then we'll chat.

Saudi Arabia vs Yemen = USA vs IRAN - Proxy War for Middle East Control

 

[DaSleeper]

As soon as I saw "End times news" I quit watching....I'm not that gullible

Here....this should keep you busy for a while
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=end+time+news

 

[MHz]

Might I suggest you upgrade your hat.That might explain why you have missed so many memos. 3D-glasses are extra as is the built in sound system , but at least head mounted tracking comes standard.

Move up or move over, what does that mean to you on first read??

 

[DaSleeper]

I see you forgot your pills again...so now you can talk to yourself.............................

 

[MHz]

As soon as I saw "End times news" I quit watching....I'm not that gullible

Here....this should keep you busy for a while
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=end+time+news

That's why you are such a dumb fuk.

I don't think he even mentions the Bible. That would be more like this guys style.

Turkey Advances like Gog of Magog

I see you forgot your pills again...so now you can talk to yourself.............................

I can't hear you so why are you even talking?? That is right up there in the 7 signs you are insane list. Pills would not even help you at this stage. Tic toc, tic toc.

 

[spaminator]

Jihadi brides: Families want ISIS women, terror offspring to return
Brad Hunter
More from Brad Hunter
Published:
November 28, 2017
Updated:
November 28, 2017 4:25 PM EST
The pulverized ISIS caliphate. Now, jihadi brides want to come back to Canada.THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Roll out the welcome wagon, the brides of ISIS want to come home!
No, that’s not a Rogers and Hammerstein musical.
CBC News is reporting that the families of four young Canadian women who had children with ISIS thugs are hoping their kin can come home now that the caliphate has been crushed.
Herman Deparice-Okomba, director of Montreal’s Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence, told CBC his group started receiving increasingly urgent calls from the women’s families early last month.
“We are talking about four to five families with whom we talk to daily,” he said.
The women’s families claim that they were brainwashed and are so desperate to come home they will even risk criminal prosecution.
According to CSIS, about 60 Islamic extremists have returned to Canada so far. The spy agency estimates 180 Canadians have left their homeland to join terror groups.
So far, unlike France, the United Kingdom and the U.S., Canada has been unwilling to kill terrorists before they can get on a plane home. And a former CSIS analyst said the government is at odds on what to do.
“Theoretically, it’s against the law, we should charge them with a crime,” Phil Gurski told the network, adding that CSIS’s challenge is gathering evidence on returning death cult members.
And while the spy agency has information on jihadists, it is seldom admissible in court, he said. Gurski added there are questions on whether their extremist offspring can become Canadians.
Deparice-Okomba said the public’s safety is the top concern.
“We have to make sure that these people do not pose a threat to us,” he said.
Jihadi brides who made the journey to the war zone were almost immediately married to an ISIS killer. Once wed, their dreary lives became a 1950s flashback of raising kids, cooking and cleaning.
Jihadi brides: Families want ISIS women, terror offspring to return | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

Islamic State monsters burn Syrian pilot alive; vow Christmas bloodshed
Brad Hunter
More from Brad Hunter
Published:
December 4, 2017
Updated:
December 4, 2017 3:24 PM EST
Syrian pilot Azzam Eid minutes before he was burned alive by Islamic State sickos.
ISIS sickos are doubling down on barbarity.
The twisted death cult has released horrific footage of the gleeful killers burning a Syrian air force pilot to death — 18 agonizing months after he was first captured.
According to the Daily Mail, Azzam Eid was captured in April 2016 after ISIS fighters shot down his Syrian Arab Air Force MiG 23 and he parachuted to what he thought was safety.
Instead, his captivity ended with a video showing the pilot being burned alive. It is not known when the sickening footage was recorded.
Islamic States latest holiday offerings, vowing bloodshed at Christmas.
Wearing orange cover-alls, his head shaved clean and with a chain around his neck, Eid is tied to a tree and his clothing is then set on fire. His chilling screams can be heard as the fire kills him.
The rest of the video was a mash-up of ISIS fighters during the caliphate’s glory days.
The terrorists say the fire is symbolic of the mayhem that Syrian and allied air strikes have caused the cashed-out caliphate. It is the second time Islamic State have burned a pilot alive.
They also burned a Jordanian pilot alive.
Islamic States latest holiday offerings, vowing bloodshed at Christmas.
Meanwhile, the Islamic State is sending out its Christmas greetings early in a series of blood-curdling posters vowing death during the holiday season.
One shows a heavily-armed extremist walking down London’s busy Oxford Street as Christmas lights twinkle.
The propaganda reads: “From now onwards we will go to attack them and they will not come to attack us.”
With their beloved caliphate officially pulverized, ISIS has been threatening more attacks on soft targets, like Christmas shoppers. They have also threatened Queen Elizabeth and encouraged lone wolves to sate their bloodlust at next year’s World Cup.
One of the images was of Elizabeth’s head — covered in blood in front of the Union Jack.
A blood-soaked knife carries the warning: “Under observation … soon.”
Islamic State monsters burn Syrian pilot alive; vow Christmas bloodshed | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

