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ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of Confronting the Caliphate
ISIS is the most powerful, ruthless, horrific and well-funded terrorist group in recent history. Not only has ISIS managed to take and control a significant swathe of territory, it has become a de-facto state. Since their 2014 claim of establishing a Caliphate, IS has also unleashed an unprecedented and prolific social media recruiting drive that has enabled them to attract up to 30,000 foreign fighters from more than one hundred countries. A steady stream of fighters continues to enter Syria and Iraq on a daily basis - with some estimates placing their number at over one thousand new recruits per month. In addition, ISIS has created a “brand” that has been exported to over twenty hotspots around the globe. As IS has arisen - seemingly out of nowhere - to become a powerful foe, the West has struggled to comprehend and understand how to effectively counter it.
While a political solution in the war-torn area of Syria and Iraq is a necessary precondition to the total defeat of ISIS, discrediting the group’s ideology is also essential. Defectors from ISIS, alongside the refugees pour out of ISIS-controlled territory, are among the most powerful first-hand voices to speak out against the group. Indeed a disillusioned cadre who can speak from experience and tell their authentic stories about life inside the Islamic State may be the most influential tool for preventing and dissuading others from joining ISIS.
The fight against ISIS must take place on many fronts, including finding political solutions to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Islamic State is currently winning on many fronts—social media being the most powerful in terms of involving Westerners in traveling to Syria and Iraq and plotting homegrown terrorist attacks. At present the Internet serves as a nerve center to connect ISIS activists and propagandists who have proved themselves extremely savvy, active and successful on social media in recruiting Westerners to their cause—to plot terror activity, travel to Syria and Iraq, fundraise, as well as carry out concrete action in behalf of the terrorist group’s goals. That front can be won back by discrediting their ideology and one of the most powerful ways to do that is to use voices of insiders—ISIS defectors to do so.
While it is difficult to reach ISIS defectors and also persuade them to speak out against the group, this book reports on over twenty interviews with actual ISIS defectors. It paints a grim insider picture describing life inside the Islamic State. Defectors tell why they joined, what they gained from being a part of ISIS, and why they quit and the risks they took to escape a group that doesn’t easily let go of its cadres. It reports from actual first person accounts how the ‘Cubs of the Caliphate’ operate, how cadres are motivated into ‘martyrdom’ operations, how the group finances itself, how the slave trade runs and about the group’s corruption and brutality. ISIS insiders also discuss the mental health consequences of living under the Islamic State. Finally, voices from the inside of one of the most powerful terrorist groups in history are raised to discredit it.
Anne Speckhard, Ph.D. is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University in the School of Medicine and Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. www.ICSVE.org In 2007, Dr. Speckhard was responsible for designing the psychological and Islamic challenge aspects of the Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq to be applied to 20,000 detainees and 800 juveniles. She also has interviewed over 400 terrorists, their family members and supporters in various parts of the world. www.AnneSpeckhard.com
Ahmet S. Yayla, Ph.D. is Professor and the Chair of Sociology Department at Harran University in south of Turkey by the Syrian border. Dr.
While a political solution in the war-torn area of Syria and Iraq is a necessary precondition to the total defeat of ISIS, discrediting the group’s ideology is also essential. Defectors from ISIS, alongside the refugees pour out of ISIS-controlled territory, are among the most powerful first-hand voices to speak out against the group. Indeed a disillusioned cadre who can speak from experience and tell their authentic stories about life inside the Islamic State may be the most influential tool for preventing and dissuading others from joining ISIS.
The fight against ISIS must take place on many fronts, including finding political solutions to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Islamic State is currently winning on many fronts—social media being the most powerful in terms of involving Westerners in traveling to Syria and Iraq and plotting homegrown terrorist attacks. At present the Internet serves as a nerve center to connect ISIS activists and propagandists who have proved themselves extremely savvy, active and successful on social media in recruiting Westerners to their cause—to plot terror activity, travel to Syria and Iraq, fundraise, as well as carry out concrete action in behalf of the terrorist group’s goals. That front can be won back by discrediting their ideology and one of the most powerful ways to do that is to use voices of insiders—ISIS defectors to do so.
While it is difficult to reach ISIS defectors and also persuade them to speak out against the group, this book reports on over twenty interviews with actual ISIS defectors. It paints a grim insider picture describing life inside the Islamic State. Defectors tell why they joined, what they gained from being a part of ISIS, and why they quit and the risks they took to escape a group that doesn’t easily let go of its cadres. It reports from actual first person accounts how the ‘Cubs of the Caliphate’ operate, how cadres are motivated into ‘martyrdom’ operations, how the group finances itself, how the slave trade runs and about the group’s corruption and brutality. ISIS insiders also discuss the mental health consequences of living under the Islamic State. Finally, voices from the inside of one of the most powerful terrorist groups in history are raised to discredit it.
Anne Speckhard, Ph.D. is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University in the School of Medicine and Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. www.ICSVE.org In 2007, Dr. Speckhard was responsible for designing the psychological and Islamic challenge aspects of the Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq to be applied to 20,000 detainees and 800 juveniles. She also has interviewed over 400 terrorists, their family members and supporters in various parts of the world. www.AnneSpeckhard.com
Ahmet S. Yayla, Ph.D. is Professor and the Chair of Sociology Department at Harran University in south of Turkey by the Syrian border. Dr.
