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7 Dec, 2015 16:44

Islamic State’s leaked nation-building plans show 'only Sunni forces' can beat them - general

Islamic State’s leaked nation-building plans show 'only Sunni forces' can beat them - general

Jihadists’ plans to build a functioning national infrastructure have been acquired by a UK newspaper, revealing the bureaucratic blueprint behind the deadly public face of Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The 24-page document, a copy of which has been acquired by the Guardian newspaper, contains details of ISIS’s plans for a fully-functioning future state – including government departments, a treasury and an economic system.

There will be department for foreign relations, an information department and a centralized command economy.

The plans, set out between July and October 2014, feature in a document entitled: “Principles in the administration of the Islamic State.”

As well as covering the more mundane administrative aspects of the planned nation, the document also details ideas for training military fighters in the latest weapons and tactics.

Cultural issues are also covered. The papers say the Islamic State must be able to combine people of different background, both foreigners and natives, into a cohesive Islamic society.

The report came from an unidentified businessman working with ISIS who has leaked a number of documents in the recent period.

Stanley McChrystal, who led US forces in Iraq from 2006 to 2008, told The Guardian: “If the west sees ISIS as an almost stereotypical band of psychopathic killers, we risk dramatically underestimating them.

He told The Guardian that ISIS’s activity reflected that of rebel movements in the past.

It’s not a big departure from the works of Mao, the practices of the Viet Minh in Indochina, or other movements for whom high-profile actions were really just the tip of a far more nuanced iceberg of organizing activity,” he told The Guardian.

General Graeme Lamb, former head of UK Special Forces, told the newspaper that the documents showed only a local Sunni force could hope to break ISIS.

It must be led by the Sunni Arab leadership and its many tribes across the region, with us in the west and the other religious factions in the Middle East acting in support.

It is not currently how we are shaping the present counter-ISIS campaign, thereby setting ourselves up for potential failure,” he said.

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