’I defeated ISIS’: Young scholar who leaked Islamic State secrets reveals identity
Associated Press
More from Associated Press
Published:
December 7, 2017
Updated:
December 7, 2017 7:26 AM EST
The historian carried secrets too heavy for one man to bear.
He packed his bag with his most treasured possessions before going to bed: the 1 terabyte hard drive with his evidence against the Islamic State group, an orange notebook half-filled with notes on Ottoman history, and, a keepsake, the first book from Amazon delivered to Mosul.
He passed the night in despair, imagining all the ways he could die, and the moment he would leave his mother and his city.
He had spent nearly his entire life in this home, with his five brothers and five sisters. He woke his mother in her bedroom on the ground floor.
“I am leaving,” he said. “Where?” she asked. “I am leaving,” was all he could say. He couldn’t endanger her by telling her anything more. In truth, since the IS had invaded his city, he’d lived a life about which she was totally unaware.
He felt her eyes on the back of his neck, and headed to the waiting Chevrolet. He didn’t look back.
For nearly two years, he’d wandered the streets of occupied Mosul, chatting with shopkeepers and Islamic State fighters, visiting friends who worked at the hospital, swapping scraps of information. He grew out his hair and his beard and wore the shortened trousers required by IS. He forced himself to witness the beheadings and deaths by stoning, so he could hear the killers call out the names of the condemned and their supposed crimes.
I can't be anonymous anymore. This is to say that I defeated ISIS. You can see me now, and you can know me now
He wasn’t a spy. He was an undercover historian and blogger . As IS turned the city he loved into a fundamentalist bastion, he decided he would show the world how the extremists had distorted its true nature, how they were trying to rewrite the past and forge a brutal Sunni-only future for a city that had once welcomed many faiths.
He knew that if he was caught he too would be executed.
“I am writing this for the history , because I know this will end. People will return, life will go back to normal,” is how he explained the blog that was his conduit to the citizens of Mosul and the world beyond. “After many years, there will be people who will study what happened. The city deserves to have something written to defend the city and tell the truth, because they say that when the war begins, the first victim is the truth.”
He called himself Mosul Eye . He made a promise to himself in those first few days: Trust no one, document everything.
Neither family, friends nor the Islamic State group could identify him. His readership grew by the thousands every month.
And now, he was running for his life.
But it would mean passing through one Islamic State checkpoint after another, on the odds that the extremists wouldn’t stop him, wouldn’t find the hard drive that contained evidence of IS atrocities, the names of its collaborators and fighters, and all the evidence that its bearer was the man they’d been trying to silence since they first swept in.
The weight of months and years of anonymity were crushing him.
He missed his name.
He was an anonymous blogger known only as Mosul Eye, documenting Islamic State atrocities since June 2014. In Europe on Tuesday Dec. 5, 2017, Iraq’s Omar Mohammed now wants the world _ and his family _ to know his identity. (AP Photo)
——
From the beginning, Mosul Eye wrote simultaneously as a witness and a historian. Born in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war in 1986, he had come of age during a second war, when Saddam Hussein fell and the Americans took over. At 17, he remembers going to a meeting of extremists at the mosque and hearing them talk about fighting the crusaders. “I should be honest, I didn’t understand.”
As for the Americans, whose language he already spoke haltingly, he couldn’t fathom why they would come all the way from the United States to Mosul. He thought studying history would give him the answers.
The men in black came from the north, cutting across his neighbourhood in brand new trucks, the best all-terrain Toyotas money could buy. He had seen jihadis before in Mosul and at first figured these men would fade away like the rest. But in the midst of pitched fighting, the extremists found the time to run down about 70 assassination targets and kill them all, hanging enormous banners announcing their arrival in June 2014.
By then a newly minted teacher, the historian attended a staff meeting at Mosul University, where the conquerors explained the Islamic State education system, how all classes would be based upon the strictest interpretation of the Qur’an. To a man who had been accused of secularism during his master’s thesis defence just the year before, it felt like the end of his career.
In those first few days, he wrote observations about the Islamic State group on his personal Facebook page — until a friend warned that he risked being killed. With the smell of battle still in the air, he wandered the streets, puzzling over its transformation into a city at war. He returned to find his family weeping. The smell of smoke and gunfire permeated the home.
On June 18, 2014, a week after the city fell, Mosul Eye was born .
“My job as a historian requires an unbiased approach which I am going to adhere to and keep my personal opinion to myself,” he wrote. “I will only communicate the facts I see.”
By day, he chatted with Islamic State fighters and vendors, and observed. Always observed. By night, he wrote in his native Arabic and fluent English on a WordPress blog and later on Facebook and Twitter.
The city turned dark, and Mosul Eye became one of the outside world’s main sources of news about the Islamic State fighters, their atrocities and their transformation of the city into a grotesque shadow of itself. The things IS wanted kept secret went to the heart of its brutal rule.
He stayed anonymous for more than three years, documenting Islamic State’s atrocities and the destruction of his city as the blogger Mosul Eye. Omar Mohammed, now in Europe on Dec. 5, 2017, is done hiding. (AP Photo)
“They were organized as a killing machine. They are thirsty (for) blood and money and women.”
