Ahmet S. Yayla is the Director of the Center for Homeland Security at DeSales University and an Assistant Professor of Homeland Security. Dr. Yayla is also a member of the faculty at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies Program in Master's in Applied Intelligence. Additionally, Dr. Yayla is a research fellow at the George Washington University Program on Extremism.
Dr. Yayla is a 20-year veteran of the counterterrorism and operations department in the Turkish National Police and served as the chief of counterterrorism in Sanliurfa, Turkey between 2010 and 2013. He earned his Master's Degree and Ph.D. in the United States. Dr. Yayla has published both scholarly works and written or co-written numerous articles related to counterterrorism and homeland security. Yayla is the co-author of the recent book ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate.
twitter: @ahmetsyayla facebook.com/ahmetsyayla Address: Washington DC
Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and less lethal methods of counteri... more Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and less lethal methods of countering terrorism, and yet it is often overlooked. This article describes a program designed and administered by the author to prevent terrorist recruitment through early intervention, by promoting the involvement of the families of potential recruits in their children's activities and in a counterterrorism program that was developed and implemented in Sanliurfa, Turkey, for four years, from 2010 to 2014. The article details the concept and structure of the program, provides insights on how it was developed and administered, and presents the data, an analysis, and the findings. In addition, this article reports on the outcomes of the program and offers insights into why the youth in Sanliurfa were struggling to break their ties with terrorist organizations.
George Washington University Program on Extremism, 2021
This paper holds that ISIS employed a substantial, administratively cohesive, operable police org... more This paper holds that ISIS employed a substantial, administratively cohesive, operable police organization that took care of ‘ordinary’ public order and law enforcement tasks. While the Departments of Public Security (emni) and Religious Compliance (hisba) have been at the center of most media coverage and popular literature on the Islamic State, ISIS’s policing capacities through its Islamic State Police (shurta) wing have not been studied so far. This paper adds to the literature by taking stock of the manner in which ISIS set up a working police force, designed rules of governance, developed ensuing practices of enforcement, and engendered support. In doing so, the authors situate the paper’s findings within the broader academic debate on governance by non-state actors. This also opens up the uneasy but highly relevant question of ISIS statehood, which can be related to the concept of ‘rebel governance.’ Such an approach offers a number of important policy implications—including a strategic understanding of ISIS’s sweeping initial successes—by addressing the ways in which ISIS generated and sustained public authority and legitimacy through a variety of police practices.
The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague (ICCT)
The long-term survival of terrorist organizations relies on their ability to attract new members ... more The long-term survival of terrorist organizations relies on their ability to attract new members and maintain an ongoing terrorist recruitment cycle. The numbers of terrorist organization members may decrease due to counterterrorism operations or defections, forcing the leaders of those groups to seek new members. Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and least lethal methods of countering terrorism, and yet it is often overlooked by those combating terrorism. Western governments did not stop Al-Qaeda from recouping its losses, even after it suffered devastating losses in the months following the 9/11 attacks. The fact is that Al-Qaeda had only around 400 armed members at the time of 9/11, as opposed to thousands of affiliated members in 2019. Although the recruitment strategies of different organizations may vary, they follow a similar historical pattern. All recruiters must first identify qualified candidates, then establish secure connections, build rapport, indoctrinate them, and slowly pull them into an organization. ISIS proved that this process could be fast-forwarded through online propaganda and social media. Preventing recruitment in the first place can be the most fruitful, and maybe also least expensive, method used to counter terrorism. Successfully short-circuiting the recruitment cycle may save thousands of lives of prospective recruits and many more lives by thwarting future attacks. This chapter aims to present a holistic and comprehensive road map for interrupting and preventing terrorist recruitment by identifying relevant societal factors and triggers that recruiters use to find and control their subjects.
This article attempts to establish a database of the numbers of the Turkish ISIS and AQ foreign t... more This article attempts to establish a database of the numbers of the Turkish ISIS and AQ foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) and their profiles through open sources, available news articles and personal interviews by the author with some former senior government officers; provides insights about the government and public perceptions on Salafi Jihadist terrorist organizations; and studies policy responses concerning returning FTFs and terrorist organizations.
This article, relying primarily on first person accounts of actual ISIS defectors, expands upon t... more This article, relying primarily on first person accounts of actual ISIS defectors, expands upon the work of investigative journalist Christoph Reuter of Der Spiegel (Hamburg, GFR) who first reported on the discovery of the files of Haji Bakr, one of the Iraqi organizers of the ISIS's Emni in the years when preparations for the Islamic State were made. Bakr's files make clear that ISIS is not just a terrorist organization, but was set up by former Baathist state intel operators with the intent to build a new state. Our interviews also confirm data collected by New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi. Together, these three sources utilized and analyzed here shed light on the highly subversive activities undertaken by the Emni on behalf of the 'Islamic State', also outlining ISIS's aspirations to attack the West.
Abstract: The Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve made clear the immense scale o... more Abstract: The Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve made clear the immense scale of the Islamic State threat to Turkey. Investigations have shed new light on the group’s command and control over sleeper operatives in Turkey and the large network of clandestine cells and logistical and financial support elements it has set up to sustain terrorist activity. Turkish government complacency has allowed the threat to grow, as have purges of experienced counterterrorism professionals, including those after last year’s failed coup. As the Islamic State shows signs of crumbling in Syria and Iraq, Turkey now faces a nightmare scenario of a mass influx of Islamic State fighters into its territory.
“There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness…
A table descends to your tent, Jesus’s tabl... more “There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness… A table descends to your tent, Jesus’s table. Expect to see it, when you fast, this table spreads with other food better than the broth of cabbages.” — Mevlana J. Rumi (1207 – 1273)
Dr Ahmet Yayla Dr. Ahmet Yayla, Assistant Professor; Director, Center for Homeland Security
The month of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims comparable to the season of Lent, is a time of devotion to God through fasting, spiritual and physical cleansing, self-discipline, and charity.
Nevertheless, these struggles are part of the religion, too. As the Prophet Muhammad said: “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.”
Even while facing a difficult situation like the coronavirus pandemic, there should always be a positive side, reminding us to once again protect and care for ourselves, communities, and one another.
On this occasion, let’s pray for our families, the DeSales community, our nation, and humanity to seek refuge in God from the worst of diseases, and do our best to extend our hands to the needy with the spirit of Ramadan.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has lost the costly fight in the field as most of its ... more The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has lost the costly fight in the field as most of its territories in Syria and Iraq have been recovered. Historically, Salafist jihadi terrorist organizations, including ISIS and al-Qaeda, have proved to be resilient when it comes to surviving major defeats.
However, this historical trend does not necessarily mean that terrorists are winning. The most important step after this point should be translating success on the battlefield to a long-term victory, which will require short and long-term security policies and rigorous, bitter diplomacy in collaboration with the international community. Keys to gaining the upper hand will include reaching out to vulnerable populations to prevent future terrorist recruitment, unraveling ongoing propaganda and recruitment structures, better counterterrorism intelligence, and vigorous public engagement with Salafist jihadi ideology.
In the end, the plot failed. But it leaves plenty of questions—and shows where to tighten securit... more In the end, the plot failed. But it leaves plenty of questions—and shows where to tighten security.
By Ahmet S. Yayla Aug. 9, 2017 7:14 p.m. ET 4 COMMENTS Islamic State’s plan to blow up a commercial jet out of Sydney last month was “one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil,” police said last week. For reasons that aren’t yet clear, the terrorists aborted the attack, and police are confident the bomb would not have made it through airport security. Still, terrorists managed to acquire plastic explosives and the components needed to set it off—all shipped by airmail from Turkey. The Australian authorities discovered the plan only when, nearly two weeks later, they received a tip from a foreign intelligence service.
Make no mistake: Islamic State jihadists will continue trying to carry out spectacular terrorist attacks in the West. ISIS has lost control of Mosul, Iraq, where an estimated 30,000 of its fighters were killed. Now it is being pushed out of its putative capital, Raqqa, Syria. As it begins to look less like a traditional state and more like an insurgency, ISIS fighters will try to mobilize sympathizers around the world.
Last month, for instance, ISIS affiliates in Turkey released the “Lone Wolf’s Handbook,” a manual of 60-some pages, with dozens of illustrations, that explains the most efficient way to make a bomb or drive a truck into pedestrians. Such attacks are meant to prove that ISIS still exists and reinforce its bragging rights as the meanest, most fearsome warriors for Islamism. They’re also meant to dominate the news, particularly in the West, to help recruit future jihadists.
The anniversaries of the Bataclan atrocity in France and the San Bernardino attack in California ... more The anniversaries of the Bataclan atrocity in France and the San Bernardino attack in California are a good moment to consider, and re-evaluate, the best ways to fight the so-called Islamic State and prevent similar future attacks.
Case in point: We still don’t know what was recovered from the San Bernardino attacker’s iPhone after it was unlocked by a third party for the FBI and whether the attacker had communicated with other terrorists prior to the mass shooting.
And Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the attackers in Paris, joined ISIS simply because he was very close friends with other members of the ISIS Belgian cell; not because he was ideologically tied to the terrorist organization.
You might think that these and the many so-called lone wolf terrorists we have seen since then who have blown up children at a concert in Manchester, or driven through crowds in Nice, in Berlin, on London’s bridges, and in Lower Manhattan, get radicalized by lurid jihadist snuff films and radical Islamist propaganda on social media sites. But you would be wrong.
The United States Can’t Rely on Turkey to Defeat ISIS
Erdogan wants to confront the Kurds, not t... more The United States Can’t Rely on Turkey to Defeat ISIS
Erdogan wants to confront the Kurds, not the Islamic State. Outsourcing the battle to Ankara will endanger America. By Colin P. Clarke, Ahmet S. Yayla | December 31, 2018, 10:01 PM
Apart from taking Turkish talking points at face value, there is a fundamental problem with this calculation. Ankara has often demonstrated a reluctance to take on the Islamic State directly, preferring instead to focus its energy and resources on countering the Kurds and Erdogan’s opposition.
Ankara has often demonstrated a reluctance to take on the Islamic State directly, preferring instead to focus its energy and resources on countering the Kurds and Erdogan’s opposition.
For years, Turkey has been playing a double game. Erdogan’s main objective is to prevent Syrian Kurds from consolidating more territory and establishing a corridor parallel to the southern Turkish border. Eradicating the Islamic State’s presence in Syria—and its networks within Turkey—is a secondary priority that has often been ignored entirely.
The ugliness of kleptocracy is often easy to see; in fact, it is inescapable. Those who have visi... more The ugliness of kleptocracy is often easy to see; in fact, it is inescapable. Those who have visited Libya report that for an oil state it has very unimpressive infrastructure. Indeed, it is littered with half or less finished construction projects. A good example is the 28th of March stadium in Benghazi: 232 million dinars in contracts given between 2008 and 2011, millions disbursed to the contractor, and the work is still unfinished. Many of these were undertaken by Turkish companies whose contracts were terminated for corruption after the February 2011 revolution when Libyans began to investigate the money spent in their name. While it is well known in the West that Gaddafi was massively corrupt, the corruption of Erdogan is less well known. https://investigativejournal.org/erdogans-sinister-game-in-libya-construction-corruption/
ICT, the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, 2019
Born of war and its exigencies, the Anatolia-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and H... more Born of war and its exigencies, the Anatolia-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) has been shaped by the pressures of war to take sides in the fratricidal conflicts to which it has been drawn since its formation in the Balkans wars of the early 1990s, the Iraq war, the conflict in Israel, and the continuing war against the Islamic State. Yet war may have had a compromising effect too upon self-understanding of the Turkish founders and administrators as well, since as Philip Snowden aptly observed, “Truth is the first casualty of war.” In that sense, IHH is as complex and conflicted as any organization produced by Turkish civilization in the late Twentieth Century. No observer can doubt its noble intents, its humane services to the hapless victims of war, and the wounded survivors of conflict. Its reach is vast over five continents, and its respect at the United Nations is evinced by its high status. By the same measure, its dual role in the cause of jihadism whether by the instrumentality of its Sunni variation in al-Qaeda, or Islamic State, or its collaboration with the Shia variation in Tehran, cannot be ignored. The evidence cited in the foregoing study should give the student of counterterrorism or the foreign policy practitioner pause before taking the noble self-understanding of IHH at face value.
The IHH has found itself fulfilling the needs of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the government of President Tayyip Erdogan, who himself has played a dual role in the fight against terrorism in Syria and Iraq. The scope of the IHH’s activities cannot be explained simply by its declared budget and resources. The IHH has served as a key humanitarian player in the Middle East region, collaborating with internationally recognized NGOs or the United Nations, yet without doubt – and despite public denials -- also serving as an ideological enabler of terrorist organizations. It is time to halt the illicit activities and connections of the IHH by listing it as a terrorist entity until at least the organization clearly and openly disconnects itself from terrorist groups and stops acting as an intermediary for jihadists.
This Research Note reports on preliminary results of the Islamic State Interviews Project, based ... more This Research Note reports on preliminary results of the Islamic State Interviews Project, based here on a sample of thirteen Syrian IS defectors who spoke on life inside the “Islamic State”(IS). A fuller and more systematic account will be published in early 2016 in book form. According to what we learned, all IS cadres undergo Shariah training in which they are imbued with a Takfiri ideology that allows them to deem all others, including Muslims, who disagree with IS’ extreme ideology, as apostates who should be killed. Despite this indoctrination, all of our informants (all Syrians) experienced their Shariah trainers as a positive influence since they allowed them to deepen their own religious understanding. In this sense, these disengaged defectors remained radicalized “true believers”. Following compulsory military training courses on weapons, explosives and physical fitness, they were sentto the front. Syrians who join IS are rewarded with salaried jobs which for young men translates into the ability to marry and for young women the money allows them to save their families from literal starvation. Foreign fighters receive additional rewards: wives, sexual slaves, and sometimes homes and cars. Daily life is punctuated by brutal practices – including floggings, torture and beheadings. Defections were the result of exposure to extreme brutality, disgust over the slave trade, observations of deep hypocrisy–a total mismatch between the words and deeds of IS. Charges of corruption and complaints about battlefield decisions that produced unnecessary deaths in their own ranks were also causes of disillusionment . Our informants all had come to hate IS and warn others not to join what they gradually came to see as a totally disappointing, ruthless and un-Islamic organization.
Erdogan’s Libyan Adventure: Turkey, Russia, Gas Pipelines and Missiles
by AHMET S. YAYLA
As a c... more Erdogan’s Libyan Adventure: Turkey, Russia, Gas Pipelines and Missiles
by AHMET S. YAYLA
As a ceasefire suddenly brings a pause to nine months of fighting for control of Libya’s capital, Turkish President Erdogan’s promise of military aid and even boots on the ground to the besieged UN-backed Tripoli government appears in a new light: not becoming involved in an endless war but perhaps bringing it to an end, with an improved strategic position.
