'We cannot destroy Isis. We will have to learn to live with it' - counter-terrorism expert.

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'We cannot destroy Isis. We will have to learn to live with it' - counter-terrorism expert.(TI)By Richard Barrett.

One problem with the Government’s response to date has been its over-emphasis on the security aspects of its policy, such as legislation to prevent the departure of potential Isis recruits, or the denial of their right to return.

The basis for this legislation is an assumption that anyone who goes to join an extremist group active against Bashar al-Assad or the Iraqi government is by definition a domestic terrorist in waiting. This is obviously not the case.

As far as the UK is concerned, addressing the motivational factors that cause these apparently normal and well-adjusted men and women to take a one-way ticket to the “caliphate” is more a social policy challenge than a security policy one.

Iraq and Syria will not return to how they were, and whatever it ends up calling itself, a new entity has emerged that will remain in some form. Currently that entity is aggressive, intolerant, despotic and uncompromising, but it is a terrible truth that for all its dystopian features, Isis offers those living under its rule better governance in some respects than they received from the state before it took over.

Mr Cameron asked on Friday how people arrive at a world view that endorses the ideology of Isis, but this should not be a rhetorical question that absolves the Government of its responsibility to find an answer. There are now hundreds of returnees who could help to provide this, and a smart policy might see them as a potential resource rather than solely as a threat.

This requires leadership; yes, from families and communities but also from the Government across all areas of policy. Hmmmm......I have to disagree, 'going with the flow and trying to make the best of it' will only let ISIS grow. We tried that approach with Iran and look where it got us? Read the full story here.

Richard Barrett was head of counter-terrorism at MI6 before spending nine years as the co-ordinator of the UN’s Al-Qaeda and Taliban Monitoring Team. He is currently a senior vice-president at the Soufan Group, a New York security consultancy

Video - Putin on Syria a few hours ago: 'I'm Concerned'.

Pro tip @the_47th 'Putin is concerned' is a very different thing than 'Obama, Ban are concerned'. Is it time for more words or actions?

— маяковский (@moscow_ghost) June 19, 2015

A Rare Glimpse Inside ISIS 'Model City' - Hell on Earth.

A Rare Glimpse Inside ISIS 'Model City' - Hell on Earth. (INN).

It's called Heaven Square, but after the Islamic State (ISIS) group started using the roundabout in Raqqa for gruesome public executions it earned a new name: Hell Square.

In the year since the jihadist group announced its "caliphate" last June, its de facto Syrian capital of Raqqa has been transformed into a macabre metropolis.

Human heads are displayed on spikes at the central roundabout and crucified bodies hang for days to terrorize local residents, said Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, a Raqqa resident and anti-ISIS activist.

"From the first moment of its control over Raqqa, ISIS adopted a policy of horror and terror, resorting to executions, beheadings, cutting off hands and legs, and crucifixion," said Raqqawi, who uses a pseudonym.

He belongs to the "Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" underground activist group, which documents ISIS abuses in the northern Syrian city and surrounding province.

Activists were among ISIS's first targets in Raqqa, but Raqqawi and the group's members have continued to work, providing a rare window into life in one of ISIS's bastions.

Raqqa was the first Syrian provincial capital to fall from regime control when rebels seized it in March 2013.

But ISIS soon routed those rebels and moved quickly to establish a "model city" under its harsh interpretation of Islamic law, said researcher and writer Hisham al-Hashimi.

ISIS wants to run Raqqa "like a central government, with police, services, justice and education," he said. Read the full story here.

'Sometimes NATO Ally' Erdogan troubled by Kurdish advance in northern Syria against ISIL.

'Sometimes NATO Ally' Erdogan troubled by Kurdish advance in northern Syria against ISIL.(AA).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said he was troubled by the advance of Kurdish forces in the Tal Abyad region of northern Syria, saying they could in the future threaten Turkey.

Turkey has in the last days firmly shut its borders to thousands of Syrians trying to flee fighting between Kurdish forces and Islamic State (IS) jihadists who currently control Tal Abyad, which lies just over the Turkish border.

Erdogan alleged that ethnic Arabs and Turkmen were being targeted in the advance and confirmed that Turkey had already taken in around 15,000 of them last week before closing the frontier.

He said the places they had vacated were being occupied by the Syrian Kurdish group the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"This is not a good sign," he told reporters from selected Turkish media aboard his presidential plane while returning from a trip to Azerbaijan.

"This could lead to the creation of a structure that threatens our borders," he said. "Everyone needs to take into account our sensitivities on this issue."

He did not comment directly on the closure of the border.

Turkey, along with its Western allies, considers the PKK to be a terrorist group. Ankara also accuses the PYD of being the Syrian wing of the PKK.

Erdogan has repeatedly expressed concern about the West's backing for Kurdish forces in Syria, saying it could lead to PKK domination of northern Syria.

The PKK fought a decades-long insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's southeast that claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides.

Turkey has said that the priority for solving the war in Syria should be the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad.

The West, however, prefers to concentrate on defeating IS jihadists and has in turn accused Turkey of in the past aiding the Islamist militants. Turkey denies the charges, emphasising that it too defines IS as a terrorist group.  Hmmmm.......Erdogan preferes ISIL as a neighbor as to Kurds.