Podcast about audio recordings of an American who fought with ISIS in Syria until his death

The American "Intercept" website published a new audio podcast and documentary that it said provides the most detailed account so far about an American - whose name is Russell Denison - who lived and died inside the Islamic State.

Trevor Aaronson, who was in regular contact with Denison, wrote

a report reviewing

podcasts that he had been communicating with Denison almost daily for more than 6 months when his messages suddenly stopped.

He said that Denison was a devout Muslim, and he believed that the time and place of his death had been predetermined, and that if the bomb was intended for him, it would kill him, regardless of anything he might do to avoid it, adding that a bomb killed Denison in the spring of 2019 in Baghouz, a village Small in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq.

brought up catholic

The writer added that Denison - an American with a red beard - was raised Catholic in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, and is one of the first Americans to join the Islamic State or "ISIS".

He noted that he had initially tried to contact Denison in 2014, after hearing rumors that he had left the United States to fight in the Syrian "civil war."

And for years he received no response.

Then, in August 2018, after fleeing Raqqa as US-led coalition forces approached the de facto capital of the “caliphate” Denison emailed Aaronson that he wanted to speak.

In the months that followed, Denison sent more than 30 hours of audio recordings via WhatsApp.

Denison was imprisoned in his early twenties for selling a small amount of marijuana, then turned to "radicalize" amid the beaches and malls of the Tampa Bay area, Florida, where he poured his frustration with US policy into the diatribes that earned him a loyal following on "YouTube" and attracted the attention of the FBI to him.

Denison told the writer that the bureau's pursuit of him and other Muslim Americans in those years made him look for something he felt he could not find in the country in which he was born;

It is the freedom to practice his faith and live a pure Islamic life.

sure end

The writer explained that Denison's story was one of the most intense reporting efforts of his career, as it challenged what he believed he knew about the Islamic State and its fighters and what drove them to Syria, Iraq, and other conflict-ridden countries.

He said he agreed to Denison's only condition in return for his full cooperation with his reporting on ISIS, which was that he not reveal his identity or tell his story until he was killed or captured, adding that Denison told him "to be captured is the last thing a brother wants." For him in the organization to happen to him," adding, "So the choice is to fight to the death."

They deceived the New York Times

The writer mentioned that while he was working on ISIS, the podcast called "The State of the Caliphate", a series about ISIS, was published from the New York Times, with its main theme "Shehroze Chaudhry" which Criminally charged in Canada with a "terrorist" hoax, the New York Times concluded that the podcast "should not have been produced" with Choudary as the protagonist.

He said he knew that comparisons - between the series "The State of the Caliphate" and his project - would be inevitable, and the collapse of the New York Times series was another reminder to him of what could happen if he was not thorough enough in verifying Denison's identity and questioning his account.