Western Volunteers in Middle East Weapons/Gear discussion

File: foreignfightersKurds6_0[1].jpg (82KB, 620x349px) Image search: [Google]

82KB, 620x349px

>>31796823

>How do they get there?

The first thing any western volunteer needs to realize about traveling to any conflict zone is that you will be denied access to the area almost immediately if it becomes apparent you are there to join combat operations.

This isn't a foreign legion, these are autonomous region self defense forces [i.e: Kurd Peshmerga forces] (being used as the tip of the spear) and tribal militia. These organizations are further backed by the Iraqi Government (and by default the standing military forces of Iraq) (Manpower/Armor/Airstrikes/Air Support) and Multinational Coalition forces (Armor/Airstrikes/Air Support/Logisitics/Ammo).

The organizations that accept Western Volunteers typically organize via Social Media, there is a vetting process, and all volunteers are selected based on what value they would bring to that organization.

There is no pay, even small allowances are unheard of, the volunteers buy all of their own weapons and equipment, it hasn't been unheard of that some units donate equipment they don't understand how to use directly to the volunteer in anticipation that they will know how to use it (laser guided sighting equipment, maps, PDAs, long range communications).

ISIS/Daesh currently advertises a bounty of $150,000 USD for any westerners killed inside any conflict area, regardless of occupation or activity.

Most all entry into conflict areas occurs from nearby countries, for example most volunteers going to the Peshmerga leave from Turkey and fly directly into the autonomous regions only airport, there the Peshmerga have control of the customs process and will not deny entry to volunteers they have been communicating with.

File: CdcluXAW4AArDzn[1].jpg (49KB, 600x400px) Image search: [Google]

49KB, 600x400px

>>31796823

Cihan Kendal is a german national who joined the YPG organization and was promoted to the rank of Commander, he leads a 12 man squad in Syria near the Kobane region.

He had no formal military training and was an Antifa activist while he was still living in Germany.

>>31796860

>spend large sums of your own money to buy equipment and fly to an active combat zone
>to fight in a brown people proxy war that has nothing to do with you
>in an openly Communist paramilitary separatist movement
>dedicated to an ethnic group you're not a part of
>for no pay
>get labeled a terrorist by your own government and charged with joining a foreign paramilitary
>everyone there hates you including your own "comrades in arms" because they haven't heard the Good News of western political correctness and still viciously hate anyone with a slightly different skin tone

Really wews my lads that people are so desperate to legally kill someone that they'd do all this bullshit. Or, even worse, they'd do all this bullshit because they prefer the cross brown people to the crescent brown people.

File: 17121923990_ba6b3b8fe6_b[1].jpg (229KB, 1024x660px) Image search: [Google]

229KB, 1024x660px

>>31797062

It doesn't cost a large sum (technically, in the same of spent money, you'll obviously lose time you could spend generating more money but that isn't what draws volunteers out there).

Flying from NYC to Turkey - $1-2k (depends on flight seating)
Turkey to Eribl, Iraq - $2-500 (depends on flight seating)
-NOTE: Erbil is the international airport for Kurdistan, all interactions here will be overseen by the Kurdistan Autonomous Government, it is remarkably safer in Kurdistan than it is anywhere else in Iraq, INCLUDING the US protected IZ in Baghdad.

Erbil Airport to Sulamaniyah, Iraq (taxi) - $12 and 3 hour highway ride

>Buying arms in Sulamaniyah, Iraq

Sulamaniyah hosts one of the largest outdoor black market bizaars in all of Iraq, it has been rumored in comparison to the Open Arms bizaar in Mogadishu, Somalia and the Open Arms Bizaar 2004-2007 Baghdad.

You'll want a full kit and that will probably take you back $2-5k USD depending on what you purchase.

From here you'll have to find an organization that is willing to take you to your conflict zone and this is where your social media contacts really come in handy, since its super easy for an IS spy to entice you and trick you into going with them into IS controlled area so you can have your head cut off.

Most contractors/volunteers keep about $10k USD in their body armor somewhere, this is your on demand ranson, incase anything happens, offer it to anyone who looks like they have what it takes to get you back to Erbil. No matter what if you can make it back to Erbil, you can find a government office and start working on getting back to your home nation.

Save money for your flight home unless you feel like doing odd jobs in Erbil and keep track of your visas.

>>31797188

>Weapon prices are soaring along with an expanding sectarian war, as more buyers push prices several times higher than those that existed at the time of the American-led invasion nearly four years ago. Rising prices, in turn, have encouraged an insidious form of Iraqi corruption — the migration of army and police weapons from Iraqi state armories to black-market sales.

All manner of infantry arms, from rocket-propelled grenade launchers to weathered and dented Kalashnikovs, have circulated within Iraq for decades.

But three types of American-issued weapons are now readily visible in shops and bazaars here as well: Glock and Walther 9-millimeter pistols, and pristine, unused Kalashnikovs from post-Soviet Eastern European countries. These are three of the principal types of the 370,000 weapons purchased by the United States for Iraq’s security forces, a program that was criticized by a special inspector general this fall for, among other things, failing to properly account for the arms.

The weapons are easy to find, resting among others in the semihidden street markets here, where weapons are sold in tea houses, the back rooms of grocery kiosks, cosmetics stores and rug shops, or from the trunks of cars. Proprietors show samples for immediate purchase and offer to take orders — 10 guns can be had in two hours, they say, and 100 or more the next day.

