‘Chilling Effect’ of Mass Surveillance Is Silencing Dissent Online, Study Says
Posted: March 21, 2016 Filed under: Censorship, Mediasphere, Think Tank | Tags: Apple Inc, Apple iPhone 5C, Bill Gates, Central Intelligence Agency, Edward Snowden, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal government of the United States, iPhone, Islamic State of Iraq, National Security Agency, United States Leave a commentA new study shows people may be censoring themselves without realizing it.
Nafeez Ahmed reports: Thanks largely to whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013, most Americans now realize that the intelligence community monitors and archives all sorts of online behaviors of both foreign nationals and US citizens.
But did you know that the very fact that you know this could have subliminally stopped you from speaking out online on issues you care about?
“What this research shows is that in the presence of surveillance, our country’s most vulnerable voices are unwilling to express their beliefs online.”
Now research suggests that widespread awareness of such mass surveillance could undermine democracy by making citizens fearful of voicing dissenting opinions in public.
A paper published last week in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, the flagship peer-reviewed journal of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), found that “the government’s online surveillance programs may threaten the disclosure of minority views and contribute to the reinforcement of majority opinion.”
The NSA’s “ability to surreptitiously monitor the online activities of US citizens may make online opinion climates especially chilly” and “can contribute to the silencing of minority views that provide the bedrock of democratic discourse,” the researcher found.
The paper is based on responses to an online questionnaire from a random sample of 255 people, selected to mimic basic demographic distributions across the US population.
[Read the full story here, at Motherboard]
Participants were asked to answer questions relating to media use, political attitudes, and personality traits. Different subsets of the sample were exposed to different messaging on US government surveillance to test their responses to the same fictional Facebook post about the US decision to continue airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
They were then asked about their willingness to express their opinions about this publicly—including how they would respond on Facebook to the post; how strongly they personally supported or opposed continued airstrikes; their perceptions of the views of other Americans; and whether they supported or opposed online surveillance. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] After Seizing Ancient City of Palmyra, ISIS Now Controls Over Half of Syria
Posted: May 21, 2015 Filed under: Global, War Room | Tags: Agence France-Presse, Archaeological site, Council of Ministers (Syria), Iraq, Islamic state, Islamic State of Iraq, Palmyra, Syria, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Tadmur, World Heritage Site 1 CommentIslamic State now controls more than half of Syria after the extremist militia seized the historic city of Palmyra, a monitoring group said on Thursday.
Russia is ready to supply weapons to Iraq, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday, as the country struggles to halt advances by Islamic State militants.
Speaking ahead of talks in Moscow between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, Lavrov told reporters Moscow would make every effort to help the Baghdad government push back the militants.

Hundreds of artefacts from Palmyra have been taken to Damascus, Syrian authorities say
“The jihadists on Wednesday fully seized Palmyra, home to ancient ruins listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.”
Islamic State insurgents overran the Iraqi city of Ramadi last weekend in the most significant setback for the Baghdad government in a year, exposing the weakness of Iraq’s army and the limitations of U.S. air strikes. On Thursday the group seized full control of Palmyra in neighboring Syria.
Australia plans to strip citizenship from Australian-born children of immigrants who become Islamic State fighters in its crackdown on homegrown jihadis.
“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State rules around 95,000 square kilometres, or more than 50 per cent of Syria’s total geographic area.”
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told Sydney Radio 2GB on Thursday that his government wants to change the Citizenship Act to make fighting for the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq a reason for losing citizenship,.He says the government also wants to adopt the British legal model by revoking the citizenship of extremists who are Australian-born children of immigrants or an immigrant, forcing them to take up citizenship in the birth country of their parents, or parent.

Palmyra rose to prominence under the Romans but its rulers later created a rival empire of their own
Islamic State now controls more than half of Syria after the extremist militia seized the historic city of Palmyra, a monitoring group said on Thursday.
