New N. Korean artillery rockets, seen posing ‘real threat’ to Seoul

By Dr. Jong-Heon Lee*

North Korea is nearing deployment of short-range artillery rockets near the inter-Korean border, which would pose a “real threat” to the Seoul metropolitan city and U.S. bases in the South, military sources said.

The new precision-guided multiple rocket launching system (MLRS) with a 300 millimeter caliber is an advanced type of artillery that can hit targets as far away as 200 kilometers (124 miles), putting most of the southern half of the peninsula within range.

“North Korea has conducted test-launches of the new artillery rockets and is believed set to deploy them along the border,” the source said.

If deployed along the border, artillery rockets fired by the 300-mm MLRS can strike Seoul, 50 kilometers away, and the South Korean military headquarters as well as U.S. bases, south of Seoul.

“The new MLRS is much more destructive than the North’s existing ones because it has larger caliber,” the source said.

The North has operated three types of MLRS with calibers of 107 mm, 122 mm and 240 mm. The largest 220-mm MLRS has a range 90 kilometers.

“It is hard to intercept the artillery rockets because they fly at lower altitudes than ballistic missiles, the military source said.

The artillery rockets can hardly be intercepted by either South Korea’s existing air defense system of the Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) or its new Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) set for completion in 2020.

“As multiple-rocket launchers can move on trucks, it is nearly impossible to detect any signs of attack in advance, so it can pose a real threat to South Korea,” the source said. The new MLRS is capable of firing eight artillery rockets at once.

The new rocket launcher can also use highly destructive shells including high explosives with a larger radius for causing causalities, and dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM).

The 300-mm MLRS was first detected by South Korean and U.S. militaries when North Korea fired short-range missiles in May 2013. The North has since conducted several test-launches to extend the range to 200 kilometers.

The North officially unveiled the 300-mm MLRS in a military parade held in central Pyongyang in October last year to mark the 70th founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party.

In a show that the MLRS development has been directly guided by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, he inspected the military's test-firing of artillery rockets from the 300-mm MLRS and expressed his satisfaction over the "perfect accuracy" of the launch system, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency on March 22.

Kim said that its rocket launchers would help increase "the capability of the People's Army to mount a precision attack on the enemies' targets in the operational theater in the southern part of Korea," the KCNA said.

The North has warned that it is ready to "ruthlessly" destroy South Korea’s presidential house and government complex in Seoul, putting the South on a higher alert.

"All soldiers should be nurtured into warriors full of combat spirit and be on high alert," Kim Jong-Un said during his inspection of the country’s largest-ever artillery exercises, according to the KCNA on March 25.
The North's committee handling inter-Korean affairs also said in a statement: “The powerful large-caliber multiple rocket launching systems of invincible People's Army artillery units are highly alerted to scorch” South Korean presidential house.
Once buttons are pushed, the South's presidential office "is bound to be reduced to a sea in flames and ashes," it said.

Former FBI official: Hacker likely extradited for Clinton probe

.................Before his 2014 conviction in Romania, Guccifer hacked a range of public figures around the world. That included, most notably, former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal, who exchanged private messages with Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state.

Through that action, Guccifer obtained emails Clinton had sent using her secret hdr22@clintonemail.com">hdr22@clintonemail.com account. He subsequently distributed at least some of that stolen information online.

Ron Hosko, a former assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, told Fox News that it was unlikely U.S. authorities would have taken Guccifer out of a foreign prison unless they had a use for him. "Because of the proximity to Sidney Blumenthal and the activity involving Hillary's emails, [the timing] seems to be something beyond curious," Hosko said.

A 2015 interview that Matei Rosca conducted with Guccifer corroborates Hosko's assessment. Guccifer lacks any real programming skills, Rosca said, but may still hold information on Clinton to which no other person on the globe has access.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/former-fbi-official-hacker-likely-extradited-for-clinton-probe/article/2588046

The Surveillance State: Spies in the Skies

BuzzFeed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqRnTvT3RiM#action=share


America is being watched from above. Government surveillance planes routinely circle over most major cities — but usually take the weekends off.

Each weekday, dozens of U.S. government aircraft take to the skies and slowly circle over American cities. Piloted by agents of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the planes are fitted with high-resolution video cameras, often working with “augmented reality” software that can superimpose onto the video images everything from street and business names to the owners of individual homes. At least a few planes have carried devices that can track the cell phones of people below. Most of the aircraft are small, flying a mile or so above ground, and many use exhaust mufflers to mute their engines — making them hard to detect by the people they’re spying on.

The government’s airborne surveillance has received little public scrutiny — until now. BuzzFeed News has assembled an unprecedented picture of the operation’s scale and sweep by analyzing aircraft location data collected by the flight-tracking website Flightradar24 from mid-August to the end of December last year, identifying about 200 federal aircraft. Day after day, dozens of these planes circled above cities across the nation.

The FBI and the DHS would not discuss the reasons for individual flights but told BuzzFeed News that their planes are not conducting mass surveillance.
The DHS said that its aircraft were involved with securing the nation’s borders, as well as targeting drug smuggling and human trafficking, and may also be used to support investigations by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. The FBI said that its planes are only used to target suspects in specific investigations of serious crimes, pointing to a statement issued in June 2015, after reporters and lawmakers started asking questions about FBI surveillance flights.

