Yesterday, while eating lunch, I received news that journalist Steven Sotloff was killed. Although the mass media was refusing to show the video, within about 20 minutes one of my associate producers managed to find what ISIS released to the world. It begins on a brief and color-distorted image of President Obama saying that the United States would fight ISIS, and then cuts to a shot of Sotloff in almost the exact situation James Clay was in only two weeks ago. As soon as I saw it, shivers went down my spine knowing exactly what would happen.
It has been less than 24 hours since I’ve posted that video to the public. Governments and companies are scared to have it be seen. Despite removing the killing (and only showing the speech ISIS forced Sotloff to give) Youtube actually initially pulled the video down as we had received 800 views in mere minutes. Ultimately, I appealed and was able to get the video back online (which has now gotten 50,000 views overnight), but this along with the content of the video show ISIS’s war with liberty.
What is free speech? How governments and individuals around the world would define it may vary. However, a world with a conscience can agree that forcing someone to speak words and opinions other than their own while holding a knife over them doesn’t fit the bill. In doing this, ISIS really killed Sotloff twice. Firstly, they killed his ability as a human to speak for himself, and then they killed his body. I can only imagine what thoughts ran through his mind as he was forced to speak their words, but I’d prefer not to.
They also destroy freedom simply by virtue of their terror. In releasing a video like this, they force companies (that are otherwise very hesitant to self-censor) to instinctively cut down content. My version of the video, which is posted above and did not include the killing, was cut down nearly instantly for violating their policy “violence.” The people tasked with filtering content at Google are not the enemies of speech, they are simply afraid.
Terror itself is the greatest violation of liberty that the world can produce. Terror can cause the world’s companies and governments to restrict their own freedom for safety, while violating people’s rights to their own lives and the right not to be afraid.
Liberty-lovers tend to live according to the non-aggression principle, which expressly forbids initiating force against any person or their property. If every person in the world lived by this, there’d be no need for governments, or retaliation against violence. The world would be at peace. Some would go so far as to describe governments themselves as a form of force against their citizens, so it draws attention to ISIS’s mission to be the “Islamic State.” If they had their way, they’d be a new government of sorts. One perhaps more deadly and brutal than any other. But fear not, they will not have their way. While I tend to be adamantly non-interventionist, they’ve spilled American blood. Their recent video ended with a threat to the life of a British citizen. Particularly with the anniversary of 9/11 approaching, when they try to terrorize western nations in this sensitive time, they will likely be exterminated. It will come at the cost of many lives that didn’t need to be lost, and many freedoms that shouldn’t have been restricted, but they will be crushed. If the “Islamic State” is at war with liberty as their name implies, then perhaps they will make progress towards that goal. If their war is to dominate the world, then they will win nothing.
Libertarian Home 
“ISIS: Liberty’s Greatest Enemy Today”
Nonsense on stilts! ISIS is at most a tinpot regime ruling precariously over a few middle eastern towns and having zero chance of enduring for more than a few years even there, let alone of threatening liberty (or anything else) in the world at large. They wouldn’t even amount to that, without the immense direct and indirect assistance they have received from the Turkish, Saudi, Israeli, European and American regimes. The existence of the “Islamic State” today is largely a consequence of the evil Western campaign to destroy the peaceful, civilized nation of Syria by (among other crimes) funding, arming and training barbaric terrorists. The Iraqi and Syrian authorities are more than capable of dealing with them without the West’s perverted brand of “help”.
ISIS has been handed a tremendous propaganda victory by the Western media’s reaction to these beheadings. Their motive was certainly to gain publicity and (entirely undeserved) recognition as a serious threat to the “infidels”. And that is exactly what they have been given.
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ISIS indeed seems to be like a group of psychopaths having found a playground for their sadism in the middle east. They are a big problem in the region, no doubt. But they are not the biggest problem to my liberty. The UK, German and US government occupy that role.
You don’t seem ask how these folks could get as far as they got now. The fact of the matter is that ISIS was armed at the beginning by our governments and their allies, particularly Saudi Arabia and Israel, to fight the Assad regime in Syria. They then started to draw support form the Sunni minority in Iraq, which has been suppressed since the US regime changed the Saddam government. Sunnies see them as their only chance to fight back.
ISIS, like pretty much most Islamists draw their Ideology from Wahhabism, the ruling religious doctrine behind the regime in Saudi Arabia. And lets face is, the Islamic state is not really worst then the regime in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is of course our governments best ally next to Israel in the region. They are giving these nutters lots of weapons. Simultaneously our governments have done a great job, fighting every secularist regime in the region. You are missing the point if you think that ISIS is the real thread. The real thread are our governments and their insane foreign policy.
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Not to mention the massive amounts of arms the Jihadists obtained when they took over arms stores in Libya. Supported, funded, given air cover and intelligence by western governments….and we are supposed to believe some bandits in Iraq are the real enemy!
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Yes – Obama and Cameron hypocritically preach about democracy, feign humanitarian motives, and scaremonger about the terrorist menace, all to drum up support for their latest plans to spread chaos and death, while kissing the asses of the Saudi gangster family.