Klaus Hock & Nina Käsehage (Eds.).’ Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’? Religion, Violence,... more Klaus Hock & Nina Käsehage (Eds.).’ Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’? Religion, Violence, Category Formation and Applied Research. Contested Fields in the Discourses of Scholarship.
(Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2020), 272 pp., US $ 52.95 [Paperback], ISBN: 978-3-6439-1275-6. Reviewed by Ahmet S. Yayla
‘Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’ focuses on overlooked and understudied questions of radical Islamic movements and the distinctive factors of such groups by considering theoretical and practical frameworks. Throughout this edited volume, the authors focus their analyses on discourses on radical Islam, political Islam, Islamic extremism, and religious violence. They do so by asking questions about what people are discussing when they refer to Salafism, Jihadism, and Islamic terrorism in order to try to overcome discrepancies in these terminologies.
This report investigates a new alignment within Erdogan’s political movement towards Russia and P... more This report investigates a new alignment within Erdogan’s political movement towards Russia and Putin along with Iran and China, through former leftist terrorist leader Dogu Perincek’s facilitation of Erdogan’s relationships with Putin. I was assigned to arrest Perincek, now 77, in 1999, as a counterterrorism police sergeant, and at the time I learned of his surprising ties to the upper levels of the Turkish military. I didn’t know, and it did not come out until this year, that back in 1984 the CIA had termed Perincek – a figure little known in the U.S.- a terrorist and designated his organization, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party of Turkey, TIKP, as a terrorist organization. We will see that Perincek’s ties with leftist military school students and mid-level officers developed from the early 70s during the cold war era. These ties have blossomed into alliances with top generals that make Perincek invaluable to Erdogan.
The decline of the Islamic State, nearly four years after its emergence, was the result of an agg... more The decline of the Islamic State, nearly four years after its emergence, was the result of an aggressive military campaign to combat the group spearheaded primarily by the United States. That has not stopped Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu from writing an article for Foreign Policy to take credit for the group’s demise, insisting that Turkey’s actions in northern Syria have helped lay the groundwork for a sustainable peace. What he neglected to mention is that it was Turkey’s actions, or perhaps the lack thereof, that helped fuel the rise of the Islamic State in the first place. The two most commonly cited factors leading to the growth of the Islamic State are the Syrian civil war and the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and its persecution of Sunni Arabs in Iraq. But another significant part of this story is the negligence exhibited by the Turkish state.
The Reina nightclub attack, which occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2017 in Istanbul,... more The Reina nightclub attack, which occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey, and the counterterrorism operations after the attack provide valuable security lessons. The attacker, Abdulkadir Masharipov, spent a year in a sleeper cell in Konya, Turkey, before receiving orders from his emir in Raqqa, Syria, using the Telegram app. He not only carried out an attack in the name of ISIS, killing 39 people and wounding many others, but also dodged police scrutiny at the scene by pretending to be one of the victims. ISIS has a heavy presence in Turkey, with several established cells and safe havens, and it has been openly threatening Turkey since the al-Bab military campaign in Syria. Turkey is a bridge between the East and West, and the danger of Turkey becoming the gateway for European terrorist activity cannot be ignored. With ISIS starting to lose vast territories in Syria and Iraq, Turkey’s capacity to counter terrorist threats and stem terrorist activity within its borders is critical for global security.
علّقت الولايات المتحدة مشاركة تركيا في البرنامج الخاص ببناء وتشغيل أحدث نسخة من الطائرة المقاتلة إف-35 وقد تفرض أيضا عقوبات اقتصادية على أنقرة، لكن الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان رفض التراجع أو التخلي عن فكرة صفقة منظومة الدفاع الصاروخي الروسية إس-400 التي فجرت الأزمة.
وقال أردوغان لمجموعة منتقاة من الصحفيين في إسطنبول قبل أسبوعين لدى تسلم تركيا الدفعة الأولى من مكونات المنظومة الصاروخية إس-400 "بغض النظر عن التحالفات السياسية والعسكرية لتركيا مع الغرب، لا نزال نتلقى أكبر تهديدات من الغرب، سواء السياسية أو الاقتصادية أو الثقافية، أو بجميع السبل."
Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and less lethal methods of counteri... more Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and less lethal methods of countering terrorism, and yet it is often overlooked. This article describes a program designed and administered by the author to prevent terrorist recruitment through early intervention, by promoting the involvement of the families of potential recruits in their children's activities and in a counterterrorism program that was developed and implemented in Sanliurfa, Turkey, for four years, from 2010 to 2014. The article details the concept and structure of the program, provides insights on how it was developed and administered, and presents the data, an analysis, and the findings. In addition, this article reports on the outcomes of the program and offers insights into why the youth in Sanliurfa were struggling to break their ties with terrorist organizations.
George Washington University Program on Extremism, 2021
This paper holds that ISIS employed a substantial, administratively cohesive, operable police org... more This paper holds that ISIS employed a substantial, administratively cohesive, operable police organization that took care of ‘ordinary’ public order and law enforcement tasks. While the Departments of Public Security (emni) and Religious Compliance (hisba) have been at the center of most media coverage and popular literature on the Islamic State, ISIS’s policing capacities through its Islamic State Police (shurta) wing have not been studied so far. This paper adds to the literature by taking stock of the manner in which ISIS set up a working police force, designed rules of governance, developed ensuing practices of enforcement, and engendered support. In doing so, the authors situate the paper’s findings within the broader academic debate on governance by non-state actors. This also opens up the uneasy but highly relevant question of ISIS statehood, which can be related to the concept of ‘rebel governance.’ Such an approach offers a number of important policy implications—including a strategic understanding of ISIS’s sweeping initial successes—by addressing the ways in which ISIS generated and sustained public authority and legitimacy through a variety of police practices.
The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague (ICCT)
The long-term survival of terrorist organizations relies on their ability to attract new members ... more The long-term survival of terrorist organizations relies on their ability to attract new members and maintain an ongoing terrorist recruitment cycle. The numbers of terrorist organization members may decrease due to counterterrorism operations or defections, forcing the leaders of those groups to seek new members. Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and least lethal methods of countering terrorism, and yet it is often overlooked by those combating terrorism. Western governments did not stop Al-Qaeda from recouping its losses, even after it suffered devastating losses in the months following the 9/11 attacks. The fact is that Al-Qaeda had only around 400 armed members at the time of 9/11, as opposed to thousands of affiliated members in 2019. Although the recruitment strategies of different organizations may vary, they follow a similar historical pattern. All recruiters must first identify qualified candidates, then establish secure connections, build rapport, indoctrinate them, and slowly pull them into an organization. ISIS proved that this process could be fast-forwarded through online propaganda and social media. Preventing recruitment in the first place can be the most fruitful, and maybe also least expensive, method used to counter terrorism. Successfully short-circuiting the recruitment cycle may save thousands of lives of prospective recruits and many more lives by thwarting future attacks. This chapter aims to present a holistic and comprehensive road map for interrupting and preventing terrorist recruitment by identifying relevant societal factors and triggers that recruiters use to find and control their subjects.
This article attempts to establish a database of the numbers of the Turkish ISIS and AQ foreign t... more This article attempts to establish a database of the numbers of the Turkish ISIS and AQ foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) and their profiles through open sources, available news articles and personal interviews by the author with some former senior government officers; provides insights about the government and public perceptions on Salafi Jihadist terrorist organizations; and studies policy responses concerning returning FTFs and terrorist organizations.
This article, relying primarily on first person accounts of actual ISIS defectors, expands upon t... more This article, relying primarily on first person accounts of actual ISIS defectors, expands upon the work of investigative journalist Christoph Reuter of Der Spiegel (Hamburg, GFR) who first reported on the discovery of the files of Haji Bakr, one of the Iraqi organizers of the ISIS's Emni in the years when preparations for the Islamic State were made. Bakr's files make clear that ISIS is not just a terrorist organization, but was set up by former Baathist state intel operators with the intent to build a new state. Our interviews also confirm data collected by New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi. Together, these three sources utilized and analyzed here shed light on the highly subversive activities undertaken by the Emni on behalf of the 'Islamic State', also outlining ISIS's aspirations to attack the West.
Abstract: The Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve made clear the immense scale o... more Abstract: The Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve made clear the immense scale of the Islamic State threat to Turkey. Investigations have shed new light on the group’s command and control over sleeper operatives in Turkey and the large network of clandestine cells and logistical and financial support elements it has set up to sustain terrorist activity. Turkish government complacency has allowed the threat to grow, as have purges of experienced counterterrorism professionals, including those after last year’s failed coup. As the Islamic State shows signs of crumbling in Syria and Iraq, Turkey now faces a nightmare scenario of a mass influx of Islamic State fighters into its territory.
“There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness…
A table descends to your tent, Jesus’s tabl... more “There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness… A table descends to your tent, Jesus’s table. Expect to see it, when you fast, this table spreads with other food better than the broth of cabbages.” — Mevlana J. Rumi (1207 – 1273)
Dr Ahmet Yayla Dr. Ahmet Yayla, Assistant Professor; Director, Center for Homeland Security
The month of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims comparable to the season of Lent, is a time of devotion to God through fasting, spiritual and physical cleansing, self-discipline, and charity.
Nevertheless, these struggles are part of the religion, too. As the Prophet Muhammad said: “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.”
Even while facing a difficult situation like the coronavirus pandemic, there should always be a positive side, reminding us to once again protect and care for ourselves, communities, and one another.
On this occasion, let’s pray for our families, the DeSales community, our nation, and humanity to seek refuge in God from the worst of diseases, and do our best to extend our hands to the needy with the spirit of Ramadan.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has lost the costly fight in the field as most of its ... more The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has lost the costly fight in the field as most of its territories in Syria and Iraq have been recovered. Historically, Salafist jihadi terrorist organizations, including ISIS and al-Qaeda, have proved to be resilient when it comes to surviving major defeats.
However, this historical trend does not necessarily mean that terrorists are winning. The most important step after this point should be translating success on the battlefield to a long-term victory, which will require short and long-term security policies and rigorous, bitter diplomacy in collaboration with the international community. Keys to gaining the upper hand will include reaching out to vulnerable populations to prevent future terrorist recruitment, unraveling ongoing propaganda and recruitment structures, better counterterrorism intelligence, and vigorous public engagement with Salafist jihadi ideology.
In the end, the plot failed. But it leaves plenty of questions—and shows where to tighten securit... more In the end, the plot failed. But it leaves plenty of questions—and shows where to tighten security.
By Ahmet S. Yayla Aug. 9, 2017 7:14 p.m. ET 4 COMMENTS Islamic State’s plan to blow up a commercial jet out of Sydney last month was “one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil,” police said last week. For reasons that aren’t yet clear, the terrorists aborted the attack, and police are confident the bomb would not have made it through airport security. Still, terrorists managed to acquire plastic explosives and the components needed to set it off—all shipped by airmail from Turkey. The Australian authorities discovered the plan only when, nearly two weeks later, they received a tip from a foreign intelligence service.
Make no mistake: Islamic State jihadists will continue trying to carry out spectacular terrorist attacks in the West. ISIS has lost control of Mosul, Iraq, where an estimated 30,000 of its fighters were killed. Now it is being pushed out of its putative capital, Raqqa, Syria. As it begins to look less like a traditional state and more like an insurgency, ISIS fighters will try to mobilize sympathizers around the world.
Last month, for instance, ISIS affiliates in Turkey released the “Lone Wolf’s Handbook,” a manual of 60-some pages, with dozens of illustrations, that explains the most efficient way to make a bomb or drive a truck into pedestrians. Such attacks are meant to prove that ISIS still exists and reinforce its bragging rights as the meanest, most fearsome warriors for Islamism. They’re also meant to dominate the news, particularly in the West, to help recruit future jihadists.
The anniversaries of the Bataclan atrocity in France and the San Bernardino attack in California ... more The anniversaries of the Bataclan atrocity in France and the San Bernardino attack in California are a good moment to consider, and re-evaluate, the best ways to fight the so-called Islamic State and prevent similar future attacks.
Case in point: We still don’t know what was recovered from the San Bernardino attacker’s iPhone after it was unlocked by a third party for the FBI and whether the attacker had communicated with other terrorists prior to the mass shooting.
And Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the attackers in Paris, joined ISIS simply because he was very close friends with other members of the ISIS Belgian cell; not because he was ideologically tied to the terrorist organization.
You might think that these and the many so-called lone wolf terrorists we have seen since then who have blown up children at a concert in Manchester, or driven through crowds in Nice, in Berlin, on London’s bridges, and in Lower Manhattan, get radicalized by lurid jihadist snuff films and radical Islamist propaganda on social media sites. But you would be wrong.
The United States Can’t Rely on Turkey to Defeat ISIS
Erdogan wants to confront the Kurds, not t... more The United States Can’t Rely on Turkey to Defeat ISIS
Erdogan wants to confront the Kurds, not the Islamic State. Outsourcing the battle to Ankara will endanger America. By Colin P. Clarke, Ahmet S. Yayla | December 31, 2018, 10:01 PM
Apart from taking Turkish talking points at face value, there is a fundamental problem with this calculation. Ankara has often demonstrated a reluctance to take on the Islamic State directly, preferring instead to focus its energy and resources on countering the Kurds and Erdogan’s opposition.
Ankara has often demonstrated a reluctance to take on the Islamic State directly, preferring instead to focus its energy and resources on countering the Kurds and Erdogan’s opposition.
For years, Turkey has been playing a double game. Erdogan’s main objective is to prevent Syrian Kurds from consolidating more territory and establishing a corridor parallel to the southern Turkish border. Eradicating the Islamic State’s presence in Syria—and its networks within Turkey—is a secondary priority that has often been ignored entirely.
