Tag Archives: Saddam Husayn

Testimony of Abu Ahmad: An Islamic State Defector

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on October 2, 2014

A purported defector from the Islamic State, known only as “Abu Ahmad,” released testimony online on 5 April 2014 via the Syrian opposition news site al-Durar al-Shamiya under the heading, “The Concealed Truths About al-Baghdadi’s State”. Abu Ahmad describes himself as “one of the mujahideen in Khorasan [Afghanistan-Pakistan] and Iraq, and now in al-Sham [Syria],” and it is quite clear that Abu Ahmad has defected to al-Qaeda. On 25 September 2014, an English version of this testimony was posted on the Fund for Fallen Allies website. It has been reposted below—with some editions to transliteration and syntax—to avoid it being lost. Continue reading

Film Review: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on May 18, 2014

Let us stipulate that getting a thing like this correct is basically impossible: there will never be enough time in three hours—the most a film hoping for commercial success can last—to adequately cover in proper detail and nuance the facts of such an inherently complicated and contested period in history. And if effort is made to go even some of the way to doing a proper job on this score, it only underlines all the things that were left out and alienates the section of the audience that has no interest in the history and wants an entertaining movie. Caveats in place …

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