“It should come as no surprise that the FBI uses planes to follow terrorists, spies, and serious criminals,” said FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, in that statement. “We have an obligation to follow those people who want to hurt our country and its citizens, and we will continue to do so.”

But most of these government planes took the weekends off. The BuzzFeed News analysis found that surveillance flight time dropped more than 70% on Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays.

“The fact that they are mostly not flying on weekends suggests these are relatively run-of-the-mill investigations,” Nathan Freed Wessler, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology, told BuzzFeed News.

The government’s aerial surveillance programs deserve scrutiny by the Supreme Court, said Adam Bates, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. “It’s very difficult to know, because these are very secretive programs, exactly what information they’re collecting and what they’re doing with it,” Bates told BuzzFeed News.

The Panama Papers and the EU-Turkey Migrant Deal

Nazli Yirdar, Global V

...........The #PanamaPapers revealed Mossack Fonseca has at least 23 clients upon whom sanctions were imposed due to their support for regimes in North Korea, Zimbabwe, Russia, Iran, and Syria.

The leaked documents disclosed three companies that supplied fuel for the aerial campaign by the Syrian government that resulted in the deaths of thousands of its own citizens and drove thousands more to Europe's borders in desperation.

The investigations concluded by more than 370 journalists found companies registered in tax havens linked to the families or associates of world leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin, Britain's David Cameron and Saudi Arabia's King Salman. This trio all made the decision to involve their countries in the Syrian War, while Riyadh and London have been at the heart of other conflicts in the Middle East that have precipitated the current humanitarian crisis.

The fact that the Panama Papers and the refugee deal stories arrived in the world's newsrooms and social media timelines in quick succession—with the Panama leak story quickly eclipsing the Turkey-EU Migrant deal—instantly set the stage for a debate about the unfair allocation of wealth.

According to documents belonging to Mossack Fonseca, King Salman used money from an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands to pay for a yacht capable of hosting 30 guests. Compare that to the Syrians who flee war only to face the risk of death once more in tiny, overloaded rubber dinghies headed for Europe's shores.

Or, moving away from politics, remember the feel-good story about footballer Lionel Messi sending a signed Argentina national team jersey to the Afghan boy who'd been previously photographed wearing a plastic-bag version of a shirt with the superstar's name and number in written in black marker? Does that story still feel good in light of revelations about what appears to be an elaborate tax evasion scheme set up on behalf of Messi, who earns $475,000 per week, and as the EU plans to return to Afghanistan 80,000 asylum seekers?

Deepening income and wealth inequality has played an undeniable role in driving both the moral crisis among the world's super-elite and the material crisis of the planet's most destitute. As Harvard University economist Richard B. Freeman has noted, “The triumph of globalization and market capitalism has improved living standards for billions while concentrating billions among the few.”

According to Oxfam, since 2010, the world's richest have been able to increase their wealth out of all proportion to the slowing global economy, while the wealth of the world's bottom half has decreased by a trillion dollars. In 2016, the richest 1 percent control and enjoy more wealth than the rest of the whole world's population.
That situation grows more odious when it is revealed that people in the position to do something about the disparity, like UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Icelandic Prime Minister David Gunnlaugsson or the Head of Transparency International Chile, are only helping it grow.

These billions of dollars in evaded taxes indicated by the Panama Papers are not just a metaphor for inequality, they are its substance. This money could be converted into health, education and infrastructure resources, that if not preventing global poverty, could lessen its burden. As John Cassidy noted in the New Yorker, “…crony capitalism and tax evasion are huge problems for poor and middle-income countries: according to the International Monetary Fund, it costs them hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenues each year. In detailing how this process works, the Panama Papers stories that have been released thus far have already performed an important public service.”
Offshore structures are nothing new and not necessarily anything illegal. But the point that shines through in the documents revealed by the ICIJ is the fact that doors were opened at every turn for wealthy criminals and politicians with corrupt connections—doors which are routinely slammed in the faces of refugees seeking a path out of war and destruction.

If we are ever to move beyond this contradiction that affects all of us, we need to come together to articulate our demands loudly and emphatically, through legal and democratic means. Think the protests currently driving political change in Iceland, but on a global scale.

Quadrilateral Coordination Group meets in Pakistan

Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis\Gulbin Sultana

Senior officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States held talks in Islamabad to finalise the roadmap to the Afghan reconciliation dialogue on February 6. Pakistan has offered to host the first round of direct talks between the Afghan Government and Taliban representatives following the conclusion of the fourth round of Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) meeting. The QCG has given a task to Pakistan to bring 10 influential Taliban figures for the upcoming direct peace talks with the Afghan Government. An Afghan government official privy of the development told Radio Free Europe (RFE) that the 10 influential Taliban figures have been identified by the Afghan Government. The official speaking on the condition of anonymity further added that leaders of the Haqqani network were also among those influential leaders. Responding to the development, the representatives of Taliban in Qatar have said that they are “unaware of plans for talks” and that they had not changed its preconditions for joining the peace process. However, according to another media report, two senior Taliban leaders Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, and Qari Din Muhammad travelled to Islamabad and held informal discussions with senior officials from the four countries and shared a list of their representatives for formal talks with the Afghan Government. The Afghan Government said on February 28 that it will hold negotiations only with Taliban factions that denounce violence. Meanwhile a representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Moscow does not want to participate in the US initiatives aimed at establishing stability and peace in Afghanistan. However, Russia is ready to set up a negotiation process independently, if requested.

