39.Robin Simcox, “Al-Qaeda’s Global Footprint,” Henry Jackson Society, 2013.
40.“Takfir,” Oxford Dictionary of Islam, ed. John L. Esposito (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
41.Don Rassler, Gabriel Koehler-Derrick, Liam Collins, Muhammad al-Obaidi, and Nelly Lahoud, Letters from Abbottabad: Bin Laden Sidelined, ed. Harmony Program (West Point, NY: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 2012).
42.Aaron Zelin, “Al-Qaeda Disaffiliates with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham,” Washington Institute, February 4, 2014.
43.Letter from Zawahiri, July 9, 2005, https://www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/CTC-Zawahiri-Letter-10-05.pdf.
44.Stephen Ulph, “New Online Book Lays Out Al-Qaeda’s Military Strategy,” Jamestown Foundation, March 16, 2005, http://www.jamestown.org/programs/tm/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=27713&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=238&no_cache=1#.VIhfUmTF_LB.
45.Ibid.
46.Brian Fishman, “Jihadists Target the American Dream,” CTC Sentinel 1 no. 4 (March 2008), https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/jihadists-target-the-american-dream.
47.Abu Bakr Naji, The Management of Savagery, translated by William McCants, May 23, 2006, John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Harvard University, http://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/abu-bakr-naji-the-management-of-savagery-the-most-critical-stage-through-which-the-umma-will-pass.pdf.
48.David Cook, “Abu Musa’b al-Suri and Abu Musa’b al Zarqawi: The Apocalyptic Theorist and the Apocalyptic Practitioner,” unpublished ms., 9.
49.Lawrence Wright, “The Master Plan,” New Yorker, September 11, 2006, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/09/11/the-master-plan.
50.Richard Oppel, “Iraq’s New Premier Gains Support in Talks with Shiite Leaders,” New York Times, April 28, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/world/middleeast/28iraq. html.
51.“Iraq’s President Appoints Shiite as Prime Minister,” China Daily, August 8, 2005, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/08/content_432343.htm; Oppel, “Iraq’s New Premier Gains Support in Talks With Shiite Leaders.”
52.David Ignatius, “Iraq’s Choice, A Chance for Unity,” Washington Post, April 26, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/25/AR2006042501650. html.
53.Ellen Knickmeyer, “Blood on Our Hands,” Foreign Policy, October 25, 2010; Bobby Ghosh, “An Eye for an Eye,” Time, February 26, 2006.
54.Nada Bakos, “Humility Now! The Miseducation of Jackson Diehl,” Foreign Policy, April 2, 2013, http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/02/humility-now/.
55.J. M. Berger, “Analysis: Release of Zarqawi Death Photo Offers Propagandists Opportunity,” IntelWire, June 8, 2006, http://news.intelwire.com/2006/06/analysis-release-of-zarqawi-death-photo.html; J. M. Berger, “First Zarqawi Tribute Video Appears Online; U.S. Death Photos Prominently Featured,” IntelWire, June 9, 2006, http://news.intelwire.com/2006/06/first-zarqawi-tribute-video-appears.html.
56.Gilles Kepel, Beyond Terror and Martyrdom: The Future of the Middle East (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008), 133–39.
57.“Pressure Grows on al Qaeda in Iraq,” ABC News, January 30, 2006, http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1557349&singlePage=true.
58.Lister, “Profiling the Islamic State”; Brian Fishman, “Redefining the Islamic State,” New America Foundation, August 2011, http://security.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/Fishman_Al_Qaeda_In_Iraq.pdf.
59.Fishman, “Redefining the Islamic State.”
60.Letter from Zawahiri, July 9, 2005, https://www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/CTC-Zawahiri-Letter-10-05.pdf.
61.“David Petraeus: ISIS’s Rise in Iraq Isn’t a Surprise,” David Petraeus interview with Frontline, PBS, July 29, 2014.
62.Ibid.
63.Ibid.
64.John Hendren, “ ‘Sunni Awakening’: Insurgents Are Now Allies,” ABC News, December 23, 2007, http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4045471.
65.“David Petraeus: ISIS’s Rise in Iraq Isn’t a Surprise.”
66.Zaid al-Ali, “How Maliki Ruined Iraq,” Foreign Policy, June 19, 2014, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/06/19/how_maliki_ruined_iraq_armed_forces_isis.
67.Ibid.
68.“Zalmay Khalilzad: Maliki and the ‘Unmaking of Iraq,’” Frontline, PBS, July 29, 2014; Phillip Smyth, email communication with authors, November 21, 2014.
69.Phillip Smyth, email communication with authors, November 2014.
70.“Zalmay Khalilzad: Maliki and the ‘Unmaking of Iraq.’”
71.“Ryan Crocker: ‘Our National Security . . . Is At Stake Right Now,’” Frontline, PBS, July 29, 2014.
