Many of the top leaders of the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) were members of brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Husseins inner circle The Washington Post reports.
Despite the large number of foreign fighters members of Iraqs former Baathist army make up the majority of ISISs military and security committees and its emirs and princes according to the report.
The expertise the men bring help ISIS to outmaneuver the Iraqi and American militaries and the networks they developed for overcoming sanctions through smuggling are now helping ISIS with its oil trade.
Even in Syria the local emirs are shadowed by an Iraqi deputy who makes the decisions a man using the pseudonym Abu Hamza told the Post. Abu Hamza became disillusioned with ISIS and eventually escaped to Turkey.
All the decision makers are Iraqi and most of them are former Iraqi officers. The Iraqi officers are in command and they make the tactics and the battle plans Abu Hamza told the Post. But the Iraqis themselves dont fight. They put the foreign fighters on the front lines.
Experts told the Post that the former Baathist members were steered to ISIS when the Iraqi army was disbanded after the American invasion of 2003. The Iraqi forces were barred from government employment and pensions but were allowed to keep their weapons.
Facing poverty for years many responded to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis recruitment.
Hassan Hassan a Dubai-based analyst and co-author of the book ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."
A lot of people think of the Islamic State as a terrorist group and its not useful analyst Hassan Hassan told the paper. It is a terrorist group but it is more than that. It is a homegrown Iraqi insurgency and it is organic to Iraq.
The American military didnt recognize early on the role of the former Baathist officers instead blaming foreign fighters Col. Joel Rayburn of the National Defense University said.
We might have been able to come up with ways to head off the fusion the completion of the Iraqization process he said.
Though the strict Islamic dogma of ISIS appears at odds with the secular rule of Saddam the Iraqi government had actually been moving toward a form of religious rule since just after the first Iraq War in the early 1990s according to the Post.
Iraq under Saddam had begun cutting off the hands of thieves and beheading women accused of prostitution. Saddams forces also ruled by intimidation as does ISIS.
Former Baathist officers recall friends who suddenly stopped drinking started praying and embraced the deeply conservative form of Islam known as Salafism in the years preceding the U.S. invasion the Post reported.
Some of those officers had joined the U.S.-backed Awakening movement and fought al-Qaida in Iraq which preceded ISIS. But after American troops were withdrawn along with support for Awakening fighters many joined ISIS.
ISIS leadership fears being infiltrated by spies and therefore keeps fighters at a distance working through intermediaries and keeping their identities secret Abu Hamza told the Post.
He called the foreign fighters he was involved with good Muslims but he didnt have the same opinion of Iraqi leaders.
They pray and they fast and you cant be an emir without praying but inside I dont think they believe it much he told the Post. They just want power. They are used to being in power and they want it back.
Many of the top leaders of the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) were members of brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Husseins inner circle The Washington Post reports.
Despite the large number of foreign fighters members of Iraqs former Baathist army make up the majority of ISISs military and security committees and its emirs and princes according to the report.
The expertise the men bring help ISIS to outmaneuver the Iraqi and American militaries and the networks they developed for overcoming sanctions through smuggling are now helping ISIS with its oil trade.
Even in Syria the local emirs are shadowed by an Iraqi deputy who makes the decisions a man using the pseudonym Abu Hamza told the Post. Abu Hamza became disillusioned with ISIS and eventually escaped to Turkey.
All the decision makers are Iraqi and most of them are former Iraqi officers. The Iraqi officers are in command and they make the tactics and the battle plans Abu Hamza told the Post. But the Iraqis themselves dont fight. They put the foreign fighters on the front lines.
Experts told the Post that the former Baathist members were steered to ISIS when the Iraqi army was disbanded after the American invasion of 2003. The Iraqi forces were barred from government employment and pensions but were allowed to keep their weapons.
Facing poverty for years many responded to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis recruitment.
Hassan Hassan a Dubai-based analyst and co-author of the book ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."
A lot of people think of the Islamic State as a terrorist group and its not useful analyst Hassan Hassan told the paper. It is a terrorist group but it is more than that. It is a homegrown Iraqi insurgency and it is organic to Iraq.
The American military didnt recognize early on the role of the former Baathist officers instead blaming foreign fighters Col. Joel Rayburn of the National Defense University said.
We might have been able to come up with ways to head off the fusion the completion of the Iraqization process he said.
Though the strict Islamic dogma of ISIS appears at odds with the secular rule of Saddam the Iraqi government had actually been moving toward a form of religious rule since just after the first Iraq War in the early 1990s according to the Post.
Iraq under Saddam had begun cutting off the hands of thieves and beheading women accused of prostitution. Saddams forces also ruled by intimidation as does ISIS.
Former Baathist officers recall friends who suddenly stopped drinking started praying and embraced the deeply conservative form of Islam known as Salafism in the years preceding the U.S. invasion the Post reported.
Some of those officers had joined the U.S.-backed Awakening movement and fought al-Qaida in Iraq which preceded ISIS. But after American troops were withdrawn along with support for Awakening fighters many joined ISIS.
ISIS leadership fears being infiltrated by spies and therefore keeps fighters at a distance working through intermediaries and keeping their identities secret Abu Hamza told the Post.
He called the foreign fighters he was involved with good Muslims but he didnt have the same opinion of Iraqi leaders.
They pray and they fast and you cant be an emir without praying but inside I dont think they believe it much he told the Post. They just want power. They are used to being in power and they want it back.