ODNI Declassification Review of 28 Pages Enters Second Year

Sept, 2015

A declassification review of 28 pages describing financial links between the 9/11 hijackers and one or more foreign governments has already taken far longer than the entire joint congressional intelligence inquiry that produced those pages—and a National Security Council spokesperson declined to say whether the end is in sight.

Last September 10, following an in-depth Jake Tapper report on the 28 pages controversy, the National Security Council issued this response: “Earlier this summer the White House requested that (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) review the 28 pages from the joint inquiry for declassification. ODNI is currently coordinating the required interagency review and it is ongoing.”

28Pages.org asked National Security Council spokesman Ned Price for more clarity on the timing of the request, but Price said he couldn’t comment on what day or even in which month the White House tasked ODNI with the review.

Considering the summer of 2014 hadn’t ended at the time of the NSC statement, the highly imprecise phrasing—and the subsequent refusal to clarify it—leaves the possibility that the request to ODNI occurred very shortly before the statement was issued.

Price also declined to indicate when the American people might expect the conclusion of the ODNI review—or to say what administrative or procedural milestones in the review process have been accomplished thus far. “I can’t comment on the specifics of the process or deliberations on this issue,” said Price.

Glacial Pace

To fully appreciate just how slowly ODNI is proceeding in its review of 28 pages, it isn’t enough to realize the review has already taken much longer then the full joint inquiry that produced those pages. It requires an understanding of just how large an undertaking that inquiry was.

Former senator Bob Graham co-chaired the 2002 inquiry. In his book, Intelligence Matters, he described the breadth and depth of the staff’s work. In about six months, the staff:

• Reviewed nearly a half million pages of documents from intelligence agencies and other sources
•  Conducted roughly 300 interviews
• Participated in briefings and panel discussions involving about 600 people from the intelligence community, other government departments, state and local entities, foreign government representatives and other individuals
• Held 13 closed-door sessions and nine public hearings
• Dueled with intelligence agencies and the White House over many aspects of the inquiry’s undertaking, including requests for information and the format of the final report
• Wrote, edited and revised an 838-page report on the inquiry’s findings

Former Senator Bob Graham
ODNI’s review of just 28 pages has already taken a year…and counting. All of this time to weigh the declassification of material that—according to views adamantly expressed by members of both parties who’ve read it—shouldn’t have been classified in the first place.

“(Republican) Senator (Richard) Shelby and I, after rereading those…pages, independently concluded that 95 percent of that material was safe for public consumption, and that these pages were being kept secret for reasons other than national security,” wrote Graham, a Democrat, in Intelligence Matters.

Complicating the declassification picture is the fact that the 28 pages are also being scrutinized under a process called Mandatory Declassification Review, which was initiated last year by a request from attorney Tom Julin on behalf of investigative reporters Dan Christensen, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan.
The MDR process is managed by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP).  The NSC’s Price said “(The ODNI) request is separate from the ISCAP request.”

‘State of the rats didn’t work’: Gadhafi’s daughter says her father warned West

WorldTribune

Col. Moammar Gadhafi warned Western powers that Libya would fall to Islamists if he were toppled from power, Gadhafi’s daughter, Aisha, said.
“Libya has fallen into the tentacles of imperialism,” Aisha, who now resides in Algeria, said.

“The state of the rats didn’t work. The rats don’t build, they eat each other,” said Aisha, as quoted in Al-Ahram Weekly.

Libya fell into chaos after Gadhafi was overthrown and killed. Hillary Clinton, then U.S. secretary of state, was a driving force for U.S. intervention in Libya.
Prof. Yehudit Ronen, a leading expert on Libya and the African Sahel region at Bar-Ilan University, said that Aisha had pointed out that her father “warned the West that what is happening now would happen if he was toppled from power. He ended up being right.”

“The bottom line is that Islamic State has found the perfect storm where it can hunker down and build its power away from the main stage in Syria and Iraq, expanding on its ambitions to implement the caliphate vision deeper into the African Sahel and Maghreb as well as in Egypt and Sudan,” said Ronen.
While it has suffered a string of defeats in Syria and Iran, ISIL has been building a strong presence in Libya.

“As Islamic State losses continue, the attractiveness of Libya as a rear and alternative base could gather momentum and become reality,” said Ronen.
“Libya’s Mediterranean coast is a highly important strategic location for Islamic State, which it penetrated in 2014. The organization is well aware that the coastal strip’s oil and gas-rich infrastructure and ports are turning Libya into an effective jump-off point to expand jihadist terror to the European continent.”

Since the summer of 2014, Libya has had two rival governments: The self-declared one in Tripoli, and the elected and internationally recognized government in Tobruk.

“This week, the third unity government backed by the international community, appeared in the political arena, yet, [without] succeeding to become an effective actor,” Ronen said.

