WUNRN
http://www.rferl.org/content/islamic-state-guidebook-border-controls-turkey-syria/27000615.html
For Islamic State Recruits to Reach Syria, IS
Finds Ways Around Turkish Border Controls
The
sudden departure of three British teenage girls and other recent incidents of
Western teenagers running away to join Islamic State means that parents and
community leaders are likely to be more vigilant for signs that young people
could be radicalized.
By
Joanna Paraszczuk – May 7, 2015
The extremist Islamic State (IS) group has adapted to
toughened Turkish border controls by changing how it brings new recruits from
Turkey into Syria, a recent recruitment document shows.
The 100-page document, entitled The Islamic State (2015),
was originally published in February but reposted on social media on May 6,
likely as part of a recruitment push by IS.
Until 2014, the most common method of crossing into Syria
had been via the border crossings at Bab al-Salam or Bab al-Hawa. All an IS
wannabe had to do to cross into Syria was dress casually and not look
religious, the guidebook said.
But because "things have got harder at the Turkish
border," IS has begun smuggling recruits into Syria via an illegal border
crossing.
The new IS guidebook shows how the militant group's
network of Twitter contacts is an integral part of these new people-smuggling
methods.
Turkey, which has faced international criticism for
allowing militants to pass across its porous border, has not been able to stem the tide of new
IS recruits from entering Syria.
But, in the face of increased pressure from the West, the
Turkish authorities have introduced stricter border measures, meaning that
those wishing to join IS in Syria have to try to slip across the border
undetected.
Smuggled Like Fertilizer
In the wake of Turkey's efforts to secure its border, IS
contacts now meet new recruits in hotels in Turkey and travel with them to
Sanluirfa, where they cross into Syria from the Turkish town of Akcakale into
the IS-controlled town of Tel Abyad. The route is used because it is closer to
Raqqa, IS's de facto capital in Syria, according to the IS guidebook. (The same
route is reportedly used to smuggle ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that is
also used for bombs, into IS-controlled territory from Turkey.)
The IS guidebook explains that potential IS recruits
crossing from Akcakale have to make a run for it across the border.
"You both look around, and if the coast is clear --
they run as fast as they can into Syria, and get into the car of a friend and
go to Raqqa," the guidebook says.
Pretend You're Going To Spain
In February, three British schoolgirls were caught on CCTV in Istanbul as they waited for a bus to
take them to the Syrian border.
The sudden departure of the three girls for Syria and other
recent incidents of Western teenagers running away from home to join IS have
caused a public outcry. As a result, parents and community leaders have been
encouraged to be more vigilant for signs that their teenage children could
be radicalized.
In response, IS has adapted its advice for young people
who want to join its ranks.
The guidebook advises that people seeking to join IS
should not tell anyone, not even close family members, about their plans.
New IS recruits from the West still have to travel to
Syria via Turkey. But to avoid suspicion, the guidebook advises that they should
buy an air ticket to an "indirect holiday country" like Spain or
Greece. Wannabe IS recruits should make sure to buy a return ticket, so people
won't suspect they are not coming back.
Tweeting For IS
The guidebook shows how IS has developed a network of
male and female IS recruiters whose role is to help and advise new recruits
about how to come to Syria.
Listed in the document are 19 "useful Twitter
contacts," individuals who are already in Syria with whom IS wannabes are
encouraged to get in touch.
The male Twitter contacts listed in the guidebook include
individuals who are already known for their involvement in online recruitment
for IS.
British militant Faris Britani until recently offered
advice to would-be militants via the social networking site Ask.fm.
Abu Khalid al-Cambodi, the nom de guerre of Neil Prakash,
is an Australian who appeared in a recent IS video calling for attacks on civilians.
Prakash, who is of Fijian-Indian and Cambodian descent
and who traveled to Syria in early 2013, was previously described in the Australian media as one of
IS's most senior recruiters of Australian militants.
Umm Waqqas, a prominent female IS online recruiter, has been involved in recruiting English-speaking women,
including a Colorado woman known as Umm Yassir.
Umm Waqqas has been variously described as Dutch or
British, though the UK's Channel 4 recently reported that her Twitter account had been set up
and operated by Rawdah Abdisalaam, a twenty-something woman believed to be from
Seattle.
Twitter has tried to crack down on IS members who use the
social network for propaganda and recruitment purposes by deleting and
disabling accounts. The Twitter accounts listed in the guidebook for Umm
Waqqas, Faris Britani, and Prakash have already been deleted.
But, as Brigitte Nacos, a professor of political science
at Columbia University, put it in a recent blog post, "while the social media sites,
whether Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, and so on, tend to shut down
propaganda sites, they pop up again, often under slightly different
names."
IS's Twitter contacts do more than just talk to and
advise potential recruits online. They help smuggle new IS recruits from Turkey
into Syria, according to the guidebook.
New recruits arriving in Turkey are instructed to rent a
hotel room and then use Twitter's direct messaging system to set up a meeting
with a trusted IS contact in Syria.
The contact will "leave Syria, meet [the new
recruit] in their hotel room (it's important to meet before crossing for
security) and they will go together to Sanluirfa," the guidebook says.