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How a talented footballer became world’s most wanted man, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Amadeus

Amadeus

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How a talented footballer became world?s most wanted man, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - Telegraph

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Five things we know about the Isis leader | Middle East | News | The Independent

The only time the polite, bespectacled student shone was on the football field, playing for the team from the local mosque.

“He was the Messi of our team,” said Abu Ali, a fellow player and worshipper at the mosque, making comparison with the Lionel Messi, the Argentinian striker. “He was our best player.”
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the impressive striker, is now the world’s most wanted jihadist leader.

In interviews with the Telegraph, contemporaries of Baghdadi trace how he went from being a shy, unimpressive, religious scholar and man who eschewed violence, to an infamously dangerous extremist, self-appointed caliph and reputed heir to Osama bin Laden.
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This is old news, but recent discussions regarding the Iraq Invasion (and whether ISIS would have emerged regardless of the invasion) make this a very relevant point about the unintended consequences neo-conconservative policies. The leader of ISIS was a civilian admin clerk...
 
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The jihadist-to-be had been a “conservative Salafi” practitioner of Islam, his former neighbour said: “

Baghdadi was thrown into the sprawling American run Camp Bucca in late 2005, after US intelligence reports record claimed that he was fighting against the US occupation.

But even whilst under their lock and key, Baghdadi cut such an innocuous figure that he slipped through the US’ net. Failing to identify him as particularly dangerous individual, guards released him when the prison shut down in 2009.

“He was a bad dude but he wasn’t the worst of the worst,” Colonel Kenneth King, then Camp Bucca’s commanding officer, told the Daily Beast.

His parting comment, “I’ll see you guys in New York”, was not seen as a threat by the guards.

Inside the prison Baghdadi is believed to have met with and been radicalised by jihadists from al-Qaeda, the group holding a reign of terror after the Iraqi invasion, with daily suicide bombings in towns and cities.
How a talented footballer became world?s most wanted man, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - Telegraph
 
annata said:
The jihadist-to-be had been a “conservative Salafi” practitioner of Islam, his former neighbour said: “

Baghdadi was thrown into the sprawling American run Camp Bucca in late 2005, after US intelligence reports record claimed that he was fighting against the US occupation.

But even whilst under their lock and key, Baghdadi cut such an innocuous figure that he slipped through the US’ net. Failing to identify him as particularly dangerous individual, guards released him when the prison shut down in 2009.

“He was a bad dude but he wasn’t the worst of the worst,” Colonel Kenneth King, then Camp Bucca’s commanding officer, told the Daily Beast.

His parting comment, “I’ll see you guys in New York”, was not seen as a threat by the guards.

Inside the prison Baghdadi is believed to have met with and been radicalised by jihadists from al-Qaeda, the group holding a reign of terror after the Iraqi invasion, with daily suicide bombings in towns and cities.
How a talented footballer became world?s most wanted man, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - Telegraph
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Slight correction. Baghadadi was released, I believe, in 2004. The article is mistaken.
 
Amadeus said:
Slight correction. Baghadadi was released, I believe, in 2004. The article is mistaken.
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I've heard all kinds of stuff, that he is a figurehead used for his religious ability to garnish jihadist, to he's a mastermind of strategy.

I tend to believe the latter, as if he's not a strategic as well as religious leader, then who is?
 
annata said:
I've heard all kinds of stuff, that he is a figurehead used for his religious ability to garnish jihadist, to he's a mastermind of strategy.

I tend to believe the latter, as if he's not a strategic as well as religious leader, then who is?
Click to expand...

Have you read the Der Spiegel article on Haji Bakr? It's a bit tabloid-esque, but its basic point that ex-Baathists really run ISIS rings true. Baghdadi's predecessor as leader of what is now ISIS, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, may not have even existed. It seems unlikely that the current Baghdadi even could run the show - a redditor pointed out how it's unlikely that Baghdadi has a "situation room" where he makes strategic military decisions for the entire organization - and in any case ISIS' military is fairly decentralized.
 
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