Earlier this year, a moderate Syrian rebel group obtained a treasure trove of documents and videos from the laptop of an ISIS fighter in northern Syria.
Foreign Policy verified that the computer belonged to a Tunisian university student, Muhammed S., who was studying chemistry and physics.
On the hard drive they found the standard jihad fare…with a twist:
- Videos of Osama bin Laden
- Manuals on how to make bombs
- Instructions on how to steal cars
- Lessons on how to use disguises in order to avoid getting arrested while traveling from one jihad hot spot to another
- 19-page manual on how to develop biological weapons
- 26-page fatwa, giving permission to use weapons of mass destruction against unbelievers
Before discounting the contents as the wishful thinking of madmen, consider two points.
First of all, in July, ISIS captured a former chemical weapons plant outside Baghdad that contained 2,500 degraded chemical rockets.
Secondly, as part of its ransom demands for an American woman it’s holding, ISIS demanded the US release “Lady al-Qaeda” Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT-educated neuroscientist. Plans for infecting people with Ebola and creating a dirty bomb were found in Siddiqui’s possession when she was arrested.
There is no evidence that ISIS currently has biological or chemical weapons, but all evidence points to their desire to gain and deploy such weapons.
In short, the longer the caliphate exists, the more likely it is that members with a science background will come up with something horrible. The documents found on the laptop of the Tunisian jihadist, meanwhile, leave no room for doubt about the group’s deadly ambitions.
We also know that ISIS members are recruiting Americans, who would have U.S. passports and the ability to travel back and forth to the Middle East.
Their strategy is becoming very clear.
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