LONDON // A disillusioned former member of ISIL passed a stolen memory stick of documents identifying 22,000 supporters in over 50 countries to a British journalist – a leak that could help the West to target extremists planning attacks.
Germany’s federal criminal police said yesterday they had the files, containing personal data on ISIL members, and believed them to be authentic.
“We assume there is a very high probability that they are genuine documents,” said police spokesman Markus Koths.
However, some analysts have cast doubt on their authenticity, pointing out mistakes and uncharacteristic language in the forms.
Alhough the significance of the files has yet to be gauged, they could be the largest treasure trove of documents yet found on ISIL and the most significant leak on its past and present fighters and operations across the Middle East.
It could also help to unmask militants who have threatened more attacks on Europe such as those that killed 130 people in Paris last November.
A man calling himself Abu Hamed, a former member of ISIL who became disillusioned with its leaders, passed the files to Britain’s Sky News on a memory stick he said he had stolen from the head of the group’s internal security force.
On it were enrolment forms containing the names of ISIL supporters and their relatives, telephone numbers, and other details such as the subjects’ areas of expertise and who had recommended them.
It reportedly included information in forms featuring 23 questions that new recruits had to fill out before being accepted into the group.
One of the files, marked “Martyrs”, detailed a group of ISIL members who were trained and willing to carry out suicide attacks, the broadcaster said.
Sky said it had informed the British authorities about the documents, which were passed to its correspondent, Stuart Ramsay, at an undisclosed location in Turkey.
But some leading experts pointed out mistakes and uncharacteristic language in the forms.
“There would be big alarm bells for me, because when I’ve seen inconsistencies like that in the past they’ve been on really shoddily-made forgeries,” said Charlie Winter, a researcher at Georgia State University.
The Arabic name for “The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,” ISIL’s previous nomenclature, was written in two different ways, including one not consistent with past practice.
Files documenting the deaths of ISIL militants use the words “date of killing” instead of the typical jihadist term “martyrdom.”
Romain Caillet, an independent jihadism expert, also noted that some documents featured a second, circular logo not previously used on ISIL files.
Syrian opposition news website Zaman al-Wasl said there were thousands of repetitions in the leaked documents and the names of only 1,700 people could be identified in the 22,000 documents.
But German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said the documents on German suspects wre believed to be authentic and they would help “a better understanding of the structures” of ISIL. He said it would also pave the way for “faster, clearer investigations and higher prison sentences”.
Richard Barrett, formerly a senior figure in Britain’s MI6 overseas intelligence service, said the leak would be “an absolute gold mine of information of enormous significance and interest”.
If genuine, western security experts say, the files could be gold dust because they could help to identify potential attackers and the networks of sympathisers behind them, and give insight on the structure of the group.
They could also shape the campaign against the extremist group, which emerged from Al Qaeda in Iraq. The cache, exposing its members and their families, could undermine its future ability to recruit and inspire would-be members.
* Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