The ugliness of kleptocracy is often easy to see; in fact, it is inescapable. Those who have visi... more The ugliness of kleptocracy is often easy to see; in fact, it is inescapable. Those who have visited Libya report that for an oil state it has very unimpressive infrastructure. Indeed, it is littered with half or less finished construction projects. A good example is the 28th of March stadium in Benghazi: 232 million dinars in contracts given between 2008 and 2011, millions disbursed to the contractor, and the work is still unfinished. Many of these were undertaken by Turkish companies whose contracts were terminated for corruption after the February 2011 revolution when Libyans began to investigate the money spent in their name. While it is well known in the West that Gaddafi was massively corrupt, the corruption of Erdogan is less well known. https://investigativejournal.org/erdogans-sinister-game-in-libya-construction-corruption/
ICT, the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, 2019
Born of war and its exigencies, the Anatolia-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and H... more Born of war and its exigencies, the Anatolia-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) has been shaped by the pressures of war to take sides in the fratricidal conflicts to which it has been drawn since its formation in the Balkans wars of the early 1990s, the Iraq war, the conflict in Israel, and the continuing war against the Islamic State. Yet war may have had a compromising effect too upon self-understanding of the Turkish founders and administrators as well, since as Philip Snowden aptly observed, “Truth is the first casualty of war.” In that sense, IHH is as complex and conflicted as any organization produced by Turkish civilization in the late Twentieth Century. No observer can doubt its noble intents, its humane services to the hapless victims of war, and the wounded survivors of conflict. Its reach is vast over five continents, and its respect at the United Nations is evinced by its high status. By the same measure, its dual role in the cause of jihadism whether by the instrumentality of its Sunni variation in al-Qaeda, or Islamic State, or its collaboration with the Shia variation in Tehran, cannot be ignored. The evidence cited in the foregoing study should give the student of counterterrorism or the foreign policy practitioner pause before taking the noble self-understanding of IHH at face value.
The IHH has found itself fulfilling the needs of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the government of President Tayyip Erdogan, who himself has played a dual role in the fight against terrorism in Syria and Iraq. The scope of the IHH’s activities cannot be explained simply by its declared budget and resources. The IHH has served as a key humanitarian player in the Middle East region, collaborating with internationally recognized NGOs or the United Nations, yet without doubt – and despite public denials -- also serving as an ideological enabler of terrorist organizations. It is time to halt the illicit activities and connections of the IHH by listing it as a terrorist entity until at least the organization clearly and openly disconnects itself from terrorist groups and stops acting as an intermediary for jihadists.
This Research Note reports on preliminary results of the Islamic State Interviews Project, based ... more This Research Note reports on preliminary results of the Islamic State Interviews Project, based here on a sample of thirteen Syrian IS defectors who spoke on life inside the “Islamic State”(IS). A fuller and more systematic account will be published in early 2016 in book form. According to what we learned, all IS cadres undergo Shariah training in which they are imbued with a Takfiri ideology that allows them to deem all others, including Muslims, who disagree with IS’ extreme ideology, as apostates who should be killed. Despite this indoctrination, all of our informants (all Syrians) experienced their Shariah trainers as a positive influence since they allowed them to deepen their own religious understanding. In this sense, these disengaged defectors remained radicalized “true believers”. Following compulsory military training courses on weapons, explosives and physical fitness, they were sentto the front. Syrians who join IS are rewarded with salaried jobs which for young men translates into the ability to marry and for young women the money allows them to save their families from literal starvation. Foreign fighters receive additional rewards: wives, sexual slaves, and sometimes homes and cars. Daily life is punctuated by brutal practices – including floggings, torture and beheadings. Defections were the result of exposure to extreme brutality, disgust over the slave trade, observations of deep hypocrisy–a total mismatch between the words and deeds of IS. Charges of corruption and complaints about battlefield decisions that produced unnecessary deaths in their own ranks were also causes of disillusionment . Our informants all had come to hate IS and warn others not to join what they gradually came to see as a totally disappointing, ruthless and un-Islamic organization.
Erdogan’s Libyan Adventure: Turkey, Russia, Gas Pipelines and Missiles
by AHMET S. YAYLA
As a c... more Erdogan’s Libyan Adventure: Turkey, Russia, Gas Pipelines and Missiles
by AHMET S. YAYLA
As a ceasefire suddenly brings a pause to nine months of fighting for control of Libya’s capital, Turkish President Erdogan’s promise of military aid and even boots on the ground to the besieged UN-backed Tripoli government appears in a new light: not becoming involved in an endless war but perhaps bringing it to an end, with an improved strategic position.
Klaus Hock & Nina Käsehage (Eds.).’ Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’? Religion, Violence,... more Klaus Hock & Nina Käsehage (Eds.).’ Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’? Religion, Violence, Category Formation and Applied Research. Contested Fields in the Discourses of Scholarship.
(Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2020), 272 pp., US $ 52.95 [Paperback], ISBN: 978-3-6439-1275-6. Reviewed by Ahmet S. Yayla
‘Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’ focuses on overlooked and understudied questions of radical Islamic movements and the distinctive factors of such groups by considering theoretical and practical frameworks. Throughout this edited volume, the authors focus their analyses on discourses on radical Islam, political Islam, Islamic extremism, and religious violence. They do so by asking questions about what people are discussing when they refer to Salafism, Jihadism, and Islamic terrorism in order to try to overcome discrepancies in these terminologies.
This report investigates a new alignment within Erdogan’s political movement towards Russia and P... more This report investigates a new alignment within Erdogan’s political movement towards Russia and Putin along with Iran and China, through former leftist terrorist leader Dogu Perincek’s facilitation of Erdogan’s relationships with Putin. I was assigned to arrest Perincek, now 77, in 1999, as a counterterrorism police sergeant, and at the time I learned of his surprising ties to the upper levels of the Turkish military. I didn’t know, and it did not come out until this year, that back in 1984 the CIA had termed Perincek – a figure little known in the U.S.- a terrorist and designated his organization, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party of Turkey, TIKP, as a terrorist organization. We will see that Perincek’s ties with leftist military school students and mid-level officers developed from the early 70s during the cold war era. These ties have blossomed into alliances with top generals that make Perincek invaluable to Erdogan.
The decline of the Islamic State, nearly four years after its emergence, was the result of an agg... more The decline of the Islamic State, nearly four years after its emergence, was the result of an aggressive military campaign to combat the group spearheaded primarily by the United States. That has not stopped Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu from writing an article for Foreign Policy to take credit for the group’s demise, insisting that Turkey’s actions in northern Syria have helped lay the groundwork for a sustainable peace. What he neglected to mention is that it was Turkey’s actions, or perhaps the lack thereof, that helped fuel the rise of the Islamic State in the first place. The two most commonly cited factors leading to the growth of the Islamic State are the Syrian civil war and the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and its persecution of Sunni Arabs in Iraq. But another significant part of this story is the negligence exhibited by the Turkish state.
The Reina nightclub attack, which occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2017 in Istanbul,... more The Reina nightclub attack, which occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey, and the counterterrorism operations after the attack provide valuable security lessons. The attacker, Abdulkadir Masharipov, spent a year in a sleeper cell in Konya, Turkey, before receiving orders from his emir in Raqqa, Syria, using the Telegram app. He not only carried out an attack in the name of ISIS, killing 39 people and wounding many others, but also dodged police scrutiny at the scene by pretending to be one of the victims. ISIS has a heavy presence in Turkey, with several established cells and safe havens, and it has been openly threatening Turkey since the al-Bab military campaign in Syria. Turkey is a bridge between the East and West, and the danger of Turkey becoming the gateway for European terrorist activity cannot be ignored. With ISIS starting to lose vast territories in Syria and Iraq, Turkey’s capacity to counter terrorist threats and stem terrorist activity within its borders is critical for global security.
علّقت الولايات المتحدة مشاركة تركيا في البرنامج الخاص ببناء وتشغيل أحدث نسخة من الطائرة المقاتلة إف-35 وقد تفرض أيضا عقوبات اقتصادية على أنقرة، لكن الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان رفض التراجع أو التخلي عن فكرة صفقة منظومة الدفاع الصاروخي الروسية إس-400 التي فجرت الأزمة.
وقال أردوغان لمجموعة منتقاة من الصحفيين في إسطنبول قبل أسبوعين لدى تسلم تركيا الدفعة الأولى من مكونات المنظومة الصاروخية إس-400 "بغض النظر عن التحالفات السياسية والعسكرية لتركيا مع الغرب، لا نزال نتلقى أكبر تهديدات من الغرب، سواء السياسية أو الاقتصادية أو الثقافية، أو بجميع السبل."
The authors hadn't intended to put themselves in danger but that's what happened as they intervie... more The authors hadn't intended to put themselves in danger but that's what happened as they interviewed an unprecedented thirty-two battle-hardened defectors about the gritty details of life inside ISIS. With unparalleled breadth, depth and access, ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate offers a compelling view of ISIS from men, women and teens now in hiding, having escaped the most brutal terrorist group in recent history. They were fighters and commanders, wives of fighters-living and dead, female enforcers, and Cubs of the Caliphate, including a child who volunteered and almost got sent as a suicide bomber at age thirteen. They discuss motivations for joining and defecting, and delve into news-making topics: coercing children to become suicide bombers; brides of ISIS and the brutal female morality police; Yazidi and Sunni sex slaves held in massive compounds where fighters use them at will; privilege bestowed on foreign fighters; prisoners kept for the sole purpose of beheading by new inductees. The defectors shared a startling array of photos and videos from personal cell phones and many are included in the digital version of this book. An unexpected subplot unfolded when Dr. Yayla found himself tailed by ISIS, and Dr. Speckhard barely missed two suicide attacks. But the authors are not deterred. As counter-terrorism experts with specialties in research psychology and law enforcement, they see ISIS as more than a terrorist group. ISIS is a brand that falsely sells dignity and purpose, justice and the restoration of glory-to vulnerable recruits-masterfully recruiting some 30,000 members online. It's the biggest influx of foreign fighters to a terrorist haven in history. Using the defectors own words, the authors intend to break the ISIS brand. They have videotaped these interviews to edit them into short clips, memes and tweets for an online counter-offensive. Speckhard and Yayla state that disillusioned ISIS defectors are the most influential tool for countering ISIS propaganda. The persuasive voices of these defectors and the resulting videos will soon invade ISIS chat rooms where their propaganda thrives. With over one thousand active investigations in the U.S. across all 50 states, discrediting ISIS ideology is essential to stopping it.
This publication concerns three main topics:
- Dynamics of effective international cooperation ag... more This publication concerns three main topics: - Dynamics of effective international cooperation against terrorism: Facilitators and barriers; - Law enforcement response to terrorism in different countries and regions; - Emergency management lessons for Homeland Security. On the first topic on the role of international organizations, the barriers for cooperation and their solutions are explored. With respect to the second topic, several country’s legislative efforts against terrorism, the level of terrorism, experienced threat, and how law enforcement agencies fight terrorism in their respective states are handled. The third topic includes evaluations of the response and recovery operations that are implemented after terrorist attacks in order to enhance emergency management and homeland security policies and procedures as well as the integration of crisis and consequence management activities. The articles in this publication have been categorized in five parts: - International Police Cooperation - National Approaches to Terrorism - Responding to Terrorism - Terrorism Emergency Management - Closing Remarks This book can be a useful source to better understand and respond to the terrorism threat.
Abstract
This article studies different social aspects of terrorists and terrorist organizations ... more Abstract This article studies different social aspects of terrorists and terrorist organizations in an effort to better deal with terrorism, especially in the long run. The researcher, who also worked as a Police Captain at Turkish National Police Anti-Terrorism Department, seeks solutions to today's global problem by studying both literature and a Delphi examination of a survey of 1070 imprisoned terrorists. The researcher through his examination of the findings of the data presented that terrorism is a social phenomenon with criminal consequences that needs to be dealt by means of two dimensional approaches. The first is the social dimension of terrorism and the second is the criminal dimension of terrorism. Based on this, the researcher constructed a conceptual model which addresses both of these dimensions under the titles of long-term solutions and short-term solutions
A Chapter in this book
Gilly, T. A., Gilinskiy, Y., & Sergevnin, V.A., “The Ethics of Terrorism I... more A Chapter in this book Gilly, T. A., Gilinskiy, Y., & Sergevnin, V.A., “The Ethics of Terrorism Innovative Approaches from an International Perspective (17 Lectures)” Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD. Springfield, Illinois, USA, 2009.
Abstract. Turkey, located in Anatolia as frontline NATO Country, has been one of the world’s most... more Abstract. Turkey, located in Anatolia as frontline NATO Country, has been one of the world’s most important and at the same time historic land bridges linking Europe, Asia, and Africa. Furthermore, Turkey is surrounded by many neighboring regions such as the Middle East, Balkans, and former Soviet Stands where decades old political problems, terrorism and unrest existed. This significantly critical geo-political position with the catalyzing effects of world politics as well as the cold war and Turkey’s own political, social and economic problems made Turkey a suitable ground for many different terrorist organizations and organized crime groups. From this perspective, Turkey has been very open and vulnerable to different threats in the region including terrorism activities, weapon and drug smuggling, organized crime, human trafficking and the smuggling and use of the WMDs (radioactive materials or nuclear weapons). Consequently, being exposed to such problems at the region, Turkey has produced its own methods to deal with them. This article discusses where currently Turkey stands against the threats at her borders.
Was published in 2009 in Surveillance and Border Control on the NATO Frontier
Understanding Terrorism: Analysis of Sociological and Psychological Aspects, 2007
This study analyzes the recruitment process of the DHKP-C. In particular, the study analyzes indi... more This study analyzes the recruitment process of the DHKP-C. In particular, the study analyzes individual characteristics, family background, and political characteristics of the families, and explores these factors and tries to find out how they affect individual's decision to join terrorist organization. According to them, about half of the terrorists came from rural backgrounds as they were born either in a village or a farm, while 22 percent were born in towns and 30% were born in cities and suburbs. Members of terrorist organization tend to come from low-income families. Finally. the political preferences of the respondents and the conditions which facilitated the respondents to join the terrorist organization indicate that the vast majority of the respondents stated that they had connections with either leftist parties or radical leftist parties before they joined DHKP/C movement.
Teröristlerin faaliyetlerini devam ettirmeleri için finansal destek olmazsa olmaz şartlardan biri... more Teröristlerin faaliyetlerini devam ettirmeleri için finansal destek olmazsa olmaz şartlardan biridir. Ayrıca, finansla destek sağlama terör örgütlerinin eylem araçlarından birisidir. Terör örgütleri hayatta kalmalarının eylemliliğe ve eleman kazanmaya bunların ise finansal kaynaklar ile olacağını çok iyi anlamışlardır. Bir çok terör örgütüde günümüz dünyasının kompleksleşen şartlarına paralel olarak finansman metodlarını güncellemiş ve faaliyetlerine devam etmeyi başarmıştır. Terör örgütlerinin finasal kaynakları ideolojik ve bölgesel yapılanmalara bağlı olarak da farklılık gösterebilmektedir. Terör örgütleri, eleman temininden propogandaya, siyasi eğitimden, silahlı eğitime, mensuplarının barınmasından, iaşelerinin sağlanmasına, haberleşme giderlerinden, ulaşım giderlerine, eylemler için gerekli patlayıcı silah ve mühimmatın, temininden bunların nakliyesine kadar geniş bir alanda parasal desteğe ihtiyaç duymaktadırlar. Elbetteki bu finansal desteği de en kolay ve hızlı yöntemler ile sağlamak teroristler için çok önemlidir zira terör faaliyetleri devamlılık arzeder ve devamlılık arzeden bu faaliyetlerin sürekli finanse edilmesi gerekmektedir. Bu bağlamda, terör örgütleri faaliyetlerinin finansmanına gelince, büyük ölçüde organize suç örgütleri gibi hareket etmekter ve kendi ideolojileri adına gerektiğinde de şiddet ve cebir kullanarak kendilerine finans bulmaya çalışmaktadırlar. Terörizm ve ekonomiden bahsedildiğinde de genel olarak teröristlerin veya başka terör örgütlerinin finansmanları anlaşılmakta olup, teröristlerin ekonomik olarak hedef aldığı ülkelere ve o ülke vatandaşlarına verdikleri ekonomik zararlar biraz geri planda ve perde arkasında kalmaktadır. Fakat, konu bir bütün olarak ele alındığında, belki terörün hedef aldığı ülke ve toplumlara ekonomik olarak verdikleri zararlar terörün finasmanın önüne geçmektedir. Bu açıdan terörün finasmanı ve ekonomi ile ilişkilerini geniş olarak ele almak önem arz etmektedir. Terorizm ve ekonominin üç önemli açıdan ilişkileri bulunmaktadır. Öncelikle terorizm ve teroristlerin ekonomik olarak hedef aldıkları ülke ve topluma verdikleri zarar, daha sonra oluşturdukları ekonomik kaosun kendi çıkarları için kullanılması ve son olarakda terör örgütlerinin operasyonlarını sürdürmek için finansman ihtiyaçları ve bu ihtiyaçları karşılarken organize suç örgütleri ile yaptıkları işbirlikleri.
The 2020 Conference examines the role of hostage negotiations in countering terrorism. Please joi... more The 2020 Conference examines the role of hostage negotiations in countering terrorism. Please join our guest experts from the FBI's hostage negotiations team as they discuss: issues surrounding the role of hostage negotiations in counterterrorism operations the FBI's approach to dealing with crises involving terrorism contemporary trends and challenges in counterterrorism and hostage negotiations Keynote by Michael Driscoll
The Past, Present, and Future of Terrorism and its Prevention, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKgm8T6LiDc&feature=youtu.be DeSales University Center for Homela... more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKgm8T6LiDc&feature=youtu.be DeSales University Center for Homeland Security The Past, Present, and Future of Terrorism and its Prevention
Ahmet S. Yayla is a 20-year veteran of counter-terrorism in the Turkish National Police and a pro... more Ahmet S. Yayla is a 20-year veteran of counter-terrorism in the Turkish National Police and a professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies. He explains how Erdoğan’s government supported, financed, and helped ISIS and al-Qaeda flourish in Syria and the region.
My GMU talk at the F656 Spring 2018 The Road to Authoritarian Dictatorship
Course number : F... more My GMU talk at the F656 Spring 2018 The Road to Authoritarian Dictatorship
I'm proud to be one of the experts interviewed in this documentary “House of Saud: A Family at Wa... more I'm proud to be one of the experts interviewed in this documentary “House of Saud: A Family at War” aired on @BBCTwo
UpFront special: Is it over for ISIL?
We debate whether ISIL can be defeated, where their support... more UpFront special: Is it over for ISIL? We debate whether ISIL can be defeated, where their support comes from and how to stop them. For former Turkish counterterrorism police chief Ahmet Yayla, support for the group transcends territorial control.
"They have a solid ideology when it comes to reaching out to their supporters and the people who support them ideologically," says Yayla, who is also a fellow at the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. "So, it doesn’t matter from their perspective whether they’re losing or not."
In this UpFront special, an international panel of analysts examines and debates whether ISIL are on the decline, where they get their financial and ideological support from, and how to stop them.
Ahmet Yayla says that to defeat terrorists, you have to think like a terrorist.
He tells his crim... more Ahmet Yayla says that to defeat terrorists, you have to think like a terrorist. He tells his criminology students that they need to know the history of the culture and the motives of the organization. They need to understand the terrorists by reading their literature and viewing their videos. Which is what Yayla, a counterterrorism scholar and a professor at George Mason University, was doing in March when he came across a disturbing video on Telegram, an app popular with ISIS members. The short, stark video opens with a shot of a note written in Arabic and English proclaiming, “We are still here.” An ominous chant in Arabic promises deadly violence. The video camera then tilts up to reveal the bustling Antwerp Central train station in Belgium. It was the same chant, the same style of video and posted to the same video channel that preceded an attack in Istanbul that killed 39 people and wounded 70 at the Reina Nightclub. Yayla, who was chief of counterterrorism for Turkish police forces in Ankara and Sanliurfa for 20 years, said he knew the video was no hoax—“these guys don’t fool around,” he said—and contacted Belgian authorities who sprang into action. Arrests were made involving two terrorist cells, and several planned ISIS operations were disrupted, according to European reports. Yayla said his effort “saved time for police to look for [the terrorists]. We definitely saved lives.” In addition to monitoring terrorist activity posted to social media, Yayla’s specialty is interviewing ISIS defectors. His latest book (with Anne Speckhard) is called “ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate.”
Abstract: The Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve made clear the immense scale o... more Abstract: The Reina nightclub attack in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve made clear the immense scale of the Islamic State threat to Turkey. Investigations have shed new light on the group’s command and control over sleeper operatives in Turkey and the large network of clandestine cells and logistical and financial support elements it has set up to sustain terrorist activity. Turkish government complacency has allowed the threat to grow, as have purges of experienced counterterrorism professionals, including those after last year’s failed coup. As the Islamic State shows signs of crumbling in Syria and Iraq, Turkey now faces a nightmare scenario of a mass influx of Islamic State fighters into its territory.
Ahmet S. Yayla, Ph.D. is the Deputy Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Criminology, Law And Society at George Mason University. He Formerly served as Professor and the Chair of the Sociology Department at Harran University Şanlıurfa, Turkey and before that as Chief of Counter-terrorism and Operations Division for the Turkish National Police and Chief of Police in Şanlıurfa. Dr. Yayla earned both his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Criminal Justice and Information Science from the University of North Texas in the United States. Dr. Yayla's research focuses mainly on terrorism, radicalization and countering violence extremism (CVE).
CHURCH AND CULTURE – JANUARY 14, 2017 – HOUR 2 – AHMET S YAYLA AND ROBERT REILLY ON ISIS TERRORIS... more CHURCH AND CULTURE – JANUARY 14, 2017 – HOUR 2 – AHMET S YAYLA AND ROBERT REILLY ON ISIS TERRORISM
House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats
TURKEY AFTER THE JUL... more House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats
TURKEY AFTER THE JULY COUP ATTEMPT
September 14, 2016
Ahmet S Yayla, Ph.D.
Deputy Director International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE)
Turkey’s July Coup Attempt: “A Gift from God” to a new Authoritarianism The July 15, 2016 unsuccessful “coup” attempt in Turkey happened in the midst of exceptionally stressful times when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was going through both domestic and international crises which are essential to understand and better analyze how the so-called coup came about. In fact, as Erdogan himself addressed his supporters at the Ataturk airport just a few hours after the coup attempt, he called the coup “a gift from God” and later it became clear—that it provided the rationale for solving his many troubles and most importantly, the perfect opportunity to completely wipe out his growing opposition as he quickly grabbed authoritarian rule at a level he would never be able to attain through democratic means.
Dear Friends,
I will be presenting about our research through ICSVE, International Center for th... more Dear Friends,
I will be presenting about our research through ICSVE, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism with Dr. Anne Speckhard at the
Countering Violence Extremism Symposium, (Disrupt. Reimagine. Redefine.) Name of our presentation is:
“Disrupt, Disengage, Re-Direct: Tackling Terrorism from the Ground Up” Our panel is at 2:30 pm-3:15 pm on April 6, 2016 in the Hemisphere Suite A at Ronald Reagan building.
The Center for Turkish Studies at the Middle East Institute (MEI) and the Conflict Management Pro... more The Center for Turkish Studies at the Middle East Institute (MEI) and the Conflict Management Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) are pleased to welcome Charles Lister, Ahmet Sait Yayla, and Anne Speckhard in a discussion about why people take up arms with the Islamic State (ISIS).
Its declaration of a caliphate and its glorification of violence in pursuit of its aims have drawn adherents across the socioeconomic spectrum, from the United States and Europe to the Islamic world. Who are the people being recruited as ISIS militants, and why do they join? This expert panel will examine the allure of ISIS in Europe, Turkey, and the Arab world and effective strategies to stem its growth.
World Policy On Air is a podcast from the pages and website of World Policy Journal.
http://www.... more World Policy On Air is a podcast from the pages and website of World Policy Journal.
The tepid ceasefire in Syria that began at the end of last month has been ruptured by numerous violations on both sides. On today's episode of World Policy On Air, Ahmet S. Yayla, chairman of the Department of Sociology at Harran University in Şanlıurfa, Turkey, explains the connections between the continuing violence and the historically porous border between Syria and Turkey.
INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TERRORISM STUDIES AT POTOMAC INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES "Post-Attempte... more INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TERRORISM STUDIES AT POTOMAC INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES "Post-Attempted Coup in Turkey: Quo Vadis?"
Little is known about ISIS’ rule in Syria and Iraq and even less about its internal organizationa... more Little is known about ISIS’ rule in Syria and Iraq and even less about its internal organizational dealings. In ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate, Dr. Anne Speckhard and Dr. Ahmet S. Yayla provide an unparalleled examination of the internal workings of the group through 32 interviews with ISIS defectors. The defectors were fighters and commanders, wives of fighters—living and dead, female enforcers, and Cubs of the Caliphate, including a child who volunteered and almost got sent as a suicide bomber at age thirteen. They discuss motivations for joining and defecting, and delve into news-making topics: coercing children to become suicide bombers; brides of ISIS and the brutal female morality police; Yazidi and Sunni sex slaves held in massive compounds where fighters use them at will; privilege bestowed on foreign fighters; prisoners kept for the sole purpose of beheading by new inductees.
Follow the discussion online using #ISISDefectors following @NewAmericaISP.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase by credit card.
Participants:
Dr. Anne Speckhard Director, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) Co-Author, ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate @AnneSpeckhard
Dr. Ahmet Yayla Deputy Director, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) Co-Author, ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate @ahmetsyayla Moderator:
Peter Bergen Vice President, New America @peterbergencnn
Ahmet S. Yayla, Ph.D. is co-author of the just released book, ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate. He is Deputy Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) and is also Adjunct Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. He formerly served as Professor and the Chair of the Sociology Department at Harran University in Turkey. He is the former Chief of Counterterrorism and Operations Division for the Turkish National Police with a 20-year career interviewing terrorists.
His work was primarily concerned with terrorist and related activities of ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, Hezbollah, the PKK, and other global terrorist organizations and he was responsible for several successful operations against the above-listed terrorist organizations. Dr. Yayla designed and administered counter-terrorism and intelligence activities and operations for precautionary measures in city of Sanliurfa, located at the Turkish-Syrian border and at the borders of the current ongoing war-zone in Syria.
Dr. Yayla’s research mainly focuses on terrorism, radicalization, countering violence extremism (CVE) and the Middle East. He has earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees on the subject of terrorism and radicalization at the University of North Texas. He has authored and co-authored several articles and books on the subject of terrorism and violence including First Responders’ Guide to Professionally Interacting with Muslim Communities: Law Enforcement, Emergency and Fire Fighters, Understanding and Responding to Terrorism: A Complete Model to Deal with Terrorism and Terrorism: A Global Perspective.
In the wake of the failed coup in July, many questions have arisen both domestically and internat... more In the wake of the failed coup in July, many questions have arisen both domestically and internationally regarding Turkey's future political, social, economic, and strategic direction. Interdisciplinary academic experts provided assessments of likely developments in Turkey as well as the resulting implications for national, regional, and global security concerns.
World Policy On Air is a podcast from the pages and website of World Policy Journal.
Last week, ... more World Policy On Air is a podcast from the pages and website of World Policy Journal.
Last week, Turkey’s military staged a messy and failed coup that many opponents of President Tayip Edorgen suspect was anticipated by the leader for political ends. On today’s episode of World Policy On Air, Ahmet S. Yayla of Goerge Mason University and former Chief of Counterterrorism and Operations in the Turkish National Police discusses the extent to which the army underestimated Erdogan’s support among the Turkish people.
See All Arrest a teen, and his family members are instantly primed for radicalization and terrori... more See All Arrest a teen, and his family members are instantly primed for radicalization and terrorist recruitment. It's not because they believe in a radical ideology; it's because they love their families. Recruitment is a process. The question facing us, then, is, how can we interrupt that process and decrease the numbers of new recruits into Arrest a teen, and his family members are instantly primed for radicalization and terrorist recruitment. It's not because they believe in a radical ideology; it's because they love their families. Recruitment is a process. The question facing us, then, is, how can we interrupt that process and decrease the numbers of new recruits into more Preview Apple Podcasts
NOVEMBER 11, 2019
U.S.-Turkey Relations: Turkey's Lobbying Efforts
The Investigative Journal host... more NOVEMBER 11, 2019 U.S.-Turkey Relations: Turkey's Lobbying Efforts The Investigative Journal hosted a conference focusing on U.S.-Turkey relations. In this portion, panelists focused on Turkey’s lobbying efforts within the United States.
Roeder credits Dr. Ahmet Yayla, director of DeSales’ Center for Homeland Security, with helping t... more Roeder credits Dr. Ahmet Yayla, director of DeSales’ Center for Homeland Security, with helping to secure the internship. She was just one of the students who helped Yayla organize the center’s grand opening last fall. During the event, she was able to rub elbows with the special agent in charge out of Philadelphia.
“Dr. Yayla was definitely a big help with getting the connections,” she says. “The center opened up a broad range of avenues for all of us; there were state police, local police, federal agencies. Being able to talk to them and network was a great opportunity, and I think it’s going to do wonders in the future for other students.”
Erdogan's crimes are rediscovered by a former Turkish security official.
Harut Sassounian writer... more Erdogan's crimes are rediscovered by a former Turkish security official.
Harut Sassounian writer, presenter, political analyst of Armenian origin living in the US directly accuses the Turkish president of being a supporter of international terrorism and is seeking his referral to the international court.
