“Inform as well as influence.” Why Hersh could be right about the Osama Bin Laden’s raid.

The US government and the CIA have a long history of developing cover stories. In the past 67 years Langley made up alternative versions of what happened on the ground on numerous occasions.  In my intel class at Columbia, our professor used to repeat one thing about leaks: “Inform as well as influence.” That should say it all.

Seymour Hersh is under attack by many other reporters for his 10,000 word long article on The killing of Osama Bin Laden.. Some of them are trying to discredit his story.

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ISIS women joining the frontline to fight

Something is changing in the Islamic State. Women travelling to Syria to join the terrorist group want to fight and they are travelling to the front lines in Iraq. This is the result of my latest reporting trip in Iraqi Kurdistan, where several military officials confirmed this new trend.

In Sinjar, one of the main front of the war against ISIS, both Peshmerga and YPJ told me about ISIS women having a very active role in the fight. I first talked to Beritan, a YJA Star brigade commander who heard a Daesh woman on the radio giving orders to men. “She was obviously a commander,” said Beritan while having a chai in her base in the outskirt of Sinjar city. Less than a hundred meters away Colonel Rafat Salim Raykoni said ISIS women are in Sinjar. “They are mainly snipers and work in logistic,” he added.

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Foreign Fighters, why do they join other people war?

There are many people who wants to join the YPG in Syria and the Kurds in Iraq. I have met some of them during my latest reporting trip in Rojava at the end of November. Most of them just wanted to go and fight the Daash (the Islamic State) others, mainly veterans, decided to leave their life behind also because they didn’t fit into civilian life. “Nothing makes sense,” said Jordan Matson, a former US army soldier.

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One day with the YPJ Sniper Unit in Rojava, Syria

I went to Rojava, Syria, where I was able to meet with YPG (People’s Defense Unit) and YPJ (Women’s Defense Unit) and understand better about their fight against the Islamic State.
A version of this article was published by Reuters Foundation and you can find it here.

TIL KOCHER (Syria) – A Makarov, a semi-automatic Russian pistol, is hanging next to a blue flower clock on an empty wall mounted coat rack. Her owner left it there for the night while sleeping in the one bedroom apartment on the second floor of an empty building in Til-Kocher, on the Syrian border with Iraq. Til-Kocher is one of the most strategic bases for the YPG, the Kurdish People Protection’s Army, in their war against ISIS.

Arin, a 27 years-old woman from Germany, was awarded the gun when she got twenty confirmed ISIS kills. That was months ago. Now, her Havel (Comrades and friends in Kurdish) claim she is one of the most dangerous snipers in the war against the Daesh, as they call Islamic State fighters.

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Benedetta Argentieri

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