A12 N INTERNATIONAL WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015 and Emirates Carry Out Airstrikes in Against Islamic State By HELENE COOPER raids; Mansour Jaboor, the head defend our religion, our nation, American military officials ed Arab Emirates officials that that the most significant contri- and ANNE BARNARD of Jordan’s Air Force, said that and the future of our country and maintained that Islamic State they had sent additional rescue bution that Jordan could make WASHINGTON — Fighter jets Jordan had carried out 56 air- our sons. fighters captured the Jordanian helicopters to Erbil, Iraq. could be through its intelligence deployed by Arab allies launched strikes against the Islamic State But in other ways, since last pilot, First Lt. Moaz al-Kasasbeh, In an interview on Tuesday, contacts, strengthened by clan a series of airstrikes in Syria in in recent days, as King Abdullah week, when the video of the pilot within minutes after his plane Yousef al-Otaiba, the United Arab and tribal links to Iraqis across the early hours Tuesday, as the of Jordan continued to make being burned alive was released, went down, and said that search Emirates ambassador to the the border. United Arab Emirates returned good on his promise to avenge King Abdullah has been stepping teams did not have enough time United States, said that Emirati President Bashar al-Assad of to combat missions against the the immolation of a Jordanian pi- up raids on the Islamic State — or to locate him before he was cap- concerns had been addressed. Syria, in a rare interview with the Islamic State for the first time lot by the militant Sunni group. at least increasingly publicizing tured. A senior military official “The suspension of combat op- BBC on Monday, denied the wide- since December, and Jordan sep- Bahrain’s ruler issued a public them — and working to increase said that Lieutenant Kasasbeh’s erations was made for purely op- ly documented use of indiscrimi- arately continued its escalation of statement that his country was Arab participation in the coalition parachute had been spotted erational and planning reasons, nate barrel bombs by Syrian gov- strikes against Sunni militants. ready to assist Jordan in the fight against the group. quickly by the militants and that not political ones,” Mr. Otaiba ernment forces against civilian A squadron of Emirati F-16 against the Islamic State, accord- The public announcements of he had landed right in their said. He added that the Emirates areas. fighters struck Islamic State tar- ing to a statement released by increased Arab participation in midst. was “fully committed” to defeat- “I know about the army,” Mr. gets in Syria and returned safely Jordan’s palace. the fight against the Islamic But his capture raised ques- ing the Islamic State “and will Assad said. “They use bullets, to base in Jordan, the U.A.E. Jordanian officials denied re- State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, tions about whether rescue not back down.” missiles and bombs. I haven’t Armed Forces announced. ports of a large movement of is welcome news for the Obama teams would have been able to But far more than the oil-rich heard of the army using barrels, Emirati officials said the con- ground troops toward the Iraqi administration, which has sought get to him within the so-called Gulf Arab states, Jordan is deal- or maybe cooking pots.” cerns that had prompted them to border, and asked journalists to to characterize the fight against golden hour, after which time ing with poverty and unemploy- Mr. Assad also maintained that suspend combat missions — that “be careful and to abide by the in- the Sunni militants as an interna- chances of survival from a crash ment, said Hasan Abu Hanieh, a Damascus was being informed the United States Central Com- formation that is issued by the tional coalition with Arab partici- or injury drop sharply. When Jordanian expert on Islamist about airstrikes against the Is- mand had not deployed sufficient concerned agencies and the Jor- pation. United Arab Emirates officials groups. The Obama administra- lamic State, and said that they assets closer to the battlefield to dan Armed Forces.” While American pilots have by discovered that most of the res- tion has increased aid to Jordan, could help his government if they rescue downed pilots — had now “There is no talk about a far carried out the bulk of the cue teams and aircraft were and Congress is prodding the were “more serious.” been addressed. ground war,” one official said, combat missions in Iraq and Syr- based in Kuwait, they said that White House to increase military But the Pentagon press secre- Jordan also stepped up its speaking on the condition of ano- ia, the United States is loath to their pilots would not fly until assistance as well. tary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said nymity in accordance with gov- appear as if it is acting alone. So there was a system in place for Jordan, however, “needs to the United States was not “com- Helene Cooper reported from ernment protocol. “We will not be the suspension of Emirati combat more rapid search and rescue. make sure the public feels they municating or coordinating our Washington, and Anne Barnard reluctant to face this criminal missions in December came as a Last week, the United States have a real say in this,” Mr. military operations with the As- from Beirut, Lebanon. gang in any place in the world to blow. Central Command notified Unit- Hanieh said. Other analysts said sad regime.”

