The multi-front cyberspace information war in which we recently have found ourselves just got a little more complicated.
A group which calls itself Cyber Caliphate, assumed to have ties to the terrorist group ISIS, may in fact be a creation of Russian hackers taking advantage of the havoc wrecked on social media and the Internet by ISIS propagandists.
The complex picture this presents adds to the challenges faced by the U.S. government as it seeks to adjust its counterterrorism communication and cybersecurity measures to deal with rising threats from abroad.
According to a new report, “Who Is Cyber Caliphate? Re-examining the Online ISIL Threat,” produced by the State Department’s Office of Diplomatic Security (DS), a major cyber attack on French television TV5Monde last April by Cyber Caliphate hackers took the station off the air for 20 hours and exposed employee email accounts . . .
French and American investigators tracking the electronic footprints of the hackers found they led to a Russian hacker group known as APT28, which usually hack in favor of the Russian government and directs its efforts at NATO. (Read more from “Why Are Russian Hackers Posing as ISIS Propagandists?” HERE)
The Army’s top officer told Fox News Tuesday it’s “frustrating” to watch the gains he helped achieve in Iraq disintegrate at the hands of the Islamic State, saying in an exit interview that the chaos now unfolding “might have been prevented” had the U.S. stayed more engaged.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, weeks away from retirement after 39 years in uniform, spent more time in Iraq than any other U.S. Army general — more than four years, the last two as top commander. He is widely viewed as a key architect of the Iraq surge.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News, the general tackled a range of topics, from the Iran nuclear deal to the deep cuts to U.S. Army troop levels. But Odierno had pointed words on the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria – suggesting it didn’t have to be this way.
“It’s frustrating to watch it,” Odierno said. “I go back to the work we did in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 and we got it to a place that was really good. Violence was low, the economy was growing, politics looked like it was heading in the right direction.”
Odierno said the fall of large parts of Iraq was not inevitable, reiterating concerns about the pace of the U.S. troop withdrawal there. (Read more from “Is ISIS Preventable? Army Chief Says US Could Have Prevented Group’s Rise” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-22 00:57:052016-04-11 10:58:37Retiring Army Chief Slams Obama’s ISIS Policy, Says US Could Have Prevented Group’s Rise
Syrian Islamic State (IS) supporters have publicly crucified, flogged and caged nearly 100 people accused of breaking the daytime fast observed during the Muslim holy month. UK-based monitor the Syrian Human Rights Observatory (SOHR) yesterday said it had documented 94 such punishment cases for eating in Ramadan, including five children and two old men.
Breitbart News previously reported the case of two boys “crucified” for eating in Ramadan on 23 June in Deir ez-Zour. For IS the punishment does not necessarily mean execution by nailing or tying victims to a cross. The group uses crosses and bars to pose dead bodies as a means of terrorising local populations or as a means of publicly shaming those who breach the tenets of sharia law as interpreted by IS.
In normal circumstances children do not have to fast during Ramadan. They may be encouraged to practice fasting for part of a day or for one day on the weekend, but it only becomes mandatory when they enter puberty.
The 94 cases were recorded between 22 June and 16 July and took place across the IS-held Syrian governorates of Aleppo, Al-Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour. The punishments were administered in streets and squares in front of crowds of spectators, including children, who SOHR says were encouraged to mock the victims. (Read more from “5 Children Among 94 Crucified, Flogged and Caged by ISIS for Doing This During Ramadan” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-18 03:01:212016-04-11 10:58:465 Children Among 94 Crucified, Flogged and Caged by ISIS for Doing This During Ramadan
ISIS strongholds in Iraq and Syria are the focus of much scrutiny, but there are new concerns the terror network is looking to use other radical movements closer to Europe as a way to expand their reach.
Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland spoke to foreign policy experts retired Air Force Col. Cederic Leighton and the Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano about the terror network’s influence.
Leighton says there are already indications ISIS is linking up with Russian extremists. “They are riding a wave of popularity – wherever they get traction, that’s where they are going to have a franchise operation … and they are doing a great job of it in the Caucasus at the moment.”
Russia has dealt with terror attacks linked to Russia’s Caucasus region, where extremism runs high. In 2002, militants linked to Chechnya took hostages in a Moscow theater, where 130 people were killed. Then, in 2004, armed Muslim rebels took over a school in southern Russia, killing 331 people.