The jihadists on Wednesday fully seized Palmyra, home to ancient ruins listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. Read the rest of this entry »
Kansas Man Arrested for Pledging Loyalty to ISIS; Allegedly Plotted to Detonate a Car Bomb
Posted: April 10, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, War Room | Tags: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Council on American–Islamic Relations, Islam, Islamic Circle of North America, Islamic Society of North America, Islamic State of Iraq, New York City, Osama bin Laden, Queens, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York Leave a commentA Kansas man was arrested Friday for allegedly planning to detonate a bomb at a U.S. army base and pledging loyalty to the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).
John T. Booker, a 20-year old U.S. Citizen from Topeka, was allegedly planning a suicide attack on the Fort Riley army base in Kansas in an attempt to provide material support to ISIS, the local CBS affiliate originally reported. The criminal complaint alleges that Booker, who also goes by the name “Mohammed Abdullah Hassan,” posted to Facebook “I will soon be leaving you forever so goodbye! I’m going to wage jihad and hopes that i die” before planning to detonate a car bomb at Fort Riley. Read the rest of this entry »
Teen Arrested at O’Hare, Wanted to Join ISIS
Posted: October 6, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: ABC News, Illinois, Iraq, ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq, Istanbul, Middle East, Syria, Vienna 1 CommentThe suspect, who appeared in court today, planned to slip through the porous Turkish border to Syria or on to Iraq
An Illinois teenager was arrested Saturday at a major airport as authorities say he was attempting to travel to the Middle East to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
UPDATE: From CNN: The search at Khan’s Bolingbrook, Illinois, home, where he lives with his parents, turned up documents allegedly written by Khan that stated his intentions.
“We are all witness that the Western societies are getting more immoral day by day. I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this.”
— Khan in the letter, according to the complaint.
Mohammed Hamzah Khan, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen from Bolingbrook, appeared in court today to face charges for allegedly attempting to provide material support for a terrorist organization. If convicted, Khan could face up to 15 years in prison. Read the rest of this entry »
Wake Up and Smell The Daesh: France is Rejecting the ‘Islamic State’ Name, Replacing it with a Label the Beheadng Bastards Hate
Posted: September 18, 2014 Filed under: Global, Religion, War Room | Tags: Arab, Associated Press, Beheading, Daesh, Iraq, Islam, Islamic state, Islamic State of Iraq, Laurent Fabius, Middle East 1 CommentThe Washington Post uses DAIISH, but DAASH, DAIISH and DAISH are also used. However it’s spelled, the group hates it.
“This is a terrorist group and not a state. I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims and Islamists. The Arabs call it ‘Daesh’ and I will be calling them the ‘Daesh cutthroats.’ ”
— Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
From the start, exactly what to call the extremist Islamist group that has taken over much of Syria and Iraq has been problematic. At first, many called it the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). However, due to differences over how the name should be translated from the Arabic, some (including the U.S. government) referred to them as ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).
“The Associated Press recently reported that the group were threatening to cut cut out the tongues of anyone who used the phrase publicly, and AFP have noted that the term “Daeshi” has been used a derogatory term in some parts of the Middle East.”
To make matters more complicated, the group later announced that it should simply be called the “Islamic State” – a reference to the idea that the group was breaking down state borders to form a new caliphate. A number of media groups, including The Post, the Associated Press and, eventually, the New York Times, adopted this name, while others stuck with ISIS and ISIL.
“‘Daeshi’ has been used a derogatory term in some parts of the Middle East. Some analysts have suggested that the dislike of the term comes from its similarity to another Arabic word, دعس, or Das. That word means to trample down or crush.”
Now the French have added another complication. On Monday, the French government released a statement that included a reference to the group under a different name: “Daesh.”
France had hinted that it would begin using this term – how the group is referred to in much of the Arab world – before, but this week appears to be the first time that the country has used it in official communications. Read the rest of this entry »
ISIS Plans to Weaponize Bubonic Plague for Bio-Warfare Found on Jihadist’s Crappy Dell
Posted: August 29, 2014 Filed under: Global, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: Biological warfare, Dell, Foreign Policy, Global Panic of 2014, Idlib, ISIS, Islamic state, Islamic State of Iraq, Syria, Turkey Leave a commentBuried in a Dell computer captured in Syria are lessons for making bubonic plague bombs and missives on using weapons of mass destruction
Harald Doornbos and Jenan Moussa reporting, for Foreign Policy, ANTAKYA, Turkey — Abu Ali, a commander of a moderate Syrian rebel group in northern Syria, proudly shows a black laptop partly covered in dust. “We took it this year from an ISIS hideout,” he says.
