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Cruz Files Bill to Ban American ISIS Fighters From Returning to the U.S.

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By Adam Kredo. Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) [filed] legislation on Friday to ban American citizens who fight alongside the Islamic State (IS) and other terror groups from returning to the United States, where they pose a significant terror threat, according to sources in the senator’s office.

Cruz, who first proposed the legislation last year, seeks to strip those Americans who travel abroad to fight with IS (also known as ISIL or ISIS) of their U.S. citizenship rights and stop them from coming back stateside.

The bill, known as the Expatriate Terrorist Act (E.T.A.), tightens and updates existing regulations by which a U.S. citizen effectively renounces his or her citizenship.

Cruz said that he is filing the bill partly in response to President Obama’s Tuesday State of the Union address, which he described as “detached from reality” on the foreign policy front. (Read more about the bill to ban American ISIS fighters from returning to the U.S. HERE)

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Charlie Hebdo Protests Erupt Across Southern Asia

By Khurram Shahzad. Tens of thousands across Afghanistan, Pakistan and Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir took to the streets on Friday for southern Asia’s biggest protests yet against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s cartoon portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.

Up to 20,000 demonstrators in the western Afghan city of Herat and 15,000 in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, burned French flags and chanted slogans calling for France’s downfall, while a smaller Pakistani protest saw an effigy of France’s President Francois Hollande set on fire.

In Srinagar, the largest city on the Indian-controlled side of the disputed region of Kashmir, police clashed with a contingent of around 3,000 demonstrators after shops and businesses were ordered to close by a leading Muslim organisation and several separatist groups. (Read more from this story HERE)

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ISIS Says Countdown For Japan’s Hostages has Begun

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NY Post By Mari Yamaguchi and Elaine Kurtenbach. Japan promised Saturday not to give up “until the very end” on efforts to rescue two Japanese hostages threatened with beheading by Islamic militants demanding a $200 million ransom, after a deadline passed with no word from the captors.

Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group posted an online warning Friday afternoon that the “countdown has begun” for the extremists to kill 47-year-old Kenji Goto and 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa. The extremists gave Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 72 hours to pay the ransom, and the deadline expired Friday.

The posting, which appeared on a forum popular among Islamic State militants and sympathizers, did not show any images of the hostages, who are believed to be held somewhere in Syria. (Read more on how ISIS says countdown for Japan’s hostages has begun HERE)

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Was the New ISIS Hostage Video Filmed Indoors?

By Associated Press. The video of two Japanese hostages being held by the Islamic State group seems, like past IS videos, made in an arid, desert setting. But suspicions are emerging that the message was not prepared outdoors at all.

An expert in these videos said it was more likely completed in an indoor studio with a false backdrop made to appear that it was outdoors.

Kenji Goto, a journalist, and Haruna Yukawa, who runs a security company, are seen kneeling in orange jumpsuits with a masked man holding a knife between them. The hostage-holders are threatening to kill the men if the Japanese government does not pay a $200 million ransom.

The video, posted on militant websites Tuesday and identified as being made by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm, appears to have been filmed in the same location as those showing American hostages James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig and British captives David Haines and Alan Henning. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Airstrikes Have Killed Over 6,000 ISIS Soldiers

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By Kelly Cohen. More than 6,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed, a top U.S. official said Thursday.

Though the Pentagon has been reticent to discuss exact numbers, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones told Al Arabiya News Channel Thursday that U.S.-led airstrikes have “taken more than half “ of ISIS’ leadership.

Jones also described the airstrikes as having a “devastating” effect on ISIS.

“We estimate that the airstrikes have now killed more than 6,000 ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq,” Jones said, adding that the airstrikes have “destroyed more than a thousand of ISIS vehicles inside Iraq.”

Jones reiterated that the statistics were “not so important in themselves,” but that they “do show the degradation of ISIS.” (Read more about the airstrikes killing ISIS soldiers HERE)

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Volunteers Secretly Battle ISIS

By Alexander Smith. A network of anti-ISIS “commando cells” has carried out hundreds of guerrilla attacks in a city seized by the Islamist militants, Iraq’s vice president told NBC News.

Dubbed the “Mosul Liberation Battalions,” the little-known resistance movement has killed “a large number” of extremists through operations including sniper attacks, blasts using homemade bombs and raids on weapons-storage sites, according to Osama al-Nujaifi.

