Canada's Wannabe Jihadi-Wives

"With Canadians lining up in food banks in record numbers and struggling with housing costs, the Liberal government must answer for why they spend $170,000 on lavish costs to repatriate reported ISIS criminals."

"The fact that these items were purchased for those detained as alleged terrorists is appalling in itself."

"[The opposition is] calling for the committee to be immediately recalled to launch a full inquiry into this matter."

Conservative Party letter to federal government 

 

"Such spending raises serious questions about government priorities, public trust, and the integrity of our system."

"[The return of foreign fighters who left to join terrorist groups should prioritize public safety], not reward those who betrayed their country and broke the law."

"[We are] deeply troubled [by the] extravagant homecoming [the women received]."

"Victims’ families have had to pay their own way to attend legal proceedings related to the terror suspects accused of killing their loved ones."

"The stark contrast between how our government treats perpetrators and how it treats their victims should alarm every Canadian and offend every taxpayer."

Sheryl Saperia, CEO, Secure Canada 

 

"[ISIS] still poses a significant threat via its network of provinces, affiliates, related loose online networks, and due to its ability to inspire Canada-based threat actors to commit serious acts of violence."

Canadian Security Intelligence Service 

 

"The Liberal government needs to be held accountable for the way it throws away our money and wastes hard earned tax dollars, giving rewards and luxuries to people who betrayed our country."

"We want to make sure that we’re getting to the bottom of it so this money can’t be wasted in the future."

"[The women should be asked to repay the costs of their repatriation]. They made the decision to go and join and marry into the worst terrorist network in the world, and they should pay the full costs of getting back to Canada."

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre  

The Al-Hawl Camp, where most of the families capture during the fight against ISIS are detained.

 

When the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was in its expanding Caliphate heyday, a number of Canadian women travelled to the Middle East to reach Iraq and Syria where their steadily expanding empire was located, answering the call to jihad, to link up with the  terrorists as wives to produce children they called the 'lion cubs' of ISIL jihad, and to take part in the propaganda aimed at Western audiences in their bid to inspire more Muslims abroad in the diaspora to respond to the call of jihad.

 

Once the Islamic State lost their momentum of terror-inspired power, when the Kurdish Peshmerga aligned with U.S. and Western military forces began to gain the upper hand, wrenching territory back from their grasp, and eventually defeating the Islamic State whose members were either taken prisoner or escaped elsewhere to attempt to restore their caliphate mission elsewhere, recruit among Muslims in Africa and Afghanistan, rearm and inspire terror once again, Kurdish forces undertook a temporary imprisonment of foreign Islamic State fighters, creating a separate prison for their women and children.

 

The U.S. state department reported in 2023 that 14 countries including Canada repatriated 3,500 citizens, and overall, about 7,000 family members of foreign fighters representing 30 countries were brought back to their countries of origin. More than half of those held in the Kurdish-guarded prison camps were under age 12; the U.S. bureau of counterterrorism warning that if they remained they would be vulnerable to ISIS recruitment, likely fuelling a resurgence in the Middle East. An argument that spurred Western nations to reluctantly repatriate their wayward citizens.

 

Thanks to the federal Access to Information law, an investigative journalist, Stewart Bell with Global News was able to reveal that Canada's Liberal government used over $170,000 of taxpayer funding to retrieve a handful of Canadian women and their children who had gone overseas to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Costs for hotel bills in Montreal were included for the returnees and their government escorts. When the details were revealed, Parliament's Conservative opposition called for an expenditures investigation.

 

Expense reports released under Access to Information Act on costs of repatriating Canadian ISIS women and their kids. Global News

 

The initial round of repatriations completed in October of 2022, came with a cost of $10,863 when Canadians Kimberly Polman and Oumaima Chouay were returned. Polman faces charges of terrorism, while Chouay pleaded guilty a month ago to a charge of participating in the activities of a terrorist group. In April of 2023 the second operation incurred $132,746 in expenses that included government staff and the ISIS returnees. $20,331 went for 23 hotel rooms at the Marriott Hotel at the Montreal Airport. That included room-service invoices and a $3,000 catering tab.

 

Four returning Canadian women, three of whom on arrival were arrested and their ten children comprised the returnees. Emontonian Aimeee Lucia Vasconez, married to two different ISIS fighters was in that group while Ammara Amjad also in the group was arrested and faces a charge of terrorism. One room cost $1,100 which included the original room cost of $638 and $95-worth of wine, a $105 room-service meal and $87-worth of items from the hotel gift store that included chocolate, chips and over-the-counter drugs. 

 

A tip of $7 on  a $8 coffee came from that same room while $15-worth of children's ice cream was from another room, and a third had ordered drinks of white, red and sparkling wine at $25 each. Two $24 smoked meat sandwiches came from yet another room. Early July 2023 saw the third repatriation operation proceed, which cost over $27,500 when a government of Canada employee -- likely with Global Affairs -- expense-purchased snacks including goldfish and granola bars, and Timbits. In that operation, Montreal hotel rooms cost about $2,300. 