50 years later, the Cultural Revolution still alive, targets freedoms

Dr. Willy Lam*

The year 2016 being the 50th anniversary of the start of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) (1966-76), not only intellectuals but relatively liberal officials have joined the discussion about whether it is possible for some form and shape of the Ten Years of Chaos to recur.

Pop culture icon Cui Jian spoke for many when he said that the Cultural Revolution is still not finished as long as Mao’s portrait still looms over Tiananmen Square.

Yet even retired senior official Yu Youjun seemed to echo this sentiment when he gave a lecture at Guangdong Province’s Sun Yat-sen University earlier this month.

Yu, a former governor of Shanxi Province and party secretary of the Ministry of Culture had this to say: “The soil for the Cultural Revolution is still fertile, especially when the people have no reasonable and profound knowledge of it.” He added: “It may partially recur, under certain historical conditions.”
The fact of the matter remains that authoritarian figures from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping see “culture” as a means to impose the proverbial “one-voice chamber” particularly on the nation’s intelligentsia.

It was not accidental that during the GPCR, untold quantities of rare and foreign books as well as objets d’art were burnt and destroyed. Not only disgraced cadres but world-renowned men of letters such as the great novelist Lao Shi committed suicide.

Since he took over power three years ago, President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi has begun a campaign to “revive Chinese culture.” Inherent in Xi’s best-known mantra – the “Chinese dream” – is the concept of “the great renaissance of the Chinese people.” So-called cultural revival plays a big role in this super-nationalistic goal of a spectacular renaissance of Chinese values and worldviews.

“The strength of a country and a people is underpinned by a vigorous culture,” Xi said in late 2013 while visiting the home of Confucius Qufu, Shandong Province. “The prerequisite of the great renaissance of the Chinese people requires the development and prosperity of Chinese culture.”

It is clear, however, that for Xi and his colleagues working in the Communist Party Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Culture, “culture” ultimately serves the utilitarian and politically expedient purpose of boosting the people’s faith in “socialism with Chinese characteristics” – and supreme party rule.

As Xi has repeatedly emphasized, “the most critical core of a country’s comprehensive strength is cultural soft power.” “We must firm up our self-confidence in the theory, the path and the system [of Chinese-style socialism],” he indicated. “Fundamentally, we also need to have cultural self-confidence.”

Highlighting “cultural self-confidence,” of course, presupposes that unwholesome and vulgar culture – what Chairman Mao dismissed as “poisonous weeds” – can have no place in socialist China.

Within one year of his ascendency to power, Xi passed the notorious Document No. 9, which forbids college teachers to discuss seven taboo areas including Western democratic ideas, freedom of the media, the civil society and independence of the judiciary.

Ultra-conservative Minister of Culture Yuan Guiren pointed out a few months ago that party and educational authorities would “definitely not allow views and opinions that attack and libel party leaders or that smear socialism to appear in the classroom.”

One is reminded of the views of the recently deceased Du Runsheng, an acclaimed reformer whose disciples included Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Qishan and other bigwigs in the party leadership.

A handful of liberal scholars who have benefited from Du’s teachings recently recalled his judgment on the GPCR and similar ideological campaigns waged by Mao: “Without independent thinking, 1 billion brains are equivalent to just one brain. Mistakes made [by one person] are duplicated by everybody. We must take heed from these horrendous lessons of history.”

As Xi has arrogated more and more power to himself – and a personality cult around this formidable Fifth-Generation leader is being feverishly constructed – intellectuals who advocate free thinking and a bigger public space in China’s authoritarian system are fearing for the worst.

Syria's government funded air war through blacklisted offshore accounts

middleeasteye

The 'Panama Papers' showed three blacklisted companies were providing aviation fuel for Syrian military jets

Syria's government has circumvented international sanctions through shadow companies to provide fuel for military aircraft, according to a cache of leaked documents known as the "Panama Papers" seen by the French newspaper Le Monde.

The outlet reported on Monday that three Syrian companies, Pangates International, Maxima Middle East Trading, and Morgan Additives Manufacturing, used the services of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca to create shadow companies in the Seychelles.

Le Monde, a partner in the yearlong worldwide media investigation into a trove of 11.5 million documents leaked from the law office of Mossack Fonseca, said the shadow companies were "a way for the Syrian regime to circumvent international sanctions imposed since the start of the war".

The three firms have been placed under US sanctions for allegedly providing petroleum supplies, including aviation fuel to President Bashar al-Assad's Air Force.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the sanctions implementation office within the US Treasury Department, announced sanctions in 2014 that prohibited Americans from working with individuals and institutions that support Syria’s government.

A report published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on Monday showed the global law firm did business with at least one of these companies, Pangates, for at least nine months after the US government sanctioned them for aiding the Syrian government’s war effort.

According to the report, OFAC blacklisted Pangates in July 2014 and accused the company of supplying 1,000 metric tonnes of “avgas” – fuel for military jets – to Assad’s government.

Pangates belongs to the Damascus-based Abdulkarim group, which is close to the Syrian government, Le Monde said.

