Free Republic

Keeping up with the Qardashians: new Islamic State caliph is Sharia judge Abdullah Qardash OCT 29, 2019 4:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER “After his release Qardash served as a religious commissar and a general sharia judge for al-Qaeda…” A “religious commissar and a general sharia judge”? What? Don’t these people realize that al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) have nothing whatsoever to do with Islam? Pope Francis should head to Iraq now to explain their peaceful religion to al-Baghdadi and Qardash. “The Professor – ISIS’s ‘cruel but popular’ new leader: Ex-Saddam officer Abdullah Qardash, who was imprisoned alongside Abu Bakr...

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was once held by the US in Camp Bucca Iraq. But the Obama administration shut down the Bucca prison camp and released its prisoners, including al-Baghdadi in 2009. The Telegraph reported: The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it… …Well-organised and utterly ruthless, the ex-preacher is the driving force behind al-Qaeda’s resurgence throughout Syria and Iraq, putting it at the forefront of the war to...

Ashley-based soldiers face hearing today Supporters of troops accused of beating Iraqis gripe about camp where probe started. By LAUREN ROTH lroth@leader.net As four Ashley-based military police officers head to a hearing today on charges they assaulted Iraqi prisoners, the soldiers' supporters describe disorder, incompetence and mistakes by commanders at Camp Bucca. "Those that initiated this ridiculous investigation and those that perpetuated the volatile circumstances will feel the burden of responsibility that this series of injustices command," wrote David Girman, brother of one of the reservists, in an eight-page letter to congressmen and media. From phone calls and e-mails between...

Once part of one of the most brutal dictator's army in the Middle East, over 100 former members of Saddam Hussein's military and intelligence officers are now part of ISIS. Now they make up the complex network of ISIS's leadership, helping to build the military strategies which have led the brutal jihadi group to their military gains in Syria and Iraq. The officers gave ISIS the organization and discipline it needed to weld together jihadi fighters drawn from across the globe, integrating terror tactics like suicide bombings with military operation

THE facility spread out below him, row after row of neatly aligned white tin roofs, looking like candies set against the endless beige of the desert floor. It was called Camp Bucca. To coalition forces in Iraq, it was the primary detention facility for enemy prisoners of war. To Mitchell Gray, then 48 and serving his country for the third time, it was simply the place where the US Army had decided his skills, which included a law degree and a fluency in Arabic, were needed most. He and the rest of his unit, the 45th Infantry Brigade of the...

One of the Islamic State’s senior commanders reveals exclusive details of the terror group’s origins inside an Iraqi prison – right under the noses of their American jailers. In the summer of 2004, a young jihadist in shackles and chains was walked by his captors slowly into the Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq [snip] “I knew some of them straight away,” he told me last month. “I had feared Bucca all the way down on the plane. But when I got there, it was much better than I thought. In every way.”

The birthplace of the Islamic State (ISIS) has been traced to Camp Bucca, a detention center that was operated by the United States military during the Iraq war. According to The Washington Post, many ISIS leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, “were incarcerated and probably met” at Camp Bucca, “which had detained some of the war’s most radical extremists along the Kuwait border.” “According to former prison commanders, analysts and soldiers, Camp Bucca provided a unique setting for both prisoner radicalization and inmate collaboration — and was formative in the development of today’s most potent jihadist force,” reports the Post.

In June, we learned that the head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, had been in US custody but was released in 2009 when President Obama closed down Camp Bucca in preparation for the US withdrawal of troops (yes, the withdrawal he repeatedly denies having anything to do with) from Iraq. ... Abu Duaa was connected to the intimidation, torture and murder of local civilians in Qaim,’ according to a 2005 U.S. intelligence report. He would kidnap individuals or entire families, accuse them, pronounce sentence and then publicly execute them ... ISIS’ acts of unmatched evil include burying women and...

The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it. Taken during his years as a detainee at the US-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, this is the only known photograph of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. But while he may lack the photogenic qualities of his hero, Osama bin Laden, he is fast becoming the new poster-boy for the global jihadist movement....

When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi walked away from a U.S. detention camp in 2009, the future leader of ISIS issued some chilling final words to reservists from Long Island. The Islamist extremist some are now calling the most dangerous man in the world had a few parting words to his captors as he was released from the biggest U.S. detention camp in Iraq in 2009.

