The ISIS Emni: the Origins and Inner Workings of ISIS’s Intelligence Apparatus

This article, relying primarily on first person accounts of actual ISIS defectors, expands upon the work of investigative journalist Christoph Reuter of Der Spiegel (Hamburg, GFR) who first reported on the discovery of the files of Haji Bakr, one of the Iraqi organizers of the ISIS’s Emni in the years when preparations for the Islamic State were made. Bakr’s files make clear that ISIS is not just a terrorist organization, but was set up by former Baathist state intel operators with the intent to build a new state. Our interviews also confirm data collected by New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi. Together, these three sources utilized and analyzed here shed light on the highly subversive activities undertaken by the Emni on behalf of the ‘Islamic State’, also outlining ISIS’s aspirations to attack the West.