Another American military official who analyzes ISIS said that under the pressure of airstrikes and internal strife, members with titles like emir and wali now gain rank through attrition, not design. “We watch the deck shuffle constantly, as they attempt to determine who will fit a role that has been vacated,” he said, “vacated” being a euphemism for “killed.”
Whatever Mr. Aboud’s eventual fate, his relative said, much of the legacy was already known. The recording of Mr. Aboud singing ”” coolly in tune as he described killing old friends ”” was a marker of a man lost to crime, a revolution soured and a people betrayed.
“His violence, his assassinations, his killing people ”” he is really behind this,” he said. “It is a mess now. Everything we have is a mess.”
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(NYT) C J Chivers–Behind the Black Flag: The Recruitment of an ISIS Killer
Another American military official who analyzes ISIS said that under the pressure of airstrikes and internal strife, members with titles like emir and wali now gain rank through attrition, not design. “We watch the deck shuffle constantly, as they attempt to determine who will fit a role that has been vacated,” he said, “vacated” being a euphemism for “killed.”
Whatever Mr. Aboud’s eventual fate, his relative said, much of the legacy was already known. The recording of Mr. Aboud singing ”” coolly in tune as he described killing old friends ”” was a marker of a man lost to crime, a revolution soured and a people betrayed.
“His violence, his assassinations, his killing people ”” he is really behind this,” he said. “It is a mess now. Everything we have is a mess.”
Read it all.