In a Reuters report in 2013, Pangates had admitted that it had shipped oil to Syria but emphasized that it was unaware of the oil’s final destination or use.
“We are selling to non-Syrian firms who are not on the EU and U.S. sanctions list,” the said. "We do not know exactly who is finally using the fuel but according to our information the product is used for civil humanitarian purposes."

Mossack Fonseca, whose headquarters resides in Panama, has done work with at least 33 people and companies blacklisted by the US for wrongdoing, the ICIJ said.

Since the start of Syria's war in 2011, tens of thousands of people have been killed and thousands of homes destroyed in air raids and barrel bomb strikes.
The probe, coordinated by the ICIJ, has exposed a tangle of financial dealings by global elites, including family members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Two cousins of Assad, Rami and Hafez Makhlouf, used Mossack Fonseca to manage their vast and lucrative investments arising out of their relation to Syria’s head of state.

The ICIJ reported that in 2002 Rami Makhlouf cofounded Syriatel, a Syrian mobile telecom company, and that he subsequently took 73 percent of shares, most of which was registered with a British Virgin Islands company he owned.
The documents showed the Makhlouf brothers also had a slew of bank accounts in Geneva.

The documents revealed that in February 2011, around the same time protests broke out against Assad, staff at Mossack Fonseca discussed via email allegations of bribery and corruption made against the Makhlouf family and sanctions imposed by the United States Treasury Department, according to the ICIJ.

In June 2011 the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission wrote to Mossack Fonseca regarding a money laundering investigation against the family, which prompted the law firm to subsequently cut ties with the Makhlouf family.

Neither of the two Makhlouf brothers responded to calls for comment made by the ICIJ.

April 2016 : A new statistical update on Belgian fighters in Syria and Iraq

pietervanostaeyen
Our high-end estimate of Belgians who at one point were active in Syria or Iraq has climbed to 589. Since February 2016 we thus have an increase of 27 individuals, most of them just identified after they were killed or returned and arrested. Since the last report in February 8 more Belgian fighters have been killed, the majority of them were involved in the Paris and Brussels attacks. This leaves the total number of Belgians killed in Syria or Iraq at at least 90.

The maximal headcount again points out that Belgium’s Muslim population is playing a key role of sending a steady supply of fighters to groups like The Islamic State and Jabhat an-Nusra. At this point Belgium is, pro capita, by far the Western-European nation contributing the most to the foreign element in the Syrian / Iraqi war (41,96 per million inhabitants). The only European countries that beat us on this rather sad record are Kosovo (122,11 per million), Bosnia (84,62 per million) and Macedonia (69,52 per million).

Of the 589 mentions in the database we identified 246 by name and surname (an increase of 24 individuals since February). Another 96 individuals are only known by their kunya or nom de guerre. And so, it might be possible that the total number mentioned is slightly overestimated. It is indeed possible that some of the anonymous mentions in the database overlap with known individuals. My count however is slightly higher than the official numbers of the Belgian Government. These numbers were officialy released by the ministry of interior affairs after a question in the Federal Parliament
(https://pietervanostaeyen.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/new-official-numbers-on-belgian-fighters-in-syria-and-iraq/)

In total 451 individuals have been identified
269 are still in Syria or Iraq (or elsewhere)
6 individuals are believed to still be on their way to the warzone
117 have returned
59 tried to leave but were stopped
Recent numbers collected by @GuyVanVlierden and the author are still a bit higher. One of the factors explaining this; Sharia4Belgium played an important role as an incubator. At least 80 members of this former Salafi-Jihadi movement have been active in Syria or Iraq. Furthermore, this group was able to reach new recruits via their social networks. More Belgians got recruited by their old friends on social media; friends and relatives drew in more recruits by peer pressure. Yet, a whole lot of other networks were or are recruiting Belgian Muslims for The Islamic State. We know a network around Khalid Bouloudo (an AQ old-timer in Maaseik, we know a network that was recruiting young girls, we know the rather important network around Jean-Louis Denis ‘Le Soumis’, that was known as Resto du Tawheed. We witnessed a network recruiting teenage girls to join The Islamic State, …)

But most important was the recruiting cell active in Brussels around Khalid az-Zerkani. This network was responsible for the recruitment of at least 59 individuals from Brussels (an increase of 14 since last reported). The best known member of this network is Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the IS-fighters who carried out the attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015. Zerkani, the recruiter himself, was imprisoned in February 2014. His recruits not only traveled freely to Syria, they also came back as they liked. One of them, Soufiane Alilou, even managed to do so five times before he was caught.

Traveling back and forth often seemed to serve the transfer of new recruits, the transport of cash and all of kind of materials, such as computer equipment. Out of the 90 Belgians that have been killed thus far, 17 of them belonged to the Zerkani network (an increase of 4 Zerkani linked recruits killed since early February 2016)..

In Syria and Iraq, as the statistics are showing today, at least 149 of the Belgian fighters are members of The Islamic State, yet the overall count of IS-fighters is most likely a lot higher. It is, indeed, safe to assume that about 75% of the known Belgian fighters are affiliated with The Islamic State.
9,16% of the Belgians (54 to be precisely) are women. 14 of them have a proven affiliation with Sharia4Belgium. At least 21 of them are affiliated with The Islamic State.