 

Two women from Edmonton, Dina Kalouti and Helena Carson were in that group; both sentenced to six-month peace bonds, required to continue counselling with the Organization for the Prevention of Violence. Needless to say, none of these operations began in Montreal; there was a journey from the Al-Hol camp in Syria to reach Montreal; the cost of the air flights were not included in the total expenditure figures released by Global Affairs through the Access to Information legislation. Nor the cost associated for government employees to fly out to Syria to escort these women and their children back to Canada.

 

Kimberly Polman is greeted by family members after being released from custody at provincial court in Chilliwack, B.C., on October 27, 2022. Polman was repatriated to Canada from a detention camp in Syria after marrying an ISIS member. Photo by Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

  

Iran's Shattered "Axis of Resistance"

"The Syrian debate is happening at all levels of Society."

"People are asking: Why did we spent so much money there? What did we achieve?"

"What is our justification now that it's all gone?" 

Hassan Shemshadi, Iranian analyst

AP Photo

 

Iranians appear to be awakening from their stupor of victimization by their theocratic regime; influential critics in the country now speaking out publicly of the futility and regional destabilization fomented by the Islamic Republic of Iran, short-changing the great Iranian people living in poverty and repression crushed beneath the fist of the Islamist Khomeinist regime under Ruhollah Khomeini's successor Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, carrying on the vision of his predecessor.

The sudden collapse of the Alawite regime of President Bashar al-Assad, propped up by Tehran, has taken the Iranian Mullahs and their Republican Guard Corps by surprise; no longer can they rely on Syria as a conduit for weapons meant for the terror groups founded and funded by Iran and others dependent on its support; Tehran's infamous 'axis of resistance'. 

The public has always grumbled in fruitless frustration over billions spent by their government to recruit, train and arm their proxy militias, while depriving the people of Iran of basic necessities of life. That, and the Iranian lives sacrificed to help support the Syrian regime in its long-standing civil war against Syria's Sunni population, and its and conflict with foreign Sunni-led Islamist groups like the Islamic State; all to naught. 

 

AP Photo

 

"No one will be able to waste Iran's dollars for maintaining a spider web anymore", stated former lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh in a social media post, urging Iranians to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad. A professor of international relations at Tehran University, Ebrahim Motaghi stated that Iran had been reduced from regional power to merely another country, on a talk show viewed widely.

The Iranian regime's strategy to become a dominant regional force capable of confronting Israel and the United States, its support of militant Islamist groups across the Middle East it named the axis of resistance, is being questioned not only by an incensed public, but also by well-placed authority figures. Mohammad Shariati Dehghan, former Iranian representative to the intergovernmental Organization of Islamic Cooperation wrote in a front-page opinion piece that the Assad defeat exposed Iran's strategy as misguided, "built on weak foundations".

A new approach was required, to prioritize building alliances with other countries rather than propping up militant groups, while redirecting funding and resources back to the people of Iran. This open public debate is a departure from the norm since for many years leaders of Iran placed support for Syria and allied terrorist groups fighting Israel to be a non-negotiable focus of the Islamic revolution, which national security demanded.

These open comments, infuriating to Ayatollah Khamenei, were, he said, "a crime", having the effect of sowing fear and uncertainty in the public mind. Iran's judiciary responded by announcing a criminal investigation into specific prominent figures and news outlets identified as leading the criticism. Among them, former lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahtpisheh who had revealed the Syrian debt to Iran came to $30 billion.

Syria had become Iran's central command base in the region for over 40 years. Military bases, missile factories, tunnels and warehouses were all controlled by Iran. Weapons, cash and logistical support to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and terrorists in the West Bank and Iraq were all beneficiaries of Tehran's largess in building its 'axis of resistance'. 

When the Assad regime was deposed, Syrians stormed the Damascus Iranian Embassy, smashing photographs of Iranian leaders, and hauling down the Iranian flag. The Islamist rebel leader, Ahmed al-Shara, who spearheaded the insurgents, warned Iran he would not tolerate continued Iranian interference in Syria's affairs. Gone forever, the Assad regime's complicity with the Republic.

AP Photo

"Why were you spending billions of dollars of oil revenues that belong to the Iranian people on Assad until the very end if he wasn't even listening to you?"

"At least on the topic of Syria, stop lying and be honest with the people."

Alireza Mokarami, Iranian, Syrian civil war veteran

Unintended Consequences

"At 11:42 a.m. local time on May 3rd, U.S. Central Command forces conducted a unilateral strike in Northwest Syria targeting a senior Al Qaeda leader."

CENTCOM

 

'Senior leader' of Al-Qaeda-linked group killed in US strike   Middle East Monitor

 

"Centcom takes all such allegations seriously and is investigating to determine whether or not the action may have unintentionally resulted in harm to civilians."

