Thousands of foreign recruits still pouring in to join ISIS

[Turborama]

Source: NYT via The Seattle Times

WASHINGTON — Nearly 30,000 foreign recruits have poured into Syria to join the Islamic State group, a doubling of volunteers in the past 12 months and evidence that an international effort to tighten borders, share intelligence and enforce anti-terrorism laws is not diminishing the ranks of new militant fighters.

Among those who have entered or tried to enter the conflict in Iraq or Syria are more than 250 Americans, up from about 100 a year ago, according to intelligence and law-enforcement officials.

President Obama will take stock of the international campaign to counter the Islamic State group at the United Nations on Tuesday, a public accounting that comes as U.S. intelligence analysts have been preparing a confidential assessment that concludes that nearly 30,000 foreign fighters have traveled to Iraq and Syria from more than 100 countries since 2011. A year ago, the same officials estimated that flow to be about 15,000 combatants from 80 countries, mostly to join the Islamic State group.

That grim appraisal coincides with the scheduled release Tuesday of a six-month, bipartisan congressional investigation into terrorist and foreign-fighter travel, which concludes that, “Despite concerted efforts to stem the flow, we have largely failed to stop Americans from traveling overseas to join jihadists.”

Read more: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/thousands-of-foreign-recruits-still-pouring-in-to-join-isis/

[Tommy2Tone]

1. Get them all in one spot and kill every last one of them.

[delrem]

2. Your problem as the US Empire of Freedom, is that "the spot" keeps getting larger.

You've committed atrocity after atrocity, so it's insane.

Yet you still think you're innocent. You still haven't learned.

[Tommy2Tone]

5. Whatever

They are the enemy. Not just of the United States but of all civilization and you seem to be justifying their actions and it's disgusting.

[CJCRANE]

6. We have a coalition of 60 countries

against them, and yet this enemy keeps getting stronger and stronger.

[7962]

14. Bigger, but not necessarily stronger. Inept opposition.

And our tiny airstrikes arent scaring them. Not enough

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. As martial tactics go, that's a bit naive

What happens is that your enemies don't obligingly go into one spot. Being human beings, they move around, and being your enemies, they try to do things that will hurt you, and they won't think that all getting into one spot will achieve that. ISIS's purpose is also to expand, so they will definitely want to be in different places.

Any more pearls of wisdom for us?

[CJCRANE]

9. TV and video footage of long convoys of Toyota trucks

seems to belie that fact.

Saddam's army retreating from Kuwait along the highway to Baghdad didn't get such lenient treatment.

[7962]

15. Exactly!! Hundreds of casualties a day WILL affect their "recruitment"

If you know theres a high probability that you'll be blown up in short order if you go, many will think twice. But right now they think they will be victorious.

[jamzrockz]

17. Couldn't agree more

I wish we hadn't taken their chemical weapons away from them because that just signaled to the terrorists that they can actually take over the country without fear of being gassed.

In fact, I will donate to funds set up to buy back Syria's chemical weapons so they can gas out the areas where these people are stationed. Also a little more thrown in for the Turkish towns that give the terrorists safe passage into Syria.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Turkey seems to be a superhighway for them. Has anyone mentioned that to Mr. Erdogan?

You know, our NATO ally and member, cough, of the anti-ISIS coalition.

[Rod Beauvex]

4. Elepahnt in the room.

WHO. IS. FUNDING. ISIS?

That is what we need to be going after.

[JDPriestly]

8. Agreed. Could it be Saudi Arabia or one or more of our other "allies" in the Middle East?

And Turkey's role? Just what is it?

I don't think we are getting the full story on this development.

If Russia or China were supporting ISIS, we would hear all about it, so I'm wondering who is making their efforts possible? Where is the money coming from? Weapons and ammunition cost money even if ISIS is making their own equipment and ammunition. Still, the materials and the means to produce weaponry cost money? Where is it coming from?

[TubbersUK]

12. According to this article in the Independant

At least their seed money came from Saudi and other gulf state sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/iraq-crisis-how-saudi-arabia-helped-isis-take-over-the-north-of-the-country-9602312.html

ETA: As per AlQaeda before them:

"Saudi sympathy for anti-Shia "militancy" is identified in leaked US official documents. The then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in December 2009 in a cable released by Wikileaks that "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan] and other terrorist groups." She said that, in so far as Saudi Arabia did act against al-Qa'ida, it was as a domestic threat and not because of its activities abroad. "

[snagglepuss]

10. The British papers ran articles about this about a year ago.

As I recall they're worth about $600 million! I could be wrong about that figure but it's up there in the hundreds of millions so they are not beholding to any outside source for their funds. This thanks to oil revenue and huge bank heists among other things.

[CJCRANE]

11. "Oil revenues" suggests someone is buying the oil.

The buyers and sellers must have bank accounts. They can be tracked and frozen.

And even with bank heists, that isn't enough to maintain and equip an army and several cities for several years.

[jamzrockz]

18. And why are we sanctioning

the Syrian govt and Hezbollah fighting ISIS and no sanctions on the people buying ISIS oil?

[IronLionZion]

13. What's the solution?

It seems like the only choices in that area are dictators like Saddam Hussein and Bashar Assad, or it inevitably falls to crazies like ISIS.

Anyone in America who wants to go join ISIS, should probably be allowed to go just to get them out of here. I wouldn't want ISIS supporters here. I'm reading more stuff saying we should just let them be and stay out of it.

I'll tell you straight up there is no end in sight to the Syrian civil war since all parties are "bad guys" and Russia is clearly backing Assad.

With ISIS, the Kurds are probably the "good guys" in that region but America's "allies" in Qatar and Saudi Arabia are backing ISIS. And the America-backed Iraqi government is weak and Turkey has very questionable motives.

Does anyone have a solution to IS?

[7962]

16. Which is why it was stupid to get rid of Saddam.

sadly not every country can handle freedom to choose. Sometimes they just get the choice made FOR them and they end up worse off. Even Saddam protected the Christian minority population in Iraq. Assad pretty much did the same thing in Syria, as did Mubarek in Egypt.
Now look whats happening.