He attended Friday sermons with feigned enthusiasm. He collected and posted propaganda leaflets, including one on July 27, 2014, that claimed the Islamic State leader was a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed’s daughter. Back home, writing on his blog in his other, secret identity, he decried the leaflet as a blatant attempt “to distort history” to justify the fanatics’ actions.
He drank glass after glass of tea at the hospital, talking to people who worked there. Much of the information he collected went up online. Other details he kept in his computer, for fear they would give away his identity. Someday, he told himself, he would write Mosul’s history using these documents.
The most sensitive information initially came from two old friends: one a doctor and the other a high school dropout who embraced Islamic State’s extreme interpretation of religion. He was a taxi driver who like many others in Mosul had been detained by a Shiite militia in 2008 and still burned with resentment. He swiftly joined an intelligence unit in Mosul, becoming “one of the monsters of ISIS” — and couldn’t resist bragging about his insider knowledge.
Once he corroborated the details and masked the sources, Mosul Eye put it out for the world to see. He sometimes included photos of the fighters and commanders, complete with biographies pieced together over days of surreptitious gathering of bits and pieces of information during the course of his normal life — that of an out-of-work scholar living at home with his family.
“I used the two characters, the two personalities to serve each other,” he said. He would chat up market vendors and bored checkpoint guards for new leads.
He took on other identities as well on Facebook. Although the names were clearly fake, the characters started to take on a life of their own. One was named Mouris Milton whom he came to believe was an even better version of himself — funny, knowledgeable. Another was Ibn al-Athir al-Mawsilli, a coldly logical historian.
International media picked up on Mosul Eye from the first days, starting with an online question-and-answer with a German newspaper. The anonymous writer gave periodic written interviews in English over the years. Sometimes, journalists quoted his blog and called it an interview. In October 2016, he spoke by phone with the New Yorker for a profile but still kept his identity masked.
Intelligence agencies made contact as well and he rebuffed them each time.
“I am not a spy or a journalist,” he would say. “I tell them this: If you want the information, it’s published and it’s public for free. Take it.”
First the Islamic State group compiled lists of women accused of prostitution, he said, stoning or shooting around 500 in the initial months. Then it went after men accused of being gay, flinging them off tall buildings. Shiites, Christians and Yazidis fled from a city once proud of its multiple religious.
When the only Mosul residents left were fellow Sunnis, they too were not spared, according to the catalogue of horrors that is Mosul Eye’s daily report. He detailed the deaths and whippings, for spying and apostasy, for failing to attend prayers, for overdue taxes. The blog attracted the attention of the fanatics, who posted death threats in the comments section.
——
Less than a year into their rule, in March 2015, he nearly cracked. IS executed a 14-year-old in front of a crowd; 12 people were arrested for selling and smoking cigarettes, and some of them flogged publicly. Seeing few alternatives, young men from Mosul were joining up by the dozens.
The sight of a fanatic severing the hand of a child accused of stealing unmoored him. The man told the boy that his hand was a gift of repentance to God before serenely slicing it away.
It was too much.
Mosul Eye was done. He defied the dress requirements, cut his hair short, shaved his beard and pulled on a bright red crewneck sweater. He persuaded his closest friend to join him.
“I decided to die.”
The sun shining, they drove to the banks of the Tigris blasting forbidden music from the car. They spread a scrap of rug over a stone outcropping and shared a carafe of tea. Mosul Eye lit a cigarette, heedless of a handful of other people picnicking nearby.
“I was so tired of worrying about myself, my family, my brothers. I am not alive to worry, but I am alive to live this life. I thought: I am done.”
He planned it as a sort of last supper, a final joyful day to end all days. He assumed he would be spotted, arrested, tortured. The tea was the best he had ever tasted.
Somehow, incredibly, his crimes went unnoticed.
He went home.
“At that moment I felt like I was given a new life.”
He grew out his hair and beard again, put the shortened trousers back on. And, for the remainder of his time in Mosul, smoked and listened to music in his room with the curtains drawn and the lights off. His computer screen and the tip of his cigarette glowed as he wrote in the dark.
The next month, he slipped up.
His friend the ex-taxi driver told him about an airstrike that had just killed multiple high-level Islamic State commanders, destroying a giant weapons cache. Elated, Mosul Eye dashed home to post it online. He hit “publish” and then, minutes later, realized his mistake. The information could have come from only one person. He trashed the post and spent a sleepless night.
“It’s like a death game and one mistake could finish your life.”
For a week, he went dark. Then he invited his friend to meet at a restaurant. They ate spicy chicken, an unemployed teacher and the gun-toting ex-taxi driver talking again about their city and their lives. His cover was not blown.
The historian went back online. Alongside the blog, he kept meticulous records — information too dangerous to share.
His computer hard drive filled with death, filed according to date, cause of death, perpetrator, neighbourhood and ethnicity. Accompanying each spreadsheet entry was a separate file with observations from each day.
“ISIS is forcing abortions and tubal ligation surgeries on Yazidi women,” he wrote in unpublished notes from January 2015. A doctor told him there had been between 50 and 60 forced abortions and a dozen Yazidi girls younger than 15 died of injuries from repeated rapes.