Emboldened by its success in Syria and Iraq, al-Qaeda is widening its reach There’s a name that you should remember: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the commander of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), whose fighters now control large swaths of Iraq. There are few photos of al-Baghdadi, and even fewer details about his life are well-known. But as Iraq is engulfed by conflict and the country’s second largest city fell to Sunni extremists, the influence of Islamic terrorism’s newest star is set to grow. TIME’s International Editor Bobby Ghosh explains the danger behind al-Baghdadi’s rise to power, and what...

The United States once had Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in custody at a detention facility in Iraq, but president Barack Obama let him go, it was revealed on Friday. Al Baghdadi was among the prisoners released in 2009 from the U.S.´s now-closed Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in Iraq, The Telegraph reports. It is unclear why the U.S. let the merciless al Qaeda leader slip away, however, one theory is that al Baghadadi was granted amnesty along with thousands of other detainees because the U.S. was preparing to pull out of Iraq.

Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has transformed a few terror cells on the verge of extinction into the most dangerous militant group in the world. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or Abu Dua was once held by the US in Camp Bucca Iraq. ... Why such a ferocious individual was deemed fit for release in 2009 is not known. One possible explanation is that he was one of thousands of suspected insurgents granted amnesty as the US began its draw down in Iraq. Full title: ISIS Terror Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Was...

The Telegraph reported: The FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it… …Well-organised and utterly ruthless, the ex-preacher is the driving force behind al-Qaeda’s resurgence throughout Syria and Iraq, putting it at the forefront of the war to topple President Bashar al-Assad and starting a fresh campaign of mayhem against the Western-backed government in Baghdad. On Tuesday, his forces achieved their biggest coup in Iraq to date, seizing control...

<p>Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has transformed a few terror cells on the verge of extinction into the most dangerous militant group in the world.</p> <p>Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi or Abu Dua was once held by the US in Camp Bucca Iraq.</p>

CAMP BUCCA — Sewers, water, electricity, trash and fuel are services vital to any city in the United States, and urban populations simply cannot function effectively without proper city management oversight. Approximately 30 members of Oklahoma’s 1st Battalion, 160th Field Artillery, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team face these same challenges in the middle of a desert in southern Iraq. The Guard members manage a facility with a population of more than 26,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, contractors, Department of Defense civilians and detainees at Camp Bucca, Iraq. The camp sits starkly in the middle of the desert -- all commodities and...

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Over 400 Sailors of Navy Provisional Detainee Battalion (NPDB) 2 returned home to Naval Station Norfolk Aug. 11, after a 16-month deployment in Iraq where they guarded 19,000 detainees at Camp Bucca. “We definitely accomplished our mission," said Cmdr. Kathryn Donovan, commanding officer NPDB-2. "It’s an ongoing mission of detainee ops down in Camp Bucca, Iraq. I thought we did a great job as a unit. We had very few MAs, but everyone performed outside of their rate successfully,” The unit was comprised of 422 Sailors from both active-duty and reserve components. They received advanced combat...

In the darkest hours before dawn, groups of 10 detainees toiled 15 feet beneath Compound 5 of America's largest prison in Iraq. The men worked in five-minute shifts, digging with shovels fashioned from tent poles and hauling the dirt to the surface with five-gallon water jugs tethered to 200 feet of rope. They bagged it in sacks that had been used to deliver their bread rations and spread it surreptitiously across a soccer field where fellow inmates churned it during daily matches, guards and detainees recalled. The 105th Military Police Battalion, charged with running Camp Bucca in the scorching desert...

WASHINGTON - The 82nd Airborne Division is sending about 700 soldiers to Iraq to provide extra security for detainees, whose numbers have doubled over the past year, officials said Wednesday. The 1st battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, based at Fort Bragg, N.C., has begun preparing to deploy over the next two months. It will be the battalion's second tour in Iraq; the first was from September 2003 to April 2004. Before that the battalion was in Afghanistan from July 2002 to January 2003. An announcement at Fort Bragg on Monday gave no information about the battalion's new mission in Iraq,...

UMM QASR, Iraq - (KRT) - The weight of a fuel truck collapsed the roof of an escape tunnel being dug out of Camp Bucca, where more than 6,000 suspected terrorists and insurgents are being held. Prison authorities said Sunday the shaft was discovered Thursday when one of the truck's tires plunged into the earth between the two main fences on the camp's perimeter. No one escaped. A small number of ringleaders involved in the attempt were placed in isolation, authorities said. The 300-foot burrow, about wide enough for a man to crawl through, was four feet underground and poorly...