72.Ibid.
73.Ibid.
74.“Who Is Nouri al-Maliki?” Frontline, PBS, July 29, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/iraq-war-on-terror/losing-iraq/who-is-nouri-al-maliki/.
75.Jack Healy, “Arrest Order for Sunni Leader in Iraq Opens New Rift,” New York Times, December 19, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/world/middleeast/iraqi-government-accuses-top-official-in-assassinations.html?pagewanted=all.
76.Hashimi agreed to participate in the Iraqi government, and continued his participation, at great personal cost. His brother and sister were murdered by al Qaeda, due to his willingness to participate in the government. “That was worth a lot,” General Petraeus says, “and rather than feeling relieved by the opportunity to rid himself of his Sunni Vice-President, as he so clearly was, [Maliki] should have recognized that this was a serious loss for Iraq.” “David Petraeus: ISIS’s Rise in Iraq Isn’t a Surprise.”
77.Childress, Wexler, and Mizner, “Iraq: How Did We Get Here?”
78.“Iraq: Investigate Violence at Protest Camp,” Human Rights Watch, January 4, 2014, http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/01/03/iraq-investigate-violence-protest-camp.
79.“2 Wounded as Iraq Protesters Are Disperesed by Security Forces,” New York Times, December 30, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/world/middleeast/2-wounded-as-iraq-protesters-dispersed.html.
80.Adam Schreck, “Rights Group: Iraq Panel Needs Help Probing Raid,” Associated Press, May 4, 2013, http://bigstory.ap.org/article/rights-group-urges-more-backing-iraq-raid-probe.
81.“Iraq: Investigate Deadly Raid on Protest,” Human Rights Watch; Martin Smith, The Rise of ISIS, video, Frontline, PBS, 2014.
82.“Iraq: Investigate Deadly Raid on Protest,” Human Rights Watch; Smith, The Rise of ISIS.
83.“Iraq: Investigate Violence at Protest Camp,” Human Rights Watch.
84.“Iraq: Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq,” Amnesty International, October 14, 2014, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE14/015/2014/en.
85.Schreck, “Rights Group: Iraqi Panel Needs Help Probing Raid.”
86.Patrick Cockburn, The Jihadis Return (New York: OR Books, 2014), 32.
87.Shashank Bengali and Nabih Bulos, “Influential Iraqi Cleric Calls for Inclusive Government,” Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2014.
CHAPTER 2. THE RISE OF ISIS
1.Turki al-Binali, “Emir of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant,” https://archive.org/stream/TheBiographyOfSheikhAbuBakrAlBaghdadi/The%20biography%20of%20Sheikh%20Abu%20Bakr%20Al-Baghdadi_djvu.txt; Cole Bunzel, “The Caliphate’s Scholar-in-Arms,” Jihadica.com, July 9, 2014, http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Articles/Detail/?id=182205.
2.Ruth Sherlock, “How Baghdadi Went from Shy Scholar to the Most Wanted Jihadist Leader,” Sunday Telegraph, July 6, 2014.
3.Ibid.
4.Ibid.
5.Aryn Baker, “Jihad’s Unholy Ghost,” Time, January 20, 2014.
6.Aaron Zelin, “Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi: Islamic State’s Driving Force,” Washington Institute, 2014.
7.Tim Arango and Eric Schmitt, “U.S. Actions in Iraq Fueled the Rise of a Rebel,” New York Times, August 10, 2014.
8.Andrew Thompson and Jeremi Suri, “How America Helped ISIS,” op-ed, New York Times, October 1, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/opinion/how-america-h
elped-isis.html?_r=0.
9.Alissa Rubin, “U.S. Remakes Jails in Iraq, but Gains Are at Risk,” New York Times, June 2, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/world/middleeast/02detain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
10.General Douglas Stone, interviews, September 9–11, 2014.
11.“A Biography of Osama Bin Laden,” Frontline, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/bio.html.
12.Declan Walsh, “Ayman al-Zawahiri: From Doctor to Osama bin Laden’s Successor,” Guardian, June 16, 2011, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/16/ayman-al-zawahiri-osama-bin-laden.
13.Anthony Shadid, “Iraqi Insurgent Group Names New Leaders,” New York Times, At War blog, May 16, 2010, http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/iraqi-insurgent-group-names-new-leaders/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0.
14.Baathism is a secular movement, originally formed to rescue Arab states from the legacy of colonialism.
15.Anthony Lloyd, “ISIS is deadly revenge of Saddam’s henchmen,” The Times of London, June 14, 2014, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/iraq/article4118901.ece1226954414468?nk=76b7d457b627e2e8644f4018c2679717; Bill Roggio, “ISIS confirms death of senior leader in Syria,” February 5, 2014, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/02/isis_confirms_death.php#ixzz3N1CN1NRb.
