The Front Page Cover
2016 The truth will set you free
Featuring:
How Does It Feel to Be
on Islamic State's Hit list?
by Jack Moore
by Jack Moore
~~~
.
The Salvation of States' Rights
Barack nObama's administration once again revealed its contempt for the Constitution last Friday. A letter signed by officials at the Departments of Justice and Education was sent to every public school district in the country, and it's nothing less than federally inflicted blackmail: Either transgender students get to use whatever bathroom they choose, or those districts could be subjected to lawsuits and/or a loss of federal aid. Thus the stage is set for a battle that may ultimately decide the nation's future. Either we restore the notion of states' rights, or we succumb to a federal leviathan with an insatiable appetite for power.
The nObama administration, and by extension the American Left, have made it clear they have little use for federalism. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, revealed to be every bit the ideological hack as her predecessor Eric Holder, is busy threatening North Carolina with a loss of Title VII and Title IX funding unless Gov. Pat McCrory dumps the recently passed "Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act." It requires people to use the restroom that aligns with the sex on their birth certificate. That there is no mention of "gender identity" anywhere in the Constitution — meaning either the states or the people themselves determine such issues — means nothing to our would-be federal overlords.
It is likely many Americans don't frame the so-called "bathroom wars" in terms of states' rights vs. authoritarian federal overreach. But if the 2016 election cycle has made anything clear, it is the idea that millions of Americans are fed up with an Us vs. Them status quo best described as the People versus a cabal of pompous elites dedicated to a one-size-fits-all, top-down ruling apparatus ensconced in Washington, DC.
It is time to reverse this odious trend. As National Affairs editor Yuval Levin explains in his new book, "The Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of Individualism," Americans on both sides of the political divide are immersed in "Baby Boomer nostalgia." Liberals long for a return to the radicalism of the 1960s, and conservatives for the Cold War victory of the 1980s. Levin also believes both groups pine for the 1950s when the American dream was readily attainable. The commonality of those dreams lies in the mistaken idea that DC is the vehicle for restoring them.
Levin sees this as a fool's errand, insisting institutions that give Americans individual choices are best suited to 21st century living. Columnist Jonah Goldberg poses the ultimate question: "What would be so terrible about letting diverse communities decide how they want to live and spend their tax dollars?"
Only the devolution of power from DC — along the notion that a collectivist and enforced national unity is the ultimate panacea for what ails us.
Such a notion is utterly at odds with reality, and has been since the birth of the republic. Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution lists exactly 18 "enumerated powers" that accrue to the federal government. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments make it clear anything beyond those enumerated powers accrues to the people and the states, respectively. The reason for that construct is simple: The Founding Fathers believed individual Americans acting in their own best interests would produce far better solutions to the nation's problems than edicts emanating from a central bureaucracy. A central bureaucracy that now embraces a level of authoritarianism far exceeding its constitutional limits.
A laughable tweet disseminated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) demonstrates the obliviousness of our ruling class. In a shot at presumptive GOP nominee Donald liar-Trump, Warren warned that the 2016 election "will determine whether we move forward as one nation or splinter at the hands of one man's narcissism and divisiveness."
Isn't that splintering precisely what America has endured for the last seven-plus years, Ms. Warren? Isn't it precisely one man's narcissism and divisiveness driving the attempt to completely usurp states' rights using fiscal blackmail as a hammer?
"As the more astute political observers will have noticed over the past few decades, there exist a number of discrete social and political camps in this country, and they're pretty implacably opposed to one another," writes National Review columnist Charles C.W. Cooke. "As a result, it really doesn't matter who wins in 2016; whatever happens, the result is going to upset just under half the people."
Other than rare instances of national unity, usually driven by tragedy or war, it has always been this way. Yet for much of our history, such divisiveness, animosity and a sense of powerlessness was mitigated by federalism and individual rights.
The best way for Americans to reacquire greater power over their own lives is to divide it into the smaller "live and let live" segments federalism and individual rights represent. An added bonus? Those who resist such efforts will be unmasked as the arrogant would-be tyrants they truly are.