Battalion members include former military officers and tribesmen as well as students and local businessmen. (Read more from this story HERE)

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$200M Ransom Shows ISIS Financial Desperation

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Photo Credit: Interdependent By Cristina Corbin. The Islamic State’s staggering $200 million demand for two Japanese hostages may reveal the terrorist group’s desperation to maintain control of its sprawling caliphate, especially amid falling black market oil revenues from seized wells and pipelines, terrorism experts said.

An online video purportedly released by the group’s al-Furqan media arm and posted Tuesday on militant websites associated with the terror network presents a pricey ultimatum: Japan must pay $200 million within 72 hours or two Japanese hostages — a 42-year-old private military company operator and a 47-year-old freelance journalist — will be executed.

The hostages, identified as Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto Jogo, appear in the video in orange jumpsuits like other hostages previously killed by Islamic State, which controls a third of Iraq and Syria. The militant who threatens them speaks in a British accent and may be the same jihadist who appeared in videos with western journalists who were beheaded.

While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to save the men — saying, “Their lives are the top priority” — the Japanese government declined to say whether it would pay the ransom. (Read more about ISIS financial desperation HERE)

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ISIS Gaining Ground in Yemen

By Brian Todd. The Syria-based terror group ISIS is active and recruiting inside the Middle Eastern state of Yemen, already a hotbed of terrorist activity, CNN has learned.

The disturbing information comes from a Yemeni official, who told CNN on Wednesday that ISIS has a presence in at least three provinces in southern and central Yemen, and there is now a “real competition” between ISIS and the Yemen-based terror group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

That competition manifested itself in a gun-battle between the two groups in Yemen’s eastern provinces last month, the same official said, though he did not have specifics on the casualties that resulted from that incident.

CNN cannot independently confirm the claims. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Japan Prime Minister Vows to Save Hostages Captured by ISIS

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By Fox News. Japan’s Prime Minister vowed Tuesday to save the lives of two Japanese hostages, one a freelance journalist and the other a soldier for hire, threatened with beheading in an online video purportedly released by the Islamic State terror group.

In the video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, a militant threatened to kill the men unless a $200 million ransom was paid within 72 hours. If confirmed to be from Islamic State, better known as ISIS, the video would mark the first public demand for ransom from the group in exchange for the release of captives.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on ISIS to immediately release the hostages, saying that “their lives are the top priority.” Abe is in the midst of a six-day visit to the Middle East, accompanied by more than 100 government officials and presidents of Japanese companies.

“It is unforgivable,” he said. “Extremism and Islam are completely different things.”

Abe said he would send Yasuhide Nakayama, a deputy foreign minister, to Jordan to seek the country’s support and to resolve the hostage crisis. The premier also said the Israeli government, which Japan promised Sunday to cooperate with on counterterrorism, are sharing information to aid in the hostage crisis. The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment. (Read more about the Japanese Prime Minister vowing to save hostages captured by ISIS HERE)

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ISIS Executing ‘Educated Women’ in New Wave of Horror

By AFP. The UN on Tuesday decried numerous executions of civilians in Iraq by the Islamic State group, warning that educated women appeared to be especially at risk.

The jihadist group is showing a “monstrous disregard for human life” in the areas it controls in Iraq, the UN human rights office said.

The group, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and in neighbouring war-ravaged Syria, last week published pictures of the “crucifixions” of two men accused of being bandits, and of a woman being stoned to death, allegedly for adultery.

Numerous other women have also reportedly been executed recently in ISIS-controlled areas, including Mosul, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters.

She said “educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office, seem to be particularly at risk.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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ISIS Plans on Killing Hundreds of Millions in ‘Religious Cleansing’

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Photo Credit: The Blaze By Jordan Schachtel. Todenhofer lived side by side with the jihadist fighters for ten days in the Islamic State-stronghold city of Mosul, Iraq. He was accompanied only by his son, who served as his cameraman.

“I always asked them about the value of mercy in Islam,” but “I didn’t see any mercy in their behavior,” explained Todenhofer. He added, “Something that I don’t understand at all is the enthusiasm in their plan of religious cleansing, planning to kill the non-believers… They also will kill Muslim democrats because they believe that non-ISIL-Muslims put the laws of human beings above the commandments of God.”

