Does ISIS Have Four Nukes?

Posted on by

The following video and text don’t supply an answer to that question.

The author of the text (which is in German) is purportedly a former member of the Islamic State who wants to warn the West that ISIS possesses four nuclear devices, and plans to use them against the United States, Russia, France, and Germany. What he says may well be a hoax, or more specifically, deliberately planted disinformation to achieve particular political ends. I can think of several Great Powers who would find it useful to disseminate the fiction that ISIS is ready to use nuclear weapons.

However, it could also be true. If it is, you may be sure that the intelligence services of Russia and the major Western powers are well aware of it. As the ISIS defector points out, the West has moles inside the highest levels of the Caliphate.

Before making this video, Vlad and I discussed the pros and cons of whether we should publish this material. After all, it serves the propaganda interests of the Islamic State to have this sort of thing disseminated. On the other hand, if it turns out to be true, and a mushroom cloud were to light up Berlin or Paris next week, we would have been remiss not to have put the information out.

So here it is, but with a huge CAVEAT: We have no idea whether the information given in this video and text is authentic. Listen to it or read it, and make your own best judgment.

The video and pdf were originally published by Netzplanet, which is also unable to confirm the authenticity of the story.

The text read out in the video and the text of the pdf are the same. Many thanks to Nash Montana for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

0:00   I am an ex-IS member, and it was the biggest mistake I ever made,
0:05   to let myself be manipulated and to do things I never really wanted to.
0:10   I had to sneak from place to place for weeks.
0:13   Until I made it across the Turkish border.
0:17   I do not ask for forgiveness with this letter,
0:20   I want to bring the truth to the public about this situation that will get worse and worse,
0:24   if nothing is done.
0:28   I also do not want to go to prison for what I have done.
0:34   I am Sallah Abdeslam. I hope that with this letter that you, the press,
0:39   will show the truth in the open, because the people out there need to know the truth,
0:44   and they have a right to it.
0:47   Maybe this will help to prevent the coming war this year.
0:52   Because in the eyes of the Islamic State 2016 will be the official beginning of the Third World War.
0:59   And all will suffer from the consequences.
1:04   The IS is in possession of four nuclear warheads,
1:08   three of the type W25, and one of the type W89.
1:13   I have seen them. One is for the USA, one for Germany,
1:19   one for France, and one for Russia.
1:22   As for the IS numbers:
1:25   There are now more than 135,000 IS members,
1:30   ca. 65,000 are spread in Syria and protect the partially hidden weapons depots,
1:36   fighting on the fronts, and holding certain control points which are strategically important
1:42   for the smuggling of crude oil and the shipping of weapons.
1:47   As for the members in Europe:
1:51   In France there are about 2,800 terror cells of the IS spread
1:55   around the regions of Paris, Courbevoie and Bobigny.
2:00   In England there are about 650 terror cells, because it was a lot harder to enter there.
2:06   The terror cells are in London and Harrow and partially disguised as students.
2:13   In Sweden there are about 1,600 terror cells of the IS, spread in Stockholm,
2:18   Täby, Älta and Solna.
2:21   Germany has the most IS terror cells, a little more than 18,700,
2:29   growing from day to day, and of which 15 are strategists of the IS in
2:34   Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg.
2:37   Even in world culture cities like Hildesheim, Bambert and Lübeck
2:42   attacks will happen, precisely because of their medieval history and structures.
2:48   Lübeck especially is a coveted target for at least six attacks.
2:53   The inner city is planned to be completely taken over, that’s why
2:57   all bridges are targeted to be blown up so that nobody can get in or out anymore.
3:02   The churches are also to be destroyed,
3:06   and that’s where a lot of the sleeper cells of the IS are.
3:09   Nobody expects that a small city such as Lübeck should be the focus of attention.
3:15   These countries are the ones I know of, but I also know of Spain, Italy, Russia, Holland,
3:21   Denmark, Finland and Norway, but not which cities and how many there are.
3:28   I couldn’t look at and photograph the numbers and the cities of these countries anymore.
3:34   The attacks will be executed very rapidly in successive explosions,
3:39   first the bridges, then the churches.
3:42   The weapons and the explosives were smuggled into the various cities months ago.
3:47   Additionally I have information about a man whom the IS calls Shabh, the man in the picture
3:54   Shabh has a bounty set on his head by the Caliph.
3:59   He offers two million dollars for the head of this assassin.
4:04   It appears this man was sent by US intelligence specifically to
4:09   silence certain strategists and leaders.
4:12   Which he has up to now done very well.
4:15   He has killed more than 400 IS members so far.
4:18   Shabh has his own signature and always appears at places where
4:22   there aren’t currently any air strikes.
4:25   Because wherever there are air strikes, the most important strategists and leading persons
4:31   will go and hide in the most secluded places, which he always seems to already know the location of.
4:38   Additionally he has only been seen once, he was recorded on camera
4:43   as he was assassinating an entire group of Al Qaeda terror cells in one house.
4:49   Since then his picture has been distributed everywhere.
4:53   Shabh has caused a huge stir among the IS members,
4:57   because he was the one who executed Mokhtar Belmokhtar with two bullets to the head.
5:03   That was 2013 in Yemen.
5:06   Mokhtar keeps getting resurrected over and over. Why?
5:10   Easy. It is a common practice to film leading persons as much as possible
5:17   before their death, so the enemy can be confused,
5:23   that’s what IS does.
5:26   The public is supposed to be confused by these propaganda videos
5:31   and it leaves the impression that attacks have failed, which will lead
5:35   to an increased fear among the populations. Shabh disappeared in July 2014 and has since not been seen since.
5:41   He seems to have gone underground.
5:44   There are rumors that he has been seen in England, Sweden,
5:47   and Germany where he locates and deactivates terror cells.
5:54   That’s why most members know what he looks like,
5:58   because his picture went through all channels that the IS is using,
6:01   and let’s be honest, two million dollars sounds very tempting and
6:05   it keeps spurring on all the supporters and the Salafists in Europe
6:09   to always keep their eyes open.
6:12   That’s why there are so many reports of sightings of him from Germany,
6:16   that he’s in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hildesheim and Lübeck,
6:20   that he has been seen multiple times but he cannot be seized.
6:23   Just imagine all the knowledge and information this man possesses
6:28   of various intelligence, about the structures, the safe houses in which
6:35   terror suspects are interrogated and tortured,
6:38   about the means of strategic weapons, strategic points and money resources
6:44   which don’t show up on databases.
6:47   All that could be learned from Shabh if he was kidnapped and tortured.
6:52   And the IS is very good at torturing.
6:56   Whoever gave the Caliph the dossier on Shabh
7:00   has to be a mole in one of the administrations.
7:04   Shabh, as far as I can tell, is a manipulated soldier who has been bred
7:10   and pumped full with drugs and mind control, and he’s not even an American.
7:18   Which is something that perfectly suits the Americans, so they can deny it.
7:24   I have sent you a PDF file on which I have photographed certain
7:29   documents and pictures.
7:33   Maybe you can save Shabh, because in my eyes he has not committed murder,
7:37   but he has sent to hell some of the worst people that I have ever known
7:41   and deeply detest.
7:45   I hope that I will never meet him because I know what he does to his victims.
7:51   I will pray to Allah that I can prevent this war,
7:55   and I hope that everybody who gets this message,
7:59   will take it seriously.
8:02   I am deeply sorry and I know that I can’t undo anything,
8:06   but I hope that the faith of humans is not submitted to the psychopathic beliefs
8:11   of this sick ideology.
8:15   You shouldn’t underestimate the strength of the IS,
8:18   because they are not a group anymore,
8:21   they are a huge army with incredibly large resources,
8:25   a lot of money and many militaristic weapons, rockets, armored tanks,
8:30   surface-to-air missiles, atomic and chemical weapons
8:34   and the support of a few Saudi Arabians who possess a lot of political power.
8:41   I am sending this email to all the media that I know
8:44   in the hope that it will be taken seriously.
8:47   The PDF with this text and the photos you can download from the video.
 

30 thoughts on “Does ISIS Have Four Nukes?”

      • It would be pretty hard to smuggle those test units out of the US. Each would weight a few hundred lbs. Plus they would be bulky and set off radiation sensors. In addition, the NNSA would not let the most advance warhead fall into any foreign entity. In any case, if such a device was to fall into a foreign entity, such an would mostly likely be PRC or Russia. Regardless of how wealthy IS is, both Russia or the PRC have more cash and are more willing to spend them on such an item.

        • If they did actually have the designated warheads, the only logical explanation of how they could acquire them would be for the US gov’t to give them the war heads, or pass them on though some dirty dealings as part of some obscure elaborate scheme to play both sides. Extremely far fetched so probably best to shave with Occam’s razor and assume its a hoax.

          • Yes, that’s more or less the conclusion I came to. But the question is: whose hoax? This is not just some prankster having a little fun. The hoax was created for a specific reason.

          • I’m not convinced it has a purpose other than someone’s “art piece” idea of entertainment. I’m expecting another “episode” where the techno-engineered super assassin shows up somewhere else doing something else. It may conclude with the release of someone’s indie film.

          • Perhaps we can revive the old joke that Cheney knew Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, because he sold them!

  2. There is something peculiar about the narration, and I think I have figured out what it is.

    Note that beginning at about 2:00 there are anomalies in the pronunciation; e.g. the syllables immediately following “In England”. The stop-and-go pace of the narration reminds me of cartoon-making software that allows you to write a script and have it narrated by cartoon characters you specify. You can choose the sex and accent of each cartoon character. The dialog of your script is pronounced by the character, but the software is not quite good enough to duplicate the pacing and intonation of natural speech. Here’s an example:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQPJwpBtWNY
    A year or two ago, I saw many such cartoons with computer-generated animation and narration, some of them quite well written, but not lately.

    Probably the German text was spoken not by any human, but by this text-to-voice software. Thus the speaker cannot be identified.

    P.S. In the course of researching this, I found
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cep0Sd2zHEM
    The narration here seems to be by real people, not generated by computer (specifying southern U.S. accents), but (counter)jihadis will enjoy analyzing its content (e.g., Quran 5:32 is for Jews; 5:33 is for Muslims).

        • Since I’ve done the translation, I’ve come to the conclusion that the voice in the video belongs to Christian Brückner who is a very famous voice-over speaker in Germany.

          There are too many to name, but these actors who lend their voices to American actors in synchronized movies, are well known by their voices and it’s an entire separate branch in acting: lending your voice to the German speaking Robert De Niro or Sean Connery, etc.

          The voice sounded so familiar to me in the video that I actually dug up my old Karl May vinyl records of “Winnetou & Old Shatterhand”, and sure enough, after putting on the first record on my record player, and listening to Old Shatterhand speak, I knew right away that I struck gold, it was the same voice of one Christian Brückner.

          I then found out that this actor and others have over the years lent their voices for text to speak computer programs.

          I mean, I knew from the get go that the voice is a computer text to speak voice because of the awkward pauses in the middle of a sentence, but now I know WHO the voice is.

          I didn’t mean to hold out on you, Baron and Vlad, I just now made this discovery.

          • Darn it I’m sorry I wrote the wrong name, Klaus Sonnenschein is the speakers name. Not Christian Brückner. Sorry I got confused because both of them are very famous speakers for famous American actors, and hundreds of children’s stories recordings.

  3. Could be a real German speaker, I met a chap once who sounds like that. Fritz von Schpeekundschpell we called him.

    The contents of the video are pretty absurd though.

  4. Of course any Islamisist with money and connections could get weapon designs and instructions from Pakistan’s AQ Khan. Acquiring the enriched material, building and maintaining one or more devices seems to be a lofty goal that wouldn’t likely escape the eyes and ears of western intelligence agents. Transporting the unit into the US thru traditional routes would be difficult, as radiation portal monitors are in operation at each port of entry, but the somewhat porous southern border offers opportunities. It seems Europe no longer has border controls so I would see nothing preventing a jihadi from reaching his target.

  6. As a piece of propaganda, it doesn’t do a great job. What does it tell us that we didn’t already suspect? It seems to be ‘written’ by someone who may be what he claims to be – a person who went to fight for ISIS and soon developed buyer’s remorse – as many have.

    He has heard much on the grapevine and got some of the information wrong – like the W 89. Had he wanted to seem more credible (by doing a one minute google search), he could have said ‘W 88’, or named an old Soviet warhead. We know after the collapse of the SU that weapons were stolen and traded into the ME (and everywhere else.)

    None of the ISIS plans (wishes) seemed far-fetched. In fact it is more surprising that they have not already taken place!

    Let’s not forget the 20th century, when hell came to earth. I can see little difference between ISIS and the Gestapo, the SS or Stalin’s murderers. The USA did drop two nuclear warheads. Then, as now, we were betrayed by our governments (read Diana West) and by the capitalists, like Soros, who cared only for profit and be damned to the welfare of the masses.

    What has changed? We are facing another 120 million dead – more if the nuclear warheads are used.

    • ” Then, as now, we were betrayed by our governments (read Diana West) and by the capitalists, like Soros, who cared only for profit and be damned to the welfare of the masses.”

      Let me make a little observation on that.

      It’s true that an amoral company owner can do some pretty horrible things. But, the capitalist, almost by definition, has an investment in a functioning community.

      George Soros made his money not through any productive contribution, but through currency manipulations. Similarly, the bankers of the EU make their huge profits not from any productive contribution, but from brokering the subsidies and loans that are made necessary by the ill-begotten decision to have a common currency among the countries of Europe.

      As usual, the greatest wealth is gathered (not produced) by capturing the governing apparatus, and enforcing a counter-productive uniformity. The United States Federal Reserve is another example: for the convenience of a national banking system, the currency is essentially a private monopoly enforced by the government.

