Friday, January 30, 2015

Islamic State Operative Details Ways They Are Flooding Europe With Jihadists Hidden Among Refugees


From BuzzFeed:
ANTAKYA, Turkey — An ISIS operative traveled across the Syrian border late last year, settled in a Turkish port city, and began work on a mission to sneak jihadis into Europe. It has been successful, he said, in an interview near the Turkey-Syria border: “Just wait.” 
The operative, a Syrian in his thirties with a close-cropped black beard, said ISIS is sending covert fighters to Europe — as did two smugglers who said they have helped. He smuggles them from Turkey in small groups, he said, hidden in cargo ships filled with hundreds of refugees. 
He said the fighters intend to fulfill ISIS’s threat to stage attacks in the West. He views this as retaliation for U.S.-led airstrikes against the group that began in Iraq last summer and Syria last fall. 
“If someone attacks me,” he said, speaking with BuzzFeed News on condition of anonymity, “then for sure I will attack them back.” 
Western governments worried even before the airstrikes that ISIS would find ways to get its battle-hardened fighters across their borders. 
The operative is the first ISIS member involved in these plans to discuss them with the press. 
He detailed a scheme that takes advantage of the worst humanitarian crisis in a generation, which has sent 3.8 million refugees fleeing Syria’s civil war, pouring more than 1.5 million into Turkey alone. 
From Turkish port cities like Izmir and Mersin, many thousands of these refugees have ventured across the sea, aiming mainly for Italy. Then they often make for more welcoming countries like Sweden and Germany, turning themselves over to authorities and appealing for asylum. 
The operative said he worked with smugglers to slip fighters into this chaotic human tide. “They are going like refugees,” he said. Two refugee-smugglers in Turkey said they helped ISIS send fighters to Europe in this way. 
One put more than 10 of them on his ships, then got cold feet when asked to send more, he told BuzzFeed News last fall. Another said he’d been sending ISIS fighters for months and continues to do so. 
“I’m sending some fighters who want to go and visit their families,” he said in an interview in southern Turkey, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Others just go to Europe to be ready.” 
Among his colleagues in the port city where he works, the smuggler has a reputation for transporting fighters. BuzzFeed News contacted him after meeting the ISIS operative, seeking to investigate the operative’s claims. 
At first he denied that he smuggled fighters at all; then he said he needed “permission” to discuss the issue with a journalist. Soon after he revealed that he worked for the ISIS operative, who confirmed this and allowed the interview. 
The smuggler said some fighters were Syrian. He could tell from their accents that others hailed from elsewhere in the Middle East, while still others spoke Arabic poorly, or not at all. Some told him they were from European countries, he said, and a few claimed to be from the U.S.

2 comments:

Always On Watch said...

Europe's political leaders will remain in a state of denial -- until they can't. By then...

Anonymous said...

Frankfurt man loses airport job over Isis links Published: 29 Jan 2015 11:11 GMT+01:00
In a decision announced on Wednesday, a Frankfurt court upheld the dismissal of a man from his job at Frankfurt airport over his close friendship with a foreign citizen with ties to terrorist group Isis.
Judges found that the man, who was in regular contact with the terrorism suspect on a mobile number known only to his close friends, and had lent the suspect €2,000, was too much of a security risk to work in sensitive areas at the airport.

The man had first come to police attention after being fined for a minor traffic offence, which was flagged up in the regular checks they make on airport staff.

Federal prosecutors then notified them of his relationship with a suspect under investigation for membership of the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State (Isis).

In court, the airport worker argued that because his friend hadn't been convicted of anything, the assumption of innocence should apply to him as well.

But the judge said that he had no automatic right to be declared reliable by the state of Hesse.

He added that the man's refusal to acknowledge guilt over the traffic offence and apparent close relationship with the suspected Isis supporter – a colleague and school friend – were enough to justify the airport authorities' decision.

Since the airport worker was unable to convince the judge that he didn't know about his friend's radical views, the judge upheld the police decision under the Air Safety Law (Luftsicherheitsgesetz) – one of Germany's strictest regulations.