"Last week, I reported that President Erdogan's office had sent a letter to the leaders of religious minorities in Turkey, asking them to sign it and send it back to the President. In that letter, Erdogan falsely claimed that Turkey was alone at the forefront of the fight against international terrorism. "
"Contrary to Erdogan's assertions, there have been dozens of reports in the international media proving that Turkey was at the forefront of those helping the ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
Ahmet S. Yayla is someone who has first-hand knowledge of the Turkish government's support for ISIS, having been the Head of the Counterterrorism Service and related businesses in Turkey from 2010 to 2013, conducting criminal investigations in the Turkish province of Sanliurfa since 2013. by 2014.
وإلى نص المقال:
تصدر الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان نشرات الأخبار مؤخرًا نتيجة دوره المثير للجدل ف... more وإلى نص المقال: تصدر الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان نشرات الأخبار مؤخرًا نتيجة دوره المثير للجدل في دعم أحد أطراف الصراع الليبي إلى جانب المرتزقة والجهاديين السوريين، ولكن وراء العناوين الرئيسية ما زال هناك المزيد من الأحداث الجارية، وتشير ثلاث حوادث حرجة حدثت مؤخرًا إلى أن أردوغان يستعد للقيام بخطوة مهمة، ربما تصل إلى تحول سيغير تركيا إلى الأبد.
التطور الأول الذي أحدثه أردوغان- والأكثر غموضًا في نفس الوقت بالنسبة لغير الأتراك- يتعلق بتمكين أردوغان التدريجي لإدارة المخابرات التابعة للشرطة الوطنية التركية (TNP)، ففي 17 يناير 2018 أصدرت رئاسة الجمهورية التركية مرسومًا رئاسيًا جديدًا يرفع مكانة مديرية المخابرات التابعة للشرطة الوطنية التركية.. هذا المكتب مسئول عن تنفيذ عمليات استخباراتية ضد المنظمات الإرهابية.
ويجب عدم الخلط بين مخابرات الشرطة «TNP» والمخابرات الوطنية التركية «MIT»، التي تشرف على كل من المخابرات المحلية والدولية ويقودها هاكان فيدان، المقرب من أردوغان، على المدى البعيد. http://aman.dostor.org/show.aspx?id=29641
IŞİD ile ilişkileri, son dönemde Suriye’deki cihatçıları Libya’ya nakletmesiyle Batı kamuoyunun g... more IŞİD ile ilişkileri, son dönemde Suriye’deki cihatçıları Libya’ya nakletmesiyle Batı kamuoyunun gündeminden düşmeyen Cumhurbaşkanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’ın manşet konusu olmayan üç önemli gelişme ile Türkiye’yi geri dönüşü mümkün olmayan bir değişime hazırladığı belirtiliyor.
DeSales Üniversitesi Ulusal Güvenlik Merkezi Direktörü Ahmet S. Yayla, ‘Erdoğan, Erdoğanistan’ı mı hazırlıyor?‘ başlıklı makalesinde Erdoğan’ın Türk devletini Politik İslam’a dönüştürmenin sinyallerini verdiğini belirtiyor.
Son dönemde yaşanan üç önemli gelişmeyi sıralayan Yayla, ilk gelişme olarak Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü’nde gidilen değişime işaret ediyor:
I am referenced in this @Tagesspiegel report "Turkey does not call it that, but in fact, the coun... more I am referenced in this @Tagesspiegel report "Turkey does not call it that, but in fact, the country has built a Turkish protectorate in the north of Syria" "Turkey extends influence in the occupied north of Syria" via @Tagesspiegel
"The entire administration of these cities is led by #Turkey, it is a kind of mandate," says Ahmet Yayla.
During the same week Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) admitted to the Atlant... more During the same week Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) admitted to the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg that Saudi nationals have funded terror groups, a prominent Georgetown University counterterrorism expert and field researcher has published his findings based on extensive interviews with former ISIS members which identifies Saudi Arabia as a key source of the now defunct Islamic State’s prior rapid growth.
The findings were summarized in the Government and Technology Services Coalition’s Homeland Security Today online journal, and authored by Georgetown University professor Ahmet Yayla, who during the past four years has interviewed over 40 ISIS defectors in Turkey while conducting on the ground research along Syria’s border.
A dangerous neighbour? Europe warned over ‘hiding’ jihadis in Turkey posing deadly threat
ISLAMIC... more A dangerous neighbour? Europe warned over ‘hiding’ jihadis in Turkey posing deadly threat ISLAMIC State terrorists are hiding across Turkey after “easily” being able to smuggle their way across the border from Syria, it has been claimed.
European nations are being warned to turn their attention back to Turkey which is becoming a haven for jihadis as the government focuses on fighting Kurdish forces, experts warned.
European reluctance to hold Erdogan to account for human rights violations and reticence to rock the boat since Turkey agreed to take in Europe-bound migrants from the Middle East has created a dangerous situation, it was said.
Former police chief Ahmet Yayla, a professor of criminology, law and society at George Mason University warned the west to be vigilant over its neighbour, where a blind sport currently exists.
He said: “Unfortunately this is the case, the Europeans are not taking this seriously enough.
Of questionable transactions with Islamists and the role of Erdogan and Putin
This puts it on th... more Of questionable transactions with Islamists and the role of Erdogan and Putin
This puts it on the table: Turkish arms supplies to Syrian rebel groups have not only knowledge, but carried out at the behest Erdoğan. after the testify of refugees to the United States former police chief of Şanlıurfa, Said ahmet Springs, should it off 2012 have acted to hundreds of transport, on the military supply for the Islamists organized.
Officially, they were as supplies of the Turkish IHH, International humanitarian aid organization, declared, the same organization, the Gaza flotilla in 2010 set up and provoked the violent incident with Israeli soldiers. Yayla testifies beyond, that IS fighters were able to move freely in the Turkish-Syrian border area, that they received medical care in hospitals in Şanlıurfa, met collusion with the local administration and enjoyed the protection of the MIT. The neighboring city of Gaziantep was a veritable hotbed of IS- and Al-Nusra-people.
A recent report by a former police chief claimed those travelling to the nation could well be w... more A recent report by a former police chief claimed those travelling to the nation could well be walking into an ISIS trap.
Ahmet Yayla Professor of Criminology and former counter-terrorism police chief has long warned about terror attacks in his homeland.
His report, called 'The Reina nightclub attack and the Islamic State threat to Turkey', claims there “may be as many as 2,000 hardcore fighters loyal to the ISIS inside Turkey”.
Last New Year’s eve, a rampaging gunman carried out a bloody assault on the Reina nightclub leaving 39 dead and a further 71 injured.
And today Turkish security forces detained 12 people with suspected ISIS links during anti-terror operations in Adana who were said to be planning a similar attack.
Three steps to stopping ISIS 'lone wolf' terror attacks
August 29, 2017
Ahmet Yayla
https://www... more Three steps to stopping ISIS 'lone wolf' terror attacks August 29, 2017
A rash of “lone wolf” attacks by ISIS followers has resulted in the deaths of scores of innocent victims, including at recent incidents in Barcelona, London, Brussels and Kaspiysk, Russia. George Mason University criminology professor Ahmet Yayla, a former Turkish chief of counterterrorism, said the terrorists are recruited by friends and family and are following several ISIS playbooks, including the 2017 “Lone Wolves Handbook.” Here he describes three ways of defusing future lone wolves: · Counterterrorism units must upgrade their intelligence activities. Suspected ISIS sympathizers’ connections should be closely watched on a prioritized list. This helps intelligence officers to easily understand if a suspect is planning an attack. · “Solid and sincere intelligence and information sharing is key,” Yayla said, not only domestically among law enforcement and intelligence agencies, but internationally. · “Salafist jihadi content on the internet and social media must be blocked and wiped off,” he said. ISIS is a “virtual caliphate,” recruiting remotely with propaganda and training videos. The terror-training eBook “How to Survive in the West” has been downloaded nearly 1.5 million times, typically on dark net sites and social media sites popular with jihadists. Remove it and remove much of the threat, he said. Ahmet Yayla can be reached at ayayla@gmu.edu. For more information, contact Buzz McClain at 703-727-0230 or bmcclai2@gmu.edu. About George Mason George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 35,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility.
Shortly after the attacks in Catalonia, where fifteen fatal casualties fell, IS followers are alr... more Shortly after the attacks in Catalonia, where fifteen fatal casualties fell, IS followers are already delighted. In a channel on the chat app Telegram they write texts as "Start your engine. Turn their sideways into your highway to paradise. "Six hours after Ahmet S. Yayla, professor of American George Mason University, accidentally twisted screenshots of this kind of remarks, Telegram closed the channel. "Nearly a new, similar channel opened," Yayla said to NRC. "It's a vicious circle. I know Telegram channels where openly the most violent extremist images and texts are shared, open for months and not closed. "
"Encontrar evidência"
Existem outras formas de avaliar se o Estado Islâmico diz a verdade ou se m... more "Encontrar evidência" Existem outras formas de avaliar se o Estado Islâmico diz a verdade ou se mente sobre um atentado, além das redes sociais. Van que atropelou pedestres em Barcelona é removida por guinchoDireito de imagemREUTERS Image caption Em Barcelona, autores do ataque usaram uma van alugada na cidade. "Não devemos aceitar o que o EI afirma, mas sim investigar mais profundamente e tratar de encontrar evidências", adverte à BBC Mundo Ahmet S Yayla, ex-chefe de contraterrorismo da polícia da Turquia. Os procedimentos incluem buscas nos domicílios dos suspeitos de realizar os ataques, em seus computadores, e-mails e telefones celulares, assinala Yayla, que atualmente é investigador do departamento de criminologia, direito e sociedade da Universidade George Mason, nos Estados Unidos. Em diferentes casos, os investigadores descobriram mensagens entre os acusados de realizar ataques no Ocidente e membros do EI no Oriente Médio. Também foram divulgados vídeos e áudios de autores de atentados jurando lealdade a Al Baghdadi, líder do EI. Caminhão que atropelou e matou pessoas em Nice, na França, em 2016Direito de imagemAFP Image caption O atropelamento massivo, como em Nice, se converteu em um novo modus operandi do Estado Islâmico no Ocidente. Algo que chama a atenção é que a organização evitou reivindicar certos ataques que lhe foram atribuídos, como o de Edward Archer, um homem que baleou um policial na Filadélfia, Estados Unidos, no ano passado, jurando lealdade ao EI. Por outro lado, às vezes se levanta dúvidas se um atentado foi programado diretamente pelo EI ou apenas inspirado por este, mas os especialistas negam que se possa fazer tal distinção. "O Estado Islâmico claramente ordenou seus seguidores a levarem a cabo este tipo de ataque. Então, se alguém realiza um ataque em nome do EI de uma forma similar, está basicamente seguindo ordens da organização terrorista", afirma Yayla. E conclui: "Posso ver claramente que a série de ataques na Espanha são ataques do EI".
Resisting the Islamic State from Within
Heroes in obscurity.
MICHAEL RUBIN / AUG. 14, 2017
IS... more Resisting the Islamic State from Within
Heroes in obscurity.
MICHAEL RUBIN / AUG. 14, 2017
ISIS brought a reign of terror down upon the territory it controlled. And while many more residents welcomed and, indeed, collaborated with the group, others resisted. Some have written about the tremendous risks that local and often anonymous journalists took to transmit the reality of life under ISIS to the outside world.
Until now, little has been known about how those arrested and tortured by the Islamic State resisted their captors. A new International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism report, “The ISIS Prison System: Its Structure, Departmental Affiliations, Processes, Conditions, and Practices of Psychological and Physical Torture,” changes that.
Utilizing interviews with dozens of ISIS defectors, returnees, and former prisoners, it traces the process and mechanism by which various organizations within the Islamic State would arrest prisoners, process them, interrogate them, and seek to indoctrinate them. After all, while ISIS would execute many prisoners and use their murders to produce grizzly recruitment videos, many other detainees would serve sentences and be subject to re-education. Many sought to deceive their captors. In one instance, cited by the report:
Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and less lethal methods of counteri... more Preventing terrorist recruitment is one of the most effective and less lethal methods of countering terrorism, and yet it is often overlooked. This article describes a program designed and administered by the author to prevent terrorist recruitment through early intervention, by promoting the involvement of the families of potential recruits in their children's activities and in a counterterrorism program that was developed and implemented in Sanliurfa, Turkey, for four years, from 2010 to 2014. The article details the concept and structure of the program, provides insights on how it was developed and administered, and presents the data, an analysis, and the findings. In addition, this article reports on the outcomes of the program and offers insights into why the youth in Sanliurfa were struggling to break their ties with terrorist organizations.
The United States and its allies continue to achieve significant military victories against ISIS ... more The United States and its allies continue to achieve significant military victories against ISIS (otherwise known as ISIL or the "Islamic State"). The loss of territories resulting from military victories is especially important given that ISIS relies in part on recruits from the territories it controls. Efforts have also been directed at killing the group's core leadership; stemming the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria through tightening up border security and surveillance; and targeting militant jihadi narratives and propaganda that is pushed out by ISIS on a twentyfour/seven basis via the Internet and social media platforms. In such a complicated security landscape, a new discourse on ISIS is born-its allure, threat, grandeur, lawlessness, and violence have emerged as the "new normal" in Syria and Iraq, and recently have spilled out to Western Europe and beyond in home grown and ISIS directed attacks. While cognizant of the progress achieved in the fight against ISIS, this article, in particular, highlights the dangers emanating from the group's continuing online, as well as face-to-face, recruiting success in the This article
ISIS recruits on a 24/7 basis in over 21 languages over the Internet using videos, memes, tweets ... more ISIS recruits on a 24/7 basis in over 21 languages over the Internet using videos, memes, tweets and other social media postings and swarming in on anyone that retweets, likes or endorses their materials to try to seduce them into the group. Their unprecedented social media drive has resulted in over 30,000 foreign fighters from more than 100 countries migrating to Syria and Iraq. ISIS recruitment in the U.S. is for the most part Internet based and has resulted in the actual and attempted recruitment of over 100 individuals residing in the U.S. with over 200 Americans traveling to Syria to join terrorist groups. To date very little counter-narrative material exists and most of it is cognitive versus emotionally impactful. The International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) Breaking the ISIS Brand – the ISIS Defectors Interviews Project has managed to collect 43 ISIS defector interviews and thus far produce two video clips of ISIS defectors denouncing the group wh...
