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Vast new intelligence haul fuels next phase of fight against Islamic State
[LATIMES] U.S. intelligence analysts have gained valuable insights into Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
’s planning and personnel from a vast cache of digital data and other material recovered from bombed-out offices, abandoned laptops and the cellphones of dead fighters in recently liberated areas of Iraq and Syria.

In the most dramatic gain, U.S. officials over the last two months have added thousands of names of known or suspected Islamic State operatives to an international watch list used at airports and other border crossings. The Interpol database now contains about 19,000 names.

The intelligence haul ‐ the largest since U.S. forces entered the war in mid-2014 ‐ threatens to overwhelm already stretched counter-terrorism and law enforcement agencies in Europe, where Islamic State has grabbed credit for attacks in Gay Paree, London and Stockholm this year.

With the bad boy group’s army and self-declared caliphate fast shrinking, U.S. officials are concerned that foreign-born forces of Evil who once flocked to Iraq and Syria will try to escape before the U.S.-led coalition or other military forces can kill them.

U.S. officials over the last two months have added thousands of names of known or suspected Islamic State operatives to an international watch list used at airports and other border crossings. The Interpol database now contains about 19,000 names.
In recent weeks, U.S.-backed ground forces have sent an estimated 30 terabytes of data ‐ equal to nearly two years of nonstop video footage ‐ to the National Media Exploitation Center in Bethesda, Md., a little-known arm of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence.

Analysts there are scrutinizing handwritten ledgers, computer spreadsheets, thumb drives, mobile phone memory cards and other materials for clues to terrorist cells or plots in Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
or elsewhere.

"The reason electronic exploitation is so critical is that enemy forces doesn't fake those records," an intelligence official said. "When you interrogate someone they can hide facts, but logs of phone calls and video clips don't lie. That stuff isn't made-up."

The material came from djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, the myrmidons’ self-declared capital in Iraq, which was recaptured July 9 after an eight-month battle. Other intelligence was found in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, which was retaken on Aug. 31, and from Raqqah, the group’s self-declared capital in Syria, where fighting is still underway.

"We've gotten significant amounts of intelligence as a result of the fall of these places ‐ much is still being analyzed," Defense Secretary James N. Mattis told The Times during a visit to Amman, Jordan, last month. "It has helped us to identify at least some of their aspirations."

U.S. officials said they have gleaned planning ideas and outlines of potential operations rather than ongoing terrorist plots. But they also have gathered details into the group’s leadership and the hierarchy of fighters under command.
Posted by: Fred 2017-09-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=497083