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My Brother in Islamic State

ICSVE is proud to announce the release of our newest video in the Breaking the ISIS Brand–ISIS Cadres Counter-Narrative Project. “My Brother in the Islamic State” is based on Anne Speckhard’s June 2017 interview in a Baghdad prison cell of the ISIS cadre, Abu Ahmed. Although originally from Anbar and living within driving distance of the battlefield, Abu Ahmed’s story underlines what we have found in many of our ISIS interviews; how even in Syria and Iraq, the Internet and mainline social media platforms function for ISIS recruitment. Abu Ahmed, seduced into ISIS over Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, became a transporter of suicide bombers for an attack in Baghdad. His story is one of utmost regret after learning the attack he was involved in hurt his own family–injuring his younger brother’s best friend. The transcript of the video clip is below and the video can be viewed here  (or if Youtube takes it down mistaking it for ISIS propaganda, it’s here).

Title:   My Brother in Islamic State

0:20    Abu Ahmed

Transporter of ISIS

Suicide Bombers

0:21     I am Abu Ahmed.

0:22     I was born in 1992.

0:27     I finished my high school.

0;32     I lived in Anbar.

0:35     I came to Baghdad 4 years ago.

0:39     I was following ISIS [for months]

0:43     on Twitter,

0:44     Instagram

0;45     and Facebook.

0:49     I followed the videos that were distributed by ISIS

0:53     showing images of [dead] children and killings.

0:58     I started following these subjects because of the wars that we are experiencing.

1:04     I had the feeling

1:07     that the Iraqi army

1:10     and police are hurting us.

1:14     The idea [from these ISIS videos] is to make me feel weak.

1:17     To see how they kill our brothers and children,

1:21     see how our children are killed by the bombings.

1:25     They show how the Iraqis use choppers and planes to kill the people

1:31     [and argue], ‘They kill you. You have to kill them.’

1:37     It was about sunset when a person called me

1:40     and gave me a number to call.

1:44     I called, and the man said that he is coming to meet me.

1:47     He brought two boys with him.

1:49     The boys stayed with me for two hours.

1:52     In these two hours I kept touring the area.

1:57     Then another person called me

2:01     and told me that they are coming to take the boys and they took them.

2:03     The boys were normal, laughing and joking with no fear.

2:09     One of the suicide bombers was too young.  He cannot have exceeded 15-years-old.

2:14     I joined ISIS when I was 14-years-old.

2:19     I didn’t know that there would be an explosion.

2:22     I didn’t know this until the last moments.

2:24     If there is an ideology which adopts humanity and fights this ideology,

2:30     they [the suicide bombers] would definitely listen and obey.

2:33     I am in the utmost degree of regret.

2:40     I regret that the people who were killed in this operation were my own people,

2:43     just like my brothers, and my brother’s friend, as I told you.

2:47     He used to sit with me in our shop. He was not killed. He was injured.

2:53     I am in the most extreme degree of pain when I think about my brother, when he finds out that I hurt his friend.

3:03     [Regarding the Cubs of the Caliphate] ISIS wants to kill those children.

3:06     It wants to establish an ideology

3:09     that takes us back 1000 years.

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 (ICSVE) where she heads the Breaking the ISIS Brand—ISIS Defectors Interviews Project. She is the author of: Talking to Terrorists, Bride of ISIS and coauthor of ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate; Undercover Jihadi; and Warrior Princess. Dr. Speckhard has interviewed nearly 500 terrorists, their family members and supporters in various parts of the world including Gaza, West Bank, Chechnya, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and many countries in Europe. In 2007, she 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 is a sought after counterterrorism experts and has consulted to NATO, OSCE, foreign governments and to the U.S. Senate & House, Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, CIA and FBI and CNN, BBC, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC, CTV, and in Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, London Times and many other publications. Her publications are found here: https://georgetown.academia.edu/AnneSpeckhardWebsite: https://www.icsve.org Follow @AnneSpeckhardAnne 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 (ICSVE) where she heads the Breaking the ISIS Brand—ISIS Defectors Interviews Project. She is the author of: Talking to Terrorists, Bride of ISIS and coauthor of ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate; Undercover Jihadi; and Warrior Princess. Dr. Speckhard has interviewed nearly 500 terrorists, their family members and supporters in various parts of the world including Gaza, West Bank, Chechnya, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and many countries in Europe. In 2007, she 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 is a sought after counterterrorism experts and has consulted to NATO, OSCE, foreign governments and to the U.S. Senate & House, Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, CIA and FBI and CNN, BBC, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC, CTV, and in Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, London Times and many other publications. Her publications are found here: https://georgetown.academia.edu/AnneSpeckhardWebsite: https://www.icsve.org Follow@AnneSpeckhard

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