EU-DIGEST

Press and Government better start calling a spade a spade

Sad story ( click on link below for full report) reminding us about the cruel practices of these deranged, derelict, murderers, who call themselves IS

The press and.Governments should stop identifying this band of deranged murderers and killers as IS.

There is no country or so called "Caliphate" called IS. It is all dreamworld fiction.

We must start to call a spade a spade, so why not identify these Deranged Psychotic Murderers Trash as DPMT- Deranged Psychotic, Murderous, Trash.

Press and.Governments should stop "glorifying" the exploits of these murderers and Social Media must be far more vigilant in localizing and eliminating Jihadist propaganda from the Internet.

Read more: Flash - Syrian teen's amputated hand a cruel reminder of IS rule - France 24

ISIS Psychopathic Derelicts Execute Innocent Civilians

It is amazing and questionable why the Media in general goes to such great length in providing ISIS or IS with all this free publicity and PR.

The Islamic State is a Fata Morgana, and all the stories about its legality are bogus. Unfortunately the cruel crimes committed by these psychopathic derelicts are a reality.

But sadly, not much has been done to curb the ability of these fanatic criminals to project a (deluted) image which continues to attract numerous individuals to their cause.  An image which indirectly is reinforced by the publicity the media provides them.

Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, who all have the means to track our whereabouts and activities should at least also be able to use those same capabilities to track these Enemies of Humanity and bar them from using their services to recruit followers and spout their nonsense.

As to the general corporate controlled press, they should, in this particular case at least, forget their profit motives for once. Stop giving these Enemies of Humanity the time of day in your news reports.

She was a blonde-haired, blue eyed Catholic girl whose family was a pillar of the Dutch town of Maastricht. He was a smiling, bicycle-riding Dutch former soldier - a man considered such an asset to his country he was encouraged to try out for their elite special forces.

And yet the marriage of Sterlina Petalo and Omar Yilmaz was, for their families, anything but a cause for celebration.

Yilmaz, 26, was one of the most high-profile Europeans to become a jihadi, travelling to Syria to live in the Islamic State and fight on behalf of the extremists. He gloried in the teenage fantasy of war - posting a series of Instagram photos of himself pouting at the camera on a motorbike, amid bombed-out buildings in his combat fatigues, AK47 slung nonchalantly over his shoulder. Miss Petalo was a recent convert to Islam, who fell in love with Yilmaz after seeing him on television, picturing him as a Robin Hood figure.

Last week their story took a remarkable twist when it was revealed that Miss Petalo had in fact returned to her hometown - after her mother travelled to the Turkish-Syrian border to bring the 19-year-old home from the jihadist-held city of Raqqa.

“Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said her mother, Monique Verbert. “She rang me and said 'Take me home.’ But she could not leave Raqqa without help.”

The pair arrived back in the Netherlands on Wednesday, said Annemarie Kemp, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office. Clad in a niqqab, with only her eyes showing, the teenager - who has changed her name to Aicha - was photographed being driven through the town on her way to custody.

“Upon her arrival, Aicha was detained at once on suspicion of crimes threatening state security,” said Ms Kemp.

Miss Petalo is being held in a police cell - the prosecutor, Roger Bos, ruled on Friday that she should be detained for questioning for three more days. Mrs Verbert, 49, an administrator for BP, argued that her daughter’s flight to Syria was little more than teenage infatuation. Today Monday November 24 the court will decide whether to press charges.

Note EU-Digest: Every civilized human being should condemn the violence and terror IS is using to instill fear and terror in the areas where they operate. In that same breath one should also condemn social media and the International Press for publicizing these horrific scenes of barbarism, including the decapitation of body parts. This is pure commercially based sensationalism, which can only lead to popularizing these horrific acts in the minds of susceptible young people - case in point Ms Petalo who acted upon her teenage fantasy of a "glorified" war and followed this "insanely obsessed man" into certain disaster. 

