ISIS Pursues new Tactics; Iran Prepares for War with US

Experts say that ISIS will soon begin to utilize social media and other tactics to target Americans abroad. “There is a very real effort underway to at least threaten, if not put at risk, family members and personnel outside the bounds of classic security,” says former Bush adviser Juan Zarate. 

Testifying before a Senate panel on Tuesday, experts said that ISIS plans to target the family members of US military personnel. “A lot of the information ISIS got when it put out the addresses of service members who were on their kill lists was just easily gleaned, not from hacking, but from going into people’s social media accounts and finding out this information about them,” explains Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow Daveed Gartenstein-Ross. He considers this “emerging tactic” to be a “high-level threat.” 

Meanwhile, Iran’s top commander is preparing for war, saying the US won’t be able “to do a damn thing” about it if it comes down to military confrontation. Commander Major-General Mohammad Ali Jafari of the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps) says his country has been readying itself for war with the US and her allies for years:

“For years, we have been building power on the presumption of a widespread war with the US and its allies, and have developed all our capacities and capabilities for decisive victories over such enemies.” He then added that the IRGC will continue to pursue missile development, the end goal being mass production of accurate, destructive weapons. 

To Arab states that remain friendly with the US and Israel, Jafari says, “Regimes like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and their peers are symbols of modern political underdevelopment, and the IRGC…has made preparations for response to their rudeness and stupid behavior, which stems from (their) reliance on the US power.”