Thirty‐eight ISIS defectors from Syria, Western Europe, and the Balkans interviewed over the last... more Thirty‐eight ISIS defectors from Syria, Western Europe, and the Balkans interviewed over the last year in our ISIS Defectors Interviews Project reported about life inside ISIS and their reasons for ultimately risking their lives to escape. The defectors also shared their observations of the ISIS intelligence operation—known in Arabic as the " Emni. " From the defectors' detailed stories, supplemented with journalists' reports, and our own experiences interviewing terrorists over the years, we have been able to piece together a chilling view of the structure, leadership,
Nature abhors a vacuum, and this is never truer than on the Syrian killing fields. With the Islam... more Nature abhors a vacuum, and this is never truer than on the Syrian killing fields. With the Islamic State’s surviving fighters relegated to small pockets of the most austere bastions of the Syrian desert, the Turkish army likely sees an opportunity to capture Syria’s northern border, in order to project power, consolidate territory and expand its own sphere of influence throughout the near abroad. If the United States wants to cement hard-fought gains, it should consider pushing for a political settlement in Syria. That is the only way for the major powers in the conflict can hash out their issues at the negotiating table while avoiding further military incursions, which will only prolong the insurgency and make the prospect of post-conflict reconstruction even more daunting. http://nationalinterest.org/feature/whats-turkey-trying-achieve-syria-25162?page=show
This research note reports on preliminary results of the Islamic State Interviews Project, based ... more This research note reports on preliminary results of the Islamic State Interviews Project, based here on a sample of thirteen Syrian IS defectors who spoke on life inside the “Islamic State”(IS). . A fuller and more systematic account will be published in early 2016 in book form. According to what we learned, all IS cadres undergo Shariah training in which they are imbued with a Takfiri ideology that allows them to deem all others, including Muslims, who disagree with IS’ extreme ideology, as apostates who should be killed. Despite this indoctrination, all of our informants (all are Syrians) experienced their Shariah trainers as a positive influence since they allowed them to deepen their own religious understanding. In this sense, these disengaged defectors remained radicalized “true believers”. They also had been given military training–learning to handle weapons, explosives, and undergoing exercise. Following these compulsory courses, they were sent to the front. Syrians who join...
The Barcelona murders are leading counter-terror specialists to study a new ISIS doctrine urging ... more The Barcelona murders are leading counter-terror specialists to study a new ISIS doctrine urging assassins to burrow into their adopted nations in the West and to plan complex attacks in place. Just a year after his death by a missile strike near Aleppo, Syria, the strategic doctrine of the Islamic State Intelligence director, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, is much alive through his calls to all ISIS agents in the West to carry out attacks in the countries where they live.
Тurkey has been ruled by a declared State of Emergency since the July 2016 coup attempt, allowing... more Тurkey has been ruled by a declared State of Emergency since the July 2016 coup attempt, allowing President Erdogan to consolidate additional powers and target not just those responsible for the coup, but allegedly also those who hold or express opposing political views. The Turkish Government has been using State of Emergency Decrees to fire people, close media outlets, and swiftly pass regulations and laws they deem necessary without going through parliament and the normal checks and balances – regulations and laws which would be expected to face harsh criticism and opposition under normal circumstances.
Uploads
Papers by Ahmet S Yayla
https://isisfiles.gwu.edu/concern/reports/4t64gn166?locale=en
https://icct.nl/app/uploads/2021/01/Handbook-Ch-13-Yayla-final.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334256498_Turkish_ISIS_and_AQ_Foreign_Fighters_Reconciling_the_Numbers_and_Perception_of_the_Terrorism_Threat/stats
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1057610X.2019.1628613?scroll=top&needAccess=true
http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/573/html
https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-reina-nightclub-attack-and-the-islamic-state-threat-to-turkey
A table descends to your tent, Jesus’s table.
Expect to see it, when you fast, this table spreads with other food better than the broth of cabbages.” — Mevlana J. Rumi (1207 – 1273)
Dr Ahmet Yayla
Dr. Ahmet Yayla, Assistant Professor; Director, Center for Homeland Security
The month of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims comparable to the season of Lent, is a time of devotion to God through fasting, spiritual and physical cleansing, self-discipline, and charity.
Nevertheless, these struggles are part of the religion, too. As the Prophet Muhammad said: “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.”
Even while facing a difficult situation like the coronavirus pandemic, there should always be a positive side, reminding us to once again protect and care for ourselves, communities, and one another.
On this occasion, let’s pray for our families, the DeSales community, our nation, and humanity to seek refuge in God from the worst of diseases, and do our best to extend our hands to the needy with the spirit of Ramadan.
http://wp.desales.edu/dsu-daily/2020/05/04/ramadan-reflections-at-desales-dr-ahmet-yayla/?utm_source=DSU+DAILY+MASTER+LIST+2019-2020&utm_campaign=1c4a41ae43-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_28_12_28_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_936886a251-1c4a41ae43-105227825
However, this historical trend does not necessarily mean that terrorists are winning. The most important step after this point should be translating success on the battlefield to a long-term victory, which will require short and long-term security policies and rigorous, bitter diplomacy in collaboration with the international community. Keys to gaining the upper hand will include reaching out to vulnerable populations to prevent future terrorist recruitment, unraveling ongoing propaganda and recruitment structures, better counterterrorism intelligence, and vigorous public engagement with Salafist jihadi ideology.
https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/terrorism-study/perspective-a-holistic-approach-to-preventing-and-countering-foreign-fighter-terrorist-threats-in-the-long-run/
By Ahmet S. Yayla
Aug. 9, 2017 7:14 p.m. ET
4 COMMENTS
Islamic State’s plan to blow up a commercial jet out of Sydney last month was “one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil,” police said last week. For reasons that aren’t yet clear, the terrorists aborted the attack, and police are confident the bomb would not have made it through airport security. Still, terrorists managed to acquire plastic explosives and the components needed to set it off—all shipped by airmail from Turkey. The Australian authorities discovered the plan only when, nearly two weeks later, they received a tip from a foreign intelligence service.
Make no mistake: Islamic State jihadists will continue trying to carry out spectacular terrorist attacks in the West. ISIS has lost control of Mosul, Iraq, where an estimated 30,000 of its fighters were killed. Now it is being pushed out of its putative capital, Raqqa, Syria. As it begins to look less like a traditional state and more like an insurgency, ISIS fighters will try to mobilize sympathizers around the world.
Last month, for instance, ISIS affiliates in Turkey released the “Lone Wolf’s Handbook,” a manual of 60-some pages, with dozens of illustrations, that explains the most efficient way to make a bomb or drive a truck into pedestrians. Such attacks are meant to prove that ISIS still exists and reinforce its bragging rights as the meanest, most fearsome warriors for Islamism. They’re also meant to dominate the news, particularly in the West, to help recruit future jihadists.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/isis-airmail-the-bomb-shipped-from-turkey-to-australia-1502320475
Case in point: We still don’t know what was recovered from the San Bernardino attacker’s iPhone after it was unlocked by a third party for the FBI and whether the attacker had communicated with other terrorists prior to the mass shooting.
And Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the attackers in Paris, joined ISIS simply because he was very close friends with other members of the ISIS Belgian cell; not because he was ideologically tied to the terrorist organization.
You might think that these and the many so-called lone wolf terrorists we have seen since then who have blown up children at a concert in Manchester, or driven through crowds in Nice, in Berlin, on London’s bridges, and in Lower Manhattan, get radicalized by lurid jihadist snuff films and radical Islamist propaganda on social media sites. But you would be wrong.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pulling-the-plug-on-the-isis-virtual-caliphate?via=ios
Erdogan wants to confront the Kurds, not the Islamic State. Outsourcing the battle to Ankara will endanger America.
By Colin P. Clarke, Ahmet S. Yayla | December 31, 2018, 10:01 PM
Apart from taking Turkish talking points at face value, there is a fundamental problem with this calculation. Ankara has often demonstrated a reluctance to take on the Islamic State directly, preferring instead to focus its energy and resources on countering the Kurds and Erdogan’s opposition.
Ankara has often demonstrated a reluctance to take on the Islamic State directly, preferring instead to focus its energy and resources on countering the Kurds and Erdogan’s opposition.
For years, Turkey has been playing a double game. Erdogan’s main objective is to prevent Syrian Kurds from consolidating more territory and establishing a corridor parallel to the southern Turkish border. Eradicating the Islamic State’s presence in Syria—and its networks within Turkey—is a secondary priority that has often been ignored entirely.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/31/the-united-states-cant-rely-on-turkey-to-defeat-isis-kurds-syria-ypg-erdogan/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348418954_Erdogan's_Sinister_Game_in_Libya_Construction_Corruption
The IHH has found itself fulfilling the needs of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the government of President Tayyip Erdogan, who himself has played a dual role in the fight against terrorism in Syria and Iraq. The scope of the IHH’s activities cannot be explained simply by its declared budget and resources. The IHH has served as a key humanitarian player in the Middle East region, collaborating with internationally recognized NGOs or the United Nations, yet without doubt – and despite public denials -- also serving as an ideological enabler of terrorist organizations. It is time to halt the illicit activities and connections of the IHH by listing it as a terrorist entity until at least the organization clearly and openly disconnects itself from terrorist groups and stops acting as an intermediary for jihadists.
https://www.ict.org.il/Article/2397/IHH#gsc.tab=0
is punctuated by brutal practices – including floggings, torture and beheadings. Defections were the result of exposure to extreme brutality, disgust over the slave trade, observations of deep hypocrisy–a total mismatch between the words and deeds of IS. Charges of corruption and complaints about battlefield decisions that produced unnecessary deaths in their own ranks were also causes of disillusionment . Our informants all had come to hate IS and warn others not to join what they gradually came to see as a totally disappointing, ruthless and un-Islamic organization.
by AHMET S. YAYLA
As a ceasefire suddenly brings a pause to nine months of fighting for control of Libya’s capital, Turkish President Erdogan’s promise of military aid and even boots on the ground to the besieged UN-backed Tripoli government appears in a new light: not becoming involved in an endless war but perhaps bringing it to an end, with an improved strategic position.
https://investigativejournal.org/erdogans-libyan-adventure-turkey-russia-gas-pipelines-and-missiles/
(Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2020), 272 pp., US $ 52.95 [Paperback], ISBN: 978-3-6439-1275-6. Reviewed by Ahmet S. Yayla
‘Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’ focuses on overlooked and understudied questions of radical Islamic movements and the distinctive factors of such groups by considering theoretical and practical frameworks. Throughout this edited volume, the authors focus their analyses on discourses on radical Islam, political Islam, Islamic extremism, and religious violence. They do so by asking questions about what people are discussing when they refer to Salafism, Jihadism, and Islamic terrorism in order to try to overcome discrepancies in these terminologies.
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/binaries/content/assets/customsites/perspectives-on-terrorism/2020/issue-3/yayla.pdf
https://investigativejournal.org/the-strange-case-of-perincek-erdogan-and-the-russia-triangle/
https://twitter.com/ahmetsyayla/status/1171915933964800000?s=20
What he neglected to mention is that it was Turkey’s actions, or perhaps the lack thereof, that helped fuel the rise of the Islamic State in the first place. The two most commonly cited factors leading to the growth of the Islamic State are the Syrian civil war and the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and its persecution of Sunni Arabs in Iraq. But another significant part of this story is the negligence exhibited by the Turkish state.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/12/turkeys-double-isis-standard/#
http://perconcordiam.com/isis-in-turkey/
علّقت الولايات المتحدة مشاركة تركيا في البرنامج الخاص ببناء وتشغيل أحدث نسخة من الطائرة المقاتلة إف-35 وقد تفرض أيضا عقوبات اقتصادية على أنقرة، لكن الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان رفض التراجع أو التخلي عن فكرة صفقة منظومة الدفاع الصاروخي الروسية إس-400 التي فجرت الأزمة.
وقال أردوغان لمجموعة منتقاة من الصحفيين في إسطنبول قبل أسبوعين لدى تسلم تركيا الدفعة الأولى من مكونات المنظومة الصاروخية إس-400 "بغض النظر عن التحالفات السياسية والعسكرية لتركيا مع الغرب، لا نزال نتلقى أكبر تهديدات من الغرب، سواء السياسية أو الاقتصادية أو الثقافية، أو بجميع السبل."
https://isisfiles.gwu.edu/concern/reports/4t64gn166?locale=en
https://icct.nl/app/uploads/2021/01/Handbook-Ch-13-Yayla-final.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334256498_Turkish_ISIS_and_AQ_Foreign_Fighters_Reconciling_the_Numbers_and_Perception_of_the_Terrorism_Threat/stats
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1057610X.2019.1628613?scroll=top&needAccess=true
http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/573/html
https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-reina-nightclub-attack-and-the-islamic-state-threat-to-turkey
A table descends to your tent, Jesus’s table.
Expect to see it, when you fast, this table spreads with other food better than the broth of cabbages.” — Mevlana J. Rumi (1207 – 1273)
Dr Ahmet Yayla
Dr. Ahmet Yayla, Assistant Professor; Director, Center for Homeland Security
The month of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims comparable to the season of Lent, is a time of devotion to God through fasting, spiritual and physical cleansing, self-discipline, and charity.
Nevertheless, these struggles are part of the religion, too. As the Prophet Muhammad said: “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place.”
Even while facing a difficult situation like the coronavirus pandemic, there should always be a positive side, reminding us to once again protect and care for ourselves, communities, and one another.
On this occasion, let’s pray for our families, the DeSales community, our nation, and humanity to seek refuge in God from the worst of diseases, and do our best to extend our hands to the needy with the spirit of Ramadan.
http://wp.desales.edu/dsu-daily/2020/05/04/ramadan-reflections-at-desales-dr-ahmet-yayla/?utm_source=DSU+DAILY+MASTER+LIST+2019-2020&utm_campaign=1c4a41ae43-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_28_12_28_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_936886a251-1c4a41ae43-105227825
However, this historical trend does not necessarily mean that terrorists are winning. The most important step after this point should be translating success on the battlefield to a long-term victory, which will require short and long-term security policies and rigorous, bitter diplomacy in collaboration with the international community. Keys to gaining the upper hand will include reaching out to vulnerable populations to prevent future terrorist recruitment, unraveling ongoing propaganda and recruitment structures, better counterterrorism intelligence, and vigorous public engagement with Salafist jihadi ideology.
https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/terrorism-study/perspective-a-holistic-approach-to-preventing-and-countering-foreign-fighter-terrorist-threats-in-the-long-run/
By Ahmet S. Yayla
Aug. 9, 2017 7:14 p.m. ET
4 COMMENTS
Islamic State’s plan to blow up a commercial jet out of Sydney last month was “one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian soil,” police said last week. For reasons that aren’t yet clear, the terrorists aborted the attack, and police are confident the bomb would not have made it through airport security. Still, terrorists managed to acquire plastic explosives and the components needed to set it off—all shipped by airmail from Turkey. The Australian authorities discovered the plan only when, nearly two weeks later, they received a tip from a foreign intelligence service.
