Anyone ever hear of ISIS before they robbed the bank?
 

Prior to the bank robbery in Mosul where they stole $429M, I have never heard of ISIS. I like to consider myself a well informed person that keeps up with what's going on in the world. It's almost like they just appeared overnight and became a huge threat. There were no intelligence agencies keeping an eye on them? Seems like a pretty big operation to just "fall through the cracks" of the CIA or MI6, etc.

You aren't as well-informed as you think.

Apparently not.

I haven't heard about any bank robbery, but probably not because intelligence folk around world wouldn't know about it, but because it is not a newsworthy happening around here.

all we, the people, know about this is completely depended on media (propaganda). For all we know this ISIS shit doesn't even exist. I don't believe anything I hear on tv or read in newspapers anymore.

I had never heard of this group at all until they had conquered half of Iraq. :(

And apparently our federal govt. were caught by surprise as well.

I guess they were too busy listening to all of our phonecalls and reading our emails and searching us at airports here in the U.S.A. to pay any attention. :(

they are al zarkawis group, al queda in iraq. when he was killed, what was left of al queda in iraq changed to Islamic state of Iraq & Levant. They got their asses beat by the sunni tribesman & they fled to syria. There, they got stronger as rebels against assad. As al maliki was fucking over the sunnis, they lost their will to fight for Iraq govt, thereby giving ISIL opening to roll into half of Iraq.

so if you heard of abu musab al zarqaui, the guy that cut off nick bergs head, its his organization. Real big now.

i'm probably way off on that. :)

ISIS is simply the new name of AQI (al-quada in Iraq) USA has obviously known about them all along and was concerned about their potential when BO decided to withdraw from Iraq.


we withdrew, iraq police is a clusterfuck, ISIS grew.

here we are.

They're Sunnis themselves but so extreme and insane that Al Qaeda wanted no part of them - when Al Qaeda thinks you're off the charts nuts that's saying something.

Sunnis consider them Karjites or however it's spelled, they were the original batshit crazy offshoot of Muslims in the 7th century.

Not really. They were a known threat.

What was our federal government going to do about it? Start a new bombing campaign before ISIS made any real gains? Yeah, that would have went over well.

If they are Sunnis then why the sunni proclamation to deny the ISIS caliphate?

I think the bottom line is this: The U.S. invaded Iraq. Killed their leaders. Humbled them and embarrassed them.

In my opinion...the people of Iraq probably see the "leadership" in Baghdad as puppets of the U.S. (even though they aren't, they were still put in place while the U.S. military was running the country).

I think if the same thing happened to the U.S. as happened to Iraq, we would probably rise up and take out the "fake" govt. (in the people's eyes) as soon as we could.

To me, and most people in the Western world, these people are "militants" and "terrorists" and every other name that the U.S. govt. and the media can name them.
But to a lot of people in Iraq they are heroes, and WE are the "insurgents" into their country.

I saw on CNN this morning, after the President gave his press conference on the situation, a discussion about events on the ground. One of the panelists said that the "ISIS" forces are not only receiving lots of support from the population, but the Sunni tribal leaders have joined forces with them and are leading the armies of ISIS in Iraq.

I think the U.S. govt. needs to get out of there and stay out. Every Iraqi Sunni we kill with a bombing is going to create 1000 more that hate our guts.

You know...in 1776, England was faced with a "terrorist" "militant" "insurgent" who was leading an army across British territory and attacking and killing soldiers.

To the British of 1776, George Washington would be a "terrorist".
To us he is a hero.

I think that's the same way that the Sunni's see this uprising as well.

Is that how they are reporting it on cnn? elsewhere it's being reported it's nothing short of genocide. ISIs has even uploaded videos of their atrocities committed on Iraqis.

I admit, I don't understand all I know about it, perhaps there are different Sunnis groups etc, maybe some parts of the country are pro-ISIS but ISIS are committing widespread and seriously violent acts against iraqis, from what I've read.

Not saying you are wrong. or I disagree with you.

ISIS is just a catchy name the media came up with to make their narrative easier to market. There is no reason a normal person should give a flying fuck about a bank robbery in Iraq. I don't even care about bank robberies anywhere unless I am somehow involved. (so so far, zero fucks given) Literally nothing that happens in Iraq should be of any concern to anyone not in Iraq. Fuck'em all.