April 19, 2015: “The forensics department received the bodies of 23 ISIS militants killed in Baiji. They had no shrapnel, no bullets, no explosives and the cause of death does not seem to be explosion. It is like nothing happened to the bodies. A medical source believes they were exposed to poison gas.”
July 7, 2015: “43 citizens were executed in different places, this time by gunfire, which is unusual because they were previously beheadings. A source inside ISIS said that 13 of those who were executed are fighters and they tried to flee ..”
He noted a flurry of security on days when the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, seemed to be in town.
Many in Iraq, especially those who supported the Shiite-dominated leadership in Baghdad, blamed Mosul for its own fate. Mosul Eye freely acknowledged that some residents at first believed the new conquerors could only be an improvement over the heavy-handed government and the soldiers who fled with hardly a backward glance at the city they were supposed to defend.
But he also wrote publicly and privately — of the suffering among citizens who refused to join the group. He was fighting on two fronts: “One against ISIS, and the other against the rumours. Trying to protect the face of Mosul, the soul of Mosul.”
He tested out different voices, implying one day that he was Christian, another that he was Muslim. Sometimes he indicated he was gone, other times that he was still in the city. “I couldn’t trust anyone,” he said.
In his mind, he left Mosul a thousand times, but always found reasons to stay: his mother, his nieces and nephews, his mission.
But finally, he had to go.
“I had to run away with the proof that will protect Mosul for years to come, and to at least be loyal to the people who were killed in the city.”
And he did not want to become another casualty of the monsters.
“I think I deserve life, deserve to be alive.”
A smuggler, persuaded by $1,000 and the assurances of a mutual acquaintance, agreed to get him out. He was leaving the next day. Mosul Eye had no time to reflect, no time to change his mind.
He returned home and began transferring the contents of his computer to the hard drive. He pulled out the orange notebook with the hand-drawn map of Mosul on the cover and the outlines of what he hoped would one day be his doctoral dissertation. Into the bag went “Father Bombo’s Pilgrimage to Mecca,” an obscure American satirical novel from 1770 that he had ordered from Amazon via a new shop that was the only place in town to order from abroad online.
It was time to leave.
He wanted to make sure his mother would never have to watch the capture and killing of Mosul Eye.
On Dec. 15, 2015 he left Mosul, driving with the smuggler to the outskirts of Raqqa, a pickup point that alarmed him. From there he and other Iraqis and Syrians were picked up by a second set of smugglers and driven by convoy to Turkey.
They had no trouble crossing the border.
—-
In Turkey, Mosul Eye kept at it: via WhatsApp and Viber, from Facebook messages and long conversations with friends and relatives who had contacts within IS. From hundreds of kilometres away, his life remained consumed by events in Mosul.
By mid-2016, deaths were piling up faster than he could document. The IS and airstrikes were taking a bloody toll on residents. His records grew haphazard, and he turned to Twitter to document the atrocities. In February 2017, he received asylum in Europe with the aid of an organization that learned his backstory. He continued to track the airstrikes and Islamic State killings
He mapped the airstrikes as they closed in on his family, pleading with his older brother to leave his home in West Mosul. Ahmed, 36, died days later when shrapnel from a mortar strike pierced his heart, leaving behind four young children.
It was only then that Mosul Eye revealed his secret to a younger brother — who was proud to learn the anonymous historian he had been reading for so long was his brother.
“People in Mosul had lost hope and confidence in politicians, in everything,” his brother said. Mosul Eye “managed to show that it’s possible to change the situation in the city and bring it back to life.”
As the Old City crumbled, Mosul Eye sent co-ordinates and phone numbers for homes filled with civilians to a BBC journalist who was covering the battle, trying to get the attention of someone in the coalition command. He believes he saved lives.
Then, with his beloved Old City destroyed, Mosul Eye launched a fundraiser to rebuild the city’s libraries because the extremists had burned all the books. None of his volunteers knew his identity.
An activist who helped co-found a ‘Women of Mosul’ Facebook group with Mosul Eye describes him as a “spiritual leader” for the city’s secular-minded.
“He was telling us about the day-to-day events under ISIS and we were following closely with excitement as if we were watching a movie. Sometimes he went through hard times and we used to encourage him. He won the people’s trust and we became very curious to know his real personality,” said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she believed she was still in danger.
From a distance, finally writing his dissertation on 19th century Mosul history in the safety of a European city, he continued to write as Mosul Eye and organize cultural events and fundraisers from afar — even after Mosul was liberated.
The double life consumed him, sapped energy he’d rather use for the doctoral dissertation and for helping Mosul rebuild. And it hurt when someone asked the young Iraqi why he didn’t do more to help his people. He desperately wanted his mother to know all that he had done.
He felt barely real, with so many people knowing him by false identities: 293,000 followers on Facebook, 37,000 on WordPress and 23,400 on Twitter.
In hours of conversation with The Associated Press, he agonized over when and how to end the anonymity that plagued him. He did not want to be a virtual character anymore.
On Nov. 15, 2017, Mosul Eye made his decision.
“I can’t be anonymous anymore. This is to say that I defeated ISIS. You can see me now, and you can know me now.”
He is 31 years old.
His name is Omar Mohammed.
“I am a scholar.”
http://apnews.com/cdc0567f7bf34958b914b15869392a84
Man who leaked Islamic State secrets reveals identity | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

