ISIS lures British girls with flights and marriage offer

Surveillance photographs from the day of the planned handover of ISIS cash for flights, show a man who appears to be a white Muslim convert and a woman in a burka who appears to be his wife

Saturday, December 20, 2014

advertisements

Her name was Aisha. She was 17, from a poor family of Somali origin, and lived in Newham, east London. She said that she had never been on a plane.

“We can give u money to book a flight,” he said. The cash could be sent via Western Union and “if u want we can send the money to another person and let him give to u for your safety”.

Abu Abbas al-Lubnani boasted of a role as an Islamic State operative based in Raqqa, the organisation’s de facto capital in Syria. He said that he worked in “politics and administration in the land of khilafa [the caliphate]”.

Aisha is today revealed as the cover for an investigation by The Times into the mechanics of Isis recruitment and its active representatives in Britain. Her story exposes the methods used to coax and - crucially - fund scores of British teenagers on their journey to a distant conflict. That first chat on a mobile phone ended with a meeting in a park in east London to collect the cash to fly to Turkey.

Deep in an online world awash with Islamist ideologues, fantasists and would-be revolutionaries, Aisha was developed as a naive, innocent young character. She added smiley faces to every message or tweet and extra vowels to every other word. Her motivation was a desire to help Syrian children caught in the crossfire, she said, but she was naturally afraid of living in the middle of the increasingly bloody conflict.

“Here in the land of khilafa we’re not afraid of anyone except Allah,” Lubnani, whom she first encountered through his detailed accounts of Isis military action on Twitter, told her via Kik, a messenger app.

When Aisha, supposedly a sixth-form student studying chemistry, maths and physics, said that she was terrified of being arrested, he told her: “No don’t think like that. Thousands of Muhajireen [holy emigrants] cone [sic] here every month from all over the world”.

The online world around her was a sinister place in which the women jostled for position among bloodthirsty young men. The conversations continued, but as the transfer of funds approached the investigation hit an obstacle. Lubnani insisted that all further communications were to be made via Wickr, an encrypted messaging app that could not be downloaded to Aisha’s Nokia Windows phone. He encouraged Aisha to persuade her parents to buy an Android phone - but that would have involved breaking character as a girl from an underprivileged background. So a second “girl” was introduced, using a second device. Under Lubnani’s guidance, a fictional Aisha approached her fictional friend Fatima, who had once expressed an interest in moving to the Isis-controlled territory. “Don’t tell her anything,” he wrote. “See if she is still interested and tell her we have a way.”

Fatima, who had just turned 19, became the hard-nosed pragmatist keen to thrash out the details. It was her introduction that seemed to allay any last fears of a set-up. They spoke on Wickr, an app that destroys messages after a certain time. An assertive Fatima, with a better command of Arabic phrases, demanded guarantees that the girls would be safe, could live together, and even that they would be allowed to study medicine. Lubnani’s response came: “If your husband allows it.”

He told them that the only way they could remain together was if they married the same man. She asked if he was married. “Listen it’s a bit weird but till now I’m not married,” he wrote. “The problem is I have a lot of work at this time and I’m hsitated [sic] about taking a decision in marriage. I don’t know if maybe anything changes by the time you two come here.”

The vetting stage was a short list of requests: “I need to know ur ages, were you originally came from, what are u studying and a picture with niqab [full face veil] for both of u. The last 2 steps can be postponed until u get out of ur country for ur safety. And how much money you need and if you are willing to get married once you get here.”

He later added: “Sorry but I need to know if ur good looking, the colours of your skin.” He said “usually mujahideen don’t request a beauty queen, but they like to have a good looking wife.” Aisha was described as “really pretty” and “quite dark-skinned”. Fatima gave a humble appraisal of her own looks.

Soon it was the girls’ turn to vet Lubnani and they requested proof he was not a spy or a journalist. The Times reporter - now operating two phones full-time to talk to him - added that Aisha had grown envious of his conversations with Fatima.

A few days after the request, two photographs were sent. Each showed a masked figure, AK47 rifle slung across his chest, with a walkie-talkie in one hand and a piece of paper in the other.

In the first, the paper showed both of the girls’ online usernames, and the letters IS. The other was a message only for Aisha: “Smile,” it said, with a smiley face. “Islamic State”.

Lubnani said he was standing in front of the Islamic court in Raqqa, which was confirmed by comparisons with other photos and by sources from Raqqa itself. He began to talk more openly about the handover of funds, saying that the cash would be picked up by an intermediary and given to the girls. “The brother has a wife they can pick up from a certain place that doesn’t have a camera then give you the money in their car.”

They were to choose a route through Germany and were told to “westernise yourself. No niqab or jilbab [a head-to-toe garment that shows only the face]. Not even in the bag. Once you reach Turkey you will buy one insha’allah”.

On arrival they would buy the clothes and “once u reach Turkey u will be safe insha’allah”. In a later conversation he told them to keep their mobile internet working and contact him directly on arrival.

“Once u reach the land of IS u will stay in guest houses for IS until u get married. The sooner u get married the sooner u get out. While in the guest houses u will be together insha’allah. But if one of u get married before the other u will have to split.

“The only way to guarantee being together is marrying the same man both of u and a lot of sisters did that.”

He told Aisha and Fatima to wait until the school holidays to travel and said: “Meanwhile try to be steadfast, pray at night, make duaa [supplication], gather as much money as u can and make sure of ur decision because we can’t afford changing ur minds on the last minutes like others did.”

Oddly he suggested there would be extra cash for the girls to bring for the men in Islamic State, which made little sense with Isis estimated to be extremely wealthy from its various activities.

“This money I’m sending u can bring 4 brothers here so u need to fear allah and stay steadfast ok?”

Over the following weeks the conversations continued. Lubnani described life under almost constant bombardment from US-led coalition airstrikes, the almost daily “martyrdoms” of friends and the weather - “too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter”.

Despite the regular updates on the Islamic State’s war efforts, there were suspicions over his true location.

Home
Email

Hiiraan Online