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THE CASE OF three teenage girls being investigated for trying to join Islamic State militants poses vexing questions for US officials about the use of social media by terror groups to recruit people inside the country, experts have said.
A Colorado school official said the Denver area girls — two sisters ages 17 and 15, and a 16-year-old friend — were victims of an online predator who encouraged them to travel overseas and eventually to Syria.
Mia Bloom, a professor of security studies at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, said the girls’ story so far suggests how Islamic extremists have mastered social media to prey on younger and younger women with “Disney-like versions of what it is like to live in the caliphate”, complete with promises of husbands and homes.
At least one of the girls was communicating with someone online who encouraged the three to travel to Syria, said Tustin Amole, a spokeswoman for the Cherry Creek School District where the girls attend high school.
Fellow high school students told school officials that the girls had been discussing travel plans over Twitter, Amole said.
The girls were detained at an airport in Frankfurt, Germany, and sent home over the weekend. They were interviewed by the FBI and returned to their parents in suburban Aurora. Those in the tight-knit east African community where they live said the sisters are of Somali descent and their friend is of Sudanese descent.
“There’s no indication they had been radicalised in a way that they wanted to fight for ISIS,” Amole said.
The Facebook Factor
A US official said evidence gathered so far made it clear that the girls were headed to Syria, though the official said investigators were still trying to determine what sort of contacts they had in that country.
Another US official said that investigators were reviewing evidence, including the girls’ computers. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the ongoing investigation by name.
“Social media has played a very significant role in the recruitment of young people,” said FBI spokesman Kyle Loven in Minneapolis, home to the largest Somali community in the US Authorities there have been concerned about terror recruiting of the young for years.
What we’ve experienced here in Minneapolis is that young, disaffected youth who exist primarily on the fringes of society — they seem to be more susceptible to this type of propaganda, unfortunately.
Terror recruiting has been a problem for years in Minneapolis. Since 2007, roughly 22 young Somali-Americans have traveled to Somalia to take up arms with al-Shabab, an al-Qaida linked group. Those were all men.
Within the last year, a handful of people from the community left Minnesota to join militant groups in Syria, and this time, there are fears that women might have been targeted. Loven said the FBI is working with the Somali community to establish trust and help identify young people at risk for radicalisation.
Problem students?
In Colorado, Amole said the three teens had no prior problems at school, aside from unexcused absences on Friday.
It is not yet known how they managed to get to Frankfurt.
The US government doesn’t have any restrictions on children flying alone, domestically or internationally. Airline policies vary. Most US airlines allow children 12 and older to fly alone but often with restrictions on international flights, according to the US Transportation Department.
The girls’ parents reported them missing Friday after they skipped school. They had taken passports and $2,000 in cash from the sisters’ parents’ home.
At some point, the US informed German authorities at the airport about the girls arriving alone on their way to Turkey, German Interior Ministry spokeswoman Pamela Mueller-Niese told reporters. She said the three were detained by German police, with approval from a judge, and returned voluntarily to the US on Sunday.
Once home, the girls told a deputy they went to Germany for “family”, but wouldn’t elaborate.
A spokesman for the US attorney’s office in Denver would not say whether prosecutors plan to charge the girls with a crime. State prosecutors said they have no imminent plans to charge the girls. Amole said they will not face discipline
“Our biggest concern is for the safety and well-being of these girls,” Amole said.
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Lovely photo of the two girls they’ll be able to look back in years to come and wonder “which one am I?”
That photo is of two other German girls from a recent story, not the ones mentioned.
How can you tell?
Were they not Austrian?
They were from Bosnian-Austrians from Vienna, not Germans.
Strewth! I thought they were Australian
correction….austrian girls not german
Look, to be fair, it doesn’t really matter where they’re from. All that matters is that they’re beautiful and the world is fu_cked when beautiful women are the enemy.
This propaganda has to stop.
I’m so sick of this them versus us bullshit.
Beautiful women have feelings too.
It’s so hard being beautiful in such an ugly world.
All these ugly people.
