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The testimony of defectors shatters the Islamic State’s image “as a united, cohesive and ideologically committed organization,” says the report, published Monday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR) at King’s College London. ICSR urged governments to remove “legal disincentives” that dissuade defectors from going public and to help with resettlement and safety issues, arguing that defectors’ voices can be a powerful counterweight to the Islamic State’s slick propaganda. “We don’t think all defectors are saints, or supporters of liberal democracy, or model citizens,” said Peter Neumann, the head of ICSR. “But their narratives and arguments are still valuable because they are speaking from a position of authority and experience and credibility that no one else has.”
Titled “Victims, Perpetrators, Assets: The Narratives of Islamic State Defectors,” the report relied on previously published accounts of several dozen people who have left the organization, including testimony from seven women. According to the researchers, the defectors who have opted to go public represent just the tip of the iceberg, with the vast majority who manage to leave simply walking away quietly. Authorities here estimate that half of the 700 Britons who have left to join the Islamic State have returned to the United Kingdom. Of the defectors surveyed by the researchers, two were British. The reasons for leaving are varied, the report said. Defectors expressed outrage over brutality toward Sunni Muslims and frustration about infighting and behaviors deemed un-Islamic.
A photograph taken from a video released on Jan. 4, 2014, by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s al-Furqan Media allegedly shows fighters marching at an undisclosed location.
Others found their duties “dull” and lacking the kind if glamorous heroism they expected the battlefield would bring. Others still were disappointed by daily life in the Islamic State’s self-declared “caliphate,” which covers large swaths of Iraq and Syria and where issues such as electricity shortages represent a reality markedly different from the paradise peddled by the Islamic State’s propaganda. “A small but significant number of the defectors expressed disappointment about living conditions and the quality of life. They were typically among the ones who had joined the group for material and ‘selfish’ reasons, and quickly realized that none of the luxury goods and cars that they had been promised would materialize,” the report said.
The researchers said they were concerned about the accuracy of the accounts, given that defectors may conclude that anything they say could come back to haunt them in court — or worse. But the researchers said that for the most part, “their narratives have been so strong and consistent that we are confident that our broader assessments remain valid.” One such defector, a 33-year-old Iraqi identified as “Hamza” by the Independent newspaper, told the paper in March that he quit ISIS after being asked to help with executions and being offered 13 Yazidi girls for sex. “These scenes terrified me. I imagined myself being caught up in these shootings, executions, beheadings and raping, if I stayed where I was,” he told the paper.
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They are defecting in hopes of some day living in our midst. Hell, they're already here.Good Muslims don't rape, behead and burn people to death...
Dozens of fighters are defecting from the Islamic State. Here’s why.
September 21,`15 — At least 58 people have gone public after defecting from the Islamic State, and their voices could help deter others from joining, according to a new report.
The testimony of defectors shatters the Islamic State’s image “as a united, cohesive and ideologically committed organization,” says the report, published Monday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR) at King’s College London. ICSR urged governments to remove “legal disincentives” that dissuade defectors from going public and to help with resettlement and safety issues, arguing that defectors’ voices can be a powerful counterweight to the Islamic State’s slick propaganda. “We don’t think all defectors are saints, or supporters of liberal democracy, or model citizens,” said Peter Neumann, the head of ICSR. “But their narratives and arguments are still valuable because they are speaking from a position of authority and experience and credibility that no one else has.”
Titled “Victims, Perpetrators, Assets: The Narratives of Islamic State Defectors,” the report relied on previously published accounts of several dozen people who have left the organization, including testimony from seven women. According to the researchers, the defectors who have opted to go public represent just the tip of the iceberg, with the vast majority who manage to leave simply walking away quietly. Authorities here estimate that half of the 700 Britons who have left to join the Islamic State have returned to the United Kingdom. Of the defectors surveyed by the researchers, two were British. The reasons for leaving are varied, the report said. Defectors expressed outrage over brutality toward Sunni Muslims and frustration about infighting and behaviors deemed un-Islamic.
A photograph taken from a video released on Jan. 4, 2014, by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s al-Furqan Media allegedly shows fighters marching at an undisclosed location.
Others found their duties “dull” and lacking the kind if glamorous heroism they expected the battlefield would bring. Others still were disappointed by daily life in the Islamic State’s self-declared “caliphate,” which covers large swaths of Iraq and Syria and where issues such as electricity shortages represent a reality markedly different from the paradise peddled by the Islamic State’s propaganda. “A small but significant number of the defectors expressed disappointment about living conditions and the quality of life. They were typically among the ones who had joined the group for material and ‘selfish’ reasons, and quickly realized that none of the luxury goods and cars that they had been promised would materialize,” the report said.
The researchers said they were concerned about the accuracy of the accounts, given that defectors may conclude that anything they say could come back to haunt them in court — or worse. But the researchers said that for the most part, “their narratives have been so strong and consistent that we are confident that our broader assessments remain valid.” One such defector, a 33-year-old Iraqi identified as “Hamza” by the Independent newspaper, told the paper in March that he quit ISIS after being asked to help with executions and being offered 13 Yazidi girls for sex. “These scenes terrified me. I imagined myself being caught up in these shootings, executions, beheadings and raping, if I stayed where I was,” he told the paper.
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But a new report produced for a Tampa-based military command suggests that both despite and because of the current notoriety of Islamic State, al-Qaida may very well remain the bigger long-term threat. "Al-Qaeda's strategy is better positioned for the long term, though IS's emergence has placed significant pressures on al-Qaeda's network ..." is the conclusion reached by "The War between the Islamic State and al-Qaeda: Strategic Dimensions of a Patricidal Conflict."
Al-Qaida fighters wave al-Qaida flags as they patrol in a commandeered Iraqi military vehicle in Fallujah, Iraq.
The 40-page report was produced for Special Operations Command Central, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, by spot-on, oft-contrarian analyst Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and his consulting firm Valens Global. That al-Qaida might be better positioned to last than Islamic State goes against conventional wisdom, Gartenstein-Ross acknowledges.
But that matters not to him. "That is our view," he said of the report, co-written by Jason Fritz, Bridget Moreng and Nathaniel Barr of Valens Global. "It is very contrary to the conventional wisdom in the field, but the fact that it is contrary doesn't bug me. I have been contrary for the past 4.5 years or so and most of the time, my record has born out pretty well."
Their differences
The official said it appeared shortly after the July 8 airstrike that David Drugeon, a French-born member of the Khorasan group of al-Qaida operatives, likely was killed, and that officials are now confident that he did not survive the attack. That confidence was bolstered by al-Qaida social media references this week to Drugeon having died, the official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the U.S. assessment has not been announced. Officials said in the immediate aftermath of the July airstrike that it killed Muhsin al-Fadhli, a key leader of the Khorasan group, which is a cadre of al-Qaida operatives using Syria as a sanctuary for plotting attacks on the West. Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Friday that if Drugeon's death is confirmed it would be a major setback for al-Qaida in Syria. He reportedly was an expert in building nonmetallic explosives.
U.S. officials feared the Khorasan militants would provide these sophisticated explosives to their Western recruits who could sneak them onto U.S.-bound flights. "One of my greatest concerns is the threat to our nation's airports and airliners, because those kind of attacks have the potential to radically alter our country, damaging an important sector of our economy and further changing the way we live - and those are exactly the type of plots that the Khorasan group has been working on," Schiff said.
News from The Associated Press