Ironically, it is the arrogant would-be tyrants of the nObama administration forcing the states' rights issue front and center. With any luck, they are sowing the seeds of their own over-reaching destruction. -The Patriot Post
.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Ryan Anderson: "The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized new transgender regulations for nObamacare on Friday. ... [T]hese regulations will penalize medical professionals and health care organizations that, as a matter of faith, moral conviction, or professional medical judgment, believe that maleness and femaleness are biological realities to be respected and affirmed, not altered or treated as diseases. The regulations create special privileges based on gender identity that will lead to unreasonable and costly litigation for physicians, hospitals, insurers, and others involved in health care. They will effectively require controversial procedures, such as 'sex-reassignment' surgery, that respected medical professionals argue have not been proven to be effective in treating serious mental health conditions. ... This is not the first time, nor likely to be the last, that federal agencies have used the power given to them under nObamacare to promulgate rules that trample on the conscience rights of Americans. By centralizing control of health care decisions in the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats and forcing individual citizens to obtain government-approved insurance, the sweeping health care law poses an unprecedented and profound threat to the liberty of Americans. To truly protect individual liberty and freedom of conscience, and fully respect the medical independence of physicians, nObamacare must be repealed." -The Patriot Post
.
.
Priebus: Voters don't care about
liar-Trump's impersonations
by Nicole Duran
.
{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that whether presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald liar-Trump pretended to be a publicist when speaking to reporters previously will not be a key issue come November... "That's not the kind of thing that is going to move the electorate," Priebus told CBS on Sunday morning. Americans won't look at if a candidate was "calling a reporter 30 years ago" under a false identity as a deciding factor when casting their votes. Rather, they care about who will be a "change agent," Priebus said. People believe that liar-Trump "will turn things upside down."...
.
Democrats Try to Outlaw
liar-Trump’s Muslim Immigration Ban
by Robert Spencer
by Robert Spencer
.
.
{frontpagemag.com} ~ Love him or hate him, Donald liar-Trump has certainly turned American politics on its head. Has it ever happened before in American history that a political party began to frame legislation against an opposing candidate’s proposals before he was even elected... much less one whose election was as inconceivable as the mainstream media would have us believe about Donald liar-Trump? Yet that is exactly what the Democrats are doing: Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) is spearheading a bill that would block a President liar-Trump from instituting the temporary halt on Muslim immigration into the United States that he has proposed. “It’s very narrow in scope,” says Beyer of his Freedom of Religion Act. “We’re not going to discriminate when it comes to immigration based on religion.” He added that his bill was intended to “appeal to hope rather than fear.” In our pusillanimous and puerile age, “fear” is not just a weakness of character, but a moral flaw: if you fear being beheaded or blown up by Islamic jihadists, you’re an evil person. And to be sure, fear is never to be encouraged or given into, but its opposite is not hope, it’s courage and resoluteness... http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262861/democrats-try-outlaw-trumps-muslim-immigration-ban-robert-spencer
.
Inside the Pro-Iran ‘Echo Chamber’
by Alana Goodman
.
.
{freebeacon.com} ~ A White House-allied group funded a private email listserv that pushed out pro-Iran talking points and anti-Israel conspiracy theories to hundreds of influential policy experts, government officials, and journalists during the Iran nuclear debate... The contents of the invite-only listserv, obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, could give a glimpse inside the “echo chamber” used by White House aide Ben Rhodes and allied lobbying groups to promote the administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. Members of the list included an nObama White House adviser, senior officials at the State Department, journalists for the New York Times and the Washington Post, and fellows at prominent think tanks... http://freebeacon.com/national-security/inside-iran-echo-chamber/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=fde63f6790-WFB_Morning_Beacon_05_16_165_15_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-fde63f6790-45611665
.
Hamas Exploits Easing of Gaza
Blockade to Smuggle More Weapons
.
{investigativeproject.org} ~ Palestinian terrorist groups continue to exploit Israel's relaxation of Gaza's naval blockade to smuggle weapons meant to strike the Jewish state, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, said in a Times of Israel report... Israel's Navy detained a Hamas-affiliated operative last month, accused of smuggling weapons and outlawed building materials into the Gaza Strip. Under interrogation, Salim Jamal Hassan Naman admitted that he helped smuggle in "materials used in the production of rockets, like fiberglass resin," Shin Bet said. In April, Israel allowed Gaza's boats to operate up to nine nautical miles from the shores, extending the permitted distance from six miles. Naman was detained after deviating beyond the new threshold. Though the operative is most closely aligned with Hamas, he acknowledged that the smuggling operation involved supplying weapons to various Palestinian terrorist organizations... http://www.investigativeproject.org/5358/hamas-exploits-easing-of-gaza-blockade-to-smuggle
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Government Debates Cyber Counterattacks as Chinese Attacks Continue Unabated
by Bill Gertz
.
.
