Why ISIS is Much More Dangerous than al-Qaeda

ISIS is a union of the guys who want to blow up the world, drive us back to the stone age, and Saddam's very capable military leadership. These guys have no fear, have lots of money, and they are very smart. They are our worst nightmare.

We are going to pay very very high costs for Obama not sticking with Iraq

and also not supporting al-assad.

For all the Putin haters I point out that yet again he was right, yet again his timing is perfect going into Syria trying to make a difference.

For all the Putin haters I point out that yet again he was right, yet again his timing is perfect going into Syria trying to make a difference

But when the architect of the Islamic State died, he left something behind that he had intended to keep strictly confidential: the blueprint for this state. It is a folder full of handwritten organizational charts, lists and schedules, which describe how a country can be gradually subjugated. SPIEGEL has gained exclusive access to the 31 pages, some consisting of several pages pasted together. They reveal a multilayered composition and directives for action, some already tested and others newly devised for the anarchical situation in Syria's rebel-held territories. In a sense, the documents are the source code of the most successful terrorist army in recent history.

Until now, much of the information about IS has come from fighters who had defected and data sets from the IS internal administration seized in Baghdad. But none of this offered an explanation for the group's meteoric rise to prominence, before air strikes in the late summer of 2014 put a stop to its triumphal march.

For the first time, the Haji Bakr documents now make it possible to reach conclusions on how the IS leadership is organized and what role former officials in the government of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein play in it. Above all, however, they show how the takeover in northern Syria was planned, making the group's later advances into Iraq possible in the first place. In addition, months of research undertaken by SPIEGEL in Syria, as well as other newly discovered records, exclusive to SPIEGEL, show that Haji Bakr's instructions were carried out meticulously.