First Western Journalist to Embed with ISIS: Group ‘Much Stronger and More Dangerous’ Than Thought

The Islamic State (IS/ISIS/ISIL) granted approval to a German journalist to live side by side with the jihadist outfit for ten days. He is the first known Western journalist to have been given access to the Islamic State without being executed. He warned that Western perceptions of ISIS are off-base because they are “much stronger and much more dangerous” than we are led to believe, according to Germany’s DW news English translation.

German journalist Jurgen Todenhofer traveled to the ISIS-stronghold city of Mosul, Iraq, accompanied by his cameraman son, who was allowed to film interviews with a number of jihadis.

He revealed that support for ISIS is “an almost ecstatic enthusiasm that I have never encountered in any other war zone,” reverberating Breitbart’s reporting that Sunni-backed resistance to ISIS remains rare.

Todenhofer said that on a daily basis, hundreds of ISIS recruits come to the Middle East from around the world to join the jihad. He warned that ISIS was now plotting “the biggest religious cleansing in history.”

He was very much aware of the fate suffered by American journalist James Foley, whom the Islamic State beheaded several months ago. “Of course, I have seen the terrible, brutal video and it was one of my main concerns during the negotiations as to how I can avoid [the same end],” stated Todenhofer. He said that he slept alongside the ISIS militants in makeshift military installations created from “the shells of bombed-out houses.”

The German journalist then blamed George W. Bush for ISIS’s existence. “Without George W. Bush’s Iraq war, there would be no IS,” he claimed.

He asserted that the U.S. air campaign was not having an effect. For the U.S. to take out ISIS in Mosul, “they would have to reduce the whole of Mosul to ashes,” he claimed. Todenhofer added, “With every bomb that is dropped and hits a civilian the number of terrorists increases.”

The U.S.-led air strikes continued into Monday, however, with 12 strikes on ISIS in Syria and another 10 in Iraq directed towards the radical Islamist outfit.