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2021-10-04 Home Front: WoT
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US charges jihadist behind IS propaganda clips, including journalist beheadings
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 [IsraelTimes] Canadian Mohammed Khalifa narrated videos as part of cell that filmed murders of James Foley and American-Israeli Steven Sotloff.
A Canadian jihadist who fought for the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group and narrated violent mostly peaceful propaganda videos has been taken into custody by the United States and charged, the United States Department of Justice said on Saturday.
Continued from Page 2
Mohammed Khalifa, who is 38 and was born in Saudi Arabia
 ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
, was captured during a firefight in January 2019 by Kurdish-dominated Syrian forces allied with the US.
He was handed over "recently" to US authorities and charged in Virginia with conspiring to provide material support to IS resulting in death, said a Justice Department statement.
Khalifa left Canada in 2013 to join the IS group in Syria, and by the next year had become a key member of its propaganda team because of his fluent English and Arabic, according to the statement. He allegedly served as a lead translator in Islamic State propaganda production and as the English-speaking narrator on two violent mostly peaceful recruitment videos. This cell was behind videos showing the beheadings of foreigners including the US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, an Israeli-American who died in 2014.
Khalifa faces a possible life sentence in the US. Canada additionally hopes to charge him, according to Canadian media.
In an exchange of emails cited in the charge sheet, Khalifa defended the IS killings he was associated with.
"Mohammed Khalifa not only fought for ISIS on the battlefield in Syria, but he was also the voice behind the violence," said Acting US Attorney Raj Parekh for the Eastern District of Virginia, using another acronym for the Islamic State group.
According to the indictment, Khalifa’s "primary focus" was "enticing ISIS supporters to travel to ISIS-controlled areas to join ISIS or to conduct attacks in the West, including in the United States."
In a 2019 interview with Canada’s CBC from his Syrian prison, Khalifa showed no regret for his actions. He said that he wanted to return to Canada with his wife and their three children, but on the condition that he would not be tried there.
"Through his alleged leading role in translating, narrating, and advancing ISIS’s online propaganda, Khalifa promoted the terrorist group, furthered its worldwide recruitment efforts, and expanded the reach of videos that glorified the horrific murders and indiscriminate cruelty of ISIS," Parekh said.
This is the first known indictment of a foreign IS fighter in America since US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. We get to suffer the consequences. So does Afghanistan, aka Biden's Bungle...
took power in January.
Two members of the notorious IS kidnapping cell dubbed the "Beatles," Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, are currently in the hands of US authorities after being transferred to the US from Iraq nearly a year ago. The pair are accused of involvement in the murders of Foley and Sotloff, as well as those of relief workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. Kotey, a former British national who was stripped of his citizenship, pleaded guilty in early September to charges of conspiring to murder the four American hostages.
Khalifa traveled to Syria in the spring of 2013 with the intent of becoming a foreign fighter. He joined ISIS in or around November 2013 and swore allegiance to then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. In early 2014, he was recruited to join ISIS's Media Bureau due in part to his linguistic capabilities as a fluent English and Arabic speaker.
US prosecutors say that Khalifa was a prominent figure within the ISIS Media Bureau, the "Diwan of Central Media," and assisted in the translation and narration of approximately 15 ISIS recruitment videos, including two of the group's most influential efforts at luring Westerners: "Flames of War: Fighting Has Just Begun," in 2014, and "Flames of War II: Until the Final Hour," in 2017.
These videos, containing English narration by Khalifa, were part of an ISIS media campaign promoting violence committed against U.S. citizens and other countries' citizens in order to incite further violence against the United States, allied nations, and their citizens.
The videos depict glamorized portrayals of ISIS and its fighters as well as scenes of violence, including depictions of unarmed prisoners being executed.
Khalifa also allegedly narrated a series of recruitment videos titled "Inside the Khilafah" that depicted various aspects of daily life within the Islamic State and featured ISIS members encouraging potential recruits to join ISIS and conduct terrorist attacks against non-Muslims.
One video includes a voice recording of the Pulse Nightclub shooter, Omar Mateen, pledging his allegiance to ISIS during the horrific 2016 mass shooting in Orlando.
He was captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in January 2019 and recently transferred to FBI custody. The FBI said that, at one point, he threw a grenade onto the roof of a house where Syrian Democratic Forces soldiers were positioned.
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Posted by trailing wife 2021-10-04 00:00||
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