Kudos to her mother for taking the proper action to bring her daughter back to reality and safety.    
Read more: Dutch jihadi bride: 'Is she a victim or a suspect?' - Telegraph

The Islamic State released a video early Sunday showing a black-clad executioner standing over the severed head of what they claim is an American aid worker, a former Army Ranger who disappeared over a year ago at a checkpoint in northern Syria while delivering medical supplies.

Read more: ISIS Video Purports to Prove Peter Kassig, a U.S. Aid Worker, Was Executed - NYTimes.com

Money might be the root of all evil, but that’s a risk Islamic State seems willing to take.

In a bid to shed the "tyrannical monetary system that was imposed upon the Muslims" and avoid becoming “easy prey for the Jews and Crusaders," the militant group has decided to create a new currency, according to a statement released Thursday by the Financial Diwan [Office] of the Islamic State.

In its de facto capital of Raqqah in northeastern Syria, the Al Qaeda breakaway group has organized civil services, ministries and even a Saudi-style morality police to ensure that citizens abide by its draconian interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law. Punishments include amputations, beheadings and crucifixions.

Since its blitz expansion into Iraq in June, Islamic State has ramped up its state-building activities. Activists have reported that the group intends to issue passports for its “citizens.”

The dinars, dirhams, and fils making up the new currency's "categories" will come in denominations of 1, 5, and 10, according to the group’s statement.


Read more: Islamic State wants to create its own currency - LA Times

A recent EU-Digest Poll which ran for 40 days shows that 44.44% of those polled find that Saudi Arabia is one of the major conduits for IS finances, weapons and  supplies,

Iran, Turkey  and Qatar are also seen in this poll as major "conduits".

This months EU-Digest Poll  which will run through December 13 focuses on recent elections
in rebel controlled Russian ethnic areas.

Ukraine, the EU and the US say the elctions are not legitimate. The Russians which earlier annexed the Crimea say the Russian ethnic minority have the right of self-determination.

EU-Digest

For nearly six months, the eyes of the world have been focused on the most bloodthirsty and openly barbaric group of Islamist radicals ever to bludgeon its way across the Middle East in modern history.

"Islamic State" -- aka ISIS or ISIL -- a cult-like, burgeoning coalition of Sunni radicals led by a self-declared "caliph," has horrified observers with its savage tactics and the bloodstained trail of rape, abduction, sex-trading, mutila - tion, beheading, and even crucifixion it leaves behind.

Since June 2014, ISIS has been especially notorious for its wanton expulsion of Christians from Iraq's war-torn countryside. Yazidis, Kurds, and Shiite Muslims have not been spared either.

Islamic State's battalions of thugs have forced "infidel" families from their homes, seizing all their material possessions as they drove them out. They have murdered and even beheaded resisters; raped women and children, and kidnapped young girls for sexual exploitation. They have also proudly publicized their acts on social media -- apparently for the sole purpose of terrifying all who stand against them.

And it isn't as if they're chasing new - comers out of their Middle Eastern neighborhood. Christians were in Iraq long before Muhammad was born.

Read more: The Kurds, the Christians, and the Barbarians At the Gate

German authorities fear there could be as many as 7,000 Muslim extremists in the country by the end of the year. Disenfranchised youths are particularly vulnerable to being recruited, while there are around 450 German extremists in Syria and Iraq.

The extremists all follow the strict interpretation of Islam known as Salafism and believe that jihad is a legitimate tool in their fight against the West, which they believe is an enemy of Islam. Hans-Georg Maassen, who is the head of Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency,told rbb-Inforadi that there are currently around 6,300 Islamic extremists in Germany, but this figure could rise to as many as 7,000 by the end of the year, AP reports.

There has been a steep rise in the number of Germans attracted to fundamentalist Islam. Three years ago there were only in the region of 3,800 followers of Salafism in the country, which then rose to 4,500 in 2012.
Speaking in late August in Berlin, Maassen said young Muslims are attracted to Islamic State (IS) because of its brutality.

