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IS recruits university graduates specializing in different fields — anti-terror center

The IS needs not only rank-and-file militants, but also young people who have received good education in this or that sphere meeting the IS expectations, the head of the CIS anti-terrorist center says

MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. The terrorist organization calling itself the Islamic State is turning itself into a quasi-state and ever more often sets eyes on university graduates specializing in different fields of knowledge, the head of the CIS anti-terrorist center, General Andrey Novikov, told an international conference on the prevention of youth involvement in the activities of terrorist and extremist organizations, which opened in Belgorod.

In order to realize what institutions of higher learning are already the focus of IS recruiters attention or may become so in the near future one should take a look at the structure of the IS economy.

The Islamic State is building an economic system that is completely uncommon of other terrorist organizations," Novikov said. "A quasi-economy based on stable incomes from the operation of seized oil fields and energy transport corridors and gold and foreign exchange reserves of national banks (for instance, those in Mosul), the introduction of the system of taxation and even customs payments, trade in opiates and seized cultural valuables, let alone other large-scale, purely criminal actions constitutes the Islamic State’s internal structure of financing. These days it is a format of hierarchic multi-functional network structure."

"This structure needs skilled personnel. It is common knowledge that the Islamic State’s media resources have already published employment ads addressed to various specialists. They are a sort of employment agencies," he warned.

"There is great demand for military and medical specialists, linguists, translators, IT-and media specialists, energy engineers, specialists in operating oil and gas fields, and chemical and farming specialists," Novikov said. "We have no doubts that the Islamic State these days needs not only rank-and-file militants (who are being looked for among poorly educated youth or youth with socialization problems), but also young people who have received good education in this or that sphere meeting the IS expectations. Our young people constitute precisely this focus group."