Around 6% of the Belgian fighters are converts.

The ages of 234 Belgian fighters vary between 14 and 69; the average age is 26.

Origins in Belgium: Of 327 individuals we know where they originated from, as shown in next graph (in alphabetical order):







Group affiliations:

80 individuals can be linked to Sharia4Belgium, the most important group in Belgium contributing to the high number of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq. 36 of these have a proven affiliation with The Islamic State. 15,5 % of the total ammount of Belgians were at some point affiliated with Sharia4Belgium.
59 individuals are directly linked to the network around Khalid Zerkani, including at least two of the ones who attacked Paris on November 13, 2015. Other cell-members were involved in or executed the attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016.

4 are linked to Shaykh Bassam al-Ayashi’s former network Centre Islamique Belge

At least one was a former member of the Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain (GICM)

We know of at least 6 individuals who are fighting in pro-regime ranks
At least 149 Belgians are fighters / members of The Islamic State (IS). Most remarkably at least 19 of them were members of the – now disbanded – Lybian branch Katibat al-Battar al-Libi (see Katibat al-Battar and the Belgian Fighters in Syria) 12 of the former Katibat al-Battar members have been killed.

Another 25 (most likely much more) are fighting in the ranks of Jabhat an-Nusra

24 are linked to other rebel groups, the majority of them (12) joined Suqur as-Sham

Returned: At least 87 individuals have already returned to Belgium, yet this number might be around 120 according to official sources
Killed:

At least 90 Belgians have been killed thus far in Syria and Iraq or in IS-operations abroad. Most of them in combat, at least six of them conducted a suicide operation.

A List of Belgians fighters killed in Syria and Iraq – or in terrorist operations worldwide (in random order):

