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Foreign Policy Magazine reports that a moderate Syrian rebel group in northern Syria has captured a black Dell laptop in a village in the Syrian province of Idlib close to the border with Turkey that contained 35,347 files that turned out to be a treasure trove of documents that provide ideological justifications for jihadi organizations -- and practical training on how to carry out the Islamic State's deadly campaigns. They include videos of Osama bin Laden, manuals on how to make bombs, instructions for stealing cars, and lessons on how to use disguises in order to avoid getting arrested while traveling from one jihadi hot spot to another. Most disturbing however, is that the ISIS laptop contains a 19-page document in Arabic on how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize bubonic plague from infected animals. "The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge," the document states. The document includes instructions for how to test the weaponized disease safely, before it is used in a terrorist attack. "When the microbe is injected in small mice, the symptoms of the disease should start to appear within 24 hours," the document says.
"Nothing on the ISIS laptop, of course, suggests that the jihadists already possess these dangerous weapons. And any jihadi organization contemplating a bioterrorist attack will face many difficulties," write Harald Doornbos and Jenan Moussa. Al Qaeda tried unsuccessfully for years to get its hands on such biological weapons, and the United States has devoted massive resources to preventing terrorists from making just this sort of breakthrough. "The real difficulty in all of these weapons ... [is] to actually have a workable distribution system that will kill a lot of people," said Magnus Ranstorp. "But to produce quite scary weapons is certainly within [the Islamic State's] capabilities." The documents found on the laptop of the jihadist, meanwhile, leave no room for doubt about the group's deadly ambitions.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday September 01 2014, @02:21AM
Can we stop calling the "The Islamic State" and refer to it as "Fucktardia" like it so richly deserves.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Monday September 01 2014, @03:50AM
Er... "The Islamic State" doesn't refer to a freaking location -- it refers to the terror group ISIS:
a Sunni jihadist group in the Middle East. In its self-proclaimed status as a caliphate it claims religious authority over all Muslims across the world and aspires to bring much of the Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its political control... -- Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
...which, incidentally, includes Israel. Good luck getting away with calling that "fucktardia."
Besides, the term was already earned by the Christian fundie-filled part of the United States (my own country, to be clear) that, despite being part of the West, keeps trying to teach creationism as "science," is vehemently against "welfare" despite depending on other states' income for survival, and other crap I can't recall off the top of my head.
In other words, fundamentalism -- particularly the ignorant bigotry it produces -- is the real "fucktardia" and it definitely isn't confined to any one part of the planet.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday September 01 2014, @05:18PM
I'm not sure why you think I thought it was a location, and it's a little insulting that people are modding you as "informative". I do agree however, that there are many other places worthy of the name. The really interesting part is that were all to be named "Fucktardia", the civil wars would make any previous nations conflicts seem like minor disagreements.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 01 2014, @07:07PM
Er... "The Islamic State" doesn't refer to a freaking location -- it refers to the terror group ISIS:
An islamic state is a government which implements islamic religious law known as sharia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_state [wikipedia.org]
So ISIS isn't a religious state, they want to create one.