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Tag: Islamic State

Reuters

Archaeologists Racing Across Syria to Save Historic Artifacts from ISIS

Since the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) began establishing its Caliphate across Syria and Iraq, they have taken to destroying historic shrines and temples to prevent the practice of “idolatry.” With the surviving priceless artifacts going to fund ISIS on the black market, a group of Syrian “Monuments Men” are racing against time to save the country’s precious history.

Mohammed Elshaiky / Anadolu Agency

IPT Guest Column: Islamism IS the New Totalitarianism

In contrast to others, I confirm Radical Islam exists. Political scientists, including Muslim political scientists, know it as Islamism. Only part of Islamism expresses violence – violence frequently identified as terrorism. Much of Islamism pursues non-violent ambitions devoted to a new but entirely 20th Century totalitarianism, which is now the preeminent threat of our age. Islamism is the new totalitarianism.

REUTERS/LUCAS JACKSON

When Winning Is the Only Thing

It was Vince Lombardi who famously intoned that “winning is not everything, it’s the only thing.” And he was just talking about football! Of course, more and more all the time we learn of the excesses that have accompanied that kind of zealotry in the world of sports, and even the great Lombardi is known to have been pretty cagey with the rules on occasion in pursuit of “the only thing,” but it’s not football that’s on my mind today, it’s war.

John Cantlie Halab

Hostage John Cantlie Calls His New ISIS Video ‘Last in This Series’

For the tenth time since taking him hostage, the Islamic State (ISIS) has paraded British journalist John Cantlie as the “host” of one of its propaganda videos, this time giving a guided tour of the contested Syrian city of Aleppo, which ISIS seeks to portray as functional and productive under its control.

AFP/Getty Images

‘Imminent’ Terrorist Attack Thwarted in Sydney, Australia

The people of Sydney, Australia, dodged a bullet–or, more accurately, a machete and a hunting knife–on Tuesday, as the authorities moved against a pair of alleged Islamist terrorists on the very day they reportedly planned to carry out an assault on police officers, according to the UK Daily Mail.

AFP

Former UN Chief Kofi Annan Blames US for Rise of ISIS

Kofi Annan, who served as secretary-general of the United Nations when the group overwhelmingly supported the 2003 U.S. war in Iraq, claimed at the Munich Security Conference that the United States is to blame for the creation of the Islamic State (ISIS).

@CyberCaliphate (via Twitter)

ISIS Supporters Hack Newsweek Twitter Account, Post Threats to Obama Family

ISIS has been catching hell from hackers, especially after the slaughter of Charlie Hebdo magazine staffers in Paris, but the Islamic State has not been without its own cyber-war victories. On Tuesday, as the Washington Examiner reports, hackers claiming to work for the Islamic State managed to gain control of the Twitter account for Newsweek, using it to post enemy propaganda, documents ostensibly stolen from the U.S. military, threats of further “cyber jihad,” and even a blood-curdling threat against the Obama family.