ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed?

No confirmation as of yet. This thread is going places, either 1,000+ posts of celebration or straight to The Dump.
 
It can't be true. Our muslim president Hussein Obama wouldn't allow it! He won't even say radical islam, amirite guys?
 
sodapopinski said:
Isis: Fake propaganda statement sparks false reports of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's 'death in US air strikes'
Well, one of these days we'll finally be able to celebrate.

To the dump.
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I don't think it matters either way. My impression is he's just a figurehead. He's got all the classic requirements for a caliph and he's got a PhD in Islamic studies. Not exactly the credentials of an elite military leader or intelligence agent.

As far as I know the people who are behind ISIS are former Baathist intelligence officers. To me that makes a lot more sense then some no name, hoity toity Islamic scholar.
 
Kafir-kun said:
I don't think it matters either way. My impression is he's just a figurehead.
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Check out Sam Harris' interview with Michael Weiss if you haven't yet ('Inside the Crucible'). They talk about him and the rise and realities of ISIS a bit. I'd call him not a figurehead, but more of a Machiavelli.
 
Pentagon officials said Tuesday they were "skeptical" about reports that an airstrike from the U.S.-led coalition in Syria killed Islamic State terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"We have seen these types of reports before, here in Iraq and in other operations, and until we have confirmation, we are going to practice healthy skepticism," Col. Christopher C. Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, told Fox News.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/0...-reports-isis-leader-al-baghdadi-killed.html#
 
I'm sure there will be another scumbag to replace him, even if he did die. Somehow I doubt it though. It is not that difficult to protect your boss from air strikes.
 
Fawlty said:
Check out Sam Harris' interview with Michael Weiss if you haven't yet ('Inside the Crucible'). They talk about him and the rise and realities of ISIS a bit. I'd call him not a figurehead, but more of a Machiavelli.
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I've listened to that one. I first heard of the idea in this article
Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi was the real name of the Iraqi, whose bony features were softened by a white beard. But no one knew him by that name. Even his best-known pseudonym, Haji Bakr, wasn't widely known. But that was precisely part of the plan. The former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein's air defense force had been secretly pulling the strings at IS for years. Former members of the group had repeatedly mentioned him as one of its leading figures. Still, it was never clear what exactly his role was.

...

From the very beginning, the plan was to have the intelligence services operate in parallel, even at the provincial level. A general intelligence department reported to the "security emir" for a region, who was in charge of deputy-emirs for individual districts. A head of secret spy cells and an "intelligence service and information manager" for the district reported to each of these deputy-emirs. The spy cells at the local level reported to the district emir's deputy. The goal was to have everyone keeping an eye on everyone else.

...

It seemed as if George Orwell had been the model for this spawn of paranoid surveillance. But it was much simpler than that. Bakr was merely modifying what he had learned in the past: Saddam Hussein's omnipresent security apparatus, in which no one, not even generals in the intelligence service, could be certain they weren't being spied on.

Expatriate Iraqi author Kanan Makiya described this "Republic of Fear" in a book as a country in which anyone could simply disappear and in which Saddam could seal his official inauguration in 1979 by exposing a bogus conspiracy.
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Even if we had gotten him, wouldn't he just get replaced by someone more extreme/"worse"? That's usually what happens.
 
Kafir-kun said:
I don't think it matters either way. My impression is he's just a figurehead. He's got all the classic requirements for a caliph and he's got a PhD in Islamic studies. Not exactly the credentials of an elite military leader or intelligence agent.

As far as I know the people who are behind ISIS are former Baathist intelligence officers. To me that makes a lot more sense then some no name, hoity toity Islamic scholar.
Click to expand...

He had experience as an AQ terrorist for a decade, he is a smart guy.

ISIS is basically a mix of AQ terrorists and ex baath officers.

Anyway he already has sucessors in place.
 
Gregolian said:
Even if we had gotten him, wouldn't he just get replaced by someone more extreme/"worse"? That's usually what happens.
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Not necessarily, but it is a possibility. Iraq's government did not get worse leaders than Saddam, for instance. It's rolling the dice for sure. IS emerged in part from Saddam's old government, but did not manage to take Iraq.
 
I have to imagine there is a game of thrones thing going on and this guy will be murdered by one of his own
 
I hope not, i hope that he was severely maimed, with people around him desperately trying to save his life, which, in turn will only make his death slower and more agonizing..
 
So does this mean the Americans bombed Israel?
 
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