The Saudis are not only among the most repugnant tyrants on the planet, but are also the preeminent sponsors of global terrorism! And they spend fortunes promoting the cancerous ideology of Wahabism. The Saudis are a MUCH greater threat to us than their bastard offspring ISIS.
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Islam is a major problem for the world, and make no mistake – this group is following the example of Mohammed himself.
After all (to give two of so many examples) Mohammed’s reaction to mockery from an old blind poet was to have the man murdered, and when a pregnant female poet (oh yes pre Islamic Arabia had female poets) protested – he simply had her murdered as well.
The Western habit of assuming that all religious leaders taught fundamentally the same things (and that the only problems come from nasty people later “misinterpreting” what these kind and gentle founders taught) is both arrogant and just plain wrong.
Islam is powerful force in the world with many millions of supporters (including in Europe and North America) a distinction must be made between NOMINAL Muslims (people just born into Muslim families) and real followers of Mohammed, but the latter number many millions – and (in much of the of the West) it is in a strange alliance with the left.
Any one who tells the truth about Islam (the things that Winston Churchill and Gladstone … and so on, said so often) is instantly set upon for “islamophobia” – not just by Islamic activists (which should be expected), but by the left as well (the people who basically control the “mainstream” media and much of the education system).
Both the followers of the Red Flag (the Marxists – including the Frankfurt School creators of “Political Correctness” and “Mulitculturalism”) and the followers of the Black Flag (the “libertarian left” – the communal “anarchists” and other such) rush to denounce the West and defend the followers of Mohammed. Although their are some exceptions among the left.
The thinking appears to be “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” – both Islam and the left (both the Red Flag and the Black Flag left) express hatred for “capitalism” and express support for “Social Justice” therefore……..
Therefore NOTHIING – this alliance is more than wicked, it is a tactical mistake.
Neither the Marxists (and fellow travellers) or the Black Flag “anarchists” (who want to rename the state “the people” – and make it even more oppressive than it is now) should ally with Islam – it is a mistake (a blunder).
They regard all religious people as stupid (as easy to manipulate) and they are wrong.
Many followers of Mohammed are not stupid – not stupid at all,
And I suspect that the followers of Mohammed (not the left) will come out on top in this “alliance of convenience” .
It is rare that I give the left (either the followers of the Red Flag or the Black Flag) advice – after all they are my mortal enemies. However, I will give advice in this case – and it is quite sincere.
Listen to those in your own ranks who understand what a terrible threat that Islam really is – a threat to YOU (not just to the “Capitalist West” you aim to destroy) – do not ally with it, but oppose it with every ounce of your being.
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By the way – I am aware of the vital difference between communal “anarchism” (the Black Flag desire to rename the state “the people” and make things even more collectivist than they are now) and anarcho capitalism.
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As others have pointed out, ISIS has been brought into existence through support from countries which are supposedly the allies of the US and UK, such as Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, if not by the governments by wealthy individuals. The US and UK may have trained many of them in places such as Jordan in order to fight against the Syrian government. They may also have provided weapons. There is a picture of John McCain meeting with various Syrian rebel leaders including the head of ISIS. I wonder how the US and UK governments can be so catastrophically stupid over and over again. They have long embroiled themselves with all kinds of Islamic nuts, perhaps thinking they could play them as pawns on a chessboard, such as when the British under Eden tried to use the Muslim Brotherhood to assassinate Nasser (at least that’s what I’ve read). For a more recent example, look at the state of Libya now it is in the hands of the islamist militias, who Britain supported against Gadaffi.
Much as ISIS deserve to be destroyed, the above facts have to be taken into account. Going by the public statements from the British and American governments, they really don’t seem to understand the rules of the game.
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I think the problem is that the various governments thinks they are playing chess, when in fact it’s just a game of Hungry Hippos.
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The argument of interventionists (such as Senator McCain – at least someone who is sincere in his beliefs, tortured for years in Vietnam rather than an armchair interventionists like most necocons). is that the failure to back relatively moderate groups in Syria (such as the Free Syrian Army) left the road open for ISIS.
I think the real difference between myself and someone like John McCain (whom I respect – unlike those young people who laughed when the Obama campaign leaked the fact that Mr McCain “can not even use a computer keyboard”, without knowing that this is because the man’s hands are crippled, not because he is “stupid”). is that he regards “mainstream” Islam as O.K. and I do not (so shouts of “God is Great” do not bother McCain – and they should not IF mainstream Islam is O.K.).
In the Spectator magazine of June 2014 – Innes Bowen confirmed that some mosques teach a “modernised” version of Islam.
The trouble is that this two mosques – out of 1700 mosques in the United Kingdom.
John McCain would reply that it is a much higher proportion in the United States – some 56% of mosques described themselves as teaching a modernised version of Islam.
The difference between myself and Senator McCain – is that he is certain that this “modernised” version of Islam is good (and I think that those 56% of mosques in the United States are not teaching what he thinks they are).
As for Syria – the fact that John McCain thinks he is talking to moderates when he sometimes is not, speaks volumes.
Although an old man (in years) John McCain retains the youthful trait of believing in people – in seeing the world as he wants it to be (seeing people as he wants them to be – rather than as they actually are).
I was born old. I do not have this youthful optimism.
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