Rare Islamic State visit reveals 'brutal and strong' force

[Pete]

Rare Islamic State visit reveals 'brutal and strong' force

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30585783

"A German author given rare access to territory run by Islamic State has told the BBC that the group is stronger, more brutal and harder to confront than he had expected.

Juergen Todenhoefer spent six days in the IS city of Mosul in Iraq, travelling there via Raqqa, in Syria.

Mr Todenhoefer said he found IS followers highly motivated and supportive of the group's brutality...."

A pretty good look at one man's experience in IS territory.

[PatrickS]

Sadly, also a pretty good look at Mr Todenhöfer's next attempt on fame & attention.

I remember his book on OIF. ("Why do you kill, Zaid?")
He met with members of the insurgency, even including an AQ-fighter.
His main message:

The majority of insurgents are random Iraqis, who have been turned into freedom fighters, after all of them lost innocent family members to US airstrikes. There are plenty of Christians and Jews amongst them, they are responsible for a good 90% of attacks on coalition troops, but CNN won't mention that. You know, because the US public won't be able to cope with those facts. That's why the media will only show the small amount of attacks performed by AQ.
While he also concluded, that killing coalition troops....is simply their way of executing their basic human rights.


Mr Todenhöfer is somewhat of Germany's peacebird numero uno. If I do remember correctly, he's also written a book that essentially consists of him dreaming of world peace.


The main reasons, why he's talking to ISIS:

He wants both sides to be heard. And he wants the German public to know, that those ISIS fellas are extremely happy about the PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident) protests.
Those protests need to come to an end, otherwise all of our peaceful muslims will feel provoked and then they might pull shit.....


While he was deeply hated in the Kremlin during the Cold War, he's now completed his transformation into a full-blown fanboy and wants the West to "understand" Wladimir....Fuck it, I'll ride a freakin' stallion shirtless in order to prove my leadership skills....Putin.


So, some new insight into the Islamic State, but simply because of the "author" involved, I'll prefer the bits from VICE.