16.Richard Barrett, “The Islamic State,” Soufan Group, November 2014, 19.
17.Ibid.
18.Baker, “Jihad’s Unholy Ghost.”
19.Ibid.
20.Ibid.
21.Rick Gladstone, “Iraq: 1,057 Killed in July, U.N. Says,” New York Times, August 1, 2013.
22.“Rewards for Justice: Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi,” U.S. Department of State, press briefing, July 9, 2014.
23.Islamic State of Iraq, “But Allah Will Not Allow but That His Light Should Be Perfected,” audio, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, posted online July 12, 2012.
24.http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/JessVBIED_PartII_3Oct.pdf; “Over 500 ‘Al-Qaeda militants’ Escape Iraq’s Abu Ghraib in Violent Break-out,” Reuters, July 22, 2013; “David Petraeus: ISIS’s Rise in Iraq Isn’t a Surprise.”
25.“The Arab Spring,” Wikipedia, http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring, accessed December 1, 2014.
26.The Second Arab Awakening took form as “popular movements” against despotic rule; Marwan Muasher, The Second Arab Awakening (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014), 2–3, 160.
27.“Syria,” U.S. Department of State, September 8, 2010, http://www.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/syria/158703.htm.
28.“ ‘We’ve Never Seen Such Horror’: Crimes Against Humanity by Syrian Security Forces,” Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/syria0611webwcover.pdf.
29.“Syria: Crimes Against Humanity in Daraa,” Human Rights Watch, June 1, 2011, http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/06/01/syria-crimes-against-humanity-daraa.
30.“Syrian Death Toll Surpasses 1000,” Al Jazeera, May 24, 2011, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/05/2011524182251952727.html.
31.Liam Stack, “Video of Tortured Boy’s Corpse Deepens Anger in Syira,” New York Times, May 30, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/world/middleeast/31syria.html.
32.Rosemary D’Amour, “Syria Utilizes ‘Kill Switch’ as Internet Freedom Debate Heats Up,” BroadbandBreakfast.com, June 17, 2011.
33.“Syria: Political Detainees Tortured, Killed,” Human Rights Watch, October 3, 2013, http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/03/syria-political-detainees-tortured-killed.
34.“Syria: Sexual Assult in Detention,” Human Rights Watch, June 15, 2012, http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/15/syria-sexual-assault-detention.
35.Email interview with Charles Lister.
36.Charles Lister, “Profiling the Islamic State,” Brookings Doha Center Analysis Papers, November 2014, http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Reports/2014/11/profiling%20islamic%20state%20lister/en_web_lister.pdf; Aaron Zelin, “Al-Qaeda in Syria: A Closer Look at ISIS (Part 1)”, Washington Institute, September 10, 2013, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/al-qaeda-in-syria-a-closer-look-at-isis-part-i.
37.Zelin, “Al-Qaeda in Syria.”
38.Matt Levitt, Statement to the House Financial Services Committee, Terrorist Financing and the Islamic State, Hearing, November 13, 2014.
39.Charles Lister, “The ‘Real’ Jabhat al-Nusra Appears to Be Emerging,” Brookings Institution, August 7, 2014, http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2014/08/07-the-real-jabhat-al-nusra.
40.Lister, “The ‘Real’ Jabhat al-Nusra Appears to Be Emerging.”
41.Zelin, “Al-Qaeda in Syria.”
42.Aaron Zelin, “Al-Qaeda Announces an Islamic State in Syria,” Washington Institute, April 9, 2013, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/al-qaeda-announces-an-islamic-state-in-syria.
43.Bessma Atassi, “Al Qaeda Chief Annuls Syrian-Iraqi Jihad Merger,” Al Jazeera, June 9, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/2013699425657882.html.
44.“Iraqi al-Qaeda Chief Rejects Zawahiri Orders,” Al Jazeera, June 15, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/06/2013615172217827810.html.
45.Lister, “Profiling the Islamic State”; Rania Abouzeid, “Syria’s Uprising Within an Uprising,” European Council on Foreign Relations, January 16, 2014, http://www.ecfr.eu/content/entry/commentary_syrias_uprising_within_an_uprising238.
46.Zelin, “Al-Qaeda Disaffiliates with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.”
47.Aaron Lund, “Who and What Was Abu Khalid al-Suri? Part 1,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, February 24, 2014, http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=54618.
48.Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, “Apologies, Amir of al-Qaidah,” translated by Aaron Zelin, https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/shaykh-abc5ab-mue1b8a5ammad-al-e28098adnc481nc4ab-al-shc481mc4ab-22sorry-amc4abr-of-al-qc481_idah22-en1.pdf.
