Internet Resources
- ISIS: CNNEverything you need to know about ISIS from CNN.
- Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)A New York Times landing page on news coverage regarding ISIS.
- What ISIS Really WantsThe Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.
Streaming Media
- Escaping ISISBefore ISIS overran his town in Northern Iraq, Khalil al-Dakhi was a lawyer. But now, he leads an underground railroad that rescues women and children who have been taken captive by ISIS. In Escaping ISIS, a hard-hitting documentary, FRONTLINE delivers a stunning look at the plight of women and children who are Yazidis, a religious minority that have been targeted by ISIS for particularly brutal treatment.
- ISIS: Rise of TerrorMike Wallace interviews Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about his book Bush At War. The book is based on interviews with President Bush and National Security and other White House meetings concerning the early days of the War on Terror.
- Jihad 2.0: ISIS, Terrorism, and Social MediaFor nearly two years, an extraordinary effective terrorist propaganda has been flooding the Internet. Through an unfailing control over social networks and the mass production of ultra-violent footage enhanced by special effects and edited like rap music videos, the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) terrorists have been hammering their hateful message.
- The Rise of ISISInvestigate the miscalculations and mistakes behind the brutal rise of ISIS.
- Women Against ISISIn the war against the Islamic State, the only movement combating the jihadists with any effectiveness on the ground is the Kurdish resistance army. This movement is made up of both men and women fighters forcing back the jihadists and reclaiming the land village by village.
Perspectives
ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror
In ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, American journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan explain how these violent extremists evolved from a nearly defeated Iraqi insurgent group into a jihadi army of international volunteers who behead Western hostages in slickly produced videos and have conquered territory equal to the size of Great Britain. Beginning with the early days of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of ISIS's first incarnation as al-Qaeda in Iraq,' Weiss and Hassan explain the key players and their origins, and how the movement has gained support.'
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS
In Black Flags, an unprecedented character-driven account of the rise of ISIS, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick shows how the zeal of this one man and the strategic mistakes of Presidents Bush and Obama led to the banner of ISIS being raised over huge swaths of Syria and Iraq. Zarqawi began by directing terror attacks from a base in northern Iraq, but it was the American invasion in 2003 that catapulted him to the head of a vast insurgency. By falsely identifying him as the link between Saddam and bin Laden, U.S. officials inadvertently spurred like-minded radicals to rally to his cause. Their wave of brutal beheadings and suicide bombings persisted until American and Jordanian intelligence discovered clues that led to a lethal airstrike on Zarqawi's hideout in 2006. His movement, however, endured. First calling themselves al-Qaeda in Iraq, then Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, his followers sought refuge in unstable, ungoverned pockets on the Iraq-Syria border. When the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, and as the U.S. largely stood by, ISIS seized its chance to pursue Zarqawi's dream of an ultra-conservative Islamic caliphate. Drawing on unique high-level access to CIA and Jordanian sources, Warrick weaves gripping, moment-by-moment operational details with the perspectives of diplomats and spies, generals and heads of state, many of whom foresaw a menace worse than al Qaeda and tried desperately to stop it. Black Flags is a brilliant and definitive history that reveals the long arc of today's most dangerous extremist threat.
ISIS
ISIS covers the history of the terrorist organization and what it stands for, how its leaders recruit more followers, and the importance of understanding the threat this organization poses for the rest of the world. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.