Family attacked in Ontario parking lot by man with baseball bat yelling 'ISIS' and 'terrorist'
Postmedia News
More from Postmedia News
Published:
December 8, 2017
Updated:
December 8, 2017 5:08 PM EST
ST. THOMAS, Ont. — Dramatic video captured by the target of a bizarre parking lot attack shows a man swinging a baseball bat at a family in what may be a racially motivated incident.
The attack in the parking lot of Elgin Mall was unprovoked, police say. A video posted to social media by an apparent target shows a man wielding a baseball bat and shouting “terrorist” and “ISIS” at what’s believed to be two adults and a teen boy.
The teenager managed to record some of the attack, police say. The incident could have been “racially motivated,” police say.
One of the three targets was hurt, suffered a cracked rib and bruising. The man with the baseball bat left the parking lot in a white BMW, police say.
A 36-year-old man was arrested at a London home Thursday and charged with aggravated assault and three counts of assault with a weapon.

http://twitter.com/i/videos/tweet/939084249478545408
Family attacked in Ontario parking lot by man with baseball bat yelling ‘ISIS’ and ‘terrorist’ | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

PM announces on state TV Iraq's war against Islamic State has ended
Associated Press
More from Associated Press
Published:
December 9, 2017
Updated:
December 9, 2017 2:45 PM EST
In this July 11, 2017 file photo, airstrikes target Islamic State positions on the edge of the Old City in Mosul, Iraq. Iraq said Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017 that its war on the Islamic State is over.Felipe Dana / AP Photo / File
BAGHDAD — After more than three years of combat operations, Iraq announced Saturday that the fight against the Islamic State group is over after the country’s security forces drove the extremists from all of the territory they once held. Iraqi and American officials warned, however, that key challenges remain despite the military victory.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally announced the victory in an address to the nation aired on Iraqi state television Saturday evening.
“Honorable Iraqis, your land has been completely liberated,” he said. “The liberation dream has become a reality. We achieved victory in difficult circumstances and with God’s help, the steadfastness of our people and the bravery of our heroic forces we prevailed.”
“The flag of Iraq is flying high today over all Iraqi territory and at the farthest point on the border,” he added, standing before the most senior members of Iraq’s security forces.
Following al-Abadi’s remarks, his office declared a public holiday Sunday in celebration of the victory, according to an official statement from the prime minister’s office.
Iraqi forces mopped up the last pockets of IS fighters from Iraq’s western deserts Saturday, securing the country’s border with Syria, a step that marked the end of combat operations against the extremists.
“All Iraqi lands are liberated from terrorist Daesh gangs and our forces completely control the international Iraqi-Syrian border,” said Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah, a senior Iraqi military commander, in a statement Saturday afternoon.
The U.S. applauded the prime minister’s announcement.
The U.S. offers “sincere congratulations to the Iraqi people and to the brave Iraqi Security Forces, many of whom lost their lives heroically fighting ISIS,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a written statement, using an alternative acronym for IS.
“Our coalition will continue to stand with Iraq to support its security forces, economy and stabilization to help ensure that ISIS can never against threaten Iraq’s people or use its territory as a haven,” said Brett McGurk, U.S. special presidential envoy to the anti-IS coalition, in a statement posted to his official Twitter account.
“We mark today’s historic victory mindful of the work that remains,” he added.
Iraq’s government remains faced with significant security threats, an economic crisis and the enormous task of rebuilding swaths of territory decimated by the IS fight.
IS fighters overran nearly a third of Iraqi territory, including Mosul, the country’s second largest city and Tikrit, the capital of Iraq’s central Salahuddin province in the summer of 2014. The following year, IS fighters also overran Anbar’s provincial capital of Ramadi.
Over the past 3 1/2 half years, Iraqi ground forces closely backed by the U.S.-led coalition and mostly Shiite paramilitary forces backed by Iran have slowly retaken all of that territory.
The pace of the anti-IS operation accelerated last year as coalition-backed Iraqi ground forces prepared for the assault on Mosul that was formally launched in October 2016.
After more than nine months of mostly grueling urban combat, Al-Abadi declared victory over IS in Mosul in July.
In the months that followed Iraqi forces retook a handful of other IS held towns including Tal Afar in August, Hawija in September and Qaim in October. In November, Iraqi forces retook the last Iraqi town held by IS — Rawah, near the border with Syria.
However, IS fighters remain capable of carrying out insurgent attacks in Iraq, and the group has recovered from past setbacks.
IS insurgent networks continue to pose a threat to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, a senior Iraqi security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The official said intelligence gathering would become increasingly important in the post-military phase of the fight against IS.
“The triumph of military operations alone is not enough without stability,” government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said, explaining that rebuilding in the wake of military victories against IS remained a “big challenge” for the Iraqi government.
Additionally, some 3 million Iraqis remain displaced by the fight against IS, according to the United Nations.
Al-Abadi also remains faced with a political and military stand-off with the country’s Kurdish region over a referendum held on independence.
Federal government troops remain deployed throughout a string of disputed territories claimed by both Baghdad and Iraq’s Kurds — who were also backed by U.S.-led coalition forces in the fight against IS. While Baghdad and Irbil have both stated a willingness to talk, negotiations to end the dispute have not yet begun.
As he closed his national address, al-Abadi acknowledged the challenges that remain for Iraq.
“I urge everyone to refrain from returning to the inflammatory and sectarian discourse that empowered gangs to occupy our cities and villages,” he said.
“Our people have paid a dear price,” he added. “We must turn this page forever.”
Iraq says its war against Islamic State has ended | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

