A wider threat: We're paying the price of ignoring Seven Sotloff's early warnings on ISIS - opinion

I vividly remember that catastrophic day, when the world watched in horror as a masked man with an English accent, dressed in black, beheaded a young man kneeling in an orange jumpsuit on live international television.

The execution occurred in a Syrian desert, accompanied by a message to the United States: “Back off and leave our people alone.” ISIS sought to establish a caliphate, vowing to eliminate anyone who stood in its way.

On September 2, 2014, the Miami native was executed by ISIS. The brilliant 31-year-old journalist had traced the rise of jihadi forces in Syria and Iraq, the emergence of al-Qaida, the Al-Nusra Front, and the Islamic State. He documented the early growth of the Islamic State caliphate and the threats it posed to the West.

Just last week, headlines reported: “At least 7 soldiers injured in a raid with Iraqi forces that killed 15 ISIS fighters.”

For those who believe ISIS has been defeated, think again. Though weakened, the terrorist group remains active in Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, and Iraq, among other places.

Anthony H. Cordesman wrote for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2020, “All the foreign terrorist movements the US has targeted have survived or mutated into different organizations with different names. Worse, if one goes back to 9/11, none of the fundamental causes which keep extremist and terrorist movements alive—and generate new threats—have been reduced.”

It’s hard to believe that while the US sends humanitarian aid via the UN propping up the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, it is simultaneously trying to prevent the resurgence of ISIS.

The ideology of ISIS

The US must realize that ISIS is an ideology. You can’t eradicate an ideology without dismantling its leadership and reeducating its brainwashed followers.

What is clear is that ISIS has gained traction in several regions over the past decade, despite the US’s earlier claims that the Salafi jihadist group had been broken.

According to the Washington Institute, which launched the Islamic State Select Worldwide Activity Map in 2023, “The core Islamic State ‘provinces’ in Iraq and Afghanistan remain degraded, but the group has diversified along the periphery. The Khorasan province in Afghanistan (also known as Islamic State-KP) is leading external operations, while other provinces are establishing control in Africa.”

According to Aaron Y. Zelin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which in 2023 launched the Islamic State Select Worldwide Activity Map, “Although the core Islamic State ‘provinces’ in Iraq and Afghanistan remain degraded, the group has been able to diversify at the periphery, with the Khorasan province in Afghanistan (aka Islamic State-K) spearheading external operations while various other provinces establish control in Africa.”

ISIS attacks

IN JANUARY of this year, Islamic State claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing in Kerman, Iran that took the lives of 103 people. US intelligence concluded that it was carried out by ISIS-K.

In March, ISIS-K carried out a mass shooting, slashing, and bombing attack at a music venue outside Moscow, killing 145 people.

ISIS-K has also called for attacks on major European sporting events, and urged followers to replicate the November 2015 Paris attacks during the Olympic Games in Paris earlier this summer. 

A terrorist plot targeting Taylor Swift’s August 2024 concerts in Vienna was uncovered and thwarted by the Austrian police, with help from US intelligence and Europol. Three teenage suspects, who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, were arrested. They planned to carry out a mass murder at the sold-out concerts, with explosives and knives, aiming to kill tens of thousands of concertgoers.

ISIS continues to recruit members online, primarily through social media in multiple languages, while also drawing attention with their web-based magazine, The Voice of Khurasan.

From July 2014 to July 2016, ISIS published the online magazine Dabiq via the deep web. It was later replaced by another magazine, Rumiyah.

Why are these online magazines still operational?

These terrorist activities persist largely due to substantial funding. US intelligence estimates that ISIS leadership has access to approximately $25 million in cash reserves in Syria and Iraq alone.

Sotloff would have been 41 today, the same age as my son. He would still be writing the vital, attention-grabbing stories of our time.

What’s difficult for me today is this: A decade later, how many people still remember Steven and his bold reporting from places like Libya, Syria, Egypt, and Yemen?

His insights into the region were ahead of their time, predicting the rise of ISIS before most saw it coming.

His disappointment with people still lingers with me today. Steven regularly spoke with me during his last six months from Kilis, a Turkish border town near Syria, before his abduction on August 4, 2013. His final pieces were mostly for The Media Line.

In one of his final reports for The Media Line on July 30, 2013, Steven wrote, “It’s dangerous and getting worse by the day. … If no one is asking for articles, why should we risk it?”

He couldn’t understand why leading newspapers ignored his firsthand accounts or why the plight of locals and terrorist activity wasn’t gaining attention on Capitol Hill.

WHEN JAMES FOLEY and Steven Sotloff were beheaded, every American was shaken to the core. But the shock didn’t last long.

This is a recurring narrative we see around the world.

Today, we continue to witness the killings of American soldiers in Iraq.

A physician at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba was recently arrested by Israel’s internal the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), for allegedly swearing allegiance to the Islamic State.

The agency, together with the Israel Police, uncovered evidence that the doctor had shared information with friends about wounded soldiers being treated at the hospital and expressed wishes for their deaths.

Dr. Muhammad Azzam had reportedly shown interest in ISIS since 2014.

Why aren’t governments taking more proactive steps to weed out the heads of ISIS and its affiliates?

It’s not that nothing is being done. The US and its allies have indeed intensified efforts to uproot Islamic State affiliates globally through a combination of military operations, intelligence sharing, and counterterrorism initiatives. US-led airstrikes and Special Forces missions continue to target ISIS leaders in Syria and Iraq, while expanding operations against offshoots like ISIS-K. In Africa, the US supports local governments and multinational coalitions to combat ISIS-linked groups in the Sahel region and Mozambique. 

Internationally, governments are also focusing on disrupting online recruitment and propaganda networks, dismantling financial support systems, and preventing the resurgence of the group in regions where it had previously been weakened. European and Middle Eastern countries are collaborating on intelligence sharing and monitoring returning foreign fighters, while conducting deradicalization programs to prevent the spread of extremist ideology.

But clearly, it isn’t enough. We’re playing Whac-A-Mole with a persistent extremist ideology promoted by leaders who could outsmart global intelligence agencies in the future.

I still remember my last phone call with Steven on August 2, 2013. We spent an hour discussing why he felt compelled to return to Syria and whether he trusted the fixers who ultimately betrayed him. Steven was driven by the story, and nothing could stop him.

The anniversary of Sotloff’s death should serve as a reminder to those who risk their lives in pursuit of truth, justice, and informing the world.

He was way ahead of his time, and we must learn from both his work and his frustrations.

We must not allow extremism to become mainstream.

May his memory be etched in all our minds.

The writer is president and CEO of The Media Line news agency and founder of the Press and Policy Student Program, the Mideast Press Club, and the Women’s Empowerment Program. She can be reached at felice@themedialine.org