I dunno man, I want to agree with you but by all accounts if ISIS gains control, that caliphate they issued combined with the billions and billions of dollars they will have spells worldwide trouble.

It seems it makes sense to stop them now before they get more resources.

any members of isis post here?

Some do, some don't and some don't care. Saddam was regular dictator and he made lot of enemies during his reign. Kurds most notably.

US and Soviet Union had quite good success in Germany, and US in Japan. Although no country is the same.

Because Muslims are nuts, there's the big divide between Shiites and Sunnis, then there are sects of each of those.

Sunnis aren't supporting ISIS caliphate because they think they are Karjites in Sunni clothing and they don't want to live under the rule of ISIS who are as extreme a group of global jihadists as we've seen.

I'm no expert, I just read like the rest of people. 99% of the talking heads on TV and the Internet just regurgitate/spin what they read and hear. You need to spend time amongst all these people to really understand what's going on, the President has access to the CIA reports and all kinds of academics/analysts who have real knowledge.

I see. One of the things that struck me as weird in following this all, some reports of the violence in Iraq is described as perpetrated by Sunnis militants/etc, it makes it seem like they are separate from ISIS. The one story of note is the take over of the largest refinery in the region a few weeks back, that was a Sunnis extremist/militant seize, or at least it was reported as such.

:2 cents::2 cents::2 cents:

ISIS is what happens when you take your eye off the ball after murdering 100s of 1000s of people in the Middle East.

That has made the problem worse but we hadn't killed hundreds of thousands in 2001 and they still perpetrated the 9/11 attacks. They want war with the West, Bush took the bait and in hindsight it was a huge mistake.

Yea id heard of them.

Seems subway is now working with them for digital wallet payments. In say boycott subway asap!

Of course it was a huge mistake. These dirt dwellers knew damn well that they could drag the Infidels into an endless war and not only drain them financially, but wreak havoc on homeland security. Mission accomplished. They already won the war, the western world is just too arrogant to realize it yet. Now they just get to kill for shits and giggles and drive the USA deeper into a scared little hole.

Attacks happen, and that wasn't the first time some towel head tried attacking the USA. Won't be the last either. But going to war over it got everyone where exactly? All of their actions brings everything to right now, which is ISIS and no chance in hell of putting that monster to bed. They done goofed.

They did report the genocide part of it. But it's genocide on Kurds (again) and any of the other main tribal people of Iraq.

The Sunni's are aligning themselves with ISIS.

And now the ISIS has all the military equipment we gave the Iraqi Army to use as well.

Apparently the Iraqi army hasn't fought them at all and just gives up and runs.

Which sounds like the people and the military don't have any allegiance to the current govt. of Iraq.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah, the people who the Sunni's don't like are definitely paying the price. But the Sunni's are definitely in alliance. There's simply no way that ISIS could sweep that country as easily as they did without the populace helping them.
At least that's what all the military guys were saying.

In any case you can't stop religious fanatics by killing them. That didn't work for the Romans or anyone who's tried it before or since and it's not going to work for us. All we're going to accomplish by bombing is teach another generation to hate us, and the only alternative available to them is the towel head fanatics. So if you are an arms dealer or a military contractor it's a great move, business now and more business in the future.

I don't know what the solution is but we have been bombing Iraq for what, 25 years now? I think there is enough data to show it's not constructive. Maybe isolate them economically and let them Jihad each other to the last man woman and child, then maybe make it a new homeland for Palestinians, solve that Israel bullshit once and for all. I dunno, just anything different than what we've been doing, even doing nothing at all could be more effective.

Normally I would just say "fuck Iraq"...but this ISIS thing could be a real problem in a few years. They're quite vocal about having operations inside the USA be one of their main goals.

I say squash them now AT ALL COSTS. I might even say we need to get troops back in there because this isn't about "blood for oil" or WMD's anymore. ISIS is a serious threat to us and our future children. I can't even believe I'm saying this shit, but the thought of their organization propagating is kind of scary.

