We did not “start” ISIS. ISIS is composed of Zarqawi’s old group al Tawhid, which was responsible for the late 1999 Millennium plot to bomb a Jordanian hotel frequented by Americans and Israelis and also the failed attempt to bomb LAX airport. al Tawhid was a Palestinian group which entered Iraq and merged with a Kurdish radical Mullah Krekar’s group Ansar al Islam, which was composed partly of officials belonging to Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service the Mukhabarat. Krekar was based in Norway and also had a cell in Milan which funneled European recruits to Ansar and which was known for the taped discussion of the upcoming 9/11 attacks on the US that the Italians intercepted but did not translate in time.
Zarqawi rose to a leadership role in the merged groups after establishing terrorist cells during the reign of Saddam Hussein - one in Baghdad known for its decapitation of a nun prior to our invasion and also a cell in northern Iraq on the border with Iran, where work was underway to produce a toxic ricin cream intended to be used on European public rail targets, etc. The merged group was responsible for the murder of US Aid official Lawrence Foley in Jordan before the invasion of Iraq.
When they changed their name to al Qaeda in Iraq after our invasion and after the execution of Saddam Hussein, Zarqawi swore the oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden. One of his uderlings was al Baghdaddi who later led the organization after Zarqawi bit the farm and they took up the name ISIS, I think there was another interim leader or two.
Zarqawi’s courier was captured at one point bearing an “all-is-lost” message when the organization was suffering after the Awakening and surge.
All this time more and more former Baath Party officials joined the group now called al Qaeda in Iraq, which laid relatively low until President Dingleberry announced we would withdraw.
Since then as IS / Islamic State and ISIS they appear to have begun to swell since the re-emergence of the red-headed Baath Party/Saddam Hussein henchman al Douri.
We started ISIS in its modern configuration by two acts:
1) we freed the man who would become its leader from our custody in 2009.
2) we armed it from the stocks of Libyan weaponry, shipping it through Turkey to Syria. This is what is behind Chris Stevens and Benghazi.
3) the hasty ill-fated withdrawal from Iraq by Obama allowed Al Qaeda in Iraq to be re-constituted.
By these acts, we breathed new life into the old Al Qaeda in Iraq,and allowed the new entity of ISIS to emerge as a regional army.
Do you al Baghdaddi’ background? He just seemed to appear out of nowhere..