Michael Lawhorn, spokesman, Central Command

Military officials in the United States are now investigating a recent strike in Syria that senior officials initially claimed killed a high-ranking al-Qaeda fighter. The man who was killed by the Central Command strike was a 56-yar-old farmer, struck by a killer drone on May 3. A man whom family and other villagers identify as a father of ten who had been tending his sheep when an American missile hit and killed him. Lotfi Hasa Misso, a former bricklayer, lived in Qorqanya, Syria, described as hard-working whose "whole life was spent poor".

Hours after the strike the operation, overseen by US. Central Command, claimed a Predator drone strike targeted a "senior al-Qaeda leader". The brother of the dead man immediately contacted the famed White Helmets who arrived on scene to find a dead man and animals that had also been struck. Doubts were raised and communicated to the Pentagon. "We are no longer confident we killed a senior AQ official", said one official. Another clarified on the condition of anonymity that "though we believe the strike did not kill the original target, we believe the person to be al-Qaeda."

 

Mohammed Hassan Masto sits next to the grave of his brother Lutfi, who was killed on Wednesday, May 3, in a U.S. military strike, in the village of Qorqanya, a rural area in northern Idlib province, Syria, Sunday, May 7, 2023

 

Following the attack American military authorities refused to identify who their target was, much less how the targeting error occurred or even whether a legitimate terrorist leader had escaped. Some of the U.S. military authorities continue to insist that a 'senior leader' of an Al-Qaeda-linked group was killed in the and that the dead farmer, despite the family's and villagers' denials was indeed a member of al-Qaeda.

 

When such unintended consequences take place, as they have in the past, the Pentagon tends to expand investigations in light of sufficient credible evidence of harm to civilians emerging. In this case questions have been raised whether the information that had been used in the authorization of the attack can even be justified. 

 

The Biden administration last year insisted it would take steps to reduce such risks to civilians, promising greater transparency when unintended deaths occur. The U.S. military had covered up past instances of errant airstrikes inadvertently killing innocent people. Media outlet investigations revealed flawed intelligence and "confirmation bias" led to disaster. A 2021 strike during the U.S. evacuation of Afghans under emerging Taliban rule had officially been described as targeting a suicide bomber, but had killed ten Afghan civilians, seven children among them. 

The Washington Post broke the story after having given four terrorism experts details about Lotfi Hassan Misto, and where he lived, asking them to survey online discussions among jihadists following the strike for comments on the Qorqanya attack. The result was no references indicating Misto to be affiliated with a terrorist group; each of the consultants remarking it would be unusual for a senior leader in al-Qaeda to operate near the area, controlled by a rival group.

The Post shared coordinates of where the drone strike occurred -- near Misto's home and chicken farm. One U.S. defence official said the location is close to a "known area of interest" to al-Qaeda contradicting Misto's neighbours who say that no terrorists live or operate near Misto's home. Obtaining images of Misto's face before and after death, the Post provided them to Central Command where officials have not responded whether they believe he is the man killed in the strike.

Father-of-ten Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, who has been identified by his family as the man killed in the strike on May 3. They say was a former bricklayer who lived in the quiet northern town of Qorqanya, according to the Washington Post

 

Little Trust in Turkish Gov't Through Earthquake Relief

?There is a lack of trust when it comes to these organizations [the Turkish government's own organizations receptive to receiving charitable contributions from citizens] and people gravitate toward organizations civilians are involved in."

Gulfem Saydan Sanver, expert, political communication, Turkey

"[The Syrian humanitarian response for the year is already] severely underfunded, [with only half of what is needed funded."

"The international community is called upon to urgently increase funding so that] those affected by this emergency, within an emergency, get the support they need."

International Rescue Committee of the UN

Civil defense workers and security forces search through the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Hama, Syria, on Monday. (Omar Sanadiki/AP)

When the first of the February 6 tremblors hit, the major impact was in southern Turkey, and that is where about 43,000 Turks perished. In northwest Syria, four million displaced Syrians were already living in deprived conditions as a result of the Syrian civil war, a sectarian conflict which saw Syrian President Bashar al Assad, an Alawite Shiite Baathist regime, targeting Syria's majority Sunni population considering the rebellious among them clamouring for equal treatment as citizens to be 'terrorists'.

And while international assistance along with the  country's emergency services sprang into action in Turkey, no government action was undertaken in Syria to aid the refugees living in tent camps, buildings that had been bombed by Syrian and Russian warplanes, and other makeshift settlements where medical aid and the basic necessities of life were in short supply. There, the Syrian White Helmets, a self-help charitable group, did their best with inadequate rescue equipment to free people trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings. 

