Captive ISIS fighter: "I hope the U.S. kills them all"

[Perspicuo]

You would be tortured:' ISIS prisoners reveal life inside terror group
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/28/world/meast/syria-isis-prisoners-watson/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Jazir Cantonment, Kurdish-controlled Syria (CNN) -- The blindfolded prisoners are brought into the dank gray room, one by one, and begin to tell us their stories.

We're in a prison run by Kurdish militants here in northern Syria. The Kurds won't allow us to see the cells where the prisoners are being held. Their prisoners, they say, are members of ISIS.

He says he never traveled to ISIS-controlled territory, but confesses to being part of an ISIS cell that planted and detonated a remote control car bomb outside a Kurdish base in this Kurdish enclave. He believes the bomb killed his own nephew -- and says he received about $3,600 for the job.

"They said they were fighting for Islam and justice," Suleiman tells us. "They were lying to us. They took advantage of our minds and our poverty."

"I was shot in the stomach three times," he says. He also has ugly scars on his right arm from another bullet wound. He claims ISIS drugged fighters before they went into battle.

"They gave us drugs," Kareem says. "Hallucinogenic pills that would make you go to battle not caring if you live or die."

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No surprise. Getting the prospective recruits to listen, though...

 

[Nexus]

"They gave us drugs," Kareem says. "Hallucinogenic pills that would make you go to battle not caring if you live or die."

And people still think there isn't western involvement. Whose more likely to have expertise and development of psychopharmaceuticals like this? Impoverished desert rebels or the military industrial complex?

 

[KeepTalking]

"They gave us drugs," Kareem says. "Hallucinogenic pills that would make you go to battle not caring if you live or die."

And people still think there isn't western involvement. Whose more likely to have expertise and development of psychopharmaceuticals like this? Impoverished desert rebels or the military industrial complex?

Are you fucking kidding? I had access to psycopharmaceuticals as a 16 year old suburban high school kid with no job.

 

[J842P]

"They gave us drugs," Kareem says. "Hallucinogenic pills that would make you go to battle not caring if you live or die."

And people still think there isn't western involvement. Whose more likely to have expertise and development of psychopharmaceuticals like this? Impoverished desert rebels or the military industrial complex?

Are you under the impression that there are no chemists in Iraq, Syria, and the Arabian Peninsula?

One of the biggest and most arrogant mistakes that people regularly make when discussing Islamist militants is that they are "impoverished desert rebels."

Certainly, a lot of the front-line grunts are impoverished people from the desert regions of the Middle East. However, the command and control structure include very many extremely wealthy people with sophisticated educations.

Also, the use of potent hallucinogenic drugsfar predates even the very notion of 'psychopharmeceuticals."

 

[Nexus]

And people still think there isn't western involvement. Whose more likely to have expertise and development of psychopharmaceuticals like this? Impoverished desert rebels or the military industrial complex?

Are you fucking kidding? I had access to psycopharmaceuticals as a 16 year old suburban high school kid with no job.

Did you have access to psycopharmaceuticals that were tailor made to make you a better soldier?

One of the biggest and most arrogant mistakes that people regularly make when discussing Islamist militants is that they are "impoverished desert rebels."

Certainly, a lot of the front-line grunts are impoverished people from the desert regions of the Middle East. However, the command and control structure include very many extremely wealthy people with sophisticated educations.

Assad sure could have used the militarized drugs to stop the rebellion yet the rebels are better supplied than him. Sadamn Hussain could have used them in both Gulf wars since his military was notorious about surrendering, yet he didn't have them either. No the rebels must have chemical masterminds working in tents out in the desert.

 

[KeepTalking]

Are you fucking kidding? I had access to psycopharmaceuticals as a 16 year old suburban high school kid with no job.

Did you have access to psycopharmaceuticals that were tailor made to make you a better soldier?

Do you have any evidence that ISIL is using psycopharmaceuticals that were tailor made to make you a better soldier? Please note: going into battle not caring if you live or die does not necessarily make one a better soldier. I have been a soldier, so I know better.

 

[J842P]

Did you have access to psycopharmaceuticals that were tailor made to make you a better soldier?

Do you have any evidence that ISIL is using psycopharmaceuticals that were tailor made to make you a better soldier? Please note: going into battle not caring if you live or die does not necessarily make one a better soldier. I have been a soldier, so I know better.

Very true, especially in a modern military context. Furthermore, although I wouldn't be surprised if this guy is telling the truth, being a POW doesn't make for a reliable source, given that he is still being held captive in a secret prison...

 

[Tammuz]

One of the biggest and most arrogant mistakes that people regularly make when discussing Islamist militants is that they are "impoverished desert rebels."

Certainly, a lot of the front-line grunts are impoverished people from the desert regions of the Middle East. However, the command and control structure include very many extremely wealthy people with sophisticated educations.

Also, the use of potent hallucinogenic drugsfar predates even the very notion of 'psychopharmeceuticals."

Also IS has plenty of foreigners who are not "impoverished desert rebels". Some of the most feared IS soldiers are actually Chechens.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

"They gave us drugs," Kareem says. "Hallucinogenic pills that would make you go to battle not caring if you live or die."

And people still think there isn't western involvement. Whose more likely to have expertise and development of psychopharmaceuticals like this? Impoverished desert rebels or the military industrial complex?

They aren't impoverished desert rebels. All the Islamist movements have government backing--Arab government backing, not the west.

 

[Jayjay]

Besides, ISIS is making roughly $1 million per day from oil smuggling. It's looking a lot less "impoverish desert rebels" and more like organized crime cartel.

 

[Deepak]

And people still think there isn't western involvement. Whose more likely to have expertise and development of psychopharmaceuticals like this? Impoverished desert rebels or the military industrial complex?

Are you under the impression that there are no chemists in Iraq, Syria, and the Arabian Peninsula?

One of the biggest and most arrogant mistakes that people regularly make when discussing Islamist militants is that they are "impoverished desert rebels."

Certainly, a lot of the front-line grunts are impoverished people from the desert regions of the Middle East. However, the command and control structure include very many extremely wealthy people with sophisticated educations.

Also, the use of potent hallucinogenic drugsfar predates even the very notion of 'psychopharmeceuticals."

Absolutely right. This apologue of impoverished rebels is nothing but a comforting fiction. The folks who are getting radicalized more often than not have high-school or better educations, which was also true of groups like the IRA.

Creating improvised explosives, running social media recruiting drives, and utilizing captured military hardware aren't skills that a rag-tag bunch of dirt farmers just muddle their way through.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Absolutely right. This apologue of impoverished rebels is nothing but a comforting fiction. The folks who are getting radicalized more often than not have high-school or better educations, which was also true of groups like the IRA.

Creating improvised explosives, running social media recruiting drives, and utilizing captured military hardware aren't skills that a rag-tag bunch of dirt farmers just muddle their way through.

I'm not sure it's about comforting as much as about trying to excuse their behavior--they're too stupid to know better. The reality is they're almost all losers, not stupid.