Where’s the Coverage? Twenty-Nine German Soldiers Join ISIS

Twenty-nine former German Army soldiers have joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a U.S.-designated terrorist group, according to a German military intelligence report.

Legal Insurrection, an online blog that focuses on antisemitism, legal and political issues, reported that the German military also is investigating “65 suspected jihadists serving as active duty German soldiers (“German Army alarmed at growing Islamist infiltration, as 29 ex-soldiers join ISIS,” April 14, 2016).”

Legal Insurrection noted that according to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, “since 2007 German Military Counter-Intelligence Agency (MAD) has investigated 320 active duty soldiers for having suspected links to Jihadist circles. The newspaper also confirmed that until recently no background checks were done on soldiers handling combat equipment. The screening was only limited to soldiers accessing classified materials.”

An estimated 700 Germans have left to join ISIS, 100 of them women. Legal Insurrection said that approximately 800 jihadists have returned or attempted to return to Germany from the battlefields of Iraq and Syria. Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, has claimed that there has been a “sharp increase” in the number of women under 25 leaving the country to join ISIS.

The reports of members of the German military joining ISIS come after an increase in terrorist attacks on the European continent.

Yet, major U.S. print news outlets largely failed to note reports of German soldiers either defecting or deceiving a country that is a key American ally and NATO leader—after receiving advanced military training from that ally.

A Lexis-Nexis search of USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times showed no mention of the report of jihadist infiltration of the Germany military.

However, in a three paragraph brief, The Washington Times (“Military proposes ways to weed out jihadis,” April 18, 2016) informed its print readers that “German counterintelligence officials believe at least 29 former soldiers from the country have left to join the Islamic State…Since 2007, as many as 22 German soldiers have been identified as Islamists and 17 have been fired, the DPA [German news agency] report said.”

Legal Insurrection said, “The infiltration of German and other NATO militaries is part of a well laid out plan by the Islamic State. Islamic State has been urging potential recruits in Europe to get military training before heading to Iran and Syria.”

Islamist terror groups previously have used knowledge and skills they picked up from the U.S. military. Ali Mohamed, one of the founding members of al-Qaeda, the U.S.-designated terror group that among other acts perpetrated the Sept. 11 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, was a member of the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In his 2006 book, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, author Lawrence Wright noted that Mohamed wrote terrorist training guides for al-Qaeda, imparting skills he learned from the U.S. Army and elsewhere [Mohamed was a member of the Egyptian Army prior to serving in the U.S. Army] to al-Qaeda. Mohamed’s influence extended to the top of the terror network, including its founder Osama bin Laden. Former FBI Special Agent Jack Cloonan called Mohamed “[Osama] bin Laden’s first trainer…He taught bin Laden (“The Torture Question: Interview with Jack Cloonan,” PBS Frontline, Oct. 18, 2005).”

Whether the ISIS members who defected from the German army will have the sort of influence of Ali Mohamed is an open question—one that many in the news media are failing to ask or even report. Where’s the coverage?