You know what, let’s liberate these ugly people from their ugliness.
I thought they were Irish Ukrainians, nor Russians
Didn’t the ISIS terrorists cheat by getting 2 virgins before they were sent to Paradise????? Just asking……..
So if I’ve got this right:
Young western men recruited by ISIS for their 7th century restoration project = evil monsters who should have their passports confiscated.
Young western women recruited by ISIS for their 7th century restoration project = misguided victims.
If your husband to be’s army social media strategy revolves around decapitating prisoners and boasting of restoring sex slavery in line with the Prophet’s command then you cannot feel sorry for anyone who decides to go and join that.
Yes Emily it appears that you’ve gotten it right
Young Western Men – attracted by the idea of violently killing for the cause and as such becoming murderers
Young Western Women – attracted by the idea of being a good wife to a warrior fighting for a cause.
It’s not social medias fault that these girls are gullible.
They definitely aren’t A student material……..
They’d swallow a fridge sideways,
Their that gullible…
Their poor parents must be mortified……
Poor Parents?where were their parents when they were planning all of this. Send their parents out to fetch them home. Stupid half witted girls and that can be said for the “Parents” also
Having studied the media output by ISIS over the last year so it is plain to see that they have some very slick operators running the show. Gone are the grainy videos that AQ used to produce, replaced by HD recordings and professional editing. There is one clip that goes on for about 10 minutes and shows Islamic militants clearing trenches and buildings. It was filmed using GoPro cameras and the whole effect is to make it look like something out of call of duty. Their magazine, Dabiq, is also professionally edited and well written so it is no surprise that someone who is already inclined towards militant Islam would fall for this line of shite.
When you think about it, they (ISIS) are doing nothing different from the US and the UK for example in recruiting people. If you watch US and UK ads for the services they tell you all the great things that you can do like be an engineer, mechanic, technician. What they don’t show is what you are going to look like when your patrol is hit by an IED and you lose limbs and half your face. ISIS are painting a rosy picture of an Islamic Utopia when in fact it is more akin to Dantes inferno.
True enough. But last time I checked beheading apostates, rape and enslaving women are not requirements for UK or US armed forces.
I think they leave that part out when they are persuading 15-17 y.o girls to come over and join the jihad. That and the fact that they are going to have to shag some sweaty guy who is about 2 or 3 times their age. No iPad, iPhone, iPod, dancing, drinking etc. Those 2 Austrian girls found out pretty quickly but now they are stuck there.
Join the purist adherents of a faith that is the most anti-women of any religion on Earth and whose attitude to sex makes 1950′s Ireland seem like a swingers party.
Great thinking there lads.
Hard-line Islam is a bit like a global gang. Gangs have no trouble attracting disaffected girls, even though it’s patently obvious to all of us what their life is going to be like. Why should Islam be any different?
I’m interested to know how this Islamic paradise fantasy was sold to teenage girls to make it appealing to them.
Islam started as the faith of a warrior band, at its heart there is a “gang culture”. The concepts of taking women as booty and looting your enemy, fighting to the last drop for you brothers and leader, the prophet etc.
It is the “Crypts” but with a founder who had issues and heard voices and didn’t have access to modern treatment.
Still, you imagine teenage girls running away from home to live a life with more fun and freedom, not less.
Sorry to sound so critical, but have the youth of today got less intelligence, than the nineties when I was growing up.
Who’d believe this crap.
I read Enid Blyton books as a kid but never imagined going up the faraway tree.
What fantasy world do these kids live in?
The pics of 2 girls that you show are not 2 girls of Sudanese or Somalian ethnicity. They look white to me.
Thanks for clearing that up Declan !
Correct. The photo at the top is of the two Austrian girls, not the Americans.
The girls in the picture are the European girls that went and married and are thought likely to be pregnant now.
They clearly had no real clue what they were getting into. I’m sure those two girls had a very different idea of what their life would be like to the reality.
Good job in getting the 3 American girls back home, their lives have just been saved.