      I’m trying to make the point that real capitalists like Donald Trump have a vested interest in distinct communities, while the currency manipulators and international loan brokers have extraordinary power, but no commitment, professional or personal, to any functioning country or community.

      The real irony is that with the availability of computers and instantly-networked information, the net benefits of an enforced common currency, even under the best circumstances, approach zero.

      I’m objecting to the lumping together of people like Donald Trump and George Soros, who are in fact light-years apart.

      • That’s the best summation of the argument against the current habits of banksters that I’ve seen. They make nothing, they are the source of no creation.

        On the other hand, if they comprehend the creative purpose of money accumulation – i.e., to promote authentic scientific and technological endeavor, and to add value to community infrastructure (all of which can be done while still making a reasonable profit), then entrepreneurs add crucial value to a community.

        See the Israeli site, No Camels, for what I mean. Their optimism is infectious.When the bloody world of Islam is too much to bear, here’s where I go to get my booster shot of optimism:

        http://nocamels.com/2016/01/agtech-edenshield-bugs-pesticide-free/

        And here’s one from 4 years ago…

        http://nocamels.com/2012/09/israelis-asked-to-transform-indias-antiquated-cow-farms/

        The thing I like about the cow venture is that it took into full account the need Indian dairy farmers have to take care of old “unproductive” cows. In the West, they would become food for some group or other. But in India, they are part of the cycling of birth/death/rebirth.

        The Israelis took their own deep experience with kibbutz life to make the dairies communal, thus freeing up the farmers’ time and assets while deepening community ties…
        ———————————-

        When the news is all to ugly to endure, visit No Camels. (If you’re an anti-semite, don’t go there. The good news WON’T cheer you at all.)

        Like Denmark, Israel is a good news kinda place, despite the constant outsider-induced turmoil.

        Which led me to thinking about California’s water woes. Remembering that Israel had been asked to come in and help, I went looking for the details. I never thought I’d link a Think Progress(ive) page, but here it is:

        http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/06/3369351/california-israel-water-desalination-security/

        But Business Insider rained big time on this project:

        http://www.businessinsider.com/israel-style-methods-arent-going-to-solve-californias-devastating-drought-2015-6

        Southern California is a semi-arid environment that wants to live like it’s part of the rain forest. With all those fantasy-making movie stars & the attendant industries, they refuse to face the reality and plan(t) accordingly.

        OTOH, Israel always knew they had a lot of desert to contend with. And Jews being the hard-headed realists that history has made them, they proceeded to build work-arounds that made the desert bloom. Islam creates deserts – e.g., the once-upon-a-time “breadbasket of the Med”, Egypt, has been desertified by the destructive habits of goat herders from Arabia…that complex, sophisticated irrigation system which harnessed the Nile was carelessly destroyed by desert tribes. Those folk understand deserts. They LIKE them…wherever Islam arises, prosperity dies.

  7. Big difference between having a nuke and detonating it. But if they ever got one they could use it as a dirty bomb by taking out the fissile material and blowing it up.

  9. In defense of the probable credibility of this video (Which is still dubious at best) I’ll say that the person might not be acquainted/not know about bomb models, he may be writing from vague memories and not remember the specific “names” correctly, etc…

    Still, I hope this is a hoax…

  10. I think this is a random hoax that probably has no purpose other than to see who and how many will buy into it, or how “viral” it will go. Too much of it sounds like something stolen from the script of a Jason Bourne movie. To complete the effect, a known German movie industry voice actor’s voice is used.

    Perhaps someone is just hoping for a career in the movie industry?

  11. Lawrence Livermore National Lab staff have previously hinted in the press that LLNL was considering a design entry based on the tested but never deployed W89 design.

    The design was cancelled in September 1991 along with the SRAM II missile, prior to production of any units, though some test devices may have been manufactured.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W89

  12. It is very very unlikely that Islamic State has a nuclear bomb. But it could be possible that they have acquired some radioactive material. The former Soviet States that are predominately muslim have previously hosted a nuclear arsenal. It is not impossible that a sympathizer in one of these countries may have passed on some radioactive material to IS. Security around these facilities has long been know to be weak. That being the case the “dirty bomb” scenario is plausible, where the aim is not a blast but contamination and panic.

  13. Thank you gates for publishing this. Hoax or not this information is (in its own way) educational because it portrays the growing threat of Islamic aggression. Whether IS or Pakistan or Iran has nuclear capability is not the issue. Global Islamic aggression is the issue. I found the information on sleeper cells more disturbing than anything else. Islam is becoming the “enemy within” everywhere.

Comments are closed.