The German reporter then elaborated on how shocked he was about how “willing to kill” the ISIS fighters are. He said that they were ready to commit genocide. “They were talking about [killing] hundreds of millions. They were enthusiastic about it, and I just cannot understand that,” said Todenhofer. (Read more about the plans of ‘religious cleansing’ HERE)

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ISIS Kills 13 Teenage Boys for Watching Soccer Game

By Jason Howerton. For 13 teenage boys in the Iraqi city of Mosul, watching the Asian Cup soccer match between Iraq and Jordan would reportedly cost them their lives.

Under the Islamic State’s barbaric ideology, the act of watching the game on television was an offense punishable by death. The young boys were grabbed by terrorists and then publicly executed by a firing squad, according to the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.

Before being shot to death by machine guns, the terrorists reportedly announced the boys’ “crime” of breaking religious laws by watching sports over a loud speaker. (Read more from this story HERE)

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ISIS Executions Becoming Even More Brutal

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By Tom Wyke. Two men were hurled from the top of a tower block, two more were crucified in front of a baying crowd and a woman was stoned to death in the latest series of horrific executions by ISIS.

The men were thrown from the roof down to the crowd below in the brutal punishment for being gay.

Charges found against the accused were announced by a masked Islamic State fighter, using a small handheld radio. Reading from a list, he declares the men are guilty of engaging in homosexual activities and should be punished by death, in accordance with Islamic State’s radical interpretation of Sharia law.

They had been tied up and transported in the back of a white pickup truck to the public execution sight in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Both prisoners are shown wearing casual clothing rather than the standard orange jumpsuit, commonly worn by many Islamic State prisoners in recent many high profile execution videos. (Read more about the ISIS executions HERE)

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Fight the Terrorists Before They Reach the West

By Matthew Continetti. Argue about the limits of free speech, the definition of “true” Islam, whether terrorists are lunatics or rational, or the social and political repercussions of terrorism as much as you’d like. The truth is that such debates are irrelevant to the core security problem: There is a growing and energetic movement of radical Muslims dedicated to killing as many people as they can and imposing their will on the rest.

And there is really only one way America can respond to this challenge. We need to kill them first. We need to kill them on a field of battle whose contours are determined not by the terrorists but by us. We need to kill them over there—in the Middle East—before they reach the West.

I realize that for at least the next two years what I propose is wishful thinking. American policy has reverted to a defensive condition in which Islamic terrorists set the terms of conflict. We have been here before. Until 2001, the United States treated Islamic terrorism as a matter of law enforcement. When our embassies were raided or bombed, when our barracks were destroyed, when our soldiers and sailors were murdered, when our World Trade Center was attacked, when our destroyer was damaged, we treated the assailants as members of an Arabic-speaking mafia, as criminals to be apprehended, tried, and punished.

Didn’t work. The jihad grew. It even found a base in Afghanistan, where it could equip and train and plot. In 2001, in a single fall morning, the World Trade Center was destroyed, the Pentagon bludgeoned, and more than 3,000 innocent people were killed.

America rethought its approach to terrorism. No longer were the terrorists considered felons. They were now unlawful combatants. Surveillance, interrogation, and detention policies became more aggressive. We invaded Afghanistan, we toppled the Taliban, and we sent al Qaeda leadership into hiding. (Read more from this story HERE)

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WATCH: ISIS Soldier Killed Days After Child Executioner Video

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By Flora Drury. The ISIS commander who appeared alongside a child executioner in a chilling video just days ago it believed to have been killed in Syria.

Abu Sa’ad al-Dāghistāni has died in Kobane, ISIS fighters on Twitter are claiming.

Al-Dāghistāni – who is described variously as a fighter and an ISIS intelligence commander – featured in what’s believed to be ISIS’ last video, which claimed to show a young boy executing two Russian spies in the Islamic State. (Read more about the ISIS soldier being killed after the video of the child executioner HERE)

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Did the Execution Even Occur? Watch the Video Below

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ISIS Leader Orders All Failed Fighters Executed

By Nadiah Sarsour. Some 56 members of ISIS learned their so-called “caliph” doesn’t tolerate losing in battle, according to reports which said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had them executed after they survived a rout by Kurdish fighters.

Saed Mimousini, media spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Party, told Alsumaria news agency that Al-Baghdadi’s harsh decision came following their defeat at the hands of Peshmerga fighters in Kobar, south of the Kurdish capital Erbil.

“ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi executed 56 of his men after their defeat at the hands of the Peshmerga forces in the Cowir area south of Erbilm,” he said.