“At the root of that is an Islamist minority, which has been fighting for independence from the Russian government for a long time and some of that has erupted in real war, real insurgency … the potential for [terrorists] reaching to disaffected groups, that’s only going to grow in Russia,” said Carafano, vice president at the Heritage Foundation. (Read more from “ISIS Movement in Russia Raises US Concern” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-15 03:50:332016-04-11 10:58:54ISIS Movement in Russia Raises US Concern [+video]
Two young Yazidi women have described the unimaginable cruelty and horrific rapes they endured while under the control of their ISIS captors, one of whom reportedly beat a woman’s 1-year-old child in front of her until all of his sexual demands were met.
Reehan, 19, and Barfo, 25, last names not included to protect their identities, told their stories to the British MailOnline. Raheen, married with a young son, was abducted from her home in Northwestern Iraq. She was auctioned off to a 50-year-old fighter whom she was able to fend off at first until the man started beating her 1-year-old son. She then said she was forced to give in to all of his demands to save the life of her son.
“I agreed to everything that this man wanted for the sake of my son,” she declared. Reehan was subsequently locked up in the man’s home for the next 10 months. She further explained that she tried to stop the repeated rapes by appealing to her captor’s Islamic beliefs, but he said the sex trade among Yazidi women is permitted “according to Islam.”
Reehan was sold into sexual slavery multiple times, all while being raped and beaten, but refused to commit suicide in fear of what might happen to her young son. She said she had to risk her life to flee her final captive once she saw a mother and daughter being raped together. She fled to another house in Syria, sought help, and a $15,000 ransom was paid by her mother with the help of charities that raised some of the funds demanded by the Syrian man who offered to help her escape for a fee.
The Christian Post previously reported on the torture of Yazidi girls and women at the hands of ISIS militants who bragged about releasing those who were raped after they converted to Islam. Raheen says her husband, father, and two sisters are still being held captive by ISIS and she fears they might already be dead. (Read more from “Women Describe Horrific Rapes at Hands of ISIS Jihadists Who Beat 1 Year Old Until Woman Gave in to Captor’s Demands” HERE)
[Best-Selling Author Joel Richardson Says ISIS Will be “Wiped-Out”]
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-07-10 01:25:312016-04-11 10:59:06Women Describe Horrific Rapes at Hands of ISIS Jihadists Who Beat 1 Year Old Until Woman Gave in to Captor’s Demands
Israel has resolved to take yet another step to strengthen its national security. In this case, it calls for an 18-mile-long fence that will close off the gap in it’s already impressive network of border fences. The border that Israel shares with Jordan is the last area that is totally open to the neighboring country. Their borders with Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon have already been fenced off.
This fence will be similar to Israel’s other high-tech border fences. They’ll be armed with surveillance cameras, razor wire, and an electronic detection system. Though, instead of being only 5-feet-tall like the barrier against Egypt, this new wall will reach 16-feet-high. Deal with that ISIS!
“This is important. It is part of our national security,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “It joins the fence that we built along the length of our border with Sinai, which blocked the entry of illegal migrants into Israel and — of course — the various terrorist movements. This step also joins the fence that we built on our border on the Golan Heights.”
This fence is part of a program that hopes to completely circle the allied nation and will cost just under $1 billion. The fence will be built within Israel’s borders and Netanyahu said that it will not interfere with “the sovereignty of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and its national interests.” (Read more from “Israel Building Billion-Dollar High-Tech Anti-ISIS Fence on Jordan Border” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-09 03:54:572016-04-11 10:59:08Israel Building Billion-Dollar High-Tech Anti-ISIS Fence on Jordan Border
Militants in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula fired rockets into southern Israel on Friday in an incident that caused no casualties but appeared to be linked to fighting between Islamist insurgents and Egyptian security forces.
Islamic State’s Egypt affiliate, Sinai Province, said in a statement posted on Twitter by supporters that it had launched three Grad rockets toward “occupied Palestine”. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the statement.
An Israeli military source earlier said the rockets had been fired from Sinai, which borders Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal.
Israeli police said they had so far found remnants of two rockets in an open area. No damage or casualties were reported.
It was possible the launch was linked to the fighting in Sinai, the military source said, where militants of the Sinai Province group launched their biggest assault in years against Egyptian security forces on Wednesday. (Read more from “Rockets Land in Israel, Egypt’s IS Affiliate Claims Responsibility” HERE)
By Stoyan Zaimov. Terror group ISIS has marked one year since the establishment of its self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate in the territory of Iraq and Syria. The militants marked the occasion by calling for more jihadist attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, claiming that allah will reward jihadists who die with “10 times as much” during the period.
