Islamic State Promises More Attacks Like Garland

In the wake of the foiled attack in Garland, Texas, Islamic State has released a statement promising further attacks in the United States, as well as the assassination of Pamela Geller, the lead planner in the Mohammed cartoon contest. The authenticity of the post remains in question, although Islamic State has frequently used JustPasteIt to publish propaganda and messages for the general public.

The document states that Geller was the focus of the attack, stating “Our goal was the khanzeer (pig) Pamela Geller and to show her that we don’t care what land she hides in or what sky shields her; we will send all our Lions to achieve her slaughter.”

If authentic, the terrorist group appears to be doing damage control for the failed attack, claiming that, “Our intention was to show how easy we give our lives for the sake of Allah,” and “they gave you their bodies in plain view because we were watching” thereby seeking to downplay the fact both terrorists at the event were killed without killing any of their targets.

Islamic State has a long history of claiming responsibility for terror attacks conducted by sympathizers not directly orchestrated by the organization’s leaders. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi were both sympathizers of Islamic State and reportedly in contact on social media with individuals connected to the Islamic State, who had urged attacks against the Garland, Texas event. Simpson and Soofi swore allegiance to al-Baghdadi in a tweet posted by Simpson prior to the attack.

Despite the propaganda claim regarding IS’ ,”71 trained soldiers 23 have signed up for missions like Sunday…” the skilled pre-planned deployment of sleeper cells appears to be outside of the Islamic States’ standard operating method at the current time. Unlike terror groups such as Hezbollah, or Al Qaeda, which have conducted such pre-planned operations, the Garland attack is more typical of Islamic State’s methods,where self-declared Islamic State supporters take to heart encouragement and propaganda and attempt to strike from a broad list of suggested targets. A change in this capability to a more sophisticated model, would be highly worrisome.

That said, it is highly likely that Islamic State can find far more than just the “71” soldiers it claims to possess, among those who are ideologically committed enough to engage in terror attacks on it’s behalf.