YouTube won't yank hate preacher's sick sermons
Brad Hunter
Published:
December 13, 2017
Updated:
December 13, 2017 5:29 PM EST
Hate preacher Abu Haleema, who has called for the public execution of homosexuals wont have his videos yanked by YouTube.YOUTUBE
A radical hate preacher who wants homosexuals publicly executed and Sharia Law to rule over Britain will not have his incendiary videos yanked from YouTube.
According to The U.K. Sun, Abua Haleema — a self-styled cleric — is also a pal of terrorist Khuram Butt who mowed down and stabbed scores of victims on London Bridge. Another buddy is convicted ISIS and hate champion Anjem Choudhary.
Already the Islamic State fanboy has been banned from Twitter and Facebook.
The tabloid reports that YouTube won’t remove the preacher’s hate-fueled missives from the popular video-sharing site.
In the videos, hate-fuelled Haleema calls for “Muslims to dominate the world,” adulterers to be stoned to death and blasts democracy, calling it a “cancer”.
YouTube is cool with the content but claims it’s cracking down on the jihadi tomfoolery. The measures include removing advertising, video links and comments.
Among the content:
Haleema calls for Islam and Sharia Law to “dominate the world”;
Harsh punishment for the “kuffar” or non-believers;
A call to cut off the hands of thieves and stoning adulterers.
Haleema preaches in one video: “Allah says the truth against the falsehood until it breaks it, until it smashes it to pieces. Who are these people of falsehood? People who call for freedom and democracy. Democracy is cancer. Islam is the answer. Sharia will dominate the world.
“We follow the Sharia. From the Sharia is to cut the hands of the thief, from the Sharia is to stone the adulterer.”
In a documentary, he is seen laughing as ISIS drowns its prisoners.
A YouTube spokeswoman told The Sun: “In the last year, we’ve been taking actions to protect our community against violent or extremist content, testing new systems to combat emerging and evolving threats. We’ve tightened our policies on what content can appear on our platform, or earn revenue for creators.”
[youtube]VNGRpKwIAwE[/youtube]
YouTube won’t yank hate preacher’s sick sermons | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