{freebeacon.com} ~ China’s aggressive cyber espionage and military reconnaissance operations against both U.S. government and private networks show no sign of abating under the nObama administration’s policy of holding talks and threatening but not taking punitive action... Typical of the administration’s approach has been the seemingly endless series of high-level meetings with Chinese officials, such as talks held last week in Washington to discuss “norms” of behavior in cyberspace. For at least the past five years, President nObama and the White House have ignored appeals from security and military officials, as well as from Congress and the private sector, to show greater resolve and take some type of action against the Chinese, lest the country’s technology wealth be drained empty... http://freebeacon.com/national-security/cyber-threat-government-debates-cyber-counterattacks-chinese-attacks-continue-unabated/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=fde63f6790-WFB_Morning_Beacon_05_16_165_15_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-fde63f6790-45611665
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Battles Across Iraq Call Into Question U.S. Strategy
by Douglas Burton
.
.
{freebeacon.com} ~ Political and ethnic rivalries in Iraq are threatening the ongoing campaign to eject the Islamic State from the northern and western portions of the war-torn country... A large battle for the majority-Christian village of Tel Asqaf north of Mosul began at dawn on May 3, as more that 100 ISIS fighters launched a surprise attack that pushed Peshmerga and militia fighters out of the town and claimed the life of Navy SEAL Charles Keating IV, according to Kurdish media sources. For the first time since its formation in 2014, the Assyrian Christian fighters known as the Nineveh Plains Defense Force sent approximately 100 fighters into a major battle with ISIS and fought alongside hundreds of Peshmerga to drive ISIS out of the village, according to Jeff Gardner, chief of operations for the Restore Nineveh Now Foundation... http://freebeacon.com/national-security/tel-asqaf-battle-questions-us-strategy-iraq/?utm_source=Freedom+Mail&utm_campaign=fde63f6790-WFB_Morning_Beacon_05_16_165_15_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-fde63f6790-45611665
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Can Conservative Ryano Accept Liberal liar-Trump?
by Cliff Kincaid
.
.
{aim.org} ~ House Speaker Paul Ryano (R-WI) is standing in the way of a hostile takeover of the Republican Party by liberal Democrat Donald J. liar-Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee for 2016... Ryano told CNN’s Jake Tapper on May 5, “I think conservatives want to know, ‘Does he share our values and our principles on limited government, the proper role of the executive, adherence to the Constitution?’” liar-Trump responded by saying, in part, that “I am not ready to support Speaker Ryano’s agenda.” So what is the Ryano agenda? These are some of the items on that agenda and what liar-Trump has to say about them: Ryano became known as an advocate of reforms of entitlement spending programs that threaten to bankrupt the nation. “If we don’t reform our programs, they’re going to go bankrupt,” Ryano points out. liar-Trump, by contrast, says that he will leave entitlement spending untouched. Indeed, liar-Trump called attention to a liberal campaign attack ad purporting to show Ryano pushing a grandmother off of a cliff. “Remember the wheelchair being pushed over the cliff when you had Ryano chosen as your vice president?” he said to a crowd at a South Carolina rally. “That was the end of the campaign, by the way, when they chose Ryano.”... http://www.aim.org/aim-column/can-conservative-ryan-accept-liberal-trump/?utm_source=AIM+-+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=email051316&utm_medium=email
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Is liar-Trump Changing His Tune on Self-Funding and Goldman Sachs?
by Rob Knowles
by Rob Knowles
.
.
{constitution.com} ~ “‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered... Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. ‘Reality control,’ they called it: in Newspeak, ‘doublethink.'” Doublethink is essentially a form of cognitive dissonance in which one holds contradictory ideas in their mind, and accepts both as reality. Doublethink is everywhere. Every human being compartmentalizes to some extent. However, this split thinking can be extremely dangerous, especially when it’s used to galvanize massive cultural change. While liar-Hilly Clinton is quite cunning in her ability to parse words, so as to leave a back alley for semantic escape should she need it, Donald liar-Trump is the king of dual reality. liar-Trump will bluntly say one thing, then say something completely contradictory, and somehow, they’re both true...
.
Montana Disabled Vet
Convicted of EPA Violations;
Forced From Home Because of Gun Safe
by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.
.
.