The international community responded to the catastrophe that struck Turkey, by sending out search and rescue teams, providing winter clothing, medicines, food, but little trickled through to Syria. Turks themselves were quick to provide funding to internal NGOs rather than to their government for the rescue of their fellow citizens, and the provision of emergency supplies of food and water to  the wounded and earthquake survivors. Many of the worst-hit zones were evacuated, people bused elsewhere for safety from robust after-shocks and the danger of more buildings collapsing.

Most people in the international community sent their charitable funds to help the stricken Turks through the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and other reputable aid agencies. Turks had an NGO that was initiated by a Turkish rock star, which raised a billion Turkish lira in donations, equal to $53 million US. to help the victims of the quakes. They were openly opposed to donate to state-operated organizations.

The country's state Disaster and Emergency Management Authority with its affiliation to the Interior Ministry saw criticism by people across the earthquake-hit south for tardiness in arriving and inadequate response. Accusations of incompetence abounded. The Authority claimed it provided the correct response immediately the earthquakes struck. On the other hand, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan expressed his own view that rescue was incomprehensibly tardy.

There was an alternative that most people in Turkey turned to with infinitely more confidence that their donations would reach those badly in need of assistance. The NGO AHSAF founded by musician Haluk Levent. Turkey's government has expressed its doubts over how the NGO plans to use those donations, and questions its mission. In giving needed aid to survivors the funding given to the NGO will find ample good use.

The sheer scale of the disaster which killed over 43,000 in Turkey alone is a difficult number to comprehend. This was not supposed to happen. After the 1999 Turkish earthquake when 19,000 lives were lost, attributed largely to the poor construction of multi-story buildings in the country whose building codes were routinely flouted, Mr. Erdogan campaigned on a promise to ensure that all buildings would strenuously follow the code for earthquake safety.

One town directly in the earthquake zone did exactly that on the initiative of the municipality itself. As a result there were no buildings there that collapsed, and there was not one death that occurred from the earthquake, while all around the town mass destruction ensued. Corruption is endemic in the country and shortcuts in the construction industry led to poor construction, responsible for the thousands of buildings unable to withstand the effects of the earth movement.

Under President Erdogan's direction authorities have charged and arrested hundreds of owner of construction companies, engineers, company lawyers and others involved in the construction trade. Facing a spring election. the current president of Turkey is eager to ensure that the grumblings of anger assailing the government's inadequate response to citizens in their time of dire need, don't stick too closely to him personally. But his office is where such decisions to enforce laws are carried out and the calamitous situation that ensued befouls him as the nation's executive administrator.

Millions of Turks are now without homes. The Turkish Red Crescent and the government AFAD received donations from within and without the country, as did smaller local charities and international organizations. 115 billion lira was raised through a television campaign and public institutions like the Central Bank and public banks turned in another 80 billion lira.

Turkish Red Crescent volunteers hand out hot drinks and food to people affected by the 6 February earthquakes. Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers arrive in an ambulance to provide urgent health assistance to those injured. Photo: Turkish Red Crescent and Syrian Arab Red Crescent

"[We have received dozens of calls from people all over the world wanting to adopt baby Aya]."

"I won't allow anyone to adopt her now. Until her distant family return, I'm treating her like one of my own."

Hospital Manager, Khalid Attiah

 

"The rescuers can end up being victims too because of how unstable the building is."

"We just pulled three bodies out of this rubble and we think there is a family in there that is still alive - we will keep on working."

Mohammed al-Kamel, White Helmets rescue group, Jindayris, Syria

Rescuers from the White Helmets organisation, who are all too familiar with pulling people out of the rubble for over a decade during Syria's civil war, have been helping in Jindayris.Getty Images

 

 A newborn child, umbilical cord still attached to her dead mother, was found alive by members of the Syrian rescue group White Helmets and taken to hospital for care. "She arrived on Monday in such a bad state, she had bumps, bruises, she was cold and barely breathing", the paediatrician looking after her, Hani Marouf explained. In other circumstances, baby Aya would have four siblings to play with and grow up with. All four perished along with their mother and father. When the earthquake struck Aya's mother went into labour and gave birth; she may never even have seen her baby daughter before dying.

A lot of publicity surrounded this child; the video of her rescue was posted to social media resulting in a response from people all over the world, offering help, many wanting to adopt the child whose name in Arabic means "a sign from God". One of the nurses at the hospital treating the baby aroused suspicion when he was seen photographing the tiny girl.The hospital manager whose wife was breastfeeding Aya thought the male nurse might be planning to abduct the baby, so he fired the nurse.

Before long the nurse returned along with two thugs with guns who set about beating the hospital director. The gunmen informed local police officers they intended to punish the hospital director for firing their friend, with no interest in kidnapping the baby. False claims of being relatives to the baby have been made by people showing up at the hospital, indicating a need for a police guard. In fact, a close relative, her great-uncle has stated that the baby's paternal aunt plans to raise the baby together with her own she recently gave birth to.

