I found two articles, U.S. Sees New Threat In Iraq for Sufi Sect and ISIS Rounds up ex-Baathists. Both of these articles are about the Nashqbandi Sufi-Militant group. The first article talks about the initial arrival of the group and its origins. Their leader is Izzmat Ibrahim al-Douri, former Vice President under Hussein. He has been on the US Most Wanted list since the Iraqi invasion of 2003 and this article was released in 2009. The second article read was about ISIS rounding up ex-Baath party officers and eliminating them. Ever since Mosul experienced yet another power change, there has been a rift between ISIS and the Sufi militants who helped put them on the fast track to power in the region. Some feel that these are preemptive measures to control any dissidence within the organization.

These two articles are interesting because of the timeline. In 2009, almost nobody knew who ISIS was but yet this small but powerful sufi militant group was known. Is this just by chance or did Sadam Hussein’s evil genius continue to work even after his death. What else is intersing, is that if ISIS is taking these measures to eliminate former Iraqi officers then they are going to have to eliminate their entire intelligence apparatus. For me, this confirms previous thoughts that ISIS is internally weak. Not because they are not powerful enough but because they not truly believe in what they are doing and anything that has the potential to expose that will be destroyed.