22,000 Names & Data of ISIS Recruits Leaked to UK, German, and Syrian Media

[6souls]

Leaked by former member, German officials confirm some of the data

Names, addresses and phone numbers of some 22,000 ISIS recruits — and information about the network that recruited them — are reportedly part of a trove of data that Sky News says it received from a former member of the extremist group.

The identities of people from more than 50 countries, including Britain, European nations, the U.S. and Canada, are purportedly in the data, which Sky says it has shared with government authorities.

"Some of the telephone numbers on the list are still active," Sky reports, "and it is believed that although many will be family members, a significant number are used by the jihadis themselves."

Among the most intriguing elements said to be in the data trove: 23-line recruitment forms filled out by sponsors that begin with recruits' "name" and "fighter name" and then include their mother's maiden name and their blood type. Education and job experience are also covered; so are combat experience and "date and place of death" — implying that the paperwork was meant to follow the recruit once they'd joined ISIS.

The forms also reportedly include the question, "Who recommended him?" — which may help the authorities establish a crucial link between the terrorist organization and far-flung recruiters.

The news comes days after German media outlets reported having obtained a similar set of documents. According to Deutsche Welle, a representative of Germany's federal police says they have the documents and that they're authentic. It's unclear whether the sets of data are the same.

Sky News said it obtained the data via a memory stick provided by a former member of the Free Syrian Army using the name Abu Hamed, who joined ISIS but then quit because he believes the group stopped following Islamic law and is too heavily influenced by former members of Iraq's Baath party.

"It's far from Islam," the man tells Sky News' Stuart Ramsay, during an interview in Turkey in which he wore a scarf to obscure his face.

Ramsay also says his contact told him that ISIS is in the process of moving its headquarters from Raqqa, Syria, to the desert and then to Iraq. He also claimed that in Syria, ISIS has collaborated with President Bashar Assad's government and other groups to fight the country's moderate opposition forces.

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/03...-british-media
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...-british-media
http://news.sky.com/story/1656777/is...-22000-jihadis
http://www.dw.com/en/leaked-islamic-...ere/a-19102899

Files were published online (documents in Arabic) by Zaman Al-Wasl, a Qatari-based Syrian news website:

• Two of those listed, Kerim Marc B and Abdelkarim B, are currently on trial separately in Germany, while another two Germans on the list, Farid Saal Yassin Oussaiffi, have appeared in IS videos
• Dutch media identified Abu Jihad al-Hollandi as Amsterdam teenager Achraf Bouamran, killed in a US air strike on the Syrian IS stronghold of Raqqa in January 2015. His file reads: "Born 1997. Moroccan origin. Wants to be a fighter"
• Sixteen Britons including two killed in air strikes in Syria, Junaid Hussain and Reyaad Khan, also reportedly feature in the files

One file refers to a German recruit who used to be "in sales" and now "wants to be a suicide bomber", while another would-be suicide bomber (nationality not given) formerly worked as a "tobacconist in a restaurant".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35773649
http://leaks.zamanalwsl.net/isis-1.php
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34078900
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-34176790

[kuronosan]

Yea, it was a real good idea to leak that fact to the media too. Hopefully intelligence got their hands on it and did their homework.

[Salodin]

For real. Why is this being reported? I hope the list is really 6 months old and intelligence got everything needed out of it.

[Blubbartron]

Probably because someone who was formerly a soldier in a foreign "state" that is at war with other states won't be treated too kindly if he goes to those foreign governments, even if he's doing so as a defector with highly useful information. You're a lot less likely to be interrogated and possibly tortured when you go to the media.

[6souls]

The UK and German media handed a copy over to their governments. The Syrian media who got this is the one allied with the rebels.