“The ISIS laptop contains more than the typical propaganda and instruction manuals used by jihadists. The documents also suggest that the laptop’s owner was teaching himself about the use of biological weaponry.”
Abu Ali says the fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which have since rebranded themselves as the Islamic State, all fled before he and his men attacked the building. The attack occurred in January in a village in the Syrian province of Idlib, close to the border with Turkey, as part of a larger anti-ISIS offensive occurring at the time. “We found the laptop and the power cord in a room,” he continued, “I took it with me. But I have no clue if it still works or if it contains anything interesting.”
As we switched on the Dell laptop, it indeed still worked. Nor was it password-protected. But then came a huge disappointment: After we clicked on “My Computer,” all the drives appeared empty.
Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Upon closer inspection, the ISIS laptop wasn’t empty at all: Buried in the “hidden files” section of the computer were 146 gigabytes of material, containing a total of 35,347 files in 2,367 folders. Abu Ali allowed us to copy all these files — which included documents in French, English, and Arabic — onto an external hard drive.

A screenshot of material found on the computer. The files appear to be videos of speeches by jihadist clerics. (Click to enlarge.)
The laptop’s contents turn out to be a treasure trove of documents that provide ideological justifications for jihadi organizations — and practical training on how to carry out the Islamic State’s deadly campaigns. They include videos of Osama bin Laden, manuals on how to make bombs, instructions for stealing cars, and lessons on how to use disguises in order to avoid getting arrested while traveling from one jihadi hot spot to another.
Judicial Watch: Imminent Terrorist Attack Warning By Feds on U.S. Border
Posted: August 29, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Think Tank, U.S. News, War Room | Tags: al Qaeda, Iraq, ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq, Judicial Watch, Obama, United States, United States Border Patrol 1 CommentIslamic terrorist groups are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued. Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice
and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat.
Specifically, Judicial Watch sources reveal that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is confirmed to now be operating in Juarez, a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Violent crimes are so rampant in Juarez that the U.S. State Department has issued a number of travel warnings for anyone planning to go there. The last one was issued just a few days ago. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] U.S. Works to Authenticate Purported James Wright Foley ISIS Execution Video
Posted: August 19, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Foley, Iraq, Islamic state, Islamic State of Iraq, Islamism, James Foley, Jihadists, Syria 3 Commentsfoxnews.com reports: The Obama administration said Tuesday that it was working to confirm the authenticity of a newly-released video that purportedly shows the killing of American freelance journalist James Foley by Islamic State militants.
“We know that many of you are looking for confirmation or answers. Please be patient until we all have more information, and keep the Foleys in your thoughts and prayers.”
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the administration has seen the video. She said that if it’s deemed genuine by the intelligence community, the U.S. would be “appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist.”
Fox News has learned that the video, which is being taken seriously by U.S. officials, is being analyzed by a special group within the US intelligence community that specializes in media exploitation. The group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is believed to have other Americans in their custody.
The release of the video allegedly showing his death comes amid a U.S. airstrike campaign against Islamic State targets in Iraq. ISIS has declared an Islamic state in the territory it controls in Iraq and neighboring Syria, imposing its harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Read the rest of this entry »
Kirsten Powers on Iraqi Christian Nightmare: ‘Thanks to ISIS Persecution, Mosul is Without Christians for the First Time in 2,000 Years’
Posted: July 30, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Global, History, War Room | Tags: Christian, Iraq, ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq, Kirsten Powers, Mosul, Nina Shea, USA TODAY 1 CommentIraq’s Christians are begging the world for help. Is anybody listening?
For USA Today, Kirsten Powers writes: Since capturing the country’s second largest city of Mosul in early June, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has ordered Christians to convert to Islam, pay jizyataxes levied on non-Muslims, or die. The extremist Sunni group is also persecuting and murdering Turkmen and Shabaks, both Muslim religious minorities.
