National Defense Briefs – October 8, 2014

By W. Thomas Smith Jr.

National Defense Briefs is a series aimed at informing readers with timely military and homeland security news updates, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Defense issues are inextricably connected to business. In that, MidlandsBiz.com presents the “National Defense Briefs” that matter.

• The future of one of the last Christian communities in the Middle East is “at grave risk of assimilation or annihilation” at the hands of ISIS fighters, reports [Canada’s] National Post. “An estimated 100,000 Iraqi Christians fled the Plain of Mosul in several panicked waves that began in June as ISIS swept east from the Syrian border, murdering, raping and kidnapping as it went. Every place ISIS conquered, it immediately issued an ultimatum to Christians that repeated the stark choice they had given to Syrian Christians when they seized large parts of that country during the past two years. Christians had to either pay a huge ransom for their freedom, convert to Islam or be killed.’”

• The National Post adds [quoting a former truck driver at Mosul Airport], “After being here for more than a millennium, this is the Christians’ last stand in Iraq. Over the centuries we have faced the sword so many times for our beliefs. In two, three, four years, Christians will not be here because Daesh (ISIS) kill us. We will probably be living in the U.S., Canada or Australia. Otherwise, we will be erased from this Earth.”
• As of this writing [Oct. 7, 7:30 p.m. EDT], ISIS is poised to capture the strategically vital Syrian city of Kobani on the Syria-Turkey border. “[The Turks have] forces on their side of the border that will prevent [ISIS] from making any incursions into Turkey,” said U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an ABC News interview. “But, of course, [ISIS] is smart enough not to do that.” Still, “I am fearful that Kobani will fall,” Dempsey added.
• ABC News reports, “For the past two weeks ISIS fighters have pressed to capture the Kurdish city [Kobani], forcing thousands of residents to flee into Turkey. If ISIS should take the city from Kurdish defenders it would be in control of most of the northern Syrian border area.” Experts also fear a “slaughter” of both the city’s defenders and inhabitants should Kobani be seized by ISIS.
• As we have reported, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (also ISIS), the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and the Islamic State (IS). Many Arab-speaking people – as we see in the above report from the National Post – frequently refer to ISIS as Daesh, an acronym for Al Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham (the Arabic translation of theIslamic State of Iraq and al Sham).
• The FBI [as of Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014] is asking for public assistance in identifying “an English-speaking individual and others seen in a propaganda video released last month” [See FBI video – http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/october/help-identify-individuals-traveling-overseas-for-combat/help-identify-individuals-traveling-overseas-for-combat]
• A form for submitting potential tips and leads to the FBI (re: Seeking Information – U.S. Citizens Traveling Overseas to Join Terrorist Groups) has been established at FBI.gov. Please send tips and leads to https://tips.fbi.gov/digitalmedia/ISILtips or call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).

W. Thomas Smith Jr. – a former U.S. Marine rifleman – is a military analyst and partner with NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. Visit him at http://uswriter.com.