 

Getty Images

 

Ten hours after the February 6 quake struck, rescue workers in Jindera in Syria's north discovered the baby while digging through the rubble of a five-storey apartment building where her parents lived. She has been cared for at the hospital in Afrin ever since. Dozens of housing units in the town of Jinderis were destroyed. Her father, originally from a village in eastern Deir el Zour province, left it when the village was captured by the Islamic State group.

Many of the towns and cities where millions lived were reduced to fragments of concrete and twisted metal following the initial quake, another almost as strong, and a series of tremors striking southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. Over a week following the disaster hundreds of thousands have been left homeless and struggling to find the basics required to sustain life; shelter, warmth, food, water, medical attention. The brutal winter weather itself represents a danger to sustained life for the survivors.

 

Moving aid into the large area impacted by the tremblors in Syria is hampered by the difficulty in access to crossings into the area as a result of the 12-year civil war where millions of Syrian Sunnis fled to escape the assaults by the Syrian regime's military. Aid agencies have found it difficult to deliver life-saving winter clothing, food and potable water. The Turkish military is still bombing Kurds nearby the disaster zone in Syria. There are warring factions nearby, including Islamic State.

 

People desperate for aid in Syria in difficult-to-reach areas still have received nothing. In Turkey survivors have been put up temporarily in rail cars. In northwest Syria, 190 families sleep on the floor of a basketball court in Afrin, lying on mats used for training. Children are wrapped in blankets and sleep on the court floor, some of them becoming ill from conditions of privation. Local officials are awaiting the delivery of tents.

 

The United Nations reached an agreement with Damascus to deliver aid through two more border crossings from Turkey to rebel-held areas of northwest Syria. A $397 million appeal for "desperately needed, life-saving relief for nearly 5 million Syrians" for three months has been launched by the United Nations. 

People walk past collapsed buildings on Thursday in the town of Jinderis, in Syria's Aleppo province, days after a massive earthquake devastated the region. Ghaith Alsayed/AP

 

 

The Sheer Scale of the Tragedy

“We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria."

“They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived."

"My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can."

Martin Griffiths, UN relief chief

 

"We will follow this up meticulously until the necessary judicial process is concluded, especially for buildings that suffered heavy damage and caused deaths and injuries."

Turkey’s vice-president, Fuat Oktay

Collapsed buildings in Antakya, Turkey. Photograph: Hassan Ayadi/AFP/Getty Images

The disastrous earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria has brought out the best and the worst in both people and their national representatives. The international community responded quickly, almost 30 countries sent search-and-rescue teams in a desperate bid to save as many people as possible, trapped under the rubble of thousands of collapsed buildings in towns and cities all over northeast Turkey and across the border into Syria where 4 million Syrians, displaced in the ongoing civil war sought refuge in a crowded area with only one cross-border site, blocked by Russia.

 

In Syria, the White Helmet rescue group did their best with inadequate, basic tools to try to extract as many still-living people trapped and crying for help. UN aid trucks finally managed to get through several days following the series of quakes, and to the intense disappointment of the White Helmets no life-saving equipment better than the picks and sledgehammers they were using were made available to them. Hundreds of thousands of quake survivors, now homeless, are sleeping rough, hungry and fearful.

 

 

The Turkish military is still bombing border sites in Syria against the Kurds they mark as terrorists. Military personnel that could more usefully be deployed to rescue missions in both countries. The governments of both countries are facing accusations from their populations of a tardy, insufficient response to the urgency of the tragedy. President Erdogan's popularity has taken a tumble and like most autocrats looking to place blame has started legal action against building contractors, holding them responsible for poor construction.

 

Over 100 arrest warrants resoectung collapsed buildings have been issued by Turkish authorities amid warnings that the death toll from the earthquake that struck parts of Turkey and Syria could double from the current total of 33,000.  A dozen people are in custody; contractors, architects and engineers with links to some of the tens of thousands of buildings collapsed or seriously damaged in the 7.8- and following 7.6-magnitude quakes.

Rescuers carry 12-year-old Cudie from the rubble of a collapsed building, in Hatay, southern Turkey, 147 hours after the quake    EPA

Rescue teams from Austria and Germany withdrew temporarily to a base camp used by international volunteers, citing the dangers they've come across from firepower in the conflict between Turkey and Kurdish militias. Not far from the search-and-rescue areas, there was an attack on civilians, leaving 11 dead, at the hands of Islamic State terrorists. Because of threats, one of the Israeli search-and-rescue teams was forced to withdraw.

Beside collapsed buildings, others standing whole are experiencing looting. Some stores have begun to empty their shops of merchandise to keep them from being looted. Contrast that behaviour with that of desperate bystanders using their bare hands in the first three days after the tremblors to try to rescue trapped victims under steel and concrete.  In Hatay province several days ago rescuers crouched under concrete slabs as they carefully reached into the rubble to rescue a ten-day-old newborn. His mother, also alive, they were carried to a field hospital.