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Published March 30, 2016
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About the author
Anne Speckhard
17 books21 followersAnne Speckhard, Ph.D. is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School. Dr. Speckhard has been working in the field of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the 1980’s and has extensive experience working in Europe, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. She was the chair of the NATO Human Factors & Medicine Research and Technology Experts Group (HFM-140/RTG) on the Psychosocial, Cultural and Organizational Aspects of Terrorism, served as the co-chair of the NATO-Russia Human Factors & Medicine Research Task Group on Social Sciences Support to Military Personnel Engaged in Counter-Insurgency and Counter-Terrorism Operations and served on the NATO Human Factors & Medicine Research Task Group Moral Dilemmas and Military Mental Health Outcomes. She is a member of the United Nations Roster of Experts for the Terrorism Prevention Branch Office on Drugs and Crime and was previously awarded a Public Health Service Fellowship in the United States Department of Health & Human Services where she served as a Research Fellow.
She has provided expert consultation to European and Middle Eastern governments as well as the U.S. Department of Defense regarding programs for prevention and rehabilitation of individuals committed to political violence and militant jihad. In 2006-2007 she worked with the U.S. Department of Defense to design and pilot test the Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq. In 2002, she interviewed hostages taken in the Moscow Dubrovka Theater about their psychological responses and observations of the suicidal terrorists and did the same in 2005 with surviving hostages from the Beslan school take-over. Since 2002, she has collected more than four hundred research interviews of family members, friends, close associates and hostages of terrorists and militant jihadi extremists in Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Russia, Chechnya, Belarus, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium and France.
Dr. Speckhard is the director of the Holocaust Survivors Oral Histories Project – Belarus, a project constructing the history of the Minsk Ghetto and Holocaust in Belarus through oral histories and archival research.
She also researched traumatic stress issues in survivors of the Chernobyl disaster and has written about stress responses to toxic disasters. Dr. Speckhard worked with American expatriates after 9-11 (at SHAPE, NATO, the U.S. Embassy to Belgium and Mission to the EU) and conducted research on acute stress responses to terrorism in this population. She also studies psychological resilience to terrorism in various populations including American civilians, military and diplomats serving in Iraq under high threat security conditions. Dr. Speckhard co-directed the NATO Advanced Research Workshops - Ideologies of Terrorism: Understanding and Predicting the Social, Psychological and Political Underpinnings of Terrorism and Understanding and Addressing the Root Causes of Radicalization among Groups with an Immigrant Heritage in Europe and served on the NATO/Russia Counter-Terrorism Advisory Group.
Dr. Speckhard consults to governments and lectures to security experts worldwide and frequently appears in the national and international media. She is the author of Talking to Terrorists: Understanding the Psycho-Social Motivations of Militant Jihadi Terrorists, Mass Hostage Takers, Suicide Bombers and “Martyrs”, Fetal Abduction: The True Story of Multiple Personalities and Murder, and Timothy Tottle’s Terrific Dream and co-author of Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEALs Journey to Coming out Transgender. Website: www.AnneSpeckhard.com
She has provided expert consultation to European and Middle Eastern governments as well as the U.S. Department of Defense regarding programs for prevention and rehabilitation of individuals committed to political violence and militant jihad. In 2006-2007 she worked with the U.S. Department of Defense to design and pilot test the Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq. In 2002, she interviewed hostages taken in the Moscow Dubrovka Theater about their psychological responses and observations of the suicidal terrorists and did the same in 2005 with surviving hostages from the Beslan school take-over. Since 2002, she has collected more than four hundred research interviews of family members, friends, close associates and hostages of terrorists and militant jihadi extremists in Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Russia, Chechnya, Belarus, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium and France.
Dr. Speckhard is the director of the Holocaust Survivors Oral Histories Project – Belarus, a project constructing the history of the Minsk Ghetto and Holocaust in Belarus through oral histories and archival research.
She also researched traumatic stress issues in survivors of the Chernobyl disaster and has written about stress responses to toxic disasters. Dr. Speckhard worked with American expatriates after 9-11 (at SHAPE, NATO, the U.S. Embassy to Belgium and Mission to the EU) and conducted research on acute stress responses to terrorism in this population. She also studies psychological resilience to terrorism in various populations including American civilians, military and diplomats serving in Iraq under high threat security conditions. Dr. Speckhard co-directed the NATO Advanced Research Workshops - Ideologies of Terrorism: Understanding and Predicting the Social, Psychological and Political Underpinnings of Terrorism and Understanding and Addressing the Root Causes of Radicalization among Groups with an Immigrant Heritage in Europe and served on the NATO/Russia Counter-Terrorism Advisory Group.
Dr. Speckhard consults to governments and lectures to security experts worldwide and frequently appears in the national and international media. She is the author of Talking to Terrorists: Understanding the Psycho-Social Motivations of Militant Jihadi Terrorists, Mass Hostage Takers, Suicide Bombers and “Martyrs”, Fetal Abduction: The True Story of Multiple Personalities and Murder, and Timothy Tottle’s Terrific Dream and co-author of Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEALs Journey to Coming out Transgender. Website: www.AnneSpeckhard.com
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 29, 2019
Very interesting subject, and very informative book. However I found the writing style to be a bit off putting. Of course during their interviews the authors give their own comments on why they ask certain questions, how they interpret some answers and experiences etc. But this also includes comments like these, which are simply too distracting in my opinion.
"I feel my stomach flip in horror as I try to imagine the scenes he is describing."
"Listening to this I let my eyes skim over the blue water of the Bosphorus once again. It's so peaceful and beautiful and I let my soul take a momentary respite."
"I feel my stomach flip in horror as I try to imagine the scenes he is describing."
"Listening to this I let my eyes skim over the blue water of the Bosphorus once again. It's so peaceful and beautiful and I let my soul take a momentary respite."
August 28, 2017
Outstanding work, a wakening to humanity. The authors had the courage to risk their lives to be able to produce this book and show us what's inside ISIS. Now I can better understand what's happening in the Middle East and why some of the news some so awkward to understand.
Thank you for your work Anne and Ahmet!
Thank you for your work Anne and Ahmet!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews