Adept, Audacious Terrorism

"O Kuffar in America, O You who worship the cross, O You crusaders that fight the Islamic State, we say to you: DIE IN YOUR RAGE!"
Islamic State Hacking Division

"We have made it easy for you by giving you addresses, all you need to do is take the final step, so what are you waiting for?"
"Kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking that they are safe."
Islamic State

AFP/Getty Images   A group claiming to be affiliated with ISIS released a "hit list" of U.S. military personnel, including names and addresses over the weekend. The Pentagon has reached out to the families.

To some their overwrought colourful messages of revenge against the Infidel aggressors who malign Islam should be shrugged off as flamboyant ramblings of religious cranks. If it were not for their reviled and fear-inspiring actions. To their followers they represent the invitation to work up the inner courage to act on behalf of Islam, to prove their faith, to dedicate themselves to the jihad that demands the ultimate sacrifice that they should be more than willing to meet in martyrdom.

And this is precisely what led two Canadian converts to Islam to act in October of 2014, representing two successes that Islamic State is proud to claim as their very own. When two Canadian military men were killed as acts of jihadist revenge against a country which has committed itself to becoming involved in an international military campaign resolved to weaken ISIL and eventually entirely degrade both its message and its success on the battlefield in its expanding caliphate.

These so-called 'lone-wolf' attacks are the medium now by which the most ferocious Islamist groups feel they can appeal to foreign Islamists, to act as urban Islamist guerrillas in attacking the symbols of their countries' militaries. Sending the message that what they commit to abroad will come home to haunt them in the stalking death of members of their military in the very places where they feel they are most protected. It is why the Canadian military command reacted by advising their members to avoid wearing their uniforms in public.

Now the Islamic State is exulting in its latest coup, the publicaiton of names, addresses and personal information of one hundred American members of the U.S. military. With instructions to the faithful to emulate the attacks in Canada, in Australia and in Britain against defenceless citizens and members of the military alike. When earlier this year hackers identifying as the CyberCaliphate took control of the U.S. Central Command Twitter account posting jihadist images and threatening personnel, it was shrugged off as a cyber feat of little importance.

There is "a pretty significant difference between a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account", scoffed a White House spkesperson at the time. Although one mightn't think so, given that the breach represented the account of the U.S. Central Command, after all; hugely significant and highly concerning. But a matter to be downplayed, needless to say, to ensure that there would be no panic expressed by the public that what might be considered the most secure sites are not necessarily so.

Now, Islamic State hackers claim to have cyber-raided the secure files of the U.S. military itself to enable them to publish names, photographs, personal information and addresses from government computers. The propaganda value of this latest episode in the annals of Islamic State public relations and recruitment cannot be overstated. This, on top of its videos of beheadings, mass slaughter, immolation, and its formidable reputation for exulting in the worst kinds of human rights abuses legitimately adds to its reputation as a force representing horrendously primitive sadism.