Feds say N.Y. woman laundered bitcoin to aide Islamic State
Associated Press
More from Associated Press
Published:
December 14, 2017
Updated:
December 14, 2017 8:11 PM EST
In this April 3, 2013 file photo, Mike Caldwell, a 35-year-old software engineer, holds a 25 Bitcoin token at his shop in Sandy, Utah.Rick Bowmer / Associated Press file
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A Long Island woman is accused of laundering bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and wiring the money overseas to help the Islamic State group, according to federal prosecutors.
Zoobia Shahnaz, a 27-year-old Pakistani-born resident of Brentwood, was being held without bail following her Thursday arraignment on charges of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering, prosecutors said.
The former lab technician worked in Manhattan and had no known criminal history, according to prosecutors who said that beginning in March she fraudulently obtained more than $85,000 through a bank loan and credit cards to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies online.
“She then made several wire transactions to individuals and opaque entities in Pakistan, China and Turkey, which were designed to avoid transaction reporting requirements and conceal the identity, source and destination of the illicitly-obtained monies,” court documents said.
“These transactions were motivated to benefit ISIS, which the defendant ultimately sought to join in Syria,” the documents said.
During this period, prosecutors said Shahnaz accessed numerous Islamic State propaganda websites and message boards. In January 2016, she travelled to Jordan to volunteer with the Syrian American Medical Society.
Prosecutors said Shahnaz quit her job in June without telling her family and was stopped by authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport in July while attempting to board a flight to Islamabad, Pakistan. Her flight included a layover in Istanbul, Turkey, a common point of entry for individuals trying to join the Islamic State group in Syria, prosecutors said.
Her lawyer, Steve Zissou, said she was sending money overseas to help Syrian refugees.
“… what she saw made her devoted to lessening the suffering of a lot of the Syrian refugees and everything she does is for that purpose,” Zissou said outside the courthouse.
Feds say N.Y. woman laundered bitcoin to aide Islamic State | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

'It was chaos'; ISIS-claimed suicide bombing at church in Pakistan
Associated Press
More from Associated Press
Published:
December 17, 2017
Updated:
December 17, 2017 2:54 PM EST
A Pakistani walks in the main hall of a church following a suicide attack in Quetta, Pakistan, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)
By Abdul Sattar, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
QUETTA, Pakistan — Two suicide bombers struck a church in Pakistan on Sunday, killing nine people and wounding more than 50 others, authorities said, in the first attack on a church claimed by the country’s Islamic State group affiliate.
Hundreds of worshippers were attending services ahead of Christmas when the bombers appeared in the city of Quetta and clashed with security forces. One assailant was killed at the church entrance. The other made it inside, said Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister for the southwestern Baluchistan province.
Baluchistan Police Chief Moazzam Ansari praised the response of security forces guarding the church, saying the attacker who made it inside was wounded and unable to reach the main building.
“Otherwise the loss of lives could have been much higher,” he told reporters.
Quetta Police Chief Abdur Razzaq Cheema said a search was underway for two suspected accomplices who escaped.
A man helps a woman injured in the suicide attack on a church, at a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)
Local television showed ambulances and security patrols racing to the scene as women and children were being led out of the church’s main gate.
The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility for the attack on their Aamaq news agency, saying two “plungers” from their group had stormed the church, without providing further details.
It was the first time the Islamic State group has claimed an attack on a church in Pakistan, though Muslim extremists have claimed church attacks in the past. The deadliest example was in September 2013, when twin suicide bomb blasts killed 85 people in a Peshawar church. In March 2015, two suicide bombers attacked two churches in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 15 people.
A women mourns the death of relatives after suicide bombers attacked a Methodist church during a Sunday service in Quetta on Dec. 17, 2017. (BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images)
It was the first time the Islamic State group has claimed an attack on a church in Pakistan, though Muslim extremists have claimed church attacks in the past. The deadliest example was in September 2013, when twin suicide bomb blasts killed 85 people in a Peshawar church. In March 2015, two suicide bombers attacked two churches in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 15 people.
Fifty-seven people were wounded in the latest attack, including seven who were listed in critical condition, according to Wasim Baig, a spokesman for Quetta’s main hospital.
Pakistani Christians are evacuated by security personnel from a Methodist church after a suicide bomber attack during a Sunday service in Quetta on Dec. 17, 2017. (BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Fifty-seven people were wounded in the latest attack, including seven who were listed in critical condition, according to Wasim Baig, a spokesman for Quetta’s main hospital.
It was chaos. Bullets were hitting people inside the closed hall.
Aqil Anjum, church bombing victim
A young girl in a white dress sobbed as she recounted the attack to Geo television, saying many people around her were wounded.
Aqil Anjum, who was shot in his right arm, told The Associated Press he heard a blast in the middle of the service, followed by heavy gunfire.
“It was chaos. Bullets were hitting people inside the closed hall,” he said.
Dozens of Christians gathered outside a nearby hospital to protest the lack of security. Pakistan’s president and other senior officials condemned the attack.
Associated Press writer Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.
‘It was chaos’; ISIS-claimed suicide bombing at church in Pakistan | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

