“We are extracting confidential data, and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!” As this article notes, they’re trying to inspire more lone wolf jihad attacks by individual Muslims — and because of the power of their claim to reconstitute the caliphate, they probably will. And in the aftermath of those attacks, U.S. law enforcement officials and the mainstream media will once again scratch their heads and wonder what the motive could possibly be.
“Purported ISIS militants post list of 1,400 U.S. ‘targets,'” by Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, CNN, August 14, 2015 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
(CNN) — A group calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Division this week posted online a purported list of names and contacts for Americans it refers to as “targets,” according to officials.
Though the legitimacy of the list is questionable, and much of the information it contains is outdated, the message claims to provide the phone numbers, locations, and “passwords” for 1,400 American government and military personnel as well as purported credit card numbers, and excerpts of some Facebook chats.
“We are extracting confidential data,” the message says, “and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!”
Many of the phone numbers and email addresses on the list were not in service, when tested by CNN. But one person on the list, reached by phone, confirmed that he had previously served in the U.S. military. He asked not to be named, but said he had recently been notified by the Pentagon that his name and personal information were on the list. Another, reached by email, confirmed that she was a government employee who has been warned by the military about being on the list.
Several online terror trackers were unable to confirm whether the list actually came from ISIS. The FBI and Pentagon both say they are investigating….
The group calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Division has once previously put out a list of around 100 purported names, with personal information, saying they were American military personnel.
Matthew Levitt, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, believes that those posting these lists are trying to spark lone-wolf style attacks in the United States like the ones in Garland, Texas, and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in recent months.
“Even if this is not so advanced,” he said, “they are continuing that message: You don’t have to come to Syria and Iraq, you can stay where you are, do something where you are.”
“It also does really freak out U.S. government military and law enforcement personnel,” he said. “It certainly does create a further sense of threat.”