"Protection or Plunder?"

A U.S. journalist Took Thousands of ISIS Files Out of Iraq, Reigniting a Bitter Dispute Over the Theft of Iraqi History

"Prosecuting ISIS crimes against women and LGBTIQ people would set a crucial precedent" - Lisa Davis

A potentially precedent-setting petition at the International Criminal Court could help human rights advocates and survivors of gender-based crimes in conflict.

"The Age of Blowback Terror" - Brahma Chellaney

World powers have often been known to intervene, overtly and covertly, to overthrow other countries’ governments, install pliant regimes, and then prop up those regimes, even with military action. But, more often than not, what seems like a good idea in the short term often brings about disastrous unintended consequences, with intervention causing countries to dissolve into conflict, and intervening powers emerging as targets of violence. That sequence is starkly apparent today, as countries that have meddled in the Middle East face a surge in terrorist attacks.

"Wasta Rule" - Mohanad Hage Ali

The Islamic State’s governing system in Syria looks a great deal like that of the Assad regime.

"The battle for Mosul is not just coalition (good) v Isis (bad)" - Jonathan Shaw

The reality is more complex than many assume. Without a peace plan and counter-narrative that involves all the peoples of Iraq, victory will be partial and short-lived

"AFTER NICE, DON’T GIVE ISIS WHAT IT’S ASKING FOR" - Murtaza Hussain

... ISIS’s model for terrorism relies on the weaponization of individuals such as Bouhlel; the group calls on the young, angry, and purposeless around the world to lash out at those around them in its name. In this way, the power of desperate insurgents is magnified through a combination of social media and propaganda of the deed. An influential text used by the group, titled The Management of Savagery, prescribes terrorist attacks as a means of “inflam[ing] opposition,” to drag ordinary people into conflict whether “willing or unwilling, such that each individual will go to the side which he supports.”...

"Why ISIS Persists" - Jeffrey D. Sachs

Deadly terrorist attacks in Istanbul, Dhaka, and Baghdad demonstrate the murderous reach of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. The longer ISIS maintains its strongholds in Syria and Iraq, the longer its terrorist network will create such carnage. Yet ISIS is not especially difficult to defeat. The problem is that none of the states involved in Iraq and Syria, including the United States and its allies, has so far treated ISIS as its primary foe. It’s time they do.

"ISIS Anti-Gay Jihad Long Overlooked" - Evan Gahr

Thought puzzle for liberals: Does calling ISIS “homophobic” qualify as “Islamophobia?”

"ISIS’s Persecution of the Gay Community"

In early May 2016, an ISIS court charged a young Syrian man with the crime of sodomy. In front of a crowd numbering in the hundreds in Manbij, Syria, ISIS fighters threw the young man from the top of a building as punishment for his “crime.” This is but one case of how ISIS exploits pre-existing religious and social biases against homosexuality among the populations under its control to justify its persecution of gays. 

"Comment sortir de la haine : grand entretien avec Jacques Rancière"

Le philosophe Jacques Rancière revient sur les causes des dérives identitaires de type religieux que connaît la France. Une catastrophe qui doit être combattue par la politique. Entretien.

"Putin is No Ally Against ISIS" - George Soros (Parece-me que este tipo tem alguma razão)

The leaders of the United States and the European Union are making a grievous error in thinking that President Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a potential ally in the fight against the Islamic State. The evidence contradicts them. Putin’s current aim is to foster the EU’s disintegration, and the best way to do so is to flood the EU with Syrian refugees.

"How to eradicate ISIS" - HUSSAIN ABDUL-HUSSAIN

President Obama is right. Sending troops in after terrorists is not a sustainable strategy. The superior American military can sweep terrorist territory, but cannot hold it indefinitely. Lessons from the War on Terror teach us that fighting terrorist groups is like playing Whac-a-Mole.

"ISIS’s strategy of terror"

"Der Spiegel" investigative journalist Christoph Reuter is probably known to the English-speaking readership for his recent story on coming into possession of ISIS’s initial planning documents. However, this story is only part of his lengthy investigative work in Syria and Iraq, which has resulted in many reports and a new book, published in April this year.

O Estado da Loucura - "The Isis papers: a masterplan for consolidating power"

O The Guardian traduziu um documento de 24 páginas que representa as principais ideias de governo e a estratégia para a viabilização de um estado islâmico. Assustador é o que se pode dizer.

"Terrorismo verbal"

O presidente dos Estados Unidos da América aconselha o presidente da Rússia a “focar-se” nos ataques ao Estado Islâmico, ou ISIS, ou Daesh, ou Al-Nusra ou Al-Qaida; o primeiro ministro de Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, propôs que haja uma frente internacional contra o terrorismo. Disseram-no com ar de grandes estadistas possuidores das soluções para os males do mundo.

"In war"

In this nomadic, undefined, polymorphous, and unsymmetrical war, the populations on 'both shores' of the Mediterranean are taken hostage. And Europe has a nearly irreplaceable function.

"Assad devra choisir : sauver Damas ou sauver Alep ?"

Les prises de Jisr el-Choughour, d'Idleb et de Palmyre par les groupes armés ont entraîné un affaiblissement significatif du régime de Damas. La perte de contrôle de plus des 2/3 du territoire par les forces loyalistes a relancé les rumeurs sur la chute irrémédiable du régime de Bachar el-Assad, réélu il y a un an jour pour jour à la tête de la Syrie. Qu'en est-il réellement sur le terrain ?

"What Should We Do if the Islamic State Wins?"

It’s time to ponder a troubling possibility: What should we do if the Islamic State wins? By “wins,” I don’t mean it spreads like wildfire throughout the Muslim world, eventually establishing a caliphate from Baghdad to Rabat and beyond. That’s what its leaders say they are going to do, but revolutionary ambitions are not reality and that possibility is particularly far-fetched. Rather, an Islamic State victory would mean that the group retained power in the areas it now controls and successfully defied outside efforts to “degrade and destroy” it. So the question is: What do we do if the Islamic State becomes a real state and demonstrates real staying power?

"The Isis economy: Meet the new boss"

At first glance, Iraq’s second city of Mosul looks like a model of success for its new rulers from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), the world’s most feared jihadi group. Well-swept thoroughfares bustle with cars, the electricity hums and the cafés are crowded.But in the back alleys, litter fills the streets. The lights stay on, but only because locals rigged up generators themselves. And under the blare of café televisions, old men grumble about life under Isis’s self-proclaimed caliphate.

Cartoons - "Ebola State"

Any similarities between ISIS and Ebola? - Cartoon de Sherif Arafa