Enlisting With the Islamic State

The briefing paper was received by Indonesia's National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) in November last year. Sent by a high-ranking military official from a Middle Eastern country, it warned that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)now called the Islamic State (IS)would soon reach Indonesia. "They reminded us that we have to be cautious," BNPT chief Ansyaad Mbai said on Monday last week.

According to the message's sender, Ansyaad said, IS was going to become an international terrorist movement even worse than Al-Qaeda, the organization accused of involvement in a series of terror attacks in many countries. IS opposes anyone who does not line up with them. Their followers in Egypt, for instance, attacked a police headquarters there.

August 19, 2014