Proof of Death in Hand, Family Honors Hostage By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI and explained that they had con- and ERIC SCHMITT ducted detailed surveillance to For one tortured weekend, the make sure that no hostages were parents of Kayla Mueller refused seen going in or out. But a senior to believe that their daughter American official who requested was dead. From their home in anonymity to discuss classified Prescott, Ariz., they issued an im- information acknowledged that passioned plea to the Islamic they had not been able to survey State, which had held her captive the building around the clock. since August 2013, and urged the “We have no definitive evi- extremist organization to contact dence of how, or when, she died,” them privately with proof of her he added. death. The militants acquiesced Described by friends and fam- and sent at least three photo- ily members as a deeply ideal- graphs of her corpse. istic young woman eager to help Those photos are among the those less fortunate, Ms. Mueller few clues about her life and death was just shy of her 25th birthday in captivity, as is a letter that she on Aug. 4, 2013, when she disap- wrote from her cell last year and peared in the northern Syrian that her family made public on city of . Tuesday. She had arrived in Syria a day Two people briefed on the fam- earlier with a Syrian man who ily’s communication with the Is- has been described as her boy- lamic State said that her parents friend or colleague. had received at least three pho- He had been contracted to fix /COURTESY OF THE MUELLER FAMILY tos. Two showed Ms. Mueller, the Internet connection at a Doc- who was 26, in a black hijab, or tors Without Borders office, and Muslim head covering, that part- employees of the international ly obscured her face. Another charity were flabbergasted when showed her in a white burial Ms. Mueller showed up with him. shroud, which is used in tradi- Syria was then a no-go zone for tional Muslim funerals. The im- most international aid workers, ages showed bruises on the face, said employees of the charity, but both people, who reviewed who explained that they had re- the photographs and asked not to luctantly housed her overnight be identified given the sensitivity and agreed to drive her to a bus Kayla Mueller, above, wrote about her captivity in a letter that station for what was supposed to of the matter, said it remained her family made public Tuesday. At left, Ms. Mueller’s aunts, unclear whether her injuries be her trip back to . were consistent with being killed Her car was ambushed on the Terry Crippes and Lori Lyon, paid tribute to her. in the rubble of a flattened build- way, and she and her Syrian com- ing, as the Islamic State reported. panion were abducted. He was in high school, where she became after to Israel. In 2010, she volun- The group, also known as ISIS later freed and has declined to involved with a campaign that teered with the International Sol- or ISIL, said on last week speak about what happened. aimed to stop Flagstaff, Ariz., city idarity Movement in the Palestin- that Ms. Mueller had died in a Once in the hands of the mil- officials from using recycled ian territories, according to Ab- building that had been demol- itants, Ms. Mueller was forced to waste water to make snow on a dullah Abu Rahma, the group’s ished by Jordanian airstrikes, a wear the hijab and was placed in set of peaks considered sacred to coordinator in the village of claim that both the White House a cell with female detainees, ac- the Hopi people. By the time she Bil’in. and Jordan’s government said cording to two former hostages enrolled at Northern Arizona He said Ms. Mueller had joined was unfounded. held in the same facility. She was University in 2007, the Save the them in using nonviolent means Yet the images sent to her fam- moved a number of times, and Peaks campaign was just one of to protest the Israeli occupation. ily did not completely rule out witnesses saw her inside a potato an array of causes she was en- She lived with families in East Je- death in that manner. chip factory near Aleppo and lat- gaged with, said her former rusalem in order to try to prevent One of the two people briefed er at a prison set up on the classmate Leslie Alamer, who the demolition of their homes. On on the evidence said that Ms. grounds of a gas installation in helped set up a website honoring her blog, she described sleeping Mueller’s face did not show puffi- , the capital of