The militant group has become infamous for beheading captives amongst other things. The German domestic intelligence chief also says the group formally known as ISIS, seems to be “more authentic” than Al-Qaeda.

Read More: Germany could be home to 7,000 Muslim extremists by Christmas — RT News

"IS prisoners have been executed by Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq., said a Dutch citizen from Kurdish descent, Serdar Dosky, who is fighting with the Kurds against ISIS.  He told this to a Dutch TV reporter from the Nieuwsuur (Newshour) TV news station, when he thought the camera and mike had been turned off.

He said that wounded IS fighters were immediately excecuted . "A bullet costs only about about fifty cents he said. We just do not want to take any prisoners of war "

It was also reported that Kurdish fighters had completely destroyed the Arab city of Barzan.  Inhabitants of the village who escaped also reported Kurdish fighters gruesomely murdered many of the inhabitants as an act of revenge against IS..

The videos and pictures made by Nieuwsuur were submitted to Human Rights Watch and they have requested a full investigation.

Later in the day Dosky said his comments that were picked up were just a joke. "These kind of statements we often just make in anger about the horrors committed by IS," he said.

He also said that in reality there were no prisoners taken at all. .

Read more: original report in Dutch - PowNed : IS-gevangenen geëxecuteerd

Turkey would not agree to any US arms transfers to Kurdish fighters who are battling Islamic State (Isis) militants in Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Sunday, as the extremist group fired more mortar rounds near the Syrian-Turkish border and fighting around the besieged town of Kobani intensified.

Turkey views the main Syrian Kurdish group, the PYD, and its military wing which is fighting Isis militants as an extension of the PKK, which has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terror group by the US and Nato.

Washington has said recently that it has engaged in intelligence sharing with Kurdish fighters and officials have not ruled out future arms transfers to the Kurdish fighters.

“The PYD is for us, equal to the PKK. It is a terror organisation,” Erdogan told a group of reporters on his return from a visit to Afghanistan. “It would be wrong for the United States with whom we are friends and allies in Nato to talk openly and to expect us to say ‘yes’ to such a support to a terrorist organisation.”
Erdogan’s comments were reported by the state-run Anadolu agency on Sunday.

Read more: Turkey will not cooperate in US support for Kurds in Syria, says Erdogan | World news | theguardian.com

Kurdish fighters have repulsed a fresh attempt by "Islamic State" ("IS") militants to cut the Syrian town of Kobani off from the border with Turkey, raising hopes Kurdish forces would maintain control of the city.

"IS" forces reportedly launched a fierce attack from the east toward the border gate with Turkey before being pushed back. The jihadist group suffered heavy losses and was forced to send in reinforcements, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The news comes as the besieged city suffered its heaviest round of shelling by "IS" forces in days, with mortar shells hitting the town center and landing inside of Turkey in Mursitpinar.

"They want to cut off Kobani's connection with the rest of the world," a Kurdish militia source said. "Turkey is not allowing in fighters or weapons, but they send aid at Mursitpinar. The 'Islamic State' wants to destroy this gate so that we will be completely trapped here."

Read more: Kurdish fighters repel fresh ′IS′ attack in Kobani | News | DW.DE | 19.10.2014

Diplomatic missions, think tanks, and the media are rife with analyses of the Islamic State. Assessments of how to deal with the jihadist group range from “wait and see” to “degrade and destroy,” and there are even mundane controversies about whether the entity should be called the Islamic State (IS), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or Da’esh (the movement’s Arabic acronym)—even though these names carry almost identical meanings.

The bottom line is that the self-proclaimed Islamic State, which has now taken hold in large parts of Iraq and Syria, is posing unprecedented challenges to the Western community of nations. The group is a particular threat to European states. To cope with those aspects of the situation that are specific to Europe, EU leaders must focus their efforts on five key areas: counterterrorism cooperation, the interruption of financial flows to the Islamic State, humanitarian assistance, political dialogue, and long-term policy reforms.


Read more: The European Union Must Face the Islamic State - Carnegie Europe

It was a telling contrast: a high-profile shout-out Tuesday from President Obama to Arab allies who joined in U.S.-led airstrikes against Sunni Muslim militants in Syria – coupled with cautious, distancing and sometimes belated statements from the Arab states involved.

The sharply different public postures suggested that the Obama administration still faces an uphill fight to galvanize regional allies for a long offensive against Islamic State, whose fighters have seized an arc of territory in Syria and Iraq, enforcing its rule with crucifixions and beheadings and forcing tens of thousand of civilians to flee.

“This is not America’s fight alone,” Obama declared Tuesday, listing a roll call of Arab states that had taken part in the initial airstrikes: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar. The United States, the president asserted, was “proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder” with these allies.

But for a variety of reasons, analysts say, most Arab states are reluctant to take on overtly visible roles in a U.S.-led military coalition. Some fear direct retaliation by Islamic State. Others worry about inflaming their own homegrown extremists, or do not want to act in ways that will advance the agenda of their regional rivals, particularly as concerns the combustible divide between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

And if the American-led campaign escalates to a ground battle, Arab states are almost certain to step back, said Egyptian analyst Gamal Sultan.

Read more: U.S. won Arab support for airstrikes, but challenges remain - LA Times

As U.S. airstrikes continue against the so-called Islamic State in Syria, one question is will those strikes end up helping the regime of Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad - the regime that for several years now the Obama administration has said must go. To talk about that, I'm joined by Andrew Tabler. He specializes in Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Andrew, welcome back to the program.

For complete report click here: Air Strikes Against Islamic State Involve Dance With Assad : NPR

So, the reluctant, hesitant, wan, diffident loner US president somehow managed to pull together a potent Arab coalition and launch an air war against extremists of the Islamic State terror group on their home turf. Very surprising, given his reputation.

Defying expectations is one thing; winning a war in which victory has not yet been adequately defined is another. And yet, President Obama has taken the first, significant steps to at least slow, and possibly reverse, ISIS's expansion.

Four quick, early morning observations (to be followed by more, I hope):

1. The Arabs of the Gulf (Arabian Gulf, Persian Gulf, take your pick) have overcome their fear of Obama's irresolution and joined him publicly in this campaign. This has happened for two reasons: One, Obama made a convincing case to U.S. allies that he's in the ISIS fight for the long-term. The Gulf Arabs are exposed, almost existentially so, to the ISIS threat, so they obviously feel that the U.S. is not pivoting away from them (to borrow a term). The second reason is embedded in the first reason: the president was pushing on an open door. Precisely because the Arab states fear ISIS so much, they needed to take a bit of a leap of faith with a man they haven't trusted since the "red line" crisis of last year. That said, Obama's critics will attempt to downplay his achievement in building this coalition. They shouldn't. Getting this set of countries to act in their own defense has never been an easy task.

2. It is true that there exists no strategy for victory, and no definition of victory. The advantage of launching strikes against ISIS positions early in this fight is that its commanders now have to spend extraordinary amounts of time, energy, and resources merely digging in, and protecting their human and materiel assets, rather than pushing on toward Baghdad, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. A terrorist preoccupied with his own survival has less bandwidth to threaten yours. But these strikes will not bring about the end of ISIS. Like other terror groups, it can "win" this current round of fighting by surviving, and maximizing civilian casualties on its own side.

3. This struggle is now owned by the United States. President Obama has spread around the risk, but make no mistake, this is an American fight. If President Obama wasn't convinced that the U.S. is—and should be—the world's sole remaining superpower, he is now. Our reluctant president came to the conclusion that it would be insane for the civilized world to allow the barbarians of ISIS to overspread the Middle East. He looked around, and realized that the only country that could lead the anti-ISIS campaign was his. He's right, alas, and this leadership has a cost. ISIS was mainly interested, for the moment, at least, in securing its own borders, and building the infrastructure of a state. I have a feeling its long-term planners woke up this morning newly interested in finding ways to hurt Americans.

4. This American-led campaign isn't unalloyed good news for Bashar al-Assad. ISIS has been, in practical terms, his best friend this past year. The threat of ISIS caused numerous anti-Assad parties to think twice about calling for his removal. And ISIS did a great job on Assad's behalf of eliminating the more moderate Syrian opposition. Nevertheless, American bombs are falling in Syria, and they're not falling on Assad. Very few people a year ago could have predicted this.

Read more: The Reluctant Loner President Builds a Coalition and Goes After Terrorists Across Syria - The Atlantic

The Islamic State has declared Denmark an “enemy of Islam” and the country is on the militant organization’s radar. This is according to a Danish-Turkish jihadist, who only gave his name as OA and previously fought for the organization in Syria.

The 27 year-old, who was born and raised in Denmark says The Islamic State, who was previously known as ISIS, “has become very international and Denmark is high up on the list, believe me,” speaking to the Danish broadsheet newspaper, Politiken.

“Denmark is not my country. The Muslims’ country is the caliphate and inshallah there will soon be an attack here. Denmark should prepare itself,” the militant added as cited by The Local.
“It is an open war now. ISIS has said that all infidels should be battled. They should be eliminated and soon it will be Denmark’s turn,” OA continued.

The Danish born jihadist fought in Syria for Islamic State (IS), before returning back to Denmark, a country who he feels no affiliation for. Although he admits that IS is mainly concentrating its efforts in Syria and Iraq at the moment, things could change in the future.

“My battle lies in Syria. But you never know, brother. The prophet said that Allah showed him the eastern and western parts of the world and that they should be united in a caliphate. So Denmark might get its turn soon,” he said.

AO is not the only Danish-born militant to have defected to fight for IS. In March, it was reported by the Copenhagen Post that a young Dane, who allegedly came from the Aarhus area of the country and went by the name of Abu Sa'ad al Denmarki had killed himself in a suicide attack.

The Derechos Human Rights Agency reported that IS had stated that “he had been mobilized from Denmark to the Islamic State, seeking martyrdom in the cause of Allah.” He died after driving a car packed with explosives into an Iraqi Army convoy near the city of Mosul.

The Danish intelligence agency PET, revealed in January 2014 that around 90 Danish citizens were fighting in the Syrian civil war.

Read more: ISIS sets sights on Denmark as EU nation wades into Iraq crisis — RT News

The United States has expanded its targeted air strikes aimed at Islamic State militants in northern Iraq, as Iraqi security forces push to retake the vital Mosul Dam. The chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee said the air strikes and equipment provided to Kurdish fighters have helped slow the IS advance across Iraq.

President Barack Obama Sunday sent a letter to congressional leaders announcing his authorization of targeted air strikes to support Iraqi forces in their effort to recapture the Mosul Dam from IS militants, referring to it as a “critical infrastructure site.” Obama warned failure of the dam “could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians, endanger U.S. personnel and facilities, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to its people.”

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the operations are limited in nature, duration and scope. She said they are being undertaken in coordination with, and at the request of, the Iraqi government.

U.S. Central Command Sunday said the air strikes, the second in the area in as many days, were carried out using fighter and attack aircraft and destroyed three IS armed vehicles, an IS vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft artillery gun, an IS checkpoint and an improvised explosive device (IED) emplacement. All strike aircraft are said to have exited the strike area safely.

There are conflicting reports about whether Kurdish peshmerga fighters, also backed by air strikes, had retaken some or all of the territory surrounding the Mosul Dam, captured by Islamic State fighters earlier this month.

Read more: US Expands Air Strikes to Help Iraqi Forces Retake Mosul Dam