Islamic State Sprouting Limbs Beyond Its Base

[gilliam]

WASHINGTON — The Islamic State is expanding beyond its base in Syria and Iraq to establish militant affiliates in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt and Libya, American intelligence officials assert, raising the prospect of a new global war on terror.

Intelligence officials estimate that the group’s fighters number 20,000 to 31,500 in Syria and Iraq. There are less formal pledges of support from “probably at least a couple hundred extremists” in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Yemen, according to an American counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information about the group.

Lt. Gen. Vincent R. Stewart, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in an assessment this month that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, was “beginning to assemble a growing international footprint.” Nicholas Rasmussen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, echoed General Stewart’s analysis in testimony before Congress last week.

nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/middleeast/islamic-state-sprouting-limbs-beyond-mideast.html?_r=0

 

[7_Sorrows]

Possibly France and Denmark also.

They aren’t going away and expanding is part of their plan.

 

[Darryl1958]

IS in Europe and any developed country is more of an abominable nuisance rather than a threat. Those kind of limbs are rather weak and feckless, and are a threat on the level of a Columbine or some other school shooting. Every strike is sensational, but the country carries on exactly the same as before.

In the ME, IS has great potential to be successful. That is the core, and to defeat the core is to watch the limbs quickly whither.

 

[7_Sorrows]

IS in Europe and any developed country is more of an abominable nuisance rather than a threat. Those kind of limbs are rather weak and feckless, and are a threat on the level of a Columbine or some other school shooting. Every strike is sensational, but the country carries on exactly the same as before.

In the ME, IS has great potential to be successful. That is the core, and to defeat the core is to watch the limbs quickly whither.

That is true but if they have the opportunity they would like for the limbs to reach to Europe. Their main focus now is the Middle East.

 

[Darryl1958]

That is true but if they have the opportunity they would like for the limbs to reach to Europe. Their main focus now is the Middle East.

As the fighters return from the Levant to Europe, we can expect more acts of violence aimed at Jewish synagogues and delis, and other high profile targets, to be sure.

Europe has a problem with its Muslim populations, and that is not going away any time soon.
But in terms of IS, the root of the problem is their success in Syria and Iraq.

 

[7_Sorrows]

As the fighters return from the Levant to Europe, we can expect more acts of violence aimed at Jewish synagogues and delis, and other high profile targets, to be sure.

Europe has a problem with its Muslim populations, and that is not going away any time soon.
But in terms of IS, the root of the problem is their success in Syria and Iraq.

Yes they have been successful and very successful at recruiting.

 

[Isca]

My sister is married to a Jewish man and the rest of his family live in a part of London which has a very large, devout Jewish population. His family have reported that they now have a regular police presence outside the Synagogue during services.

It’s very worrying.

 

[Holly3278]

This is very concerning but to be honest, it is not very surprising in the least. I honestly think that Islamic State will likely become a much more serious terrorism threat in the future. It is already a serious terrorist threat but it will become much more serious in the future I think. I believe that the fact that it is spreading to other countries is indicative of this.

 

[livingwordunity]

Up to now, the mainstream media narrative was that ISIS was in competition with other Sunni Islamic terror organizations. This was baseless speculation, and I always knew that they were wrong. I think it was simply their attempt to downplay the magnitude of ISIS since Obama had done so. But since ISIS is a threat to the world rather than to just one region they could not downplay it for long. And this latest news story makes it that much harder for Obama’s apologists to try to justify the White House decision to take the Taliban off the terror list. The Taliban are no different than ISIS. Obama’s declaration that the Taliban are not terrorists came in a bizarre way right after the Taliban had just conducted a terror attack on a school which resulted in around 130 dead children. And some of the Taliban members are likely in Syria and Iraq fighting in ISIS since ISIS is a coming into one of all of the Sunni Islamic terror groups of the world. That’s why the ISIS members look to be of multiple races and nationalities. We know, for example, that the ISIS executioner in the beheading videos is of African racial origin but who was at least raised in England since he has a British accent. Other ISIS members traveled to the Middle East from parts of Asia such as Indonesia while others traveled there from Australia and other parts of the world.

WASHINGTON — The Islamic State is expanding beyond its base in Syria and Iraq to establish militant affiliates in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt and Libya, American intelligence officials assert, raising the prospect of a new global war on terror.

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

IS in Europe and any developed country is more of an abominable nuisance rather than a threat. Those kind of limbs are rather weak and feckless, and are a threat on the level of a Columbine or some other school shooting. Every strike is sensational, but the country carries on exactly the same as before.

In the ME, IS has great potential to be successful. That is the core, and to defeat the core is to watch the limbs quickly whither.

It’s this kind of thinking that guarantees the threat will continue to spread. Do we tell the dead in Denmark that they were killed by a “nuisance?” “Carrying on exactly the same” is a huge part of the problem.

 

[Darryl1958]

It’s this kind of thinking that guarantees the threat will continue to spread. Do we tell the dead in Denmark that they were killed by a “nuisance?” “Carrying on exactly the same” is a huge part of the problem.

No.

We tell the people in Denmark to keep on exercising their free speech, and get on board with destroying IS by opposing every form of Islamism every times it rears its ugly head.

We tell the people of Denmark that there is no such thing as a bad war when it is Islamists that are getting killed in it. America is not the problem with Islam; Islamists are the problem with Islam.

We tell the people of Denmark to stand in solidarity with the Jews, who are the central target of Islamists.

Carrying on exactly the same is not the problem, but the solution to terrorist attacks. You keep saying about Mohammed and his religion exactly what is on your mind, same as before, you sweep up the rubble of the bombed deli or synagogue or office, wipe up the blood, and double down. The problem is when you change behavior in submission to terrorist pressure.

These are the kinds of things we extend to the people of Denmark, along with our prayers and solidarity.

What we do not do is exaggerate the problem. Denmark is still a very peaceful nation, where people live good and fulfilling lives, and is in no danger of being taken over by IS or Islamists. Even as the problem is only going to increase in Denmark and Europe, given the nature of European immigration and the lack of integration of the Asian and North African immigrants, Europe is still very much at peace.
The same is not true of the ME and North Africa, where IS and other Islamists organizations of both the Shia and Sunni variety rule in many countries, and can take over many others in a heartbeat.