Abd ar-Rahman al-Ayashi aka Abu Hajjar, 38, Idlib, Suqur as-Sham
Abdalgabar Hamdaoui, 34. Jabhat an-Nusra
Abdel Monaïm Lachiri aka Abu Sara, 33, Aleppo, he was an emir of a French-Belgin brigade in Jabhat an-Nusra. Declared killed early February 2014.
Anonymous aka Abu al-Bara’ al-Jaza’iri, Saraqib
Anonymous aka Abu Ali al-Belgiki, Idlib
Ahmed Dihaj aka Abu Atiq, 32, Sharia4Belgium, Jabhat an-Nusra. One of the accused on the Sharia4Belgium trial. Left Belgium in April or May 2013, killed September 2013
Anonymous, Ahmed Stevenberg, Lattakia
Anonymous (Vilvoorde)
Anonymous (Vilvoorde)
Anonymous (Brussels)
Faysal Yamoun aka Abu Faris al-Maghribi, 30, Antwerp, Sharia4Belgium, Jabhat an-Nusra. Left Belgium on December 7, 2012. Killed February 2014. One of the accused on the Sharia4Belgium trial.
Hamdi Mahmoud Saad, 32, Latakkia
Houssien Elouassaki aka Abu Fallujah, 22, Vilvoorde, Sharia4Belgium. Killed in Aleppo province September 2013. One of the accused on the Sharia4Belgium trial. Was an emir in the group led by Amr al-Abis, Majlis Shura al-Mujahidun.
Isma’il Amghroud, 22, Maaseik, killed June 2013
Khalid Bali aka Abu Hamza, 17, Antwerpen, Deir ez-Zor, Sharia4Belgium, IS, killed May 2014.
Mohammed Bali aka Abu Hudayfa, 24, Antwerp, Sharia4Belgium, IS, killed September 10, 2013 in Homs province. One of the accused on the Sharia4Belgium trial.
Noureddine Abouallal aka Abu Mujahid, 23, Antwerp, left Belgium on October 28, 2012. Sharia4Belgium, killed in July 2013. One of the accused on the Sharia4Belgium trial.
Raphael Gendron aka Abdurauf Abu Marwa, 38, Brussels, Suqur as-Sham, Idlib, killed in April 2013
Sean Pidgeon, Left Belgium in November 2012, killed in March 2013.
Tarik Taketloune, Vilvoorde, 19, Sharia4Belgium, brother returned to Belgium and free under conditions, wife still in Syria, killed in May 2013. One of the accused on the Sharia4Belgium trial.
Anonymous, known as Younis Asad Rahman aka Asad ar-Rahman al-Belgiki, Latakkia, killed in August 2013
Saïd El Morabit aka Abu Muthanna al-Belgiki, 27, Sharia4Belgium, IS / Katibat al-Battar, killed in March 2014 in ar-Raqqa province. One of the accused on the Sharia4Belgium trial.
Rustam Gelayev (son of Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev), Aleppo, killed in August 2012
Nabil Azahaf aka Abu Sayyaf al-Belgiki, 21, Brussels, Sharia4Belgium, IS / Katibat al-Battar, killed in May 2014. One of the accused on the Sharia4Belgium trial.
Yoni Patrick Abdoul Salam Mayne, known as Abu Dujana al-Mali, Brussels. Left Belgium first time in April 2013. Returned and briefly arrested. Returned to Syria on January 20, 2014 in the company of the Abaaoud brothers. IS / Katibat al-Battar, ar-Raqqa, killed in March 2014
Anonymous aka Karim Azzam aka Abou Azzam, 23, Brussels, killed in April 2014
Anonymous, known as Abu Salma Al-Belgiki, Deir ez-Zor province, killed in August 2013
Anonymous, known as Abu Handalah, killed in Aleppo
Anonymous, killed in clashes with tribal fighters on July 30th 2014 in al-Keshkeyyi, Deir ez-Zor province
Iliass Azaouaj, 23, Brussels, beheaded by The Islamic State for alledged betrayal. It is believed he was a double agent working for the Belgian an Moroccan security forces. Raqqa, August 2014
Anonymous aka Abu Jihad al-Belgiki, killed on August 31st in a regime counter-attack defending the Deir ez-Zor military airport.
Abu Mohsen at-Tunisi, further unknown, killed on August 31st in a regime counter-attack defending the Deir ez-Zor military airport
Anonymous aka Abu Yahya al-Beljiki, reported killed on October 15, 2014.
Ilyass Boughalab, left Belgium on November 13, 2012, killed in March 2014, Shariah4Belgium, IS / Katibat al-Battar. One of the accused on the Sharia4Belgium trial.
Anonymous aka Abū ‘Umar al-Beljīkī, of Saudi origin, killed in Latakia province in the beginning of October 2014, Jabhat an-Nusra
Khalid Hachti Bernan aka Abu Qa’Qa, IS – Katibat al-Battar member from Virton, reported killed in May 2014
Anonymous aka Abu Muhammad al-Belgiki, IS, killed in Deir ez-Zor mid October 2014
Oufae Sarrar, aka Umm Jarrah, Sharia4Belgium, IS, wife of Ilyass Boughalab, killed end 2013. First known Belgian women killed
Anonymous aka Abu Sulayman al-Belgiki al-Maghribi, IS, killed in Kobanê mid November 2014
Sabri Refla, aka Abu Turab, 19, Vilvoorde, left on August 12 2013 and killed in December 2013
Although not confirmed one of the Bakkouy brothers from Genk presumabely got killed late September 2014.
Yassine El Karouni, aka Abu Osama, 23, Dutch origin, killed in May 2014
Zakaria El Bouzaidi, Laken (Brussels), friend of Sean Pidgeon, killed in September 2014
Anonymous aka Abu Adnan al-Belgiki, Algerian origin, originaly affiliated with Jabhat an-Nusra, turned to IS late 2013, killed in September 2014
Soufiane Amghar, aka Abu Khalid al-Belgiki, was in Syria between April and July 2014, one of the killed IS / Katibat al-Battar members in Verviers on January 15 2015
Anis Bouzzaouit aka Abu Ibrahim al-Belgiki, 23. IS / Katibat al-Battar Brussels, left together with Younes Abaaoud (and hence with older brother Abdelhamid). Reported killed in the battle for Deir ez-Zor airport on February 26, 2015
Khalid Ben Larbi, aka Abu Zubayr al-Belgiki, was in Syria between April and July 2014, one of the killed IS / Katibat al-Battar members in Verviers on January 15 2015
Mohamed Said Haddad from Molenbeek (Brussels), left Belgium on September 14, 2012. Reported killed in April 2014. Brother of Verviers plot suspect Abdelmounaim Haddad, killed in Syria
Hamza Kharbache, from Molenbeek (Brussels), brother of Younes Kharbache, killed in Aleppo province, February 2014
Younes Kharbache, from Molenbeek (Brussels), brother of Hamza, killed in Damascus province, August 2013