the group’s JAROD OPPERMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES her friend’s legacy. in front of half-destroyed homes, ness or other concussive effects self-declared caliphate. per, she wrote in crowded, cur- forgive me as I do not deserve “Every time I ran into her on using her body as a shield associated with a bomb blast, While many of the male hos- sive script: “Everyone, if you are forgiveness.” campus, she was organizing against the bulldozers they making it unlikely that she was tages were tortured, the female receiving this letter it means I am In Arizona, her extended fam- something, or talking about a feared were coming. killed when the area was hit, as captives, including three staffers still detained but my cellmates ily and friends gathered by the new issue, or else inviting me to Kathleen Day, head of the Unit- the Islamic State said. But the of Doctors Without Borders, were . . . have been released.” steps of the Yavapai County an event. She was so active,” said ed Christian ministry at North- same person said that she could treated relatively well, according “Please know that I am in a courthouse to ponder what had Ms. Alamer, 28, rattling off the ern Arizona University, remem- have been in a nearby building or to a European hostage who met safe location, completely un- driven her to such a dangerous causes Ms. Mueller had joined, bered how Ms. Mueller used her struck by flying debris. Ms. Mueller during his months- harmed + healthy (put on weight place. They and others described including one that called atten- blog as a way to encourage her American officials confirmed long captivity last year. The in fact); I have been treated a deeply committed young wom- tion to atrocities in Darfur, Su- peers to get involved. She did not that the structure was bombed in women were not beaten, he said, w/utmost respect + kindness.” an who refused to avert her eyes dan. just write a blog post and leave it coalition airstrikes last week. and he said he believed that they She begged her family for for- from the suffering of others. In college, she began research- at that: She sent it to friends and The authorities insisted that were not sexually molested. giveness: “If you could say I “Kayla has touched the heart ing accusations of mistreatment family, asking them to forward it the building, a weapons storage This seemed to be confirmed in have ‘suffered’ at all throughout of the world,” said her aunt Lori of detainees at the military base to others and to take action. facility, was a legitimate target a letter that Ms. Mueller wrote to this whole experience it is only in Lyon, speaking on behalf of the in Guantánamo Bay, Ms. Alamer “It’s not that she’s so angelic,” her family last spring and that knowing how much suffering I family. said. Ms. Day said. “She saw things Rick Rojas contributed reporting her parents released on Tuesday. have put you all through,” she Her desire to help solve world After graduating in 2009, Ms. and did what she could, whatever from Prescott, Ariz. On a piece of lined notebook pa- wrote. “I will never ask you to problems was already on display Mueller moved to , and soon she could, however she could.”

Rapper, Shaped by Tumultuous German Youth, Is Designated a Global Terrorist

By ALISON SMALE The potential evidence against At the White House on Mon- song from 2013, according to a re- His rap career reached its ze- September 2013, but after hospi- — Denis Cuspert was him includes a July 2014 video day, Mr. Obama appealed to Ger- port on Mr. Cuspert compiled by nith when he went on tour with talization in Turkey returned to drawn early to gangsta rap, and that, a German report says, mans, who are sensitive about security officials in Berlin. DMX in 2006. the fighting last spring. later to Islam. Born and raised in shows Mr. Cuspert and a pile of government surveillance be- That report concluded that “in By 2010, according to Berlin se- The Berlin report on Mr. Cusp- , jeered at as a half- corpses in civilian clothes, appar- cause of their Nazi and Commu- just four years, he developed curity officials, he had appeared ert, published last September, African child and often at odds ently victims of a battle for con- nist pasts, to trust not from a respected, but financially in a video with Pierre Vogel, a concluded with mention of the with his American stepfather, he trol of the much-contested Shaer to overstep the line. Ms. Merkel, not very successful, ‘gangsta rap- well-known Salafist