“ISIS’ Ramadan message specifically preaches that jihad is 10 times more obligatory during Ramadan and that those who die in jihad will be rewarded by allah 10 times as much as during the rest of the year,” said Ryan Mauro, national security analyst and adjunct professor of Homeland Security for the Clarion Project, according to Fox News.
“There will be ISIS supporters who have waited to strike until now in order to get the maximum award and those who were considering an attack and will now feel more pressure to actually do it.”
June 29, 2014, marked the official formation of the Islamic State, as the group is also known, when it also named its leader “Caliph Ibrahim,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The U.S. and a broad team of international allies have been hitting ISIS targets across Iraq and Syria with airstrikes, and have armed and trained local forces on the ground fighting the militants. The terror group has continued attacking and capturing new cities throughout the year, however, and has been expanding its attacks in a host of other countries. (Read more from “ISIS Says Allah Will Reward Ten Times as Much to Jihadists Who Die During Ramadan” HERE)
By Stoyan Zaimov. The al-Shabaab terror group, which back in April murdered 152 people, mostly Christian students, have vowed to attack “non-believers” throughout the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a pledge echoing ISIS’ threats.
News 24 reported that at least 15 people were killed on Monday in clashes between al-Shabaab and Somali and African Union troops near the southern port of Kismayo, though eight Islamic militants were also killed in the battle.
AFP noted that another 80 soldiers were killed on Friday in a separate attack on the Leego base in southern Somalia, with the jihadists claiming to have brought back 60 of the bodies.
“Al-Shabaab has consistently shown its ability to strike in urban areas and regroup in rural bases. It will take much longer to defeat the group and require Somalia’s security services to be significantly improved,” Ahmed Soliman, Horn of Africa analyst at the London-based Chatham House, told the Bloomberg news.
The total death toll could still be higher, with reports that some captured troop members have been beheaded. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-01 03:13:492016-04-11 10:59:26ISIS Says Allah Will Reward Ten Times as Much to Jihadists Who Die During Ramadan
The Islamic State is marking its first year as a self-proclaimed caliphate by calling on sympathizers around the world to take up arms and commit acts of terror.
It was on June 29, 2014 that the terrorist army then known as ISIS announced it had established a government run by a medieval version of strict Islam in territory that spanned northern Syria and Iraq.
Since then, the group has metastasized throughout the region, recruiting locals and foreign fighters alike and blazing a trail of death and misery. With the beginning of Ramadan on June 17, the terrorist organization has issued a call for stepped up attacks in the Middle East and around the world.
“The ISIS’ Ramadan message specifically preaches that jihad is 10 times more obligatory during Ramadan and that those who die in jihad will be rewarded by Allah ten times as much as during the rest of the year,” said Ryan Mauro, national security analyst and adjunct professor of Homeland Security for the Clarion Project.
“There will be ISIS supporters who have waited to strike until now in order to get the maximum award and those who were considering an attack and will now feel more pressure to actually do it.” (Read more from “Violent Message: ISIS Marks Anniversary of Caliphate Amid Ramadan Calls for Violence” HERE)
The FBI has been rounding up more potential “lone wolf” terrorists, Congressional leaders and the Justice Department say, in response to the perception of a mounting threat of domestic attacks inspired by the Islamic State.
Since the thwarted attack on a “Draw Muhammad” conference in Garland, Texas, on May 3, the Justice Department has announced the arrests of 10 individuals it says were inspired by and supporting the Islamic State. The lawmakers say there have been more arrests that have not yet been announced.
They say the FBI has shifted its approach toward arrests rather than keeping suspects under surveillance, and is also targeting individuals thought to be planning attacks in the U.S., unlike the bureau’s past focus on volunteers preparing to join ISIS’s fight abroad.
“Lately, we have seen an uptick in the number of arrests of ISIL followers who were planning violent acts in our homeland,” said John Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security. “ISIL, differing from some other foreign terrorist organizations, has demonstrated that they see value in mobilizing sympathizers anywhere in the world.”
The spate of arrests comes in response to what Congressional leaders and the Justice Department say is a mounting threat that radicalized Americans will attempt low-tech, lone wolf attacks in the near future. Lawmakers see the changes as necessary because the Islamic State uses social media so effectively to radicalize Americans and because the group is getting better at using encryption to shield its communications with new recruits. (Read more from “FBI Rounding up Islamic State Suspects” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-26 03:30:432016-04-11 10:59:37FBI Rounding up Islamic State Suspects