“Every type of gun that the Americans give comes to the market,” said Brig. Hassan Nouri, chief of the political investigations bureau for the Sulaimaniya district. “They go from the U.S. Army to the Iraqi Army to the smugglers. I have captured many of these guns that the terrorists bought.”

The forces propelling the trade can be seen in the price fluctuations of the country’s most abundant firearm, the Kalashnikov.

>>31797216

In early 2003, a Kalashnikov in northern Iraq typically cost from $75 to $150, depending on its condition, origin and style. Immediately after the invasion, as fleeing soldiers abandoned their rifles and armories were looted, prices fell, pushed down by a glut and a brief sense of optimism.

Today, the same weapons typically cost $210 to $650, according to interviews with seven arms dealers, two senior Kurdish security officials and several customers. In other areas of Iraq, prices have climbed as high as $800, according to Phillip Killicoat, a researcher who has been assembling data on Kalashnikov prices worldwide for the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based organization.

The price ranges reflect not only a weapon’s condition but its model. A Kalashnikov made in a former Soviet-bloc factory costs more than a Kalashnikov made in China, North Korea or Iraq. Collapsible-stock models have become disproportionately expensive. The price ranges do not include the most compact Kalashnikovs, like those Osama bin Laden has been photographed with, which now have a collector’s value in Iraq and can cost as much as $2,000.

In many ways, weapon prices provide a condensed history of Iraq’s slide into chaos.

>>31797226

Prices began moving upward in the summer of 2003 as several classes of customers entered the market together, Iraqi security officials and the arms dealers said. Western security contractors, Sunni insurgent groups, Shiite paramilitary units and criminals who were released from prison by Saddam Hussein before the war all sought the same weapons at once.

Kalashnikov prices quickly reached $200, they said. Since late last year, prices have been moving up again, as sectarian war has spread. Militias have been growing at the same time that more civilians have been seeking weapons for self-defense — twin demand pressures that pushed prices to new heights this fall.

“Now the Sunni want the weapons because they fear the Shia, and the Shia want the weapons because they fear the Sunni,” said Brig. Sarkawt Hassan Jalal, the chief of security in the Sulaimaniya district. “So prices go up.”

Mr. Killicoat put it another way. “When households start entering the market, that’s a free-for-all,” he said.

The surge is evident across a spectrum of arms. Pistol prices have nearly tripled since 2003. Western 9-millimeter pistols now sell for $1,100 to $1,800 in the bazaars of this city. Sniper rifles cost $1,100 to $2,000, the dealers said. In the West, similar pistols sell for $400 to $600.

>>31797235

Arms dealers say that rising prices have led to more extensive pilfering from state armories, including the widespread theft of weapons the United States had issued to Iraq’s police officers and soldiers.

Photo

Weapons, sold by troops or stolen, are easy to find in Sulaimaniya. Credit The New York Times
“In the south, if the Americans give the Iraqis weapons, the next day you can buy them here,” said one dealer, who sold groceries in the front of his kiosk and offered weapons in the back. “The Iraqi Army, the Iraqi police — they all sell them right away.”

No weapons were displayed when two visitors arrived. But when asked, the owner and a friend swiftly retrieved six pistols, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and three Kalashnikovs from a car and another room.

The rifles and the grenade launcher were wrapped in rice sacks. He slipped two of the rifles out of the cloth. They were spotless and unworn, inside and out, and appeared never to have been used. They had folding stocks and were priced at $560 each.

The dealer said they had recently been taken from an Iraqi armory. “Almost all of the weapons come from the Iraqi police and army,” he said. “They are our best suppliers.”

>>31797244

One pistol was a new Walther P99, a 9-millimeter pistol that the dealer said had been issued by the Americans to the Iraqi police. It was still in its box.

Glock pistols were also easy to find. One young Iraqi man, Rebwar Mustafa, showed a Glock 19 he had bought at the bazaar in Kirkuk last year for $900. Five of his friends have bought identical models, he said.

When asked if he was surprised that the Iraqi police and soldiers sold their own guns, he scoffed.

“Everything goes to the bazaar,” he said.

He added: “It is not only pistols. A lot of police cars are being sold. The smugglers brought us three cars and asked if we wanted to buy them. Their doors were still blue, and police labels were on them. The lights were still on top.”

File: 1_tVmwlKugwrnzgkw-9EB8Rg[1].jpg (230KB, 1200x716px) Image search: [Google]

230KB, 1200x716px

>>31797254

Although the scale of weapons sales is unmistakably large, it is impossible to measure precisely. Sales are almost always hidden and unrecorded.

Tracing American-issued weapons back to Iraqi units that sell them is especially difficult because the United States did not register serial numbers for almost all of the 370,000 small arms purchased for Iraqi security forces, according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

The weapons were paid for with $133 million from the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund. Among them were at least 138,000 new Glock pistols and at least 165,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles that had not previously been used, according to the report.

Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, agreed that weapons provided by the United States had slipped from custody.

“I certainly concede that there are weapons that have been lost, stolen and misappropriated,” General Dempsey said. He noted that the inspector general had estimated that 4 percent, or about 14,000 weapons, were lost between arriving in Iraq and being transferred to Iraqi forces. Most of the weapons were pistols.

The general said that he thought the estimate was high and that accountability was improving. A weapons registry was being created, he said. “Serial numbers are being registered,” he said.

But the estimate of a 4 percent loss did not include