This is winter, extreme cold and snow blankets the area. People trapped under the collapsed buildings would die from exposure as much as from their wounds. Those too exhausted and in pain to continue calling for  help, would never see help arrive. In time their bodies would be exhumed and they would be identified, and buried. Miraculous recoveries of victims were still sporadically taking place days after the initial earthquake, but hope of finding more diminished as time consumed hope.

Now, attention turns to the struggle of survivors, homeless and traumatized, trying to maintain body heat in the winter weather, looking for food and water. "Especially in this cold, it is not possible to live here. If people haven't died from being stuck under the rubble, they'll die from the cold", said survivor Ahmet Tokgoz, calling for his government to evacuate people from the Turkish city of Antakya. Chances of finding anyone else yet alive are fast dwindling.

Winter weather, road and airport runway damage all conspired to hamper emergency responses. Both governments will have much to answer for; the Syrian regime in its fracturing of the country, the plight of the millions of Syrians who fled government attacks on its citizens whom Bashar al Assad called terrorists, and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the lacklustre response to the catastrophe that struck his country."Such things have always happened," he said. "It's part of destiny's plan."

Islamic State Foreign Collaborators

"What is inevitable is that the government will continue to create obstacles ... they will continue to delay."

"They'll continue to create secret frameworks without notice, and then change their position at the last minute. That's what's inevitable."

"Yes, it's complicated. And yes, it's difficult. And yes, it's challenging. And yes, there are logistical [challenges]."

"But what we're talking about here is the life and liberty of 23 Canadian men, women and children."

"There is no reason why these constitutional violations need to continue. Canada has the consent [to bring citizens home]."

"They have the ability. They've done it already without incident."

Lawrence Greenspon, lawyer representing ISIL detainees, Al Hol Camp, Syria 

 

The camp where foreigners are kept by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces is a squalid, miserable place filled with women and children living squalid miserable lives behind barbed wire. Some of those incarcerated are hard-core Islamist members of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, and some are not of that ilk entirely. It is the hard-core Islamists that virtually govern the interior of the camp and those who fail to subscribe to their version of Islam are known to have been murdered, while all others live in fear.

The camps housing the ISIL male members are also densely crowded and squalid, miserable places to spend hours, days, months, years. So it is helpful to remember that these men did not hesitate to brutalize and murder thousands of Iraqis and Syrians, along with Yazidis who faced a genocidal effort on the part of ISIL jihadis who slaughtered Yazidi men, and took women and children into slavery, many of whom have never been returned.

Islamic State favoured producing shocking videos of captured British and American journalists and humanitarian care workers whom they filmed being hanged, set on fire in cages, crucified and most horribly photographic of all complete with mocking commentary, beheaded. The grislier the mode of death, the more viral their reputation as vendors of lethal terror, a bleak, dark celebrity they valued hugely. Their reputation as conscienceless purveyors of torture and death made them invincible.

 

Children at the Kurdish-run Al Hol detention camp in northern Syria in March. Some 70,000 people have been living in increasingly dire conditions there.  Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

Military opposition melted away as they advanced to occupy greater swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, expanding their 'caliphate', spreading terror and subduing a cringing populace the military tasked to defend the citizens had abandoned. These are the prisoners that Kurdish defence forces rounded up and incarcerated to help make the world a safer, more sane place. Kurdish defense forces, unlike the two countries' formal military forces were fearless in combating the ISIL militias and protecting the minority groups they terrorized.

Now, the Federal Court of Canada is hearing arguments for Canada to rise to its international obligations to repatriate Canadian citizens who chose to join this odious group of murdering Islamists. Their family members in Canada have spearheaded a drive to have 23 Canadians returned to Canada, citing the violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by ignoring their plight abroad as prisoners. Canada is held to have breached its international obligations according to a United Nations special rapporteur by not repatriating these extremist fanatics.

Two ISIL-linked women and their children have previously been brought back to Canada, both women immediately arrested, one now free on bail conditions. As for other countries, France has absorbed 58 of its ISIL members, Australia 17 nationals, Germany a dozen, Netherlands, 40, Russia 38 and Britain two. Family members of these ISIL prisoners are looking for a declaration that the government's lack of action is unreasonable; they seek a formal repatriation of the detainees, emergency travel documents and authorization of a Canadian representative to accompany them on their return to Canada.

A 1960s-era government prison in Hasaka, Syria, that the Syrian Democratic Forces has used to detain male members of ISIS.  Credit...Charlie Savage/The New York Times

Inshallah, Lebanon

"[Following the Beirut port explosion of August 4, 2020 is the city beginning to heal?] ...No, it's worse. Because [there has been] no justice. Nothing."

"There are so many families that have lost their children, their parents, their aunts, their uncles that are working really hard to do something about it [looking for answers]. But I don't know if we're going to get anywhere."

"Now we have to think twice about everything, everything, everything. It's very mind-boggling. But having said that, I still love Lebanon, and I still love living here."