Anonymous, aka Abu Taymiyya al-Belgiki, killed in January 2015
Anonymous, aka Abu Bakr al-Belgiki (IS), committed a suicide attack in Ramadi, Iraq, March 11, 2015
Mesut Cankarturan, aka Abu Abdullah al-Belgiki (IS), killed March 25, 2015 in Deir ez-Zor
Anonymous, aka Abu Muslim al-Belgiki (IS), from Antwerpen. Reportedly killed in June 2014.
Sami Ladri, aka Abu Waliyya al-Belgiki (IS). Left Brussels in December 2013 together with Harris Cimpaka-Kapeta. Killed in a suicide attack June 22, 2015 in Iraq.
Anonymous, Abu Turab al-Belgiki (IS). From Molenbeek, Brussels. Reportedly killed in May 2015
Anonymous, Abu Handala al-Belgiki (IS). Reportedly killed in May 2015
Mossi Junior Juma, 16. Left in November 2014 with his mother Reportedly killed in late June 2015. See here for details.
Anonymous, Abu Ilyas al-Belgiki (IS). Reportedly killed in ar-Raqqa province on July 18, 2015
Lucas Van Hessche, 19. aka Abu Ibrahim (IS). Left Belgium on June 11, 2014. Declared KIA on August 12, 2015 in al-Hasaka.
Ahmed Daoudi, 31 from Turnhout. aka Abu Mohsin. Former Sharia4Belgium member. Left Belgium on August 22, 2012. Seems to have been a humanitarian worker. Killed after the chemical attacks in Eastern Ghouta on August 21, 2013. The last time he contacted his family in Belgium was in August 2014. Daoudi was sentenced by absence in the Sharia4Belgium trial to 10 years in prison.
Anonymous, Abu Mariyya al-Belgiki (IS), Indian descent. Early 20’s. Left Belgium late October 2014. Reported killed around August 17, 2015 in Syria during his first battle. See here for details.
Anonymous, Abu Ayman al-Belgiki (IS). Killed in the UK drone strike on August 21, 2015 over Raqqa, targetting British IS-fighter Reyaad Khan (see here for more info on the UK drone strike). Death confirmed by a French speaking foreign fighter on Twitter
Fayssal Oussaih aka Abū Shahīd (IS) originated from Maaseik. Arrived in Syria in December 2014, killed in July 2015. http://t.co/YqP45mtZRo
Brian De Mulder aka Ibrahim Abu Abderrahmaan aka Abu Qasim al-Brazili (IS) 21 years old. Former Sharia4Belgium member. Allegedly died in Syria on Friday October 23 of previously sustained wounds during a jet-strike. (see: De Standaard, De Morgen, Knack)
Abdelhamid Abaaoud aka Abu Umar Soussi aka Abu Umar al-Belgiki. IS / Katibat al-Battar member. First left Belgium in March 2013. Returned. Left again on January 20 2014 with his younger brother Younes. Killed in Saint Denis, France on November 18 2015 in the aftermath of the attacks in Paris of November 13.
Anonymous aka Abu Sabir al-Belgiki. From Borgerhout / Antwerp. Sharia4Belgium member. Arrived in Syria on May 2, 2014. Killed in March 2015.
Abdelmalik Boutallis aka Abu Nusaybah aka Abu Huraira. From Kortrijk, left June 11 2014 in the company of Olivier Calebout and Lucas Van Hessche. Killed in a suicide attack in al-Haditha (Iraq) on November 11, 2015.
Bilal Barrani aka Abu Said al-Belgiki. Left Brussels on May 9, 2014. Reported in ar-Raqqa in September 2014. Killed in December 2014.
Khongr Pavlovitch Matsakov, originally from Kalmykia (Russia), lived in Oostende. Left for Syria in May 2013, reported killed in January 2015
Karim Kadir, aka Abu Abdullah al-Belgiki. Charleroi. IS. Killed in suicide attack at Iraqi-Jordanian border on April 24 2015.
Bilal Hadfi aka Abu Mudjad al-Belgiki aka Abu Mudjahid al-Belgiki aka Bilal al-Mouhajir. Brussels. In Syria beginning 2015. One of the suicide attackers in Paris on November 13 2015
Julian André Harinton aka Abu Abdullah al-Belgiki, Antwerp. Left in January 2012, killed in April 2014.
Brahim Abdeslam, Molenbeek. IS. Killed in a suicide attack in Paris on November 13, 2015
Andy Bizala Lubanda aka Castor Ali Troy, Brussels. IS. Reported killed in November 2015.
Anonymous female. Wife of a Saudi IS-leader. Killed in November 2015 near Deir ez-Zor
Mohammed Hajji, left Antwerp in June 2015 presumably by bike and train. IS. Killed in ar-Raqqa in October 2015.
Chakib Akrouh. Molenbeek. IS. Affiliated with the group of Zerkani. Left January 4 2013 in the company of Gelel Attar. One of the Paris attackers of November 13, 2015. Killed in Saint Denis on November 17, 2015 together with Abaaoud and his niece Hasna Ait Boulahcen.
Younes Ahllal. Brussels. IS. Affiliated with the group of Zerkani. Left on February 11, 2014 in company of Andy Bizala Lubanza.
Anonymous IS fighter. Killed January 20, 2016 in the Battle for Deir ez-Zor
Anonymous aka Abu Umar al-Belgiki. Killed in al-Hawiqa near Deir ez-Zor on January 30, 2016.
Anonymous IS-fighter, presumably killed by IS. See http://aranews.net/2016/02/isis-beheads-belgian-jihadi-on-charges-of-high-treason/
Anonymous, known as Umm Shérazade Al Belgikiya, 23 years old, from Molenbeek, Brussels. Presumably left in January 2015, executed by The Islamic State under the suspicion of sorcery in February 2016.
Bilal Bouit, aka Abou Saad. Zerkani-recruit from Schaarbeek, Brussels, reportedly killed in Syria in June 2014 at the age of 23
Abdelilah Jab Allah, aka Abou Umar. Zerkani-recruit from Schaarbeek, Brussels, reportedly killed in Syria in June 2014 at the age of 22
Soufyane Chioua, Brussels, born February 21, 1991. Recruited by Zerkani
Mohamed Aziz Belkaid, aka Abu Abdulaziz al Jazairi aka Samir Bouzid, born July 9, 1980. Killed in Forest by police forces on March 15, 2016
Anonymous. Salahuddin al-Belgiki. Supposedly an IS military leader in Deir ez-Zor. Reported killed on March 22, 2016
Najim Laachraoui aka Soufyane Kayal / Abou Idriss. One of the suicide bombers in Brussels on March 22, 2016
Ibrahim al-Bakraoui, born October 9, 1986. Brussels. One of the suicide bombers in Brussels on March 22, 2016