“This is a crime against humanity.”
Human rights lawyer Nina Shea described the horror in Mosul to me: “(ISIS) took the Christians’ houses, took the cars they were driving to leave. They took all their money. One old woman had her life savings of $40,000, and she said, ‘Can I please have 100 dollars?’, and they said no. They took wedding rings off fingers, chopping off fingers if they couldn’t get the ring off.”
“There is nothing to go back to even if ISIS left“
“We now have 5,000 destitute, homeless people with no future,” Shea said. “This is a crime against humanity.”
For the first time in 2,000 years, Mosul is devoid of Christians. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Battle for Iraq’s Beiji Oil Refinery Continues
Posted: June 19, 2014 Filed under: Global, Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq, Matt Bradley, Nouri al-Maliki, Oil refinery, Sunni, Sunni Islam Leave a commentGovernment security forces fought to regain control of Iraq’s largest oil refinery in a decisive test of Baghdad’s ability to protect an economic pillar from Sunni Muslim insurgents. Matt Bradley reports.
The Massacre Strategy: Why ISIS brags about its brutal sectarian murders
Posted: June 17, 2014 Filed under: Global, War Room | Tags: Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq, Middle East, Nouri al-Maliki, Shia Islam, Syria, Tikrit, Twitter 1 CommentThe Massacre Strategy: Why ISIS brags about its brutal sectarian murders http://t.co/vwH4nKg2jT via @POLITICOMag pic.twitter.com/5bX8g1mnQz
— POLITICO (@politico) June 18, 2014
Iraqi Soldiers, Police Drop Weapons, Flee Posts in Mosul
Posted: June 10, 2014 Filed under: Global, War Room | Tags: al Qaeda, Iraq, Iraqi Army, Iraqi security forces, Islamic State of Iraq, Mosul, Nouri al-Maliki 1 Comment
ARBIL, IRAQ – JUNE 9: Thousand of people run away from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok due to the clashes between security forces and militants of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Arbil, Iraq on June 9, 2014. (Photo by Emrah Yorulmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
For CNN, Chelsea J. Carter, Salma Abdelaziz and Mohammed Tawfeeq report: As security forces ran out, militants overran Iraq’s second-largest city on Tuesday — a stunning collapse that heightened questions about Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki‘s ability to hold onto not only Mosul, but his entire country.
Militants seized Mosul’s airport, TV stations, the governor’s office and other parts, if not all, of the northern Iraqi city.
“I only … saw armed people, but not Iraqi military,” said resident Firas al-Maslawi of his drive through Mosul on Tuesday. “There was no presence of any government forces on the streets, the majority of their posts destroyed and manned by (Islamist militants).”
Other witnesses painted similar scenes, of buildings and boulevards manned not by Iraqi soldiers or police but rather by men they say the extremist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an al Qaeda splinter group also known by its acronym ISIS.
Mosul wasn’t the only place in the country beset by violence Tuesday, including some focused closer to the capital of Baghdad. Still, what’s happening in this northern Iraqi city is the most serious, given its size, the bloodshed’s scope and the brewing humanitarian situation tied to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Radical Islamists with Hammers vs. Ancient Syrian Artifacts: Islamists with Hammers Win
Posted: May 22, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, War Room | Tags: Assyria, Buddhas of Bamiyan, Gaston Maspero, Iraq, ISIL, Islamic State of Iraq, Levant, Syria, Tel Aviv University, Times Of Israel 3 CommentsIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters smash 3,000-year-old Assyrian statue in latest act of cultural genocide
For The Times of Israel, Ilan Ben Zion reports: Fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a radical militia that controls a large swath of eastern Syria, confiscated and destroyed illegally excavated antiquities from an ancient Mesopotamian site.
In an act of cultural genocide strikingly similar to the Taliban’s demolition of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001, the ISIL fighters appear – in pictures recently uploaded by a group working to protect Syria’s rich historical heritage — to smash a 3,000-year-old Neo-Assyrian statue illegally removed from a nearby archaeological site. Another image shows a man placing his foot — an act of disrespect in Arab culture — on the face of the Assyrian statue before its destruction.

Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant stand in front of an Assyrian statue before destroying it (photo courtesy of APSA/Abou Mouseb)
Last month, the Syrian antiquities authority said in a statement that it had received notice that artifacts that “appear to be the result of an unauthorized digging” had been plundered from Tell Ajaja, the ruins of the Assyrian provincial capital Shadikanni on the Khabur River, a tributary of the Euphrates.
At least one of the items photographed and published by the Association for the Preservation of Syrian Archaeology appeared among those recently confiscated by ISIL.

A member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant desecrates an Assyrian statue by putting his foot on its face before it’s smashed (photo courtesy of APSA/Abou Mouseb)
The pictures, taken in Syria’s far eastern Hasakeh Province, were also said to be of artifacts removed from Tell Ajaja. The site lies approximately 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the modern provincial capital of Hasakeh and 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Iraqi border.
Syrian Jihadists Are Forcing Christians to Become Dhimmis Under Seventh-Century Rules
Posted: February 28, 2014 Filed under: Global, History, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: Al-Raqqah, Christian, Iraq, Islam, Islamic State of Iraq, Nina Shea, Raqqa, Syria 1 CommentNina Shea, co-author of Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians, and director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom has an item in The Corner about religious persecution in Syria that caught my eye, go here for the full story. Here’s a preview:
Shea writes:
The religious persecution in Syria deepened this week, as evidenced by a written ultimatum purportedly distributed by the rebel jihadist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) to Christians in the northern provincial capital of Raqqa. Rejecting conversion to Islam or death, some 20 Christian leaders of that city held firm in their faith and submitted to the Islamists’ demands to live by as dhimmis.
Under this arrangement, in exchange for their lives and the ability to worship as Christians, they must abide by purported seventh-century rules of the Caliph Umar. According to the Raqqa ultimatum, these include bans on renovating and rebuilding churches and monasteries, many of which need repair because they’ve been shelled and blown up over the past three years, and bans against the public display of crosses and Christian symbols and the ringing of bells. They are forbidden from reading scripture indoors loud enough for Muslims outside to hear, and the practice of their faith must be confined within the walls of their remaining churches, not exercised publicly (at, for example, funeral or wedding processions).
They are prohibited from saying anything offensive about Muslims or Islam. The women must be enshrouded, and alcohol is banned.
Beheading Error: The familiar Islamist rebel campaign slogan “If you like your head, you can keep your head” promise broken
Posted: November 16, 2013 Filed under: Global, War Room | Tags: Ahrar al-Sham, al Qaeda, Aleppo, Allah, Bashar al-Assad, Islamic State of Iraq, Sunni Islam, Syria 1 CommentAn ‘incorrect promise’, says the New York Times

“Mistakes can happen while waging jihad. That’s on us. We fumbled.”
Steven Emerson reports: Members of the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham appear in a new online video apologizing for beheading a man they thought was fighting for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
It turns out the dead man was part of a Sunni rebel group fighting Assad’s forces. The dead man’s head was held up in a triumphant display in Aleppo.
Syria’s Rebels Turn on Each Other (Like That’s a Bad Thing)
Posted: September 16, 2013 Filed under: Global, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: al Qaeda, Aleppo, Bashar al-Assad, Free Syrian Army, Islamic State of Iraq, Syria 2 Comments
Molhem Barakat / Reuters
Aryn Baker writes: Ongoing clashes between rival groups within the armed opposition intensified in Syria’s Aleppo province this past week following protests against the heavy-handed tactics of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Infighting among rebels could spell trouble for an opposition movement seemingly on the wane, but it could also present an opportunity. If the moderate-leaning rebel groups can sever their symbiotic relationship with their al-Qaeda affiliates for good, they stand to get significantly more support from Western backers wary of inadvertently assisting old enemies. But it won’t be easy — even as the rivals battle for turf in Aleppo province, they have united to inflict a resounding defeat on government forces elsewhere in the country. Read the rest of this entry »