"It could be the most beautiful country in the world. And, unfortunately, it's not today."

"We're fed up with saying to ourselves 'We need to be resilient'. No. We need to make changes. We need drastic changes."

"It's chaotic. It's difficult. It's a transition, hopefully, to better things."

"And I say this with parentheses -- Inshallah. Meaning' hopeful', in Arabic."

Barbara Abdeni Massaad, Author, photographer

rsz_leinterviste

Oriana Fallaci, the verbally pugilistic Italian journalist who earned an admirable reputation as a hard-nosed, intrepid journalist whom Grand Ayatollah Khomeini agreed could interview him soon after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, also wrote a novel based on her experiences in Lebanon during and after the civil war which she titled 'Inshallah'. At that time too, when Beirut had been half-destroyed and Iran sent its al-Quds division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the country to train Shi'ite Lebanese the Islamist death cult of terrorism, there was still hope for the country.  

Fallaci succumbed to the demand placed on her to wear a face-revealing burqa to interview Khomeini for the opportunity to ask him probing, accusative questions of the route he was taking Iran toward. Finally, in the face of the Ayatollah's growing irritation with the questions she posed, she declared she was tearing the 'rags' off ("I’m going to take off this stupid medieval rag right now!”). Her novel described the dismal condition of Lebanon, its Muslim sects divided, the power struggles between Lebanese Christians, Druze and Sunnis, and the inferior status of the Shi'ites.

Shi'ite Hezbollah, Iran's terrorist proxy group is pretty well in control of Lebanon now; threat, intimidation, violence, all accomplished what originally living in a state of harmonious mutual suspicion, alternating political positions in a governing-sharing agreement between Lebanon's various communities has pretty well broken under the weight of the civil war and the inability to recover from the meddling of Syria and Iran. Hezbollah recklessly stored explosive material in dilapidated storehouses in Beirut's port.

 

Deadly port explosion rocks Beirut - Splash247

The inevitable occurred when a spark led to a massive explosion destroying part of the port infrastructure, killing over 220 Beirutis, and injuring an additional 6,500 others. Two and a half years later, bereaved families are still calling for an investigation to be launched. The originally assigned judge of the Lebanese judiciary resigned amidst threats and intimidation from Hezbollah wanting to protect itself from what would be damning conclusions of its willful neglect causing death and injury.

The February 2005 bomb-assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's investigation was finally taken over by a UN special tribunal that found, as expected, Hezbollah agents to have planned the murder of the influential and respected Lebanese politician, their strings pulled by Iran.

Hezbollah's first atrocity took place when the newly-fledged terrorist group bombed the American UN military barracks on a UN peacekeeping mission, murdering 307 people: 241 U.S. and 58 French.

 

Over time, Hezbollah has gained in strength and influence, receiving munitions and stockpiling technologically updated missiles from Iran. It has launched attacks against Israelis and Jews internationally as Iran's terrorist proxy, and it has firmly established itself as an integrated part of the Lebanese government, while maintaining its armed forces separate and apart from the Lebanese military. It is more powerful and better armed than the Lebanese military. And under its malign influence Lebanon has faltered and become utterly dysfunctional

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Fuel shortage plunges Lebanon into darkness

Following the blast at Beirut's port, the severely troubled country's economy has been destroyed, inflation has made life impossible for its residents; people cannot withdraw their savings from Lebanon's banking system. Some desperate civilians have taken to robbing banks to the extent of their savings, badly needed to pay for surgeries for ailing family members. Food, heating oil and medical supplies are scarce and people are desperately in need.

The country, once the pride of the Middle East, its coastal 'French Riviera' and 'Swiss Alps', the playground of beautiful landscapes that drew tourists from across the Middle East and further afield is now a pathetic remnant of its former glory. The kidnappings and hostage-taking, the ransom demands and 'prisoner' exchanges, the underground incarceration of Church of England Terry Waite among others, incrementally destroyed the country. It is now on its knees, its people facing starvation.

 

People are threatened daily by economic and political threats. Some 80,000 Lebanese left their country in 2021 representing an increase of 346 percent over 2020. Political instability, economic meltdown, has led to a massive deterioration of the quality of life -- to the extent that 63 percent of Lebanese would emigrate if the opportunity arose. UNICEF reports that Lebanese children "believe emigration is their only hope".

 

According to the United Nations, 78 percent of the population lives in poverty. Lebanese Civil War survivors (1975 to 1990) claim that the crisis of today is worse than the parlous times they experienced living in dread of shelling or sniper fire. 

 

Members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah take part in Ashura commemorations in a southern Beirut suburb. Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

Another Jihadi Leader Down ... No Shortage of Others

"Hajji Abdullah oversaw the spread of [IS]-affiliated terrorist groups around the world after savaging communities and murdering innocents, as the driving force behind the genocide of the Yazidi people in north-western Iraq in 2014."                                                                                                                    "We all remember the gut-wrenching stories of mass slaughters that wiped out entire villages, thousands of women and young girls sold into slavery, rape used as a weapon of war."                                                                                               "Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more."            U.S.President Joe Biden

"The explosion, which was more massive than would be expected from a suicide vest, killed everyone on the third floor and in fact ejected multiple people from the building."