Make no mistake: Islamic State jihadists will continue trying to carry out spectacular terrorist attacks in the West. ISIS has lost control of Mosul, Iraq, where an estimated 30,000 of its fighters were killed. Now it is being pushed out of its putative capital, Raqqa, Syria. As it begins to look less like a traditional state and more like an insurgency, ISIS fighters will try to mobilize sympathizers around the world.
Last month, for instance, ISIS affiliates in Turkey released the “Lone Wolf’s Handbook,” a manual of 60-some pages, with dozens of illustrations, that explains the most efficient way to make a bomb or drive a truck into pedestrians. Such attacks are meant to prove that ISIS still exists and reinforce its bragging rights as the meanest, most fearsome warriors for Islamism. They’re also meant to dominate the news, particularly in the West, to help recruit future jihadists.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/isis-airmail-the-bomb-shipped-from-turkey-to-australia-1502320475
Case in point: We still don’t know what was recovered from the San Bernardino attacker’s iPhone after it was unlocked by a third party for the FBI and whether the attacker had communicated with other terrorists prior to the mass shooting.
And Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the attackers in Paris, joined ISIS simply because he was very close friends with other members of the ISIS Belgian cell; not because he was ideologically tied to the terrorist organization.
You might think that these and the many so-called lone wolf terrorists we have seen since then who have blown up children at a concert in Manchester, or driven through crowds in Nice, in Berlin, on London’s bridges, and in Lower Manhattan, get radicalized by lurid jihadist snuff films and radical Islamist propaganda on social media sites. But you would be wrong.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pulling-the-plug-on-the-isis-virtual-caliphate?via=ios
Erdogan wants to confront the Kurds, not the Islamic State. Outsourcing the battle to Ankara will endanger America.
By Colin P. Clarke, Ahmet S. Yayla | December 31, 2018, 10:01 PM
Apart from taking Turkish talking points at face value, there is a fundamental problem with this calculation. Ankara has often demonstrated a reluctance to take on the Islamic State directly, preferring instead to focus its energy and resources on countering the Kurds and Erdogan’s opposition.
Ankara has often demonstrated a reluctance to take on the Islamic State directly, preferring instead to focus its energy and resources on countering the Kurds and Erdogan’s opposition.
For years, Turkey has been playing a double game. Erdogan’s main objective is to prevent Syrian Kurds from consolidating more territory and establishing a corridor parallel to the southern Turkish border. Eradicating the Islamic State’s presence in Syria—and its networks within Turkey—is a secondary priority that has often been ignored entirely.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/31/the-united-states-cant-rely-on-turkey-to-defeat-isis-kurds-syria-ypg-erdogan/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348418954_Erdogan's_Sinister_Game_in_Libya_Construction_Corruption
The IHH has found itself fulfilling the needs of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the government of President Tayyip Erdogan, who himself has played a dual role in the fight against terrorism in Syria and Iraq. The scope of the IHH’s activities cannot be explained simply by its declared budget and resources. The IHH has served as a key humanitarian player in the Middle East region, collaborating with internationally recognized NGOs or the United Nations, yet without doubt – and despite public denials -- also serving as an ideological enabler of terrorist organizations. It is time to halt the illicit activities and connections of the IHH by listing it as a terrorist entity until at least the organization clearly and openly disconnects itself from terrorist groups and stops acting as an intermediary for jihadists.
https://www.ict.org.il/Article/2397/IHH#gsc.tab=0
is punctuated by brutal practices – including floggings, torture and beheadings. Defections were the result of exposure to extreme brutality, disgust over the slave trade, observations of deep hypocrisy–a total mismatch between the words and deeds of IS. Charges of corruption and complaints about battlefield decisions that produced unnecessary deaths in their own ranks were also causes of disillusionment . Our informants all had come to hate IS and warn others not to join what they gradually came to see as a totally disappointing, ruthless and un-Islamic organization.
by AHMET S. YAYLA
As a ceasefire suddenly brings a pause to nine months of fighting for control of Libya’s capital, Turkish President Erdogan’s promise of military aid and even boots on the ground to the besieged UN-backed Tripoli government appears in a new light: not becoming involved in an endless war but perhaps bringing it to an end, with an improved strategic position.
https://investigativejournal.org/erdogans-libyan-adventure-turkey-russia-gas-pipelines-and-missiles/
(Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2020), 272 pp., US $ 52.95 [Paperback], ISBN: 978-3-6439-1275-6. Reviewed by Ahmet S. Yayla
‘Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’ focuses on overlooked and understudied questions of radical Islamic movements and the distinctive factors of such groups by considering theoretical and practical frameworks. Throughout this edited volume, the authors focus their analyses on discourses on radical Islam, political Islam, Islamic extremism, and religious violence. They do so by asking questions about what people are discussing when they refer to Salafism, Jihadism, and Islamic terrorism in order to try to overcome discrepancies in these terminologies.
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/binaries/content/assets/customsites/perspectives-on-terrorism/2020/issue-3/yayla.pdf
https://investigativejournal.org/the-strange-case-of-perincek-erdogan-and-the-russia-triangle/
https://twitter.com/ahmetsyayla/status/1171915933964800000?s=20
What he neglected to mention is that it was Turkey’s actions, or perhaps the lack thereof, that helped fuel the rise of the Islamic State in the first place. The two most commonly cited factors leading to the growth of the Islamic State are the Syrian civil war and the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and its persecution of Sunni Arabs in Iraq. But another significant part of this story is the negligence exhibited by the Turkish state.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/12/turkeys-double-isis-standard/#
http://perconcordiam.com/isis-in-turkey/
علّقت الولايات المتحدة مشاركة تركيا في البرنامج الخاص ببناء وتشغيل أحدث نسخة من الطائرة المقاتلة إف-35 وقد تفرض أيضا عقوبات اقتصادية على أنقرة، لكن الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان رفض التراجع أو التخلي عن فكرة صفقة منظومة الدفاع الصاروخي الروسية إس-400 التي فجرت الأزمة.
وقال أردوغان لمجموعة منتقاة من الصحفيين في إسطنبول قبل أسبوعين لدى تسلم تركيا الدفعة الأولى من مكونات المنظومة الصاروخية إس-400 "بغض النظر عن التحالفات السياسية والعسكرية لتركيا مع الغرب، لا نزال نتلقى أكبر تهديدات من الغرب، سواء السياسية أو الاقتصادية أو الثقافية، أو بجميع السبل."
- Dynamics of effective international cooperation against terrorism: Facilitators and barriers;
- Law enforcement response to terrorism in different countries and regions;
- Emergency management lessons for Homeland Security.
On the first topic on the role of international organizations, the barriers for cooperation and their solutions are explored. With respect to the second topic, several country’s legislative efforts against terrorism, the level of terrorism, experienced threat, and how law enforcement agencies fight terrorism in their respective states are handled. The third topic includes evaluations of the response and recovery operations that are implemented after terrorist attacks in order to enhance emergency management and homeland security policies and procedures as well as the integration of crisis and consequence management activities.
The articles in this publication have been categorized in five parts:
- International Police Cooperation
- National Approaches to Terrorism
- Responding to Terrorism
- Terrorism Emergency Management
- Closing Remarks
This book can be a useful source to better understand and respond to the terrorism threat.
This article studies different social aspects of terrorists and terrorist organizations in an effort to better deal with terrorism, especially in the long run. The researcher, who also worked as a Police Captain at Turkish National Police Anti-Terrorism Department, seeks solutions to today's global problem by studying both literature and a Delphi examination of a survey of 1070 imprisoned terrorists. The researcher through his examination of the findings of the data presented that terrorism is a social phenomenon with criminal consequences that needs to be dealt by means of two dimensional approaches. The first is the social dimension of terrorism and the second is the criminal dimension of terrorism. Based on this, the researcher constructed a conceptual model which addresses both of these dimensions under the titles of long-term solutions and short-term solutions
http://ebooks.iospress.nl/publication/8786
Gilly, T. A., Gilinskiy, Y., & Sergevnin, V.A., “The Ethics of Terrorism Innovative Approaches from an International Perspective (17 Lectures)” Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD. Springfield, Illinois, USA, 2009.
Was published in 2009 in Surveillance and Border Control on the NATO Frontier
http://ebooks.iospress.nl/volume/understanding-terrorism-analysis-of-sociological-and-psychological-aspects
Terör örgütleri, eleman temininden propogandaya, siyasi eğitimden, silahlı eğitime, mensuplarının barınmasından, iaşelerinin sağlanmasına, haberleşme giderlerinden, ulaşım giderlerine, eylemler için gerekli patlayıcı silah ve mühimmatın, temininden bunların nakliyesine kadar geniş bir alanda parasal desteğe ihtiyaç duymaktadırlar. Elbetteki bu finansal desteği de en kolay ve hızlı yöntemler ile sağlamak teroristler için çok önemlidir zira terör faaliyetleri devamlılık arzeder ve devamlılık arzeden bu faaliyetlerin sürekli finanse edilmesi gerekmektedir. Bu bağlamda, terör örgütleri faaliyetlerinin finansmanına gelince, büyük ölçüde organize suç örgütleri gibi hareket etmekter ve kendi ideolojileri adına gerektiğinde de şiddet ve cebir kullanarak kendilerine finans bulmaya çalışmaktadırlar.
Terörizm ve ekonomiden bahsedildiğinde de genel olarak teröristlerin veya başka terör örgütlerinin finansmanları anlaşılmakta olup, teröristlerin ekonomik olarak hedef aldığı ülkelere ve o ülke vatandaşlarına verdikleri ekonomik zararlar biraz geri planda ve perde arkasında kalmaktadır. Fakat, konu bir bütün olarak ele alındığında, belki terörün hedef aldığı ülke ve toplumlara ekonomik olarak verdikleri zararlar terörün finasmanın önüne geçmektedir. Bu açıdan terörün finasmanı ve ekonomi ile ilişkilerini geniş olarak ele almak önem arz etmektedir. Terorizm ve ekonominin üç önemli açıdan ilişkileri bulunmaktadır. Öncelikle terorizm ve teroristlerin ekonomik olarak hedef aldıkları ülke ve topluma verdikleri zarar, daha sonra oluşturdukları ekonomik kaosun kendi çıkarları için kullanılması ve son olarakda terör örgütlerinin operasyonlarını sürdürmek için finansman ihtiyaçları ve bu ihtiyaçları karşılarken organize suç örgütleri ile yaptıkları işbirlikleri.
https://www.desales.edu/center-for-homeland-security/conference
https://investigativejournal.org/interview-with-ahmed-yayla-filmed-in-washington-d-c/
https://youtu.be/dghdQGlRqro
Course number : F656 Spring 2018
https://olligmu.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=3127
House of Saud: A Family at War
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09m53py
We debate whether ISIL can be defeated, where their support comes from and how to stop them.
For former Turkish counterterrorism police chief Ahmet Yayla, support for the group transcends territorial control.
"They have a solid ideology when it comes to reaching out to their supporters and the people who support them ideologically," says Yayla, who is also a fellow at the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. "So, it doesn’t matter from their perspective whether they’re losing or not."
In this UpFront special, an international panel of analysts examines and debates whether ISIL are on the decline, where they get their financial and ideological support from, and how to stop them.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/upfront/2017/06/upfront-special-isil-170623103755796.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z8jnLgBjio
He tells his criminology students that they need to know the history of the culture and the motives of the organization. They need to understand the terrorists by reading their literature and viewing their videos.
Which is what Yayla, a counterterrorism scholar and a professor at George Mason University, was doing in March when he came across a disturbing video on Telegram, an app popular with ISIS members.
The short, stark video opens with a shot of a note written in Arabic and English proclaiming, “We are still here.” An ominous chant in Arabic promises deadly violence.
The video camera then tilts up to reveal the bustling Antwerp Central train station in Belgium.
It was the same chant, the same style of video and posted to the same video channel that preceded an attack in Istanbul that killed 39 people and wounded 70 at the Reina Nightclub.
Yayla, who was chief of counterterrorism for Turkish police forces in Ankara and Sanliurfa for 20 years, said he knew the video was no hoax—“these guys don’t fool around,” he said—and contacted Belgian authorities who sprang into action.
Arrests were made involving two terrorist cells, and several planned ISIS operations were disrupted, according to European reports. Yayla said his effort “saved time for police to look for [the terrorists]. We definitely saved lives.”
In addition to monitoring terrorist activity posted to social media, Yayla’s specialty is interviewing ISIS defectors. His latest book (with Anne Speckhard) is called “ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate.”
https://www2.gmu.edu/news/425811
http://www.publicnow.com/view/213407C9E95E3BE3F35E31A9F5348052027E69DC?2017-05-24-01:31:18+01:00-xxx9721
Ahmet S. Yayla, Ph.D. is the Deputy Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Criminology,
Law And Society at George Mason University. He Formerly served as Professor and the Chair of the Sociology Department at Harran University Şanlıurfa, Turkey and before that as Chief of Counter-terrorism and Operations Division for the Turkish National Police and Chief of Police in Şanlıurfa. Dr. Yayla earned both his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Criminal Justice and Information Science from the University of North Texas in the United States. Dr. Yayla's research focuses mainly on terrorism, radicalization and countering violence extremism (CVE).
https://www.spreaker.com/user/8085756/a-briefing-on-turkey-and-its-isis-proble
https://avemariaradio.net/audio-archive/church-and-culture-january-14-2017-hour-2/
TURKEY AFTER THE JULY COUP ATTEMPT
September 14, 2016
Ahmet S Yayla, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE)
https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-turkey-july-coup-attempt/
http://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA14/20160914/105312/HHRG-114-FA14-Wstate-YaylaA-20160914.pdf
Turkey’s July Coup Attempt: “A Gift from God” to a new Authoritarianism
The July 15, 2016 unsuccessful “coup” attempt in Turkey happened in the midst of exceptionally stressful times when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was going through both domestic and international crises which are essential to understand and better analyze how the so-called coup came about. In fact, as Erdogan himself addressed his supporters at the Ataturk airport just a few hours after the coup attempt, he called the coup “a gift from God” and later it became clear—that it provided the rationale for solving his many troubles and most importantly, the perfect opportunity to completely wipe out his growing opposition as he quickly grabbed authoritarian rule at a level he would never be able to attain through democratic means.
I will be presenting about our research through ICSVE, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism with Dr. Anne Speckhard at the
Countering Violence Extremism Symposium, (Disrupt. Reimagine. Redefine.)
Name of our presentation is:
“Disrupt, Disengage, Re-Direct: Tackling Terrorism from the Ground Up”
Our panel is at 2:30 pm-3:15 pm on April 6, 2016 in the Hemisphere Suite A at Ronald Reagan building.