preacher, video that it said showed him fell in with Salafists in , gas field near Homs in Syria. in turn, stressed how Germany per’ to an internationally recog- who asked about rap connections among the pile of corpses. left for Egypt in 2012 and made “Cuspert has been on the radar relies on the United States’ intel- nized propagandist of jihad and and what might happen if other Frauke Köhler, a spokeswom- his way, eventually, to Syria. By for a while, mainly because he’s ligence-gathering capacity to Salafism.” rappers embraced Islam. an for the federal prosecutor’s of- last spring, the German authori- so high profile,” said a former guarantee public safety. Mr. Cuspert In 2011, when a 21-year-old im- fice in Germany, declined to con- ties said, he had joined Islamic senior American counterterror- State Department officials in was born in migrant from Kosovo, Arid Uka, firm a news report that Mr. Cusp- State guerrillas and swore alle- ism official, who spoke on the Washington said on Tuesday that Berlin to a Ger- fatally shot two American airmen ert was being investigated on giance to their leader, Abu Bakr condition of anonymity to discuss the designation of Mr. Cuspert man mother at the airport, he said suspicion of committing war al-Baghdadi. confidential intelligence reports. had been published without fan- and a - he had opened fire after seeing a crimes, along with another Ger- This week, Mr. Cuspert was The announcement in Wash- fare in the American govern- ian father who video that claimed to show a man jihadist, identified as Farid transformed again. The Ameri- ington followed declarations by ment’s Federal Register on Jan. soon left the Muslim woman being raped by S., whose wife is on trial in Düs- can State Department announced President Obama and Chancellor 27. family. His men in United States military seldorf on charges of delivering Monday that, as “a willing pitch- Angela Merkel of Germany on Mr. Cuspert, a.k.a. the rapper American step- uniforms. Mr. Cuspert acknowl- 11,000 euros and camera equip- man” for the extremist group’s Monday, during her visit to the Deso Dogg, now goes by Abu Tal- father, a former edged posting the video, which ment to her husband in Syria. soldier, was a “atrocities,” Mr. Cuspert was now White House, about their con- ha al-Almani, according to Ger- Denis Cuspert Mr. Uka copied. American offi- Robert Rigney, a Berlin-born a “specially designated global tinuing cooperation in tracking man and American officials. strict discipli- cials said it was staged. American who said he had spent terrorist” sought worldwide. terror suspects and gathering in- He became one of the best- narian, and In 2012, Mr. Cuspert fell in with almost 15 years here, teaching The designation means that telligence in the region. known singers of nasheeds, or Is- conflicts at home increased until an Austrian, Mohamed Mah- and writing about immigrant Mr. Cuspert, 39, has gone from The relationship between Ger- lamic devotional music, in Ger- Mr. Cuspert spent five years in a moud, and they started a group, communities, said he had come being a notorious figure in Ger- many and the United States on man. According to security offi- home for troubled children. “I Millatu Ibrahim, that was banned across Mr. Cuspert in Berlin’s many to one recognized every- intelligence-gathering was shak- cials and excerpts from videos grew up with racism,” he told The after a clash with the police. The district around 2009. where, and it puts him in the en in 2013 after Edward J. Snow- posted online, Mr. Cuspert sings New York Times in 2011. two men left for Egypt, reported- “Everyone in Berlin knows this cross hairs of American intelli- den revealed the extent to which of the comradeship of battle. He said he had joined youth ly heading for Mali, but landed guy,” he said, alluding to immi- gence in the Syrian region. ordinary Germans were affected His themes include martyr- gangs because he was in search eventually in Syria. grant neighborhoods and the and Der Spiegel reported that the dom: “I wish for my death and of an identity. From an early age, There, according to German in- high school dropouts, and rap Eric Schmitt contributed report- Americans had eavesdropped on can hardly wait for it/Armed with he trained in Thai boxing, taek- telligence officials, Mr. Cuspert fans, he teaches. “I don’t know ing from Washington. Ms. Merkel’s cellphone. bombs and grenades,” goes one wondo and jujitsu. suffered head wounds in battle in what happened to him.”