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The secret to ISIS's success: Over 100 former Saddam Hussein-era officers run jihadi group's
AP via Daily Mail ^ | 08/08/2015 | TOM WYKE

Posted on 08/10/2015 4:21:14 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen

Once part of one of the most brutal dictator's army in the Middle East, over 100 former members of Saddam Hussein's military and intelligence officers are now part of ISIS. Now they make up the complex network of ISIS's leadership, helping to build the military strategies which have led the brutal jihadi group to their military gains in Syria and Iraq. The officers gave ISIS the organization and discipline it needed to weld together jihadi fighters drawn from across the globe, integrating terror tactics like suicide bombings with military operation

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
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Full title:
The secret to ISIS's success: Over 100 former Saddam Hussein-era officers run jihadi group's military and intelligence operations in Iraq and Syria.

I listened to a water cooler discussion on this topic.
Guess who the liberals blame?
Guess who the liberals support for president?
Guess if the liberals support the Iran nuke deal?

Can anyone tell me if this topic was addressed at last week's debate?
1 posted on 08/10/2015 4:21:14 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
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To: Kid Shelleen

Bump for reference on how to REALLY stick it to someone.


2 posted on 08/10/2015 4:22:50 PM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

One thing you have to admit about Saddam: he seemed to know how to run a country in which different Islamic sects live in proximity.

An awful thing to say, but true.


3 posted on 08/10/2015 4:24:30 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Kid Shelleen

First, I did not read the whole article.

Second, it has been written about multiple times that many of the ISIS commanders have been fighting the US military since 2002 (some were even trained by the US military)....that type of experience is priceless. ISIS knows our tactics, our methods and our weaknesses.

These guys will never be easy to defeat until we reinvent ourselves. With Obama’s commitment to the military, that is not going to happen anytime soon.


4 posted on 08/10/2015 4:36:17 PM PDT by Erik Latranyi (Walker -- more conservative actions as governor than even Ronald Reagan!)
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To: Kid Shelleen

The AP is still pushing the “Bush’s fault” line.


5 posted on 08/10/2015 4:53:54 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Kid Shelleen

Time to break out and update the deck of 52!


6 posted on 08/10/2015 4:54:17 PM PDT by Bobby_Taxpayer
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To: Steely Tom
"One thing you have to admit about Saddam: he seemed to know how to run a country in which different Islamic sects live in proximity."

Yeah, that's what dictator's do - keep order by terrorizing the populace and denying basic civil liberties. It's always disappointing to see Freepers defend that sort of thing.
7 posted on 08/10/2015 4:55:45 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Steve_Seattle
It's always disappointing to see Freepers defend that sort of thing.

I didn't defend it, I simply made an observation about Islam and the societies that develop where it dominates.

8 posted on 08/10/2015 4:57:17 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Steve_Seattle

Some folks are not ready for self rule. For most of Iraq “democracy” means “If we win, it is our turn to loot.” And you are not going to teach them differently.

In the end, we should not worry about what might be good for the Iraqis, but what would is good for the USA. And, frankly, Hussein was better for the USA than what exists in Iraq now.


9 posted on 08/10/2015 5:03:14 PM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Steely Tom

I get it now, ISIS (or Dash) is really the revenge of saddam Hussein. They want to get back at Bush and the Americans who brought down the tyrant. In retrospect it was a mistake to invade Iraq—hindsite is 20-20. Still we must punish IS with more than bombs.


10 posted on 08/10/2015 5:07:25 PM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: Steve_Seattle; All

The whole Middle East was much more stable before the Obama Presidency. So much of this is a direct result of Barak’s “Arab Spring”.


11 posted on 08/10/2015 5:08:03 PM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain
The whole Middle East was much more stable before the Obama Presidency.

Obama is a "community organizer," which is a person who destabilizes things.

He thinks that it's good to destabilize things. He's been taught from birth that communities that are stable are bad, unjust, oppressive.

Things are less stable much closer to home than the Middle East.

12 posted on 08/10/2015 5:11:29 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Erik Latranyi

ISIS did not get rolling until Obama, against all advice, cut and ran from a nigh stable Iraq. ISIS also could have been squashed two years ago if, again, Obama had heeded sensible advice. This is almost all on Obama (and his Secretary of State, whomever she may have been).

He is still asleep at the switch ...


13 posted on 08/10/2015 5:14:27 PM PDT by dodger
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Whatever it takes to protect the Won’s pathetic legacy.


14 posted on 08/10/2015 6:13:42 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

ISIS was formerly Zarqawi’s group Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad a/k/a “Unity and Jihad” or al Tawhid - one of the plots Zarqawi’s mostly Palestinian group was noted for even before the US invasion of Iraq in early 2003 was the 1999 Millennium plot, a plot to simultaneously bomb the international airport in Los Angeles and targets in Jordan, including a popular hotel.
Another was their successful assassination of USAID’s Laurence Foley in Jordan in 2002 by his northern Iraq cell. They also were being used by Saddam to assassinate Kurdish leaders before 9/11 in an apparent effort to eliminate Kurds who would work with any US invasion force, much as one of al Qaeda’s European cells assassinated Afghan leader Ahmed Massood on Sept 9, 2001 to deny us an ally for our counterattack.

Zarqawi’s Baghdad cell in 2002 was happily settled in Sadam’s capital and for reasons I don’t know they murdered a Chaldean nun there by beheading her. This was before ANO leader Abu Nidal’s death in Baghdad, where he allegedly “shot himself in the head” several times.


15 posted on 08/10/2015 8:50:29 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: piasa
Zarqawi & Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad were what then Sec of State Colin Powell referred to in his speech on justification for regime change at the UN where he referred to terrorist cells operating in Iraq, comments which were immediately noted by the anti-regime change crowd who explained away the presence of the terror cells as being in northern Iraq where they insisted Saddam could not help them being there because of the no fly zone. They and the press ignored Powell's reference to the cell operating in Baghdad under Saddam's nose and the belief that Zarqawi operated without Saddam's knowledge was allowed to become "conventional wisdom." The conventional wisdom was also that Saddam and Zarqawi couldn't work together because "Saddam was secular."

But Zarqawis group merged with Mullah Krekar's group and Krekar's group did have ranking members who were known to be Iraqi intelligence. Krekar's group also had at least one European cell, a cell in Italy that funneled recruits from Europe through Syria and into Iraq.

Even though Zarqawi ran a training camp that shared personnel with an al Qaeda training camp in the same vicinity in Afghanistan, Zarqawi had not openly sworn an oath of obedience to bin Laden. This "technicality" was glommed onto by the antiwar Democrats and press to insist that these terrorist cells in Iraq were not al Qaeda because he hadn't sworn the oath [as far as our intel knew] and were therefore not at fault for 9/11 and should be off limits to US retaliation for 9/11.

Zarqawi did eventually swear the oath to bin Laden, formalizing his group as a member of al Qaeda. His group also merged with Iraqi general al Dhouri's group of Baathist officials and intelligence personnel and became al Qaeda-in-Iraq. After Saddam's death al Dhouri swore the loyalty oath to Zarqawi before Zarqawi was killed by the US.

Al Qaeda in Iraq [AQII] later became ISIS, then ISIL.

16 posted on 08/10/2015 9:14:17 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Kid Shelleen

I’m guessing the liberals are blaming Bush 43.

I, however, blame Colin Powell who convinced Bush 41 to pull out of Iraq.

Stormin’ Norman had all of the armor, air cover and troops poised to finish the job in Iraq, but Powell got #41 to stop.

#43 inherited the problem of Iraq because his dad listened to that a-hole Powell.


17 posted on 08/11/2015 1:17:42 AM PDT by octex
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