2017 PotWR Round 2: The Debate / Town Hall

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VivaRevolution said:
Jesus christ

This should be front page news everywhere.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/raqqas_dirty_secret



Raqqa’s
dirty secret
By Quentin Sommerville and Riam Dalati
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The BBC has uncovered details of a secret deal that let hundreds of IS fighters and their families escape from Raqqa, under the gaze of the US and British-led coalition and Kurdish-led forces who control the city.

A convoy included some of IS’s most notorious members and – despite reassurances – dozens of foreign fighters. Some of those have spread out across Syria, even making it as far as Turkey.

Lorry driver Abu Fawzi thought it was going to be just another job.

He drives an 18-wheeler across some of the most dangerous territory in northern Syria. Bombed-out bridges, deep desert sand, even government forces and so-called Islamic State fighters don’t stand in the way of a delivery.

But this time, his load was to be human cargo. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters opposed to IS, wanted him to lead a convoy that would take hundreds of families displaced by fighting from the town of Tabqa on the Euphrates river to a camp further north.

The job would take six hours, maximum – or at least that's what he was told.

But when he and his fellow drivers assembled their convoy early on 12 October, they realised they had been lied to.

Instead, it would take three days of hard driving, carrying a deadly cargo - hundreds of IS fighters, their families and tonnes of weapons and ammunition.

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Abu Fawzi and dozens of other drivers were promised thousands of dollars for the task but it had to remain secret.

The deal to let IS fighters escape from Raqqa – de facto capital of their self-declared caliphate – had been arranged by local officials. It came after four months of fighting that left the city obliterated and almost devoid of people. It would spare lives and bring fighting to an end. The lives of the Arab, Kurdish and other fighters opposing IS would be spared.

But it also enabled many hundreds of IS fighters to escape from the city. At the time, neither the US and British-led coalition, nor the SDF, which it backs, wanted to admit their part.

Has the pact, which stood as Raqqa’s dirty secret, unleashed a threat to the outside world - one that has enabled militants to spread far and wide across Syria and beyond?

Great pains were taken to hide it from the world. But the BBC has spoken to dozens of people who were either on the convoy, or observed it, and to the men who negotiated the deal.


“We were scared from the moment we entered Raqqa,” he says. “We were supposed to go in with the SDF, but we went alone. As soon as we entered, we saw IS fighters with their weapons and suicide belts on. They booby-trapped our trucks. If something were to go wrong in the deal, they would bomb the entire convoy. Even their children and women had suicide belts on.”

The Kurdish-led SDF cleared Raqqa of media. Islamic State’s escape from its base would not be televised.

Publicly, the SDF said that only a few dozen fighters had been able to leave, all of them locals.

But one lorry driver tells us that isn't true.

We took out around 4,000 people including women and children - our vehicle and their vehicles combined. When we entered Raqqa, we thought there were 200 people to collect. In my vehicle alone, I took 112 people.”

Another driver says the convoy was six to seven kilometres long. It included almost 50 trucks, 13 buses and more than 100 of the Islamic State group’s own vehicles. IS fighters, their faces covered, sat defiantly on top of some of the vehicles.

Footage secretly filmed and passed to us shows lorries towing trailers crammed with armed men. Despite an agreement to take only personal weapons, IS fighters took everything they could carry. Ten trucks were loaded with weapons and ammunition
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Cubo de Sangre said:
Not sure if we should discuss policy in public before determining a unified front...but fuck it. Here's a couple rough sketches of my vision. Must admit I haven't read any of your our platform. So not sure how this fits in. :oops:








That all said, consider this my VP announcement on the Viva team. Scooping candy-ass GNN on the official press release. Those of good taste enjoy. Punters please skip to 1:55 for the tl:dw.


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This platform is lacking in rudeness
 
Ceez said:
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The sad part is the part I quoted is about 5% of the article.

Interesting read. Hars to read that and not think US/British/Kurdish coalition forces, didn't let 1,000's of armed ISIS fighters with suicide bombs strapped to children evacuate Raqqa.
 
Lead said:
Round 2 ends Friday 11/24 9pm EST which would mean Round 3 begins shortly after.
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Am I missing something or where's the poll at? Can't blame the alcohol either because I'm only half drunk and very coherent
 
Ceez said:
Am I missing something or where's the poll at? Can't blame the alcohol either because I'm only half drunk and very coherent
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You'll fit right in. A bunch of us check back here on Sunday/Monday mornings to surprise ourselves with what kind of weird and incoherent shit we wrote while under the influence. It's a sort of hungover easter egg hunt ritual.
 
VivaRevolution said:
Are you interested in a post as our anti-PC czar?

If not go fuck yourself.
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Cubo de Sangre said:
Chris has the integrity to hitch his wagon to a real WR'er. Sorry, part-time motherfucker. Or more accurately, dabbler.


455px-The_Gong_Show_Chuck_Barris_1976.jpg
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Aye its true Tornado called on me to join him and i think after president disaster we need some outsiders and some new blood.

But I still like you guys too and well see where we end up.

I will do what it takes to see RP and Homer go down for the count on election day
 
Gutter Chris said:
Aye its true Tornado called on me to join him and i think after president disaster we need some outsiders and some new blood.

But I still like you guys too and well see where we end up.

I will do what it takes to see RP and Homer go down for the count on election day
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@Cubo de Sangre BTFO


<mma2>
 
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