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| Islamic State document leak could offer up vignettes but not key secrets | Islamic State document leak could offer up vignettes but not key secrets |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| If there is one thing that Islamic State does well, it is book-keeping. Since 2013, when the terror group first raised its flag in Syria, and throughout its earlier incarnations, Isis has kept detailed records of most of its assets and its people. | If there is one thing that Islamic State does well, it is book-keeping. Since 2013, when the terror group first raised its flag in Syria, and throughout its earlier incarnations, Isis has kept detailed records of most of its assets and its people. |
| Methods have been time-worn. For those who have travelled to join the group bare details are recorded either in handwriting or on a basic computer document: name (often a nom de guerre), origin, age and, increasingly, when they were killed. Such data is kept by administrators across the so-called caliphate. Some of it is also centrally stored. | Methods have been time-worn. For those who have travelled to join the group bare details are recorded either in handwriting or on a basic computer document: name (often a nom de guerre), origin, age and, increasingly, when they were killed. Such data is kept by administrators across the so-called caliphate. Some of it is also centrally stored. |
| Related: Isis document leak reportedly reveals identities of 22,000 recruits | Related: Isis document leak reportedly reveals identities of 22,000 recruits |
| When towns and cities have fallen out of Isis control – Tikrit, Ramadi, Sinjar – long lists of foreigners’ names have been seized; some by Iraqi officials and others by scavengers who have quickly sensed their value. | When towns and cities have fallen out of Isis control – Tikrit, Ramadi, Sinjar – long lists of foreigners’ names have been seized; some by Iraqi officials and others by scavengers who have quickly sensed their value. |
| In the past two years, the Guardian has spoken with three people who have had access to similar lists to those obtained by Sky News this week. They contained ostensibly detailed and accurate lists of fighters who had operated, and often died, in the surrounding area – more or less human resources files, which helped the group’s leaders make decisions about manpower and deployments. They were not nearly as important as the whereabouts of the group’s leaders and weapons, the details of which are not kept electronically. | In the past two years, the Guardian has spoken with three people who have had access to similar lists to those obtained by Sky News this week. They contained ostensibly detailed and accurate lists of fighters who had operated, and often died, in the surrounding area – more or less human resources files, which helped the group’s leaders make decisions about manpower and deployments. They were not nearly as important as the whereabouts of the group’s leaders and weapons, the details of which are not kept electronically. |
| Others, however, saw a different use for them. Aware that the US and Europe were in the market for details about the Isis rank and file, entrepreneurial types tried to sell them, or use them as leverage to flee Iraq or Syria. Some of the documents were duplicated, others used the same names multiple times to make caches look more exhaustive than they are. Names that had been etched into the European psyche stood out, and were used to established bona fides. | Others, however, saw a different use for them. Aware that the US and Europe were in the market for details about the Isis rank and file, entrepreneurial types tried to sell them, or use them as leverage to flee Iraq or Syria. Some of the documents were duplicated, others used the same names multiple times to make caches look more exhaustive than they are. Names that had been etched into the European psyche stood out, and were used to established bona fides. |
| Several former Isis members and residents of areas under the group’s control have been able to pass them to foreign governments and successfully fled Syria, without having to brave the Mediterranean or the overland migrant route to Europe. Some of the documents touted in the past have been clearly forged. | |
| Others contain oddities that are difficult to explain. In some cases text is written left to right, instead of right to left as is custom when writing Arabic script. Logos are sometimes misspelt. The choice of some language is odd. Dates don’t always correspond. | |
| Despite the anomalies, intelligence agencies are confident that the latest cache does not contain material that is substantially wrong. The drip feed of data is already being used to corroborate records that various governments had spent the past two years assembling. Britain, France, Germany and Australia, among others, have compiled precise lists of nationals who have travelled to Syria or Iraq. A senior intelligence chief from one such state told the Guardian last week that the biographical details and broad whereabouts of every citizen who had fled were known with near certainty. | |
| Nevertheless, the chance to wade through 22,000 documents in total could still offer up vignettes and perhaps evidence of people who had slipped the intelligence dragnet. | |
| Isis’s efficiency may have provided a census. But it has not given up its most important “state” secrets. | |
| When towns and cities have fallen out of Isis control – Tikrit, Ramadi, Sinjar – long lists of foreigners’ names have been seized; some by Iraqi officials and others by scavengers who have quickly sensed their value. | |
| In the past two years, the Guardian has spoken with three people who have had access to similar lists to those obtained by Sky News this week. They contained ostensibly detailed and accurate lists of fighters who had operated, and often died, in the surrounding area – more or less human resources files, which helped the group’s leaders make decisions about manpower and deployments. They were not nearly as important as the whereabouts of the group’s leaders and weapons, the details of which are not kept electronically. | |
| Others, however, saw a different use for them. Aware that the US and Europe were in the market for details about the Isis rank and file, entrepreneurial types tried to sell them, or use them as leverage to flee Iraq or Syria. Some of the documents were duplicated, others used the same names multiple times to make caches look more exhaustive than they are. Names that had been etched into the European psyche stood out, and were used to established bona fides. | |
| Several former Isis members and residents of areas under the group’s control have been able to pass them to foreign governments and successfully fled Syria, without having to brave the Mediterranean or the overland migrant route to Europe. Some of the documents touted in the past have been clearly forged. | |
| Others contain oddities that are difficult to explain. In some cases text is written left to right, instead of right to left as is custom when writing Arabic script. Logos are sometimes misspelt. The choice of some language is odd. Dates don’t always correspond. | |
| Despite the anomalies, intelligence agencies are confident that the latest cache does not contain material that is substantially wrong. The drip feed of data is already being used to corroborate records that various governments had spent the past two years assembling. Britain, France, Germany and Australia, among others, have compiled precise lists of nationals who have travelled to Syria or Iraq. A senior intelligence chief from one such state told the Guardian last week that the biographical details and broad whereabouts of every citizen who had fled were known with near certainty. | Despite the anomalies, intelligence agencies are confident that the latest cache does not contain material that is substantially wrong. The drip feed of data is already being used to corroborate records that various governments had spent the past two years assembling. Britain, France, Germany and Australia, among others, have compiled precise lists of nationals who have travelled to Syria or Iraq. A senior intelligence chief from one such state told the Guardian last week that the biographical details and broad whereabouts of every citizen who had fled were known with near certainty. |
| Nevertheless, the chance to wade through 22,000 documents in total could still offer up vignettes and perhaps evidence of people who had slipped the intelligence dragnet. | Nevertheless, the chance to wade through 22,000 documents in total could still offer up vignettes and perhaps evidence of people who had slipped the intelligence dragnet. |
| Isis’s efficiency may have provided a census. But it has not given up its most important “state” secrets. | Isis’s efficiency may have provided a census. But it has not given up its most important “state” secrets. |