The details can be seen here:
http://cvesymposium.com/speaker/ahmet-s-yayla-ph-d/
Its declaration of a caliphate and its glorification of violence in pursuit of its aims have drawn adherents across the socioeconomic spectrum, from the United States and Europe to the Islamic world. Who are the people being recruited as ISIS militants, and why do they join? This expert panel will examine the allure of ISIS in Europe, Turkey, and the Arab world and effective strategies to stem its growth.
http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2016/03/11/world-policy-air-ep-58-deadly-interactions
The tepid ceasefire in Syria that began at the end of last month has been ruptured by numerous violations on both sides. On today's episode of World Policy On Air, Ahmet S. Yayla, chairman of the Department of Sociology at Harran University in Şanlıurfa, Turkey, explains the connections between the continuing violence and the historically porous border between Syria and Turkey.
Follow the discussion online using #ISISDefectors following @NewAmericaISP.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase by credit card.
Participants:
Dr. Anne Speckhard
Director, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE)
Co-Author, ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate
@AnneSpeckhard
Dr. Ahmet Yayla
Deputy Director, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE)
Co-Author, ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate
@ahmetsyayla
Moderator:
Peter Bergen
Vice President, New America
@peterbergencnn
http://www.westminster-institute.org/announcements/yayla/
Ahmet S. Yayla
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Register: Here
Ahmet S. Yayla, Ph.D. is co-author of the just released book, ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate. He is Deputy Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) and is also Adjunct Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. He formerly served as Professor and the Chair of the Sociology Department at Harran University in Turkey. He is the former Chief of Counterterrorism and Operations Division for the Turkish National Police with a 20-year career interviewing terrorists.
His work was primarily concerned with terrorist and related activities of ISIS, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, Hezbollah, the PKK, and other global terrorist organizations and he was responsible for several successful operations against the above-listed terrorist organizations. Dr. Yayla designed and administered counter-terrorism and intelligence activities and operations for precautionary measures in city of Sanliurfa, located at the Turkish-Syrian border and at the borders of the current ongoing war-zone in Syria.
Dr. Yayla’s research mainly focuses on terrorism, radicalization, countering violence extremism (CVE) and the Middle East. He has earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees on the subject of terrorism and radicalization at the University of North Texas. He has authored and co-authored several articles and books on the subject of terrorism and violence including First Responders’ Guide to Professionally Interacting with Muslim Communities: Law Enforcement, Emergency and Fire Fighters, Understanding and Responding to Terrorism: A Complete Model to Deal with Terrorism and Terrorism: A Global Perspective.
Last week, Turkey’s military staged a messy and failed coup that many opponents of President Tayip Edorgen suspect was anticipated by the leader for political ends. On today’s episode of World Policy On Air, Ahmet S. Yayla of Goerge Mason University and former Chief of Counterterrorism and Operations in the Turkish National Police discusses the extent to which the army underestimated Erdogan’s support among the Turkish people.
Subscribe to World Policy On Air on iTunes today.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/27-counterterrorism-minimal-use-force-w-dr-ahmet-yayla/id1453907332?i=1000488456324
U.S.-Turkey Relations: Turkey's Lobbying Efforts
The Investigative Journal hosted a conference focusing on U.S.-Turkey relations. In this portion, panelists focused on Turkey’s lobbying efforts within the United States.
Please see my presentation at C-SPAN
https://www.c-span.org/video/?466235-1/us-turkey-relations-turkeys-lobbying-efforts
“Dr. Yayla was definitely a big help with getting the connections,” she says. “The center opened up a broad range of avenues for all of us; there were state police, local police, federal agencies. Being able to talk to them and network was a great opportunity, and I think it’s going to do wonders in the future for other students.”
https://www.desales.edu/news-events/news/article/2020/10/02/internship-with-the-department-of-homeland-security-investigations
Harut Sassounian writer, presenter, political analyst of Armenian origin living in the US directly accuses the Turkish president of being a supporter of international terrorism and is seeking his referral to the international court.
"Last week, I reported that President Erdogan's office had sent a letter to the leaders of religious minorities in Turkey, asking them to sign it and send it back to the President. In that letter, Erdogan falsely claimed that Turkey was alone at the forefront of the fight against international terrorism. "
"Contrary to Erdogan's assertions, there have been dozens of reports in the international media proving that Turkey was at the forefront of those helping the ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
Ahmet S. Yayla is someone who has first-hand knowledge of the Turkish government's support for ISIS, having been the Head of the Counterterrorism Service and related businesses in Turkey from 2010 to 2013, conducting criminal investigations in the Turkish province of Sanliurfa since 2013. by 2014.
https://www.elora.gr/portal/arxeio/5094-omologia-vomva-apo-proin-aksiomatoyxo-tis-tourkias-o-erntogan-gigantose-tin-tromokratia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho0GFQRgIow
تصدر الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان نشرات الأخبار مؤخرًا نتيجة دوره المثير للجدل في دعم أحد أطراف الصراع الليبي إلى جانب المرتزقة والجهاديين السوريين، ولكن وراء العناوين الرئيسية ما زال هناك المزيد من الأحداث الجارية، وتشير ثلاث حوادث حرجة حدثت مؤخرًا إلى أن أردوغان يستعد للقيام بخطوة مهمة، ربما تصل إلى تحول سيغير تركيا إلى الأبد.
التطور الأول الذي أحدثه أردوغان- والأكثر غموضًا في نفس الوقت بالنسبة لغير الأتراك- يتعلق بتمكين أردوغان التدريجي لإدارة المخابرات التابعة للشرطة الوطنية التركية (TNP)، ففي 17 يناير 2018 أصدرت رئاسة الجمهورية التركية مرسومًا رئاسيًا جديدًا يرفع مكانة مديرية المخابرات التابعة للشرطة الوطنية التركية.. هذا المكتب مسئول عن تنفيذ عمليات استخباراتية ضد المنظمات الإرهابية.
ويجب عدم الخلط بين مخابرات الشرطة «TNP» والمخابرات الوطنية التركية «MIT»، التي تشرف على كل من المخابرات المحلية والدولية ويقودها هاكان فيدان، المقرب من أردوغان، على المدى البعيد.
http://aman.dostor.org/show.aspx?id=29641
DeSales Üniversitesi Ulusal Güvenlik Merkezi Direktörü Ahmet S. Yayla, ‘Erdoğan, Erdoğanistan’ı mı hazırlıyor?‘ başlıklı makalesinde Erdoğan’ın Türk devletini Politik İslam’a dönüştürmenin sinyallerini verdiğini belirtiyor.
Son dönemde yaşanan üç önemli gelişmeyi sıralayan Yayla, ilk gelişme olarak Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü’nde gidilen değişime işaret ediyor:
https://ahvalnews.com/tr/erdogan/erdogan-erdoganistani-mi-hazirliyor
More: https://twitter.com/ahmetsyayla/status/1166478577174532096?s=20
"Turkey extends influence in the occupied north of Syria" via @Tagesspiegel
"The entire administration of these cities is led by #Turkey, it is a kind of mandate," says Ahmet Yayla.
https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/region-um-asas-tuerkei-weitet-einfluss-im-besetzten-norden-syriens-aus/23649788.html
The findings were summarized in the Government and Technology Services Coalition’s Homeland Security Today online journal, and authored by Georgetown University professor Ahmet Yayla, who during the past four years has interviewed over 40 ISIS defectors in Turkey while conducting on the ground research along Syria’s border.
Yayla’s findings entitled, To Truly Fight Terror, Counter Salafist Jihadist Ideology First, confirm that:
“The majority of the ISIS shaykhs (imams and teachers) who were preaching in ISIS-controlled territories and schools were from Saudi Arabia.”
https://madhousenews.com/2018/04/new-study-provides-yet-more-proof-of-saudi-state-sponsorship-of-isis/
ISLAMIC State terrorists are hiding across Turkey after “easily” being able to smuggle their way across the border from Syria, it has been claimed.
European nations are being warned to turn their attention back to Turkey which is becoming a haven for jihadis as the government focuses on fighting Kurdish forces, experts warned.
European reluctance to hold Erdogan to account for human rights violations and reticence to rock the boat since Turkey agreed to take in Europe-bound migrants from the Middle East has created a dangerous situation, it was said.
Former police chief Ahmet Yayla, a professor of criminology, law and society at George Mason University warned the west to be vigilant over its neighbour, where a blind sport currently exists.
He said: “Unfortunately this is the case, the Europeans are not taking this seriously enough.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/923582/Turkey-safe-European-warning-ISIS-terror-threat
This puts it on the table: Turkish arms supplies to Syrian rebel groups have not only knowledge, but carried out at the behest Erdoğan. after the testify of refugees to the United States former police chief of Şanlıurfa, Said ahmet Springs, should it off 2012 have acted to hundreds of transport, on the military supply for the Islamists organized.
Officially, they were as supplies of the Turkish IHH, International humanitarian aid organization, declared, the same organization, the Gaza flotilla in 2010 set up and provoked the violent incident with Israeli soldiers. Yayla testifies beyond, that IS fighters were able to move freely in the Turkish-Syrian border area, that they received medical care in hospitals in Şanlıurfa, met collusion with the local administration and enjoyed the protection of the MIT. The neighboring city of Gaziantep was a veritable hotbed of IS- and Al-Nusra-people.
https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Von-dubiosen-Geschaeften-mit-Islamisten-und-der-Rolle-Erdogans-und-Putins-3936767.html
https://neu-presse.de/en/von-dubiosen-geschaeften-mit-islamisten-und-der-rolle-erdogans-und-putins/
Ahmet Yayla Professor of Criminology and former counter-terrorism police chief has long warned about terror attacks in his homeland.
His report, called 'The Reina nightclub attack and the Islamic State threat to Turkey', claims there “may be as many as 2,000 hardcore fighters loyal to the ISIS inside Turkey”.
Last New Year’s eve, a rampaging gunman carried out a bloody assault on the Reina nightclub leaving 39 dead and a further 71 injured.
And today Turkish security forces detained 12 people with suspected ISIS links during anti-terror operations in Adana who were said to be planning a similar attack.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5215532/new-europe-terror-fears-with-300-brit-isis-fanatics-on-loose-in-turkey-as-cops-smash-istanbul-new-years-eve-death-plot/
August 29, 2017
Ahmet Yayla
https://www2.gmu.edu/news/444721
A rash of “lone wolf” attacks by ISIS followers has resulted in the deaths of scores of innocent victims, including at recent incidents in Barcelona, London, Brussels and Kaspiysk, Russia.
George Mason University criminology professor Ahmet Yayla, a former Turkish chief of counterterrorism, said the terrorists are recruited by friends and family and are following several ISIS playbooks, including the 2017 “Lone Wolves Handbook.”
Here he describes three ways of defusing future lone wolves:
· Counterterrorism units must upgrade their intelligence activities. Suspected ISIS sympathizers’ connections should be closely watched on a prioritized list. This helps intelligence officers to easily understand if a suspect is planning an attack.
· “Solid and sincere intelligence and information sharing is key,” Yayla said, not only domestically among law enforcement and intelligence agencies, but internationally.
· “Salafist jihadi content on the internet and social media must be blocked and wiped off,” he said. ISIS is a “virtual caliphate,” recruiting remotely with propaganda and training videos. The terror-training eBook “How to Survive in the West” has been downloaded nearly 1.5 million times, typically on dark net sites and social media sites popular with jihadists. Remove it and remove much of the threat, he said.
Ahmet Yayla can be reached at ayayla@gmu.edu.
For more information, contact Buzz McClain at 703-727-0230 or bmcclai2@gmu.edu.
About George Mason
George Mason University is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 35,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility.
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2017/08/24/chatapp-belooft-privacy-maar-geeft-terroristen-ruim-baan-12327134-a1570889
Existem outras formas de avaliar se o Estado Islâmico diz a verdade ou se mente sobre um atentado, além das redes sociais.
Van que atropelou pedestres em Barcelona é removida por guinchoDireito de imagemREUTERS
Image caption
Em Barcelona, autores do ataque usaram uma van alugada na cidade.
"Não devemos aceitar o que o EI afirma, mas sim investigar mais profundamente e tratar de encontrar evidências", adverte à BBC Mundo Ahmet S Yayla, ex-chefe de contraterrorismo da polícia da Turquia.
Os procedimentos incluem buscas nos domicílios dos suspeitos de realizar os ataques, em seus computadores, e-mails e telefones celulares, assinala Yayla, que atualmente é investigador do departamento de criminologia, direito e sociedade da Universidade George Mason, nos Estados Unidos.
Em diferentes casos, os investigadores descobriram mensagens entre os acusados de realizar ataques no Ocidente e membros do EI no Oriente Médio.
Também foram divulgados vídeos e áudios de autores de atentados jurando lealdade a Al Baghdadi, líder do EI.
Caminhão que atropelou e matou pessoas em Nice, na França, em 2016Direito de imagemAFP
Image caption
O atropelamento massivo, como em Nice, se converteu em um novo modus operandi do Estado Islâmico no Ocidente.
Algo que chama a atenção é que a organização evitou reivindicar certos ataques que lhe foram atribuídos, como o de Edward Archer, um homem que baleou um policial na Filadélfia, Estados Unidos, no ano passado, jurando lealdade ao EI.
Por outro lado, às vezes se levanta dúvidas se um atentado foi programado diretamente pelo EI ou apenas inspirado por este, mas os especialistas negam que se possa fazer tal distinção.
"O Estado Islâmico claramente ordenou seus seguidores a levarem a cabo este tipo de ataque. Então, se alguém realiza um ataque em nome do EI de uma forma similar, está basicamente seguindo ordens da organização terrorista", afirma Yayla.
E conclui: "Posso ver claramente que a série de ataques na Espanha são ataques do EI".
http://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-40986301
Heroes in obscurity.
MICHAEL RUBIN / AUG. 14, 2017
ISIS brought a reign of terror down upon the territory it controlled. And while many more residents welcomed and, indeed, collaborated with the group, others resisted. Some have written about the tremendous risks that local and often anonymous journalists took to transmit the reality of life under ISIS to the outside world.
Until now, little has been known about how those arrested and tortured by the Islamic State resisted their captors. A new International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism report, “The ISIS Prison System: Its Structure, Departmental Affiliations, Processes, Conditions, and Practices of Psychological and Physical Torture,” changes that.
Utilizing interviews with dozens of ISIS defectors, returnees, and former prisoners, it traces the process and mechanism by which various organizations within the Islamic State would arrest prisoners, process them, interrogate them, and seek to indoctrinate them. After all, while ISIS would execute many prisoners and use their murders to produce grizzly recruitment videos, many other detainees would serve sentences and be subject to re-education. Many sought to deceive their captors. In one instance, cited by the report:
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/terrorism/resisting-isis-from-within/