It's a problem of our own making, and Obama needs to break it to the American people that we're going to correct this problem. I'm not saying we can solve 1000 years of tribal bullshit, but ISIS has a physical presence of mechanized gear and they can be pummeled from the air at the very least to hinder their progress.

This. :2 cents:

The only way that region of the world works is via the hand of an iron fisted dictator. Not one the US puts in, but a real one that the people respect and fear.

Leave them alone and let these guys rise into power, then leave them alone to do whatever it is they are going to do over there. It is beyond anything the western world can change anyway. Some people were just meant to be ruled, because they can't function otherwise.

Obama has allready said " he will not allow jihadists to carve out a "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq."

This time Obama is right. There were reports coming out of Turkey a few days ago that Isis might try to advance into Turkish border towns, If this happens then where will they go from there ..into Europe ?

These guys seem to have an influence not just in Syria and Iraq but even here in the UK

http://rt.com/uk/178908-jihadist-flag-east-london/

These guys need to be stopped and quickly because as somebody else said I think they will cause mayhem in the future around the world if they are left to grow even bigger than what they are now.

Of course you can. Some movement is a different matter, as it can recruit more members, but the already dead ones will stay dead.

Perhaps Britain should look after the mess they started, from Sykes-Picot,Palestine Mandate, Balfour Declaration, BP oil - entire mess in the Middle East has Britain's fingerprints all over it. You ran off with your tails between your legs and the United States by default was left with this garbage on its plate. Now you have Islamic Sharia law in England, you're Muhammad's little bitch.

Honestly, makes you wonder what went wrong here.

I guess the same thing than with Al-Qaida. Had you heard about them before (the hit)?

Well, I don't know is that "went wrong", if you don't hear about it, as every rag and tag gang isn't newsworthy. Hitler wasn't very newsworthy as a unsuccesful painter, only later on.

What Obama says and what really is going to happen are two different things. See how fast they sprung into power right under the nose of everyone, and suddenly the White House thinks it has a handle on the situation?

These dudes are literally crucifying children in the street, mutilating the genitals of girls and women, and beheading mother fuckers like it's in fashion. I wish everyone luck fighting a crew like this, because odds are you're going to lose. Unless they unleash a scorched earth assault on these guys and it's fully (100%) backed by all the other nations, then it's a lost cause.

Then again, all that's going to do is recruit more guys willing to do whatever they have to do to kill even more infidels.

dont give them that much credit. They are intimidating a lot of local sunnis to join them - just like when the nazis rolled into austria: join us or bad things are coming your way. so arnold schwartzeneggars dad was a nazi cause he had to be one.

they are approximately 8000 fighters? hardly a threat to any nation with its shit together. They arent trying to invade iran or turkey, or even southern iraq. they just took the easy gains.

as soon as they face a real army, they will drop their guns & run just like the iraqis did, & rename themselves into something else, rinse & repeat.

:2 cents:

It's the group the US gov trained and bankrolled to overthrow gov in Syria, and as usual they flipped the script and used said training, money and weapons to cause chaos elsewhere. Obama and crew acting surprised is as usual an act so they don't have to accept resposibility. Same thing happened with Al Qaeda it should be no surprise to anyone anymore.

Everyone wants to say bogey man, bogey man, but really ISIS or ISIL which ever you chose are the most organized group we have seen yet.

These guys move in and take over not just like the Taliban did by ruling with fear, but these guys actually take over and start running the govt services and collecting taxes. They have actually taken over power generation in parts of Syria and are forcing Assad to buy power from them.

These guys aren't the typical goat herders that live in mud huts or caves. These guys are well financed because they take over as the actual govt in what ever areas they move into. They are far from stupid. It's just like when they attacked Iraq, the first thing they did was start moving all the captured equipment back to Syria.

I don't know how you didn't hear about them. At first, they were loosely helping the Rebels in Syria and it was very well publicized as that was the reason Obama wouldn't arm the Syrian rebels, it was because of these guys were fighting with the rebels at the start of the Syria blow up.

At some point the ISIS guys turned on the rebels and started fighting both the rebels as Assad's forces. This was all very well covered here in the US media long before they ever started attacks in Iraq.

It's the reason McCain was having hissy fits all over the news, because Obama wouldn't send guns to the Rebels, because the ISIS guys would have got them too.