ISIS

An Iraqi commander claims that the U.S. secretly evacuated top ISIS commanders from Ramadi, Iraq:

The Express Tribune - associated with the International New York Times - reported in January:

ISIS have announced plans to launch a chemical attack in Morocco on New Years Eve using Sarin gas, amid plans of creating widespread chaos during the holiday season across Europe.  “Intelligence services of various European countries have published reports in which they detail ISIS’ plan to attack several capitals of countries that are members of the coalition against this organization,” A Moroccan newspaper reported on Monday. Moroccoworldnews.com reports: According to the Moroccan daily, Morocco is among these countries where ISIS plans to carry terrorist attacks on December 31.

On Saturday, we brought you “Secret" Documents Show ISIS May Be Flesh-Eating, Organ Harvesters, US Says,” in which we highlighted “Fatwa 68”, a decree handed down by Islamic State’s Research and Fatwa Committee and recovered in the raid that killed the group’s “gas minister” back in May. 

A Russian military official has claimed that ISIS is a CIA run organisation, and that it is essentially a re-branding of al-Qaeda, another CIA group.  Colonel Alexander Zhilin lays out in laymen’s terms why it is in Russia’s interests to support Assad in the video below. Intifada-palestine.com reports: A number of Russians, and Westerners as well, have some misunderstandings about Russia’s involvement. Zhilin explains why this is not an optional fight for Russia.

In our classic piece “ISIS Oil Trade Full Frontal: "Raqqa's Rockefellers", Bilal Erdogan, KRG Crude, And The Israel Connection,” we discussed how Masoud Barzani and the Iraqi Kurds transport some 600,000 b/d of crude to the Turkish port of Ceyhan in defiance of SOMO amid an ongoing budget dispute between Baghdad and Erbil.

Turkey facilitates this trade and we suggested that ISIS (which Turkey is suspected of supporting in order that the group might continue to destabilize Assad) may be using the same networks to get its illicit oil to market.