***
Author's journey inside ISIS: They're 'more dangerous than people realize'
By Frederik Pleitgen, CNN
updated 8:50 AM EST, Thu December 25, 2014
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
>
German journalist
and author Juergen Todenhoefer journeyed deep into ISIS
territory
> He
interviewed ISIS fighters, prisoners, and members of the public caught up in
the battle for Iraq and Syria
> One ISIS spokesman told Todenhofer: "slavery and
beheadings [are] part of our religion"
>
ISIS "preparing
the largest religious cleansing campaign the world has ever seen," says
Todenhoefer
(CNN) -- Juergen
Todenhoefer's journey was a tough one: dangerous, but also eye-opening. The
author traveled deep into ISIS territory -- the area they now call their
"caliphate" -- visiting Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in Syria, as well as Mosul
in Iraq.
Mosul, Iraq's
second largest city, was taken by ISIS in a
Blitzkrieg-like sweep in June.
Todenhoefer managed to visit
the mosque there where the leader of ISIS, Abu
Bakr al-Bagdadi, gave his only public address.
And he saw the realities of
daily life under ISIS, with all shops having
to close for prayers in the middle of the day.
"There is an awful sense
of normalcy in Mosul,"
Todenhoefer said in an exclusive interview with CNN.
"130,000 Christians have
been evicted from the city, the Shia have fled, many people have been murdered
and yet the city is functioning and people actually like the stability that the
Islamic State has brought them."
Nonetheless, he says, there
is an air of fear among residents: "Of course many of the them are quite
scared, because the punishment for breaking the Islamic State's strict rules is
very severe."
According to ISIS's
leadership, the group's fighters managed to take Mosul with only about 300 men, even though
more than 20,000 Iraqi army soldiers were stationed there when the attack was
launched.
Todenhoefer spoke with
several ISIS fighters who took part in the
operation.
"It took us about four
days to take Mosul,"
a young fighter told him.
"So you were only about
300 men and you defeated 20,000 troops in four days?" Todenhoefer asked.
"Well, we didn't attack
them all at once, we hit their front lines hard, also using suicide attacks.
Then the others fled very quickly," the fighter explained. "We fight
for Allah, they fight for money and other things that they do not really
believe in."
Glow in their eyes
Todenhoefer told CNN the
enthusiasm the ISIS militants showed was one
thing that stood out.
"When we stayed at their
recruitment house, there were 50 new fighters who came every day,"
Todenhoefer said. "And I just could not believe the glow in their eyes.
They felt like they were coming to a promised land, like they were fighting for
the right thing.
"These are not stupid
people. One of the people we met had just finished his law degree, he had great
job offers, but he turned them down to go and fight ... We met fighters from
Europe and the United States.
One of them was from New Jersey.
Can you imagine a man from New Jersey
traveling to fight for the Islamic State?"
He went on to say that one of
ISIS's main points of strength is their
fighters' willingness -- even their will -- to die on the battlefield.
Todenhoefer met one somewhat
overweight recruit in a "safe house" who said he wears a suicide belt
to every battle because he is too chubby to run away if he is cornered and
would choose to blow himself up, rather than be captured.
ISIS also has a track record of abusing, torturing and
executing prisoners of war. Todenhoefer was briefly able to speak to a Kurdish
captive while in Mosul.
The captive claimed he had not been tortured, but Todenhoefer said he found
that hard to believe.
"This was a broken
man," Todenhoefer said. "It was very sad to see a person in this
state. He was just very weak and very afraid of his captors."
ISIS is preparing the largest religious cleansing campaign
the world has ever seen
Juergen Todenhoefer, author
Juergen Todenhoefer, author
Todenhoefer conducted the
interview with the prisoner while several ISIS
fighters stood guard. He asked the man whether he knew what would happen to
him.
"I do not know,"
the captive told him. "My family does not even know I am still alive. I
hope that maybe there will be some sort of prisoner exchange."
Child ISIS fighters
Todenhoefer was also taken to
see child soldiers outfitted with Islamic State gear and brandishing AK-47s.
One of the boys seemed very young but claimed he had already gone to battle for
ISIS.
"How old are you?"
Todenhoefer asked.
"I am 13 years
old," the boy replied -- though he looked even younger than that.
One of the most remarkable
episodes of Todenhoefer's trip to the ISIS-controlled region came when he was
able to conduct an interview with a German fighter who spoke on behalf of ISIS's leadership.
The man -- clearly
unapologetic about the group's transgressions -- vowed there was more to come;
he also issued a warning to Europe and the United States.
"So you also want to
come to Europe?" Todenhoefer asked him.
"No, we will conquer Europe one day," the man said. "It is not a
question of if we will conquer Europe, just a
matter of when that will happen. But it is certain ... For us, there is no such
thing as borders. There are only front lines.
"Our expansion will be
perpetual ... And the Europeans need to know that when we come, it will not be
in a nice way. It will be with our weapons. And those who do not convert to
Islam or pay
the Islamic tax will be
killed."
Todenhoefer asked the fighter
about their treatment of other religions, especially Shia Muslims.
"What about the 150
million Shia, what if they refuse to convert?" Todenhoefer asked.
"150 million, 200
million or 500 million, it does not matter to us," the fighter answered.
"We will kill them all."
Beheadings
The interview became testy
when they reached the topic of beheadings and enslavement, especially of female
captives.
"So do you seriously think
that beheadings and enslavement actually signal progress for humanity?"
Todenhoefer asked.
"Slavery absolutely
signals progress," the man said. "Only ignorant people believe that
there is no slavery among the Christians and the Jews. Of course there are
woman who are forced into prostitution under the worst circumstances.
"I would say that
slavery is a great help to us and we will continue to have slavery and
beheadings, it is part of our religion ... many slaves have converted to Islam
and have then been freed."
The ISIS spokesman blamed the
beheading of captured Western journalists and aid workers on the policies of
the United States.
"People should really
think about the case of James Foley," he said. "He did not get killed
because we started the battle. He got killed because of the ignorance of his
government that did not give him any help."
Even with recent gains by
Kurdish forces against ISIS in northern Iraq,
Todenhoefer sees the extremist group as entrenched, building state
institutions, and that it shows no sign of losing its grip in the main areas it
controls in Iraq and Syria.
"I think the Islamic
State is a lot more dangerous than Western leaders realize," he said.
"They believe in what they are fighting for and are preparing the largest
religious cleansing campaign the world has ever seen."
***
No comments:
Post a Comment