West Point study reveals details of ISIS recruiting

Ahmed Sultan

The Counter-Terrorism Center of the US West Point Military Academy has released a new study on the “Aleppo Documents” of ISIS operatives’ data, which were recorded after the person was recruited into the organization.

The new study included an analysis of the content of 27 data documents of elements who joined the Islamic State, and the Pentagon obtained the documents, after the control of a number of strongholds of the terrorist organization in Syria in 2016.

The Counter-Terrorism Center said the Islamic State took advantage of previous mistakes made by al Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq and sought to establish itself as a state within the territory it controlled in Iraq and Syria.

The Center added that the documents included the personal data of the fighters of the terrorist organization (name, country, blood type, etc)as well as personal armament, saying that these documents reveal the seriousness of everyone within the organization.

The Center considered that the documents issued by the Office of Human Resources of what was known as the state of Aleppo, reveal that ISIS was only a “terrorist organization”, and did not succeed in becoming a “state.”

Text of documents

The documents included in the study involved a picture of ISIS logo and slogan and the title of the document. It also contained data including the name and previous titles that were nicknamed Daeshi before joining the organization, and the type of weapon and vehicle in possession.

Some of the documents contained information about the so-called ISIS states that the ISIS fighter moved into, and the extent to which he could be allowed to travel outside ISIS strongholds.

The counter-terrorism center of the West Point military academy said the data in the 27 documents could be used to undermine ISIS from within, depending on the difference in treatment between foreign fighters within the organization and local fighters, a point against which terrorism can be built.

Exploitation of competencies

The documents revealed that ISIS sought to exploit the military and administrative competencies of the so-called Da’wishis. The documents contained data on the individual’s military service in his country of origin and whether he had previous experience in combat and war.

ISIS Homeland Security

The documents included information about the organization’s security, which focused on the way it traveled to ISIS-controlled territory, the person it recommended to join ISIS, and whether the individual was inside Turkey before Syria or traveled after entering Syria to Turkey specifically.

According to the Counter-Terrorism Center, the points contained in the document are aimed at securing individuals within the organization and detecting intrusion attempts by anti-ISIS actors.