Tag Archives: Islamic Militants

International, US

German man sentenced for joining ISIS

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In Germany, a 20-year-old man, who has been identified as Kreshnik Berisha, has been sentenced to nearly four years in jail after he admitted to joining ISIS fighters in Syria.

Berisha, according to Reuters spent six months in Syria last year, training and fighting alongside Islamic State militants.  However, the German court said there was no conclusive evidence to support the claim that he had been directly involved in any combat or fighting.

Originally, the prosecution sought four years and three months of jail time for Berisha.  Although, because he was perceived by the German judges to lack the maturity of an adult, he was sentenced to three years and nine months as a juvenile.

In the German court system, a person between the ages of 18-21 can be tried as a juvenile if they are thought to lack the maturity of an adult.

“As a youth he was not able to resist the influence of his Islamist friends,” said chief judge Thomas Sagebiel, according to Newsweek.  The judges are hoping the juvenile sentence will have the necessary educational effects to rehabilitate Berisha since he displayed radical Islamic attitudes.

Berisha’s attorney told the courts he went to Syria to fight against and overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.  He then admitted to the court that he had received weapons training from ISIS fighters and he had joined the Islamic State.

It is estimated that about 550 German citizens have traveled to the Middle East in order to join ISIS, while thousands of others from other Western nations have made the same trip.

British and French courts have also sentenced their citizens to jail time after they traveled to the Middle East to support ISIS.  French courts sentenced one man, who spent only 10 days in Syria, to seven years in prison.  British courts sentenced two brothers to three-and-a-half years in prison for being trained in Syria.

International, Politics, US

U.S. Officials Claim Islamic State Does Not Pose a Direct Threat of Attack on the United States

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On Wednesday, senior United States Officials said that while there is the danger of the Islamic State spreading through the Middle East, and into Europe, the group does not pose an urgent threat of an attack in the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, Francis Taylor, said that the DHS is “unaware of any specific credible threat to the U.S. homeland” from the Islamic State.

Taylor added that while the Islamic State was not a direct threat to U.S. soil, the group still has capabilities most terrorist organizations don’t possess, and it “constitutes an active and serious threat within the region and could attempt attacks on U.S. targets overseas with little or no warning.”

According to the Washington Post, the FBI has arrested “more than a half dozen people trying to travel to Syria to support the Islamic State,” and about a dozen people from the United States “are believed to have joined the Islamic State.”

Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Nicholas Rasmussen, acknowledged that the Islamic State’s “ability to carry out complex large-scale attacks in the West is currently limited.”

The Associated Press reported that, “More than 100 Americans have traveled to Syria to fight for various militant groups or tried to make the journey.”

The Washington Post noted that after the group’s leader threatened a “direct confrontation” with the United States in January, Islamic militants have struck out at the U.S. recently by beheading two American journalists after the United States began bombing Islamic State forces in Iraq.

The Director for the National Counterterrorism Center, Matthew Olsen, acknowledged that the United States is concerned that an Islamic State sympathizer, who is  “perhaps motivated by online propaganda,” is capable of conducting a “limited, self-directed attack here at home with no warning.”

While the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11 has sparked rumors that members of the Islamic State will lash out directly at the United States, Olsen said, “In our view, any threat to the U.S. homeland from these types of extremists is likely to be limited in scope and scale.”

These statements from senior U.S. officials follow a recent video from former Texas Congressman, Ron Paul, in which he quoted the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, who said that there is “no evidence there is anything imminent or planned” by ISIS for the United States, and that we shouldn’t “expect them to do anything here in the United States.”

During his address to the nation Wednesday night, President Obama insisted that he has the authority to carry out strikes against ISIS and yet, the fact that there is no direct threat to the United States actually disqualifies the President from that authority.

Under the Constitution, the Commander in Chief must obtain a declaration of war from the U.S. Congress in order to carry out strikes against any nation or group unless the United States is under immediate threat.

 

International, Politics

Islamic Militants to Putin: We are Coming to Russia

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In a recent video released by Islamic State militants, they changed from sending threats to United States President Barack Obama, to threatening the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

The video featured Russian subtitles, translating the militants’ spoken Arabic. They posed around Russian military equipment, including a fighter jet, which was captured from the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad.

According to the Washington Post, Russia is an old ally of the Assad regime, and it remains Assad’s “primary source for military hardware.”

Yahoo News reported that the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia requested that investigators conduct a criminal examination regarding the video, and “demanded that access to the address, which was posted on YouTube on Tuesday and features what jihadists say is a Russian-supplied fighter jet, be blocked.”

“This is a message to you, oh Vladimir Putin, these are the jets that you have sent to Bashar, we will send them to you, God willing, remember that,” one militant warned.

The militants went on to state that they would “liberate Chechnya and the entire Caucasus.” 

The Washington Post reported that this threat was to be expected, due to the fact that the “Chechen insurgency has gone deep underground,” and the fact that Russia’s “heavy-handed rule over the North Caucasus has radicalized some in this Muslim-majority borderland.”

According to International Business Times, Russia’s security services stated that they believe “hundreds of militants from the Caucasus regions have fled to the Middle East to fight with the group.”

“The Islamic State is and will be and it is expanding God willing,” The militants warned Putin. “Your throne has already teetered, it is under threat and will fall when we come to you because Allah is truly on our side. We are already on our way God willing.”

Watch the video released by the Islamic militants: