This article, relying primarily on first person accounts of actual ISIS defectors, expands upon the work of
investigative journalist Christoph Reuter of Der Spiegel (Hamburg, GFR) who first reported on the discovery of
the files of Haji Bakr, one of the Iraqi organizers of the ISIS’s Emni in the years when preparations for the Islamic
State were made. Bakr’s files make clear that ISIS is not just a terrorist organization, but was set up by former
Baathist state intel operators with the intent to build a new state. Our interviews also confirm data collected by
New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi. Together, these three sources utilized and analyzed here shed light
on the highly subversive activities undertaken by the Emni on behalf of the ‘Islamic State’, also outlining ISIS’s
aspirations to attack the West.