49.Alessandria Masi, “ISIS Youth Recruitment: Life in ISIS-Ruled Raqqa So Grim, Parents Are Giving Up Their Children,” International Business Times, November 6, 2014, http://www.ibtimes.com/isis-youth-recruitment-life-isis-ruled-raqqa-so-grim-parents-are-giving-their-1719124.
50.Charles Lister, Profiling the Islamic State (The Brookings Institution/Brookings Doha Center, 2014), 19.
51.Liz Sly, “Insurgents Seize Iraqi City of Mosul as Secruity Forces Flee,” Washington Post, June 10, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/insurgents-seize-iraqi-city-of-mosul-as-troops-flee/2014/06/10/21061e87-8fcd-4ed3-bc94-0e309af0a674_story.html.
52.Melissa Block, “In New Iraqi Conflict, ‘Sunni Awakening Stays Dormant,’” NPR, All Things Considered (radio), June 26, 2014, http://www.npr.org/2014/06/26/325909167/in-new-iraqi-conflict-sunni-awakening-stays-dormant; Mushreq Abbas, “The False ‘Awakening’ Model to Deal with ISIS in Iraq,” al-Monitor, July 3, 2014, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/iraq-separating-sunni-armed-militants-isis-difficulties.html#.
53.Phillip Smyth, “Iranian Proxies Step Up Their Role in Iraq,” Washington Institute, June 13, 2014, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/iranian-proxies-step-up-their-role-in-iraq.
54.Hassan Hassan, “More than ISIS, Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, June 17, 2014, http://carnegieendowment.org/sada/2014/06/17/more-than-isis-iraq-s-sunni-insurgency/hdvi.
55.Jacob Siegel, “With Friends Like These, ISIS Is Doomed,” Daily Beast, July 24, 2014, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/24/with-friends-like-these-isis-is-doomed.html; Mohammad Ballout, “Invasion of Mosul May Backfire on ISIS in Syria,” al-Monitor, June 13, 2014, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2014/06/iraq-fall-mosul-isis-regional-repercussions.html.
56.Liz Sly and Ahmed Ramadan, “Insurgents Seize Iraqi city of Mosul as Security Forces Free,” The Washington Post, June 10, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/insurgents-seize-iraqi-city-of-mosul-as-troops-flee/2014/06/10/21061e87-8fcd-4ed3-bc94-0e309af0a674_story.html.
57.David Zucchino,
“Why Iraqi Army Can’t Fight, Despite $25 Billion in U.S. Air, Training,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 2014, http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraq-army-20141103-story.html#page=1.
58.Ibid.
59.Ned Parker, Isabel Coles and Raheem Salman, “Special Report: How Mosul fell—An Iraqi general disputes Baghdad’s story,” Reuters, October 14, 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/14/us-mideast-crisis-gharawi-special-report-idUSKCN0I30Z820141014.
60.Jeremy Bender, “Iraqi Bankers Say ISIS Never Stole $430 Million from Mosul Banks,” Business Insider, July 17, 2014, http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-never-stole-430-million-from-banks-2014-7.
61.Patrick B. Johnston, “Countering ISIL’s Financing,” Congressional Hearing Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, November 13, 2014, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/testimonies/CT400/CT419/RAND_CT419.pdf.
62.Levitt, Statement to the House, Financial Services Committee.
63.David Cohen, “Attacking ISIL’s Financial Foundation” (remarks presented at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 23, 2014). Juan Zarate, who served in the U.S. government from 2005–2009, helped to develop laws and regulations to target sources of funding for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. See Juan Zarate, Treasury’s War (New York: Public Affairs, 2013). According to Zarate, Cohen, and Levitt, these instruments are far less useful in regard to ISIS because its main sources of funding are criminal operations, and there is less money laundering to target.
64.David Cohen, Statement to the House Financial Services Committee, Terrorist Financing and the Islamic State, Hearing, November 13, 2014.
65.Peter Bergen, “Should Western Nations Just Pay ISIS Ranson?” CNN Opinion, August 22, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/22/opinion/bergen-schneider-isis-ransom/.
66.Bill Roggio, “ISIS Takes Control of Bayji, Tikrit in Lightning Southward Advance,” Long War Journal, July 11, 2014, http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/06/isis_take_control_of_1.php; Mehmet Kemal Firik, “ISIS’s Weapon Inventory Grows,” Daly Sabah, July 3, 2014, http://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2014/07/03/isiss-weapon-inventory-grows.
67.“This Is the Promise of Allah,” Al Hayat Media Center, 2014, https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/shaykh-abc5ab-mue1b8a5ammad-al-e28098adnc481nc4ab-al-shc481mc4ab-22this-is-the-promise-of-god22-en.pdf; J. M. Berger, “Gambling on the Caliphate,” IntelWire, June 29, 2014, http://news.intelwire.com/2014/06/gambling-on-caliphate.html.
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