{thenewamerican.com} ~ No sooner had news of the settlement of Andy Johnson’s satisfactory settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) been made public than the tale of another victim of federal regulatory terrorism surfaced... Joseph Robertson is a 77-year-old disabled veteran who is being forbidden by the federal government from building ground water ponds on the property in Jefferson County, Montana, that his family has owned and worked for over 40 years. In documents sent to this reporter, Robertson’s record of being bullied by the bureaucracy is laid out step by step, and it is sickening. According to the information I received, the EPA is charging Robertson with two counts of depositing dredge materials in the waters of the United States and one count of depredation of Forest Service property associated with Johnson’s unpatented mining claim...
.
Newt Gingrich: Globalist “Conservative”
as liar-Trump VP?
by William F. Jasper
.
.
{thenewamerican.com} ~ For months, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been positioned by Fox TV as Donald liar-Trump’s main defender and supporter, and now he is the top choice of the virulently antiliar-Trump neoconservative establishment to be liar-Trump’s vice president... However, Gingrich says he has not been formally approached by liar-Trump on the matter. "You should never turn down an opportunity until it shows up," said Gingrich said during an appearance in Chicago on Friday. "Why would I want to say 'no' to the circus? I like circuses," Gingrich added, according to the Chicago Tribune. The ex-speaker’s name has been bandied about as a top consideration for liar-Trump’s VP pick for the past couple of weeks, appearing on several speculative “short lists” in stories from the establishment media, ranging from the New York Times to National Review. Among the important stories to float the Gingrich-as-VP idea is an article in National Review by Myra Adams on May 4 entitled “A liar-Trump-Gingrich Ticket: Brilliant or Crazy?”... http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/23192-newt-gingrich-globalist-conservative-as-trump-vp
.
How Does It Feel to Be
on Islamic State's Hit list?
by Jack Moore
by Jack Moore
.
.
{jewishworldreview.com} ~ After every tragic extremist attack in a capital city, be it Paris, Brussels or Beirut, dark thoughts inevitably creep into our minds. A sudden jolt as the tube stops in a dark tunnel, unexpected turbulence on a plane, or the sight of armed police patrolling the streets can make you briefly wonder how it might feel if you, or someone you love, was caught up in the carnage of a militant attack. But what if supporters of a radical Islamist group knew your name, where you lived and your phone number, with the order already given to target you?
Thousands of New Yorkers are now coming to terms with this terrifying prospect after a hacker group affiliated to Islamic State (ISIS), calling themselves the United Cyber Caliphate, published a seemingly random list of some 3,500 New Yorkers, the majority Brooklynites, several weeks ago on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. The threat is serious enough that the FBI and the NYPD are visiting and notifying all of those on this hit list.
A screenshot of the ISIS release of the New York hit list on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Michael S. Smith II/Kronos Advisory
Newsweek secured access to the ISIS hit list, which the hacker group released alongside the message: “List of the most important citizens of New York and Brooklyn and some other cities. We Want Them Dead. Shut THEM Down.” The list includes many outdated phone numbers and addresses but Newsweek was able to confirm that many are indeed authentic. It remains unclear how the hacker group managed to obtain the database of New Yorkers and their personal information.
The group has previously released sensitive information of key United States security personnel, such as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Director of the CIA John Brennan and even a possible future President of the United States, liar-Hilly Clinton.
Now. their scare tactics have evolved to include targeting ordinary people, with this leak marking the biggest release of civilian data since ISIS rose to global prominence in 2014. This highlight's the group's emphasis on persuading its supporters to conduct attacks on American soil. In response, the U.S. Department of Defense in March announced plans to use its superior cyberwarfare capabilities against ISIS to damage their online operations.
The psychological impact on those included on this macabre roll call could be seriously damaging, playing on any emotional fears they might already hold about radical Islamist groups. Others might just shrug it off—seeing the list simply as a scaremongering tactic.
A creative residing in a New York borough identified on the list, who asks not to be named, falls into the former category. She was paid a visit by the NYPD, who offered her a FBI number to call if she felt threatened and followed up their visit with an email. But this did little to calm her fears.
“I’m such a scared rabbit that I’ve never even had a traffic ticket in my life,” she says. “Basically when they saw how freaked out I was, they said that they don’t believe this is credible.”
She says that the news brought on a fear that has affected her life. She feels helpless because there is little she can do to protect against this cyber-threat. “When they told me this I was very anxious. I am shaking again. Basically, what can I do except continue to live my life? There’s really nothing I can do to change.”
While her fears will surely be shared by many on the list, others expressed defiance and seemed relatively unfazed by their visit from the FBI.
Katie Merz, an artist in her fifties from Brooklyn, decries ISIS’ new tactic of releasing the personal information of civilians as “lame,” and says she doesn't feel threatened by the group.