Glen, clearly the journal has gotten the pics mixed up. It’s called shoddy journalism. Don’t you agree?
And glen, there was sarcasm in my comment.
Declan
I’m taking the p!ss … Why so serious all the time ?
Are you sure theyre not two poor Claire Nuns?
Declan Noonan .. The wardrope department must have got confused.
Look as much as I’d like to say that these girls are as thick as muck to fall for this I remind myself that these are just kids who have been groomed by a very clever, very dangerous organisation.If a 16 year old took off with their teacher there would be a massive ‘amber alert’ and people would realise that the adult was in the wrong. That is just one person grooming a kid with the promise of romance. Now imagine an organisation like Isis who have an entire section dedicated to recruitment targeting kids with promises of god knows what.Isis have fooled entire governments into funding and arming them.I’m kinda supprised at the venom directed at a few nieve kids.They are victims in this.They are being recruited as child soilders and ‘comfort women’. Both of which are recognised as war crimes.Bottom line is that teenagers do dumb things and it is up to adults to protect them from themselves.
Fruitcakes!
Morons
These girls are all idiots but it angers me that these pedo-terrorists are preying on young children… The girls are all said to be pregnant ffs!?
There is no reason for these people to exist, they only breed hate.. they need to be wiped out as soon as possible..
I guess we could turn these f*ckers into some low grade dog food, the only good use for them..
Mohammed married at 6 and consumated the relation with Aisha at 9.
In Islam he is considered the most perfect man who ever lived and an example to be followed.
Hence Isis and every other Islam radical copying him.
Isis do everything on precedent from Mohammed’s time and that of his companions.
Thomas O’Brien More than likely these girls are crisis actors and don’t exist in real life.
Is was probably Hollywood that these girls got confused with rather than Disneyland.
Like that crisis actor, Jeff Bauman, at the Boston Marathon, Frank?
J. Dunn ..Katie Foley and Alex Israel being two the one rings a bell.
Crisis actors also appear on the battle field
http://s7.postimg.org/zeapfncvf/addtext_com_MTEy_ODI1_NDg0_Mjg.png
You and I know that you’ve previously cited J.Bauman, someone known personally to me, as a key crisis actor. Surely you’re not going to deny it.
Of course he’s not. He just changes the subject. That’s his MO. Can’t answer something simple, blitz you with another shotgun argument. I think he’s brilliant.
There will be no tour either. Frank is an actor himself. I actually believe that Frank is a female. Writing a research paper for college. Either that or he’s an ISIS propaganda agent. It all adds up. There’s no evidence that this is true, therefore, it is true.
J. Dunn.. Re “Boston Bombing”
Watch the special effects technician toss two bags of “dust” into the crowd
1 minute in.
I’m still watching someone with a shovel tossing piles of dung.
Ablitive, revisiting the Twilight zone!
What possess these people to up sticks and head off to live alongside monsters like ISIS? I mean if they were indoctrinated or radicalised you’d almost understand it, but clearly the girls heading over are not… they don’t even have Islamic influences in their lives.
They’re Somalians which means that they are more then likely Muslim.
The three from the US are of Somali and Sudanese heritage, so you can’t rule out the possibility of previous Islamic influence in their lives.
Nietzsche said “we are all Christians” in Europe,
Their home culture would have been Islamic and their outlook to Jihad and religion would have been influenced by that same as Christianity has permeated everything in Europe.
If you’ve ever come across S&M literature and read the personal philosophy of Islam, you can’t fail to notice the similarities. They both talk of the inner peace gained by giving yourself to something bigger, with firm rules an arbitrary whims. “Islam” even means “submission”. Couple that with a deep sense of fatalism and a ready excuse for going medieval on anyone who offends your personal standards, and you have a cocktail which is attractive to quite a number of people.
Jayz Emily.. tell us more about this s&m stuff…
I certainly hope that this incident isn’t used as an excuse for governments to impose Orwellian scenarios on the internet.
Glen, China has banned over 2700 internet sites including Facebook. The other week you were applauding them for banning the BBC. Now your on here hoping that a crack down does not happen here in the west. Which is it glen?
The BBC have been caught telling lies so applaud china for banning their propaganda and BS as I made clear the other day.
Declan Noonan There is no reason why the West should become like China but unfortunately it is thanks to all the fear mongering and BS stories that are spun by the MSM.
It won’t be too long before you won’t be able to get online with out an e_signiture card and when this happens you can kiss the 2nd amendment good bye.
First amendment I should say.
Your as bad as Alex Jones…while there is some truth in some comments and view’s you have, you always twist and distort a story to suit your own agenda and one sided view. Your as bad yourself Glen.
Steve M .. Whose Alex Jones?
Alex who now.
Who are you two trying to fool? You both know of Alex Jones and if you don’t, it proves your lack of balanced research and insight. Has A.Jones fallen out of fashion (F)alse (F)lag (S)quad?
He’s an actor right this jones guy ?
Battered sideways if they were my daughter’s and they did this. How stupid can one be!
A chipper, inpro.
deep fried women
Those poor girls parents must be going out of their mind! Scary to think your child could do that.
I actually feel sorry for those girls. Most teens are guillable and senseless at that age (not all, but some)
God only knows what they went through over there.
An Islamic fundamentalist told some girls that they would have Disney like lives? I suppose he wasn’t lying.
After all They would have to wear a costume, believe in fairy tales and swear allegiance to an unscrupulous leader!
In fairness, I know they’re teenagers but believing that gumph takes a special kind of stupidity!!
This spin is typical of the BS that comes out of US Mainstream media.
It is too stupid to be true..
Any excuse for Western authorities to drum up strict monitoring and censorship on social media. .
Have to agree with you there. Although there are undoubtedly many stupid girls out there that would fall victim to something like this it’s a perfect excuse for censorship on all social media and the internet in general. The people with the power just don’t like the people actually knowing what’s going on and will go to great extremes to block information from us. Extremism at it’s best. They didn’t envisage this when the internet was unveiled for the public.
I’m in agreement here. I can understand one person being stupid enough to follow through with this but 3 people does seem a bit far fetched.
Death of Western media looming on horizon and you can blame sensational tabloid spins like this.
Interesting reading and it shows how alternative and social media are wiping the press clean off the table.
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2014/10/23/death-of-western-media-looming-on-horizon/
Niall
If they censor the internet alternative media will be the first to go.
The EU have been working overtime trying to knock out Alternative Media / Press TV on Eutelsat and UK’s Arqiva satellite
One wonders when a Journalists of theirs gets assassinated last Sunday exposing ISIS collaborating with Turkey. (NATO)
Frank there is something weirdly hilarious about you quoting an ultra reliable (that means batshut crazeee) website in support of your contention that western msm is dying… I love it, I would love to promote a tour of you coming out with this crap on stage, do you have an agent?
Ahippo .. GAZA was the Stalingrad for Zi0nist controlled Western Mainstream Media.
It also gave an explosive birth to alternative and social media credibility.
As we speak atrocities are still ongoing in Gaza that are buried under the carpet.
Western Media is too busy distracting the masses with sensation spin stories about ISIS and Ebola, most of which is engineered and fabricated to spread fear across the world so that they can user more fascist powers to suppress the masses.
US Mainstream media is the Devils Toilet because it is full of sh**t and so many lies.
Have these girls no brains
They’ll be wrinkled oulones in 5 years time.
Are those two Austrian girls still stuck over there ?
I`m not convinced by the argument that these are innocent impressionable young girls who are indoctrinated by slick ISIS propaganda promising an Islamic paradise on earth.There is more than enough graphic evidence online to counteract even the slickest of ISIS propaganda.Anyone,adult or teenager,who chooses to ignore that and throw in their lot with ISIS deserves whatever they get.The two ‘Austrian girls’ came from Balkan Muslim families who had been granted Austrian citzenship during the Balkan wars. Those two girls chose to reject,renounce and betray the host country which took in their families.
have your say