“Executions took place in the Al-Namrood, east Mosul,” he added, claiming that the “battles between ISIS and the Peshmerga south of Erbil killed 300 members of the Islamic State and injured nearly 102 others.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Ohio Arrest in ISIS Terror Plot Against US Capitol

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Photo Credit: The Daily Beast By Fox News. An alleged sympathizer of the Islamic State terror group was arrested in Ohio on Wednesday after authorities learned that he was plotting a shooting and bombing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, considered members of Congress as “enemies,” and planned to travel to Washington to kill employees and officers working in and around the U.S. Capitol, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities said he had two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, and planned to build and detonate pipe bombs at and near the U.S. Capitol.

A Justice Department official, however, told Fox News that Cornell was “aspirational and not operational,” adding that the public was never in danger.

The investigation relied heavily on the use of a source, who the criminal complaint said began cooperating with authorities last fall to gain favorable treatment for his prosecution on an unrelated case.

The complaint adds that Cornell said he thought he was fulfilling the directives of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, or ISIL. (Read more about the ISIS terror plot HERE)
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22 Islamic Terror Camps in US

By Leo Hohmann. Last week’s brazen attack by a “home-grown” terrorist cell in France that targeted the staff of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has sparked renewed interest in potential cells operating inside the United States.

And there are many.

The FBI is aware of at least 22 paramilitary Islamic communes in the U.S., operated by the shadowy Pakistan-based group Jamaat al-Fuqra and its main U.S. front group, Muslims of the Americas.

With U.S. headquarters in Islamberg, New York, the group headed by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani operates communes in mostly remote areas of California, Georgia, South Carolina, New York, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee and other states.

The FBI describes the MOA compound in Texas, called Mahmoudberg, as an enclave and “communal living site.” Located in Brazoria County along County Road 3 near Sweeny, Texas, it was discovered more than 10 years ago by the FBI through a tip from an informant in New York. (Read more from this story HERE).
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ISIS Gaining Even More Ground

By The Daily Beast. ISIS continues to gain substantial ground in Syria, despite nearly 800 air strikes in the American-led campaign to break ISIS’s grip there.

At least one-third of the country’s territory is now under ISIS influence, with recent gains in rural areas that can serve as a conduit to major cities ISIS hopes to eventually claim as part of its caliphate. Meanwhile, the Islamic extremist group does not appear to have suffered any major ground losses since the strikes began. The result is a net ground gain for ISIS, according to information compiled by two groups with on-the-ground sources.

In Syria, ISIS “has not any lost any key terrain,” Jennifer Cafarella, a fellow at the Washington D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War who studies the Syrian conflict, explained to the Daily Beast. (Read more from this story HERE)

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“We Are Coming”: ISIS Hacks US Central Command, Publishes Residences of High Level Officers

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By Fox News. The Twitter account and YouTube page for U.S. Central Command were hacked on Monday and for several minutes carried incendiary messages promoting the Islamic State — including one that said, “AMERICAN SOLDIERS, WE ARE COMING, WATCH YOUR BACK. ISIS.”

The cyber-attack sent U.S. military officials scrambling to respond, and they quickly suspended both accounts.

Officials said they’re still investigating the hack, but claimed it appears no classified information was released.

“We’re still looking into this,” Central Command spokesman Col. Patrick S. Ryder said. “Our initial assessment is that no classified information was posted.”

A statement from Central Command added that their operational military networks “were not compromised” and downplayed the incident as “a case of cybervandalism.” (Read more from “ISIS Hacks Central Command” HERE)

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Senior Officers’ Personal Information, Addresses Published by ‘ISIS’ Group

Photo Credit: Interdependent By Aaron Mesmer. The @CentCom Twitter account’s first hacked tweet came at 12:29 Monday afternoon, after the account’s profile images had been changed to black and white graphics with the phrases “Cyber Caliphate” and “I love you isis.”

“AMERICAN SOLDIERS, WE ARE COMING, WATCH YOUR BACK. ISIS,” warned the first tweet.

That was soon followed by more posts ranging from apparent military scenarios on PowerPoint to listings of officers’ personal information. Another tweet included a photo apparently showing the inside of a military office space.

One tweet featured a spreadsheet titled “Retired Army General Officer Roster” and listed the home addresses, phone numbers and email accounts of generals like Colin Powell, David Petraeus, and Tommy Franks.

“We won’t stop! We know everything about you, your wives and children,” read another tweet. (Read more from this story HERE)

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