Islamic State Is Now a Global Player: John Cantlie
By Rakesh Raman
British citizen John Cantlie, who is now a hostage of the terrorist outfit ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), is featured in the new issue of its Dabiq magazine.
In an article titled, “If I Were The US President Today…,” Cantlie accuses the U.S. President Barack Obama, saying: “$424 million dollars’ worth of airstrikes over Iraq and Syria have resulted in little more than the continued expansion and consolidation of the Islamic State in both countries, while the black flag of tawhīd now flutters on the skylines of Libya, Yemen, Sinai, and elsewhere, as the growth of the Islamic State gathers pace abroad.”
Meanwhile, ISIS and its affiliate terrorist groups have now taken complete control of Derna, a city on the coast of the Mediterranean, in Libya. The city has a population of 80,000 and it is near Egyptian border.
[ Read: ISIS Controls Derna in Libya; Nearing European Union ]
According to Cantlie, it is absolutely the last thing Team Obama and his allies would have wanted after drumming up their coalition and heading off to war to make their countries safer places, or, lost as they are in their own arrogance and inability to learn the lessons of the past, even have expected.
Cantlie said in the article that much to the dread of western political leaders, the Islamic State is now truly moving with great momentum. And for the moment, the talk about the Islamic State is not even of its continued expansion in the Arab nations of the Middle East, but its reach into the homelands and living rooms of ordinary people living thousands of miles away in western cities and suburbs. The Islamic State has now become a global player, said Cantlie in the Dabiq article.
Meanwhile, in the Episode 6 of the series “Lend Me Your Ears” Cantlie blames British government saying his government has abandoned him while he is a prisoner of the Islamic State.
He also reveals that since 2008, France has reportedly paid $58 million in ransom payments to different Islamic groups – which is nearly $10 million a year. However, he says, American and British governments refused to negotiate for their citizens who are hostages with ISIS.
On Sunday, ISIS terrorists beheaded a U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman (formerly Peter) Kassig and several others by chopping off their heads. They made a video of the gory act in a dramatic style and released it through social video sharing sites. The killings are stated to be in retaliation to the ongoing U.S. bombing in Syria.
[ Read: ISIS Kills American Aid Worker Peter Kassig. Video Released ]
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State (IS) is a militant organization. With a strong force of over 30,000 fighters under its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIL is attacking different nations with the aim to set up a large Islamic State called the Caliphate.
By Rakesh Raman, the managing editor of RMN Company
You also can read: More Articles by the RMN Editor, Rakesh Raman
Photo courtesy: Dabiq
