Page 19 - AUA Traveller Aug 10

ISIS seen BUILDING Police:
CAPACITY Man who KILLED 8
had a dispute with
for mass casualty woman victim
attacks
A FAMILY of six children and two
SOME in the U.S. intelligence community warn that ISIS may be working to parents were handcuffed and fatally
build the capability to carry out mass casualty attacks, a significant departure shot in the head at a Houston home
from the terror group’s current focus on encouraging lone wolf attacks, a senior by a man with a violent criminal
U.S. intelligence official said. To date, the intelligence view has been that ISIS history who had previously been in
is focused on less ambitious attacks, involving one or a small group of attackers a relationship with the mother and
armed with simple weapons. In contrast, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or had a dispute with her, authorities
AQAP, has been viewed as both more focused on -- and more capable of -- mass said Sunday.
casualty attacks, such as plots on commercial aviation. Now the intelligence David Conley, 48, was charged with
community is divided. Meanwhile, the U.S. effort to train rebels in Syria to fight capital murder in the deaths. Conley,
ISIS is having trouble. The few rebels that the U.S. has put through training are who is being held in Harris County
already in disarray, with defense officials saying that up to half are missing, having Jail, didn’t appear at a court hearing her son with a belt. The case was still
deserted soon after training or having been captured after last week’s attack by Sunday where an arrest affidavit was
the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front attack on a rebel site. read. The judge denied him bond.
One defense official admitted that “they are no longer a coherent military unit,” The dead were identified as parents
and Pentagon officials acknowledged the approach of how to support the rebels Dewayne Jackson, 50, his wife
has to change. The potential change within ISIS itself is driven -- in part -- by a Valerie Jackson, 40, and children
broadening competition between ISIS and AQAP for attention and recruits. Nathaniel, 13, Dewayne, 10,
That same competition was evident this week when AQAP bomb-maker Ibrahim Honesty, 11, Caleb, 9, Trinity, 7, and In 2000, he was arrested for
al-Asiri made an online appeal to supporters to carry out lone wolf attacks. Jonah, 6. Nathaniel was believed to
“I think they’re taking a lot of the new recruits that don’t have time to train, who be Conley’s son from the relationship
have not been brought up in their systems, and they’re using them to create the with Valerie Jackson. The Harris
type of mass casualty which produces the media attention, which is exactly what County Sheriff’s Office had earlier
they want, that shows they’re still powerful,” said military analysts. Meanwhile, said that there were three adults and
ISIS is continuing to draw large numbers of new foreign recruits. U.S. intelligence five children killed.
assesses that the formidable flow of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq has not “We do not — cannot — fully
abated. Currently, the total number of ISIS fighters is between 20,000 and comprehend the motivation of
30,000, similar to the levels when the air campaign began, despite thousands of an individual that would take the
ISIS fighters believed to have been killed in coalition air strikes. lives of so many innocent people.
Turkey, the prime transit point into Syria, is still struggling to stem the flow. Especially the lives of the youngest,” cordoned off Sunday, with sheriff’s
However, the U.S. believes its agreement to allow U.S. air strikes from a Turkish said Chief Deputy Tim Cannon of the
air base and to help establish a safe zone indicate Istanbul is stepping up. Harris County Sheriff’s Office. “The
The administration is also claiming gains on the ground. “In Iraq, ISIL has lost killer’s motives appear to be related
the freedom to operate in some 30% of the territory that they held last summer,” to a dispute with Valerie, who was a
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday, using another name former domestic partner.”
for ISIS. “Overall, ISIL has lost more than 17,000 square kilometers of territory in Conley told authorities that he
northern Syria.” discovered on Saturday morning
that the locks had been changed at
ARUBA TRAVELLER - Monday, August 10 2015 the home after he had moved out.
He entered the home through an
unlocked window, according to the
affidavit.
Officers later responded to a request
to do a welfare check at the house
and got no response at the door.
They saw through a window a
child on the floor with a gunshot
wound. Police then heard gunshots
coming from the front of the house.
A standoff ensued between officers
and Conley. He later gave himself up
to authorities and was arrested.
Court records show Conley’s criminal
history dates back to at least 1988,
with the most recent incident
last month, when was charged
19INTERNATIONAL
with assault. In court documents,
authorities say the suspect had been
arrested for allegedly assaulting
Valerie Jackson. The attack happened
at the home where the bodies were
found and documents say he was in a
dating relationship with her.
Court documents said Conley pushed
Valerie Jackson’s head against a
refrigerator multiple times after she
tried to stop him from disciplining
pending.
In 2013, he was charged with
aggravated assault for threatening
Jackson with a knife. He pleaded
guilty and was sentenced to nine
months in the county jail.
retaliation, accused of putting a knife
to his then-girlfriend, threatening to
kill her, her baby and himself. That
came after she filed an assault charge
against him for cutting her with a
knife and punching her in the face.
He was sentenced to five years in
prison for retaliation. It was unclear
if that woman was Valerie Jackson.
The area around the home was
deputies coming in and out of the
house and the medical examiner’s
office having arrived at the scene.
Neighbor Dalila Mercado says when
she arrived home Saturday night
officers had already blocked off the
area. She said she was sitting in her
driveway when she heard gunshots
coming from the house and officials
then told her and her family to go
inside their home.
Mercado said she could still see from
her bedroom window and watched as
a man was escorted out of the house
after midnight. She said officials then
had him next to her fence, taking
fingerprints and photographs.
“It was shocking. I haven’t slept all
night,” she said.
Mercado says she didn’t know the
residents of the house well, but
would occasionally say hello to a
woman and see children waiting to
catch the school bus. She said she
didn’t recognize the man taken out
of the house.