Whether ISIS has something to do with the current crisis of immigration in Europe?
At the moment the whole activity of the headquarters of the Islamic State is directed to export the Islamic ideology in the interpretation of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Hundreds of young people trained in the Islamic State are now sent as refugees to Europe and North America. Just talk to the spokesman of Western special services to confirm this trend. The training which took place almost officially in Turkish military camps, at the moment it is held in secret. I have seen this training. Volunteers for the Islamic ‘revolution’ are currently becoming a large stream flowing from the former republics of the Soviet Union, mainly Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and the flow from China. It is currently the largest recruitment area. The Islamic State army no longer needs as many volunteers as it did. It does not lead such large operations on land as it did a few months ago. Of course, there are also Chechens, but they are highly valued as officers and experienced guerrillas.
Do you think that Islamic terrorism will be carried out in Europe on a solo terrorist tactics and strategies of a lone wolf?
Well-paid professionals have already built a virtual network a long time ago in different countries that are continually being infected by this ideology. So the activities of these lonely wolves who can commit suicide attacks can be carried out anywhere in Europe.
The economics of terrorism says: we attack where we can terrorize the public opinion the most, where people will be agitated about this fact for at least a week or two. While deciding to attack Charlie Hebdo they knew what they were doing because even after a month from the attack people held marches. They simply brought fear in.
What do the current terrorist networks consist of ? If we are using a bomb, but nobody talks about it, then this bomb brings no effect. If we are forcing the bomb in Baghdad where about 100 people died, it is news only for one day as there are bombs exploding daily and people are not interested in following these developments. When somewhere in the center of the “free world” we are killing women and children, then fear starts becoming a factor. The economics of the terrorism has always been the same since 1972, when the Black September attacked the Olympics in Munich. Now the terrorism acts through media. These images of violence are being copied millions of times and it is them that terrorize. It is a purpose of terrorists. Killing particular people is not bringing such effects as intimidating the public opinion.
ISIS is an extremely intelligent creature because the people in charge of the activities of ISIS learned from the operation carried out by the Americans against Taliban in Afghanistan. ISIS never creates large miliwashboard formations, and if it creases them then they are placed in civilian areas. So the greatest numbers of ISIS units are located in Mosul. Why? – because it is a 1,5 million city. Bombing ISIS units infests a humanitarian disaster on civilians. This is carnage and none of the free country governments wants to be part of. ISIS is perfectly aware of that. ISIS do not use radio communicators at all. They learned this on the case of Al-Qaeda and earlier on Chechen cases as well. Dudayev was killed because of a satellite phone so all the information is provided through few couriers. These couriers transmit information very quickly. There is no radio, Internet connections or any other electronic way that could be traced by the American system. That is why they are dangerous because they always attack under cover of darkness, turmoil, etc. Then they leave their places very quickly where they live normally. We won’t distinguish ISIS fighters from civilians. Going into every village we only see the religious police, and those people who guide street movement and so on. But we do not see the ISIS units. They are all hid in private homes. At one moment when it comes orders they can leave many places and strike in one place. This is the strategy of ISIS. Besides, they change strategy all the time. Kurds told us that t ISIS attacks differently all the time. Americans do not have a chance to win this war from the air.
Whether you think that ISIS can prepare in Europe some bigger action?
In Dabiq magazine in three articles I read about Rome, the Pope and the anticipated activities of the Islamists against the Pope and Rome. One of the covers of Dabiq is the Saint Peter’s Basilica with the black banner of the Prophet waving over it. One of the main articles of the magazine says that the Islamists want to conquer Rome. In their way of thinking today Rome stands for the West. This article is simply a call to kill the Pope, as the representative of Rome – that is one reason.
They always announce it. When they killed the Dutch filmmaker, they had earlier reported that they would kill him and they did. Considering Charlie Hebdo they also previously served the information that they would take care of them and finally killed them. The bombings in Madrid and London were also announced, in the end they did it. So I would not have played down their announcement. Yes they lead a strong propaganda war, but it goes along with a particular activity.
Konrad Stachnio is an independent Poland based journalist, he hosted a number of radio and TV programs for the Polish edition of Prison Planet, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