Man gets 28 years in plot to behead conservative blogger Pamela Geller
Associated Press
More from Associated Press
Published:
December 19, 2017
Updated:
December 19, 2017 9:52 PM EST
Blogger Pamela Geller arrives Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, at federal court in Boston for the sentencing hearing for David Wright, convicted of leading an Islamic State group-inspired plot to behead Geller.Bill Sikes / AP
BOSTON — A man convicted of leading an Islamic State-inspired plot to behead a conservative blogger who upset Muslims when she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest was sentenced Tuesday to 28 years in prison.
David Wright, who’s 28 years old, was sentenced by a judge in Boston’s federal courthouse two months after jurors found him guilty of conspiring with his uncle and a Rhode Island man to kill blogger Pamela Geller on behalf of the terror group.
“Nothing I can say can fix the hurt I caused,” the 28-year-old Wright said. “I sincerely hope that I can be given the opportunity to help others avoid the mistakes I made.”
Wright’s attorneys had asked for a 16-year sentence, saying he should be given the chance to redeem himself after serving his time. Wright insisted he never really wanted to hurt anyone but pretended to support the Islamic State group to get attention online.
In this June 19, 2015, file, courtroom sketch, David Wright, second from left, is depicted standing before Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell, left, with attorney Jessica Hedges, second from right, and Nicholas Rovinski, right, during a hearing in federal court in Boston. (Jane Flavell Collins/AP)
Prosecutors and Geller wanted Wright to get life in prison. Prosecutors portrayed Wright as the leader of the conspiracy to kill Geller, who has spearheaded scores of events across the nation to decry Islamic extremism, such as the cartoon contest in Garland, Texas.
The plot to behead Geller, of New York, was never carried out. Instead, Wright’s uncle Ussamah Rahim told Wright on a recorded phone call that he decided to go after “those boys in blue,” referring to police. Wright told his uncle that was “beautiful” and encouraged him to delete all the data from his computer before carrying out his attack.
Hours later, Rahim was fatally shot by authorities after he lunged at them with a knife when they approached him in Boston.
Prosecutors said Wright collected dozens of gruesome Islamic State videos and documents that encouraged violence against Americans, including a manifesto that said America’s days are “numbered.” In court documents, they accused him of trying to “deceive” the court into believing that he never meant any harm.
Wright, who was more than 500 pounds when he was arrested, testified during the trial that he started sharing Islamic State propaganda because he was desperate for attention and an escape. But he said the plan to kill Geller was just “trash talk” and claimed he never believed his uncle was serious about attacking police.
The third man charged, Nicholas Rovinski, of Warwick, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy, testified against Wright and is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday. Prosecutors are seeking 15 years behind bars.
The cartoon contest Geller organized in 2015 ended in gunfire, with two Muslim gunmen shot to death by police.
Geller, who spoke at Wright’s sentencing, urged the judge to sentence him to life in prison, saying it was “impossible to overstate the devastation” he had brought to her life. She said she had been forced to live in fear and spend tens of thousands of dollars on security.
“There is no assurance that anyone can give me that he would not resume his quest to kill me and my relatives,” she said.
Man gets 28 years in plot to behead conservative blogger Pamela Geller | Toronto Sun

 

[spaminator]

Simple, but deadly, terror attacks on the rise: Public Safety Canada
Canadian Press
More from Canadian Press
Published:
December 21, 2017
Updated:
December 21, 2017 6:03 PM EST
Police investigate the scene where a car crashed into a roadblock in Edmonton on Sept.30, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
By Jim Bronskill, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Public Safety Canada warns that extremists are increasingly carrying out simple but deadly attacks using knives and vehicles.
In its annual public report on the terrorist threat to Canada, the department notes such unsophisticated but “high-impact” assaults took place recently in Edmonton, where five people were injured, and in New York, killing eight people and injuring several more.
The report says terrorists also intend to develop cyberattack capabilities, but to date have shown little ability to launch damaging operations.
It says just over 190 extremists with a nexus to Canada are abroad and suspected of engaging in terrorist activity.
In addition, the government is aware of about 60 who have returned to Canada.
The report says these numbers have remained relatively stable over the last two years, as it has become more difficult for extremists to successfully leave or return to Canada.
http://publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/pblc-rprt-trrrst-thrt-cnd-2017
Simple, but deadly, terror attacks on the rise: Public Safety Canada | Toronto Sun