“I totally forgot about it. It’s remote over here and just gathering my information is easy, anyone could do it. My information is available to everybody through my website. So them gathering it is like so what?” she says. “I just don’t feel any threat from ISIS over here, because I’m in New York and this whole city has so much going on anyways, it’s difficult. I just don’t see them scratching the surface.”
Another person listed, who also wishes to remain anonymous as he does not “want any publicity from this,” says that he was visited by the FBI and laughs at being contacted about the list, saying how little attention he has been paying to the online threat.
“I don’t take any of this very seriously. Everything was outdated regardless of what they found,” he says. “I had forgotten about it and I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
The strategy of releasing such lists was started by the group’s prominent British hacker Junaid Hussain, who the U.S. coalition killed in an August 2015 air strike. The call for foreign ISIS supporters to launch individual attacks in their home countries was launched by the group’s external operations chief and spokesperson Abu Mohammed al-Adnani in an audio statement released in September 2014. He called for ISIS’ cult followers to “kill a disbelieving American or European—especially the spiteful and filthy French—or an Australian, or a Canadian...in any manner or way however it may be.”
Michael Smith, an adviser to the U.S. Congress and co-founder of national security firm Kronos Advisory, says that the hacker groups affiliated to ISIS are now acting as enablers for the group’s online supporters, something that is more dangerous than the low-level cyber attacks they have been attempting, such as hacks of Twitter accounts or websites.
“The most serious of the threats posed by this network of hackers is their ongoing efforts pumping out these hit lists. By publishing these lists, they are increasing the ease with which somebody can act by providing targets,” he says. “If you suddenly decide, Oh, I want to support this group, and ask, What is the best way to do it, they are saying, Here are targets—go kill these people.”
Smith says that the group is increasingly promoting these lists on Twitter and Telegram, the lifeblood of their propaganda machine, in a coordinated effort between the group’s propagandists and the ISIS-affiliated hackers to direct their members, as well as prospective recruits.
“It’s sending out a signal that’s very important to a global audience: There’s an opportunity to support the Islamic State by using your knowledge and skills to do potentially catastrophic damage...” he says. “ If a supporter were to obtain these lists and use that information to identify a target or various targets for an attack, it will increase the fear factor, and that’s part of the theater of terrorism.”
The FBI, in a statement released to Newsweek, would not comment on the credibility of this particular threat but said that visits to those listed is a normal procedure. “The FBI routinely notifies individuals and organizations of information collected during the course of an investigation that may be perceived as potentially threatening in nature,” it reads. “Potential threats may relate to individuals, institutions, or organizations, and are shared in order to sensitize potential victims to the observed threat, and to assist them in taking proper steps to ensure their safety."
Whether ISIS’ latest list of New Yorkers and their details is a simple scare tactic to reach those in the heart of the group’s most coveted target, the United States, remains to be seen. But some New Yorkers are clear that they have more realistic threats to contend with in the near future.
Merz, brushing off the threat of her public targeting, says that a particular New York native is more of a threat than the radical Islamist group could ever be to America’s national security. “I am more threatened by Donald liar-Trump and more terrorized by his existence than by ISIS,” she says. “He’s a terrorist and I am so frightened of him. I speak for a lot of people.”
Thousands of New Yorkers are now coming to terms with this terrifying prospect after a hacker group affiliated to Islamic State (ISIS), calling themselves the United Cyber Caliphate, published a seemingly random list of some 3,500 New Yorkers, the majority Brooklynites, several weeks ago on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. The threat is serious enough that the FBI and the NYPD are visiting and notifying all of those on this hit list.
A screenshot of the ISIS release of the New York hit list on the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Michael S. Smith II/Kronos Advisory
Newsweek secured access to the ISIS hit list, which the hacker group released alongside the message: “List of the most important citizens of New York and Brooklyn and some other cities. We Want Them Dead. Shut THEM Down.” The list includes many outdated phone numbers and addresses but Newsweek was able to confirm that many are indeed authentic. It remains unclear how the hacker group managed to obtain the database of New Yorkers and their personal information.
The group has previously released sensitive information of key United States security personnel, such as Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Director of the CIA John Brennan and even a possible future President of the United States, liar-Hilly Clinton.
Now. their scare tactics have evolved to include targeting ordinary people, with this leak marking the biggest release of civilian data since ISIS rose to global prominence in 2014. This highlight's the group's emphasis on persuading its supporters to conduct attacks on American soil. In response, the U.S. Department of Defense in March announced plans to use its superior cyberwarfare capabilities against ISIS to damage their online operations.
