ISSN 2334-3745 Volume XI, Issue 1 February 2017 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 11, Issue1 Table of Contents Welcome from the Editors.................................................................................................................1 Articles The ISIS Emni: the Origins and Inner Workings of ISIS’s Intelligence Apparatus................2 by Anne Speckhard and Ahmet S. Yayla Women of the Caliphate: the Mechanism for Women’s Incorporation into the Islamic State (IS)..............................................................................................................................................17 by Hamoon Khelghat-Doost Blast Through the Past: Terrorist Attacks on Art and Antiquities as a Reconquest of the Modern Jihadi Identity...................................................................................................................26 by Kristy Campion Ansar al-Sharia in Libya: an Enduring Threat.............................................................................40 by Henrik Gråtrud and Vidar Benjamin Skretting Research Notes Deciphering Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Al-Qaeda’s Strategic and Ideological Imperatives.54 by Sajjan M. Gohel An Empirical Analysis of Causes of Islamist Radicalisation: Italian Case Study.................68 by Michele Groppi Special Correspondence De-radicalising Militant Salafists...................................................................................................77 by Nina Käsehage Resources Bibliography on Islamist Narratives and Western Counter-Narratives.................................80 by Judith Tinnes Online Resources for the Analysis of Terrorism and Related Subjects.................................124 by Berto Jongman Book Review: Marc Sageman. Misunderstanding Terrorism (2017)....................................159 by Joshua Sinai Capsule Book Reviews....................................................................................................................162 by Joshua Sinai ISSN 2334-3745 i February 2017 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 11, Issue1 Editorial Announcements Words of Appreciation from the Editors.....................................................................................174 by Alex P. Schmid and James J.F. Forest News from TRI’s National Networks of Ph.D. Theses Writers: The Netherlands-Flanders Network.............................................................................................................................................176 by Jeanine de Rooy Zuijdewijn Award for Best Ph.D. Thesis 2016: 31 March 2017 Deadline for Submissions Approaching Fast.....................................................................................................................................................182 by Alex P. Schmid (Chairman TRI Thesis Awards) Announcement about Organisational Changes of Perspectives on Terrorism....................183 by Alex P. Schmid and James J.F. Forest Two New Positions Available at Perspectives on Terrorism.....................................................185 by Alex P. Schmid About Perspectives on Terrorism.................................................................................................187 ISSN 2334-3745 ii February 2017 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 11, Issue 1 Welcome from the Editors Dear Reader, We are pleased to announce the release of Volume XI, Issue 1 (February 2017) of Perspectives on Terrorism at http://www.terrorismanalysts.com. Our free and independent online journal is a publication of the Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI). Now in its eleventh year, Perspectives on Terrorism has over 7,000 regular subscribers from 150 countries, and many more occasional readers and website visitors worldwide. The Articles of its six annual issues are fully peer reviewed by external referees while its Research and Policy Notes, Special Correspondence and other content are subject to internal editorial quality control. While many armed conflicts around the world have become internationalized civil wars, the spillover effects produced by the war in Syria — now in its sixth year — continue to draw an increasing amount of scholarly attention. In our first article, Anne Speckhard and Ahmed Yayla focus on the origins and ominous role of Emni, the intelligence service of the Islamic State (ISIS), which casts its long shadow across the region and into Europe. The second article by Hamoon Khelgaat-Doost, also based on local field research, seeks to explain how ISIS manages to the instrumentalise women by creating parallel structures for them that combine Islamist female role requirements with active participation in the Caliphate state. Kristy Campion, in turn, tries to make sense of the seemingly senseless destruction of works of art and sites of antiquities by the Islamic State as well as other jihadist groups seeking to leave their mark in history in search of their own identity. As the Islamic State has sought to create both overland and overseas provinces in its drive for expansion, it faces other jihadist groups, one of them being Ansar al-Sharia in Libya (ASL)— the topic of an article by Henrik Gratrud and Vidar Benjamin Skretting. ASL has lost some of its foot soldiers to the Islamic State, but ideologically stands closer to al-Qaida while being more firmly rooted in the local conflict dynamics of Libya. Al-Qaida core is the subject of a Research Note by Sajjan Gohel, who seeks to decipher the statements of Ayman al-Zawahiri for cues about al-Qaida’s strategic and ideological directions. A second Research Note by Michele Groppi focuses on Islamist radicalisation in Italy. He finds, based on a large n-study, that the most common explanations for radicalization —including discrimination, economic disparity, and outrage at Western foreign policy— were nowhere as relevant as an individual’s interpretation of Islamist ideology. The Special Correspondence section contains a brief contribution from Nina Käsehage who, while researching Salafism in Europe and interviewing more than 170 Salafists, found herself inadvertently becoming involved in de-radicalisation, stopping 35 out of 38 young Muslims intending to go to Syria from doing so. In the Resources section of this Perspectives on Terrorism issue the reader will find— next to the usual book reviews by Joshua Sinai and a bibliography by Judith Tinnes— a new rubric on online resources for the analysis of terrorism by Berto Jongman. Finally, in the Announcements section there is a reminder to those who have finished a doctoral dissertation in 2016 to submit it to the jury for the TRI Thesis Award, with the deadline end of March approaching fast. There is also a report from one of the national/regional networks of Ph.D. theses writers by Jeanine de Roy van Zuidewijn, listing 23 theses in the making and five concluded recently in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). The growth of Perspectives on Terrorism as an academic journal owes much to the members of our Editorial Board who act as our regular peer-reviewers. However, beyond them there are many more external peer- reviewers whose specific expertise the editors marshalled in 2016. They are listed— and thanked— in another section of the Announcements. Finally, in our last Announcement we report on the restructuring of both Perspectives on Terrorism and its parent organization, the Terrorism Research Initiative. The current issue of Perspectives on Terrorism was jointly prepared by Prof. em. Alex P. Schmid and Prof. James J.F. Forest, the main editors of the journal. ISSN 2334-3745 1 February 2017 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 11, Issue 1 Articles The ISIS Emni: Origins and Inner Workings of ISIS’s Intelligence Apparatus by Anne Speckhard and Ahmet S. Yayla Abstract This article, relying primarily on first person accounts of actual ISIS defectors, expands upon the work of investigative journalist Christoph Reuter of Der Spiegel (Hamburg, GFR) who first reported on the discovery of the files of Haji Bakr, one of the Iraqi organizers of the ISIS’s Emni in the years when preparations for the Islamic State were made. Bakr’s files make clear that ISIS is not just a terrorist organization, but was set up by former Baathist state intel operators with the intent to build a new state. Our interviews also confirm data collected by New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi. Together, these three sources utilized and analyzed here shed light on the highly subversive activities undertaken by the Emni on behalf of the ‘Islamic State’, also outlining ISIS’s aspirations to attack the West. Keywords: Emni, intelligence, terrorist tactics, defectors, Iraq, ISIS, Syria, terrorist operations. Introduction orty-two ISIS defectors from Syria, Western Europe, Central Asia and the Balkans, interviewed over the last year and a half in our ISIS Defectors Interviews Project, reported about life inside ISIS and their reasons for ultimately risking their lives to escape. The sample was collected via a non-probability Fsampling technique (snowball or chain-referral) resulting in interviews of 32 Syrians in Turkey, 5 Balkans citizens, 3 West Europeans and 2 Central Asians over the time period October 2015 to February 2017. The subjects ranged in age from 15 to 52 and consisted of 6 females and 36 males. Their roles in ISIS varied from fighter, commander, logistical supply personnel, guards, police–including female police, and wives of fighters. Each interview lasted between one and five hours. The interview technique was semi-structured, first allowing the subject to tell his