Marine General Frank McKenzie

 

"[US forces engaged a small group of people who approached the area during the two-hour mission and were] deemed hostile, [resulting in two of them being killed]." 

"That resulted in the end of hostile activity. It appears as if a child was also killed."

"[The US doesn't] have perfect knowledge of every single person who was killed."

"More than ten women, children and babies [had been safely evacuated from the house before the bomb hit]."

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby

 

The Sharia Islamic scholar who led the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as its second leader in depraved inhumanity after the death of the founder of the Islamic State in an earlier successful assassination to rid the world of vicious scum -- chose, when he understood that reprisal was in store for him through the auspices of U.S. special troops involved in a raid in his village to secure his home and extract him to face justice for crimes against humanity -- chose to exit life on his own volition, taking his family with him.

 

The raid that targeted Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi certainly took the villagers of the town by surprise. The target was the three-story building that Qurayshi and his family occupied on the third floor. The American military took care to convince others sharing the house to expeditiously exit the building, assuring them they would be in the care and protection of the U.S. Army. A move that prevented other deaths above and beyond the 13 that ensued when the building was bombed.

 

In a sense their prey evaded justice by choosing to destroy his life and that of his wife and two children. His 'martyrdom' would be a matter of celebration for ISIL members, on his ascent to Paradise. His loss to ISIL is not insurmountable; there are other young, brutal and ambitious aspirants to take his place; there always will be. The portrayal of the raid leading to the ISIL leader's death as a 'catastrophic' blow is a bit overblown by the U.S.

 

But then, President Biden is looking for good news, to be congratulated on taking an initiative finally on destroying the most immediate ISIL candidate for restoring America's reputation as a resolute, reliable ally in the struggle of good against evil. Certainly the degraded, abysmal performance of the U.S. administration and its military from its Afghanistan withdrawal did it no credit anywhere in the world. 

The ISIL cells loyal to the original vision of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi face no shortage of martyrdom-seeking jihadis to fill their ranks in areas of Iraq and Syria and Africa. They will take inspiration from the fearless defiance of their now-defunct leader, in taking decisive action to free himself from the bonds of existence so he could ascend to the heavens to meet his maker. He detonated his suicide bomb before U.S. forces could reach him.

"[Qurayshi was responsible for] savaging communities and murdering innocents."

"In a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up, rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him."

"Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more."

U.S.President Joe Biden

President Biden's self-congratulatory statements ring rather hollow, as well. He speaks of the man evading 'justice' but that would be, under international law, being tried for his unspeakable crimes in a court of justice. Qurayshi decided to take his own life rather than give it to Biden. As for the jihadi's killing of his family, it is a way of retaining honour in the mind of the jihadist horde. A mindset oblivious of and scornful of 'international law'.

Interior of a building destroyed in the aftermath of a counter-terrorism mission conducted by the U.S. Special Operations Forces is seen in Atmeh, Syria, February 3, 2022. Mohamed Al-Daher/Handout via REUTERS

A bomb powerful enough to blow to pieces people outside of the three-storey house and into the neighbourhood surrounding it. Nearby olive groves were scattered with rubble from the blast. Also dead, a man and woman who opened fire on U.S. forces from the second floor, where a child also was killed. According to Syrian rescue workers, four women and six children were among the 13 people killed in the raid. What a show of U.S. bravery!

 

ISIL had recently broken its silent, sinister threat in the staging of a ten-day assault on a northeast Syrian prison where Kurdish forces held thousands of its supporters in crowded prisons, a few weeks earlier. ISIL fighters held off the Kurdish People's Defense Units for ten days with the prison attack that saw 77 prison staff killed, along with 374 prisoners and ISIL fighters. It might have been interpreted as a rout for ISIL, but that's not the way they saw it, considering it instead a coup

 

An event that led to social media exploding in support of the group. Another ISIL raid on an Iraqi military base killed eleven soldiers. That was ISIL bringing attention to itself, telling the world it hasn't gone away, just awaiting opportunity to act. The U.S.-led raid on the town of Atme saw a small group of U.S commandos arrive by helicopter backed by helicopter gunships, armed drones and jets surrounding the house in the province of Idlib, near the Turkish border. 

The residents of the building's first floor responded to the call to exit the premises. And there was additional drama when a helicopter had to be blown up on the ground as a result of mechanical problems. The inactivated helicopter would not be left to ISIL. Unlike the thousands of military trucks, warplanes, munitions left for the Taliban. Interestingly, Moscow responded to a U.S. request to keep its forces away from the area since as an ally of Syria, Russia maintains troops there.