The psychological impact on those included on this macabre roll call could be seriously damaging, playing on any emotional fears they might already hold about radical Islamist groups. Others might just shrug it off—seeing the list simply as a scaremongering tactic.
A creative residing in a New York borough identified on the list, who asks not to be named, falls into the former category. She was paid a visit by the NYPD, who offered her a FBI number to call if she felt threatened and followed up their visit with an email. But this did little to calm her fears.
“I’m such a scared rabbit that I’ve never even had a traffic ticket in my life,” she says. “Basically when they saw how freaked out I was, they said that they don’t believe this is credible.”
She says that the news brought on a fear that has affected her life. She feels helpless because there is little she can do to protect against this cyber-threat. “When they told me this I was very anxious. I am shaking again. Basically, what can I do except continue to live my life? There’s really nothing I can do to change.”
While her fears will surely be shared by many on the list, others expressed defiance and seemed relatively unfazed by their visit from the FBI.
Katie Merz, an artist in her fifties from Brooklyn, decries ISIS’ new tactic of releasing the personal information of civilians as “lame,” and says she doesn't feel threatened by the group.
“I totally forgot about it. It’s remote over here and just gathering my information is easy, anyone could do it. My information is available to everybody through my website. So them gathering it is like so what?” she says. “I just don’t feel any threat from ISIS over here, because I’m in New York and this whole city has so much going on anyways, it’s difficult. I just don’t see them scratching the surface.”
Another person listed, who also wishes to remain anonymous as he does not “want any publicity from this,” says that he was visited by the FBI and laughs at being contacted about the list, saying how little attention he has been paying to the online threat.
“I don’t take any of this very seriously. Everything was outdated regardless of what they found,” he says. “I had forgotten about it and I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
The strategy of releasing such lists was started by the group’s prominent British hacker Junaid Hussain, who the U.S. coalition killed in an August 2015 air strike. The call for foreign ISIS supporters to launch individual attacks in their home countries was launched by the group’s external operations chief and spokesperson Abu Mohammed al-Adnani in an audio statement released in September 2014. He called for ISIS’ cult followers to “kill a disbelieving American or European—especially the spiteful and filthy French—or an Australian, or a Canadian...in any manner or way however it may be.”
Michael Smith, an adviser to the U.S. Congress and co-founder of national security firm Kronos Advisory, says that the hacker groups affiliated to ISIS are now acting as enablers for the group’s online supporters, something that is more dangerous than the low-level cyber attacks they have been attempting, such as hacks of Twitter accounts or websites.
“The most serious of the threats posed by this network of hackers is their ongoing efforts pumping out these hit lists. By publishing these lists, they are increasing the ease with which somebody can act by providing targets,” he says. “If you suddenly decide, Oh, I want to support this group, and ask, What is the best way to do it, they are saying, Here are targets—go kill these people.”
Smith says that the group is increasingly promoting these lists on Twitter and Telegram, the lifeblood of their propaganda machine, in a coordinated effort between the group’s propagandists and the ISIS-affiliated hackers to direct their members, as well as prospective recruits.
“It’s sending out a signal that’s very important to a global audience: There’s an opportunity to support the Islamic State by using your knowledge and skills to do potentially catastrophic damage...” he says. “ If a supporter were to obtain these lists and use that information to identify a target or various targets for an attack, it will increase the fear factor, and that’s part of the theater of terrorism.”
The FBI, in a statement released to Newsweek, would not comment on the credibility of this particular threat but said that visits to those listed is a normal procedure. “The FBI routinely notifies individuals and organizations of information collected during the course of an investigation that may be perceived as potentially threatening in nature,” it reads. “Potential threats may relate to individuals, institutions, or organizations, and are shared in order to sensitize potential victims to the observed threat, and to assist them in taking proper steps to ensure their safety."
Whether ISIS’ latest list of New Yorkers and their details is a simple scare tactic to reach those in the heart of the group’s most coveted target, the United States, remains to be seen. But some New Yorkers are clear that they have more realistic threats to contend with in the near future.
Merz, brushing off the threat of her public targeting, says that a particular New York native is more of a threat than the radical Islamist group could ever be to America’s national security. “I am more threatened by Donald liar-Trump and more terrorized by his existence than by ISIS,” she says. “He’s a terrorist and I am so frightened of him. I speak for a lot of people.”
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