New York Times journalist Rukmini Callimachi posted a thread on Twitter Wednesday morning sharing photos from a trip to Mosul, Iraq. She said that those in the Islamic State are seeing President Donald Trump’s travel ban as proof that the terror group has scared the “most powerful man in the world.”
1 For the last 2 days, I've been reporting from eastern Mosul, now under Iraqi control. It's amazing to finally be able to walk freely here pic.twitter.com/4J2xoXmwzY
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
2. The front line is now demarcated by the Tigris River. We are waiting for the Iraqi army to make their push into Western Mosul: pic.twitter.com/kUTSf15WVQ
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
3. I reported here in Nov/Dec of last year. Guess what's different on this trip? Everywhere I go, Iraqis want to ask about the visa ban
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
4. I've been asked about it by officers of the elite CTS division who speak fluent English and who work with US special forces.
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
5. On the banks of the Tigris, I was quizzed on the ban by Mohammed, with Iraq's Federal Police, himself a former interpreter for US forces
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
6. But here's the best part. Guess who else is talking about it? ISIS is, according to a resident of W. Mosul my translator reached by cell
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
7. My translator reached the resident at 2 am. ISIS is forbidding people under their rule to have phones. Resident hid his. Calls at night
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
8. The resident said ISIS has been openly celebrating the ban. They've even coined a phrase for it: الحظر المبارك
Or "The Blessed Ban"
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
9. Why are they calling it a "Blessed Ban?" Because ISIS sees this as *their* doing. They succeeded in scaring the daylight out of America
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
10. ISIS, according to this resident of Western Mosul, thinks their terror tactic worked. They frightened the most powerful man in the world
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
11. And they are celebrating, he says, because it proves to their followers that America really does "hate" Islam.
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
12. The term they're using – "a blessed ban" – reminds me of what Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, spiritual founder of ISIS said about the 03 invasion
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
13. Zarqawi, founder of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which became ISIS, called the 2003 invasion of Iraq "the Blessed Invasion" https://t.co/VNT2h9YJ2v
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
14. Among ppl affected by the ban is my own translator. He was scheduled to have his 2nd intv for a visa for ppl who worked with the US army
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
15. When you're standing in the liberated streets of (eastern) Mosul, it's clear who this ban is hurting: The people who helped us.
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
16. I do want to add 1 caveat which continues 2puzzle me: By now we have seen ISIS members and supporters jumping up & down with glee at ban
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
17. Yet we still have not seen an *official* ISIS statement regarding the ban and Trump. By contrast, al-Qaeda has put out several.
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
18. I have to say I don't get that. Why is ISIS in its official pronouncements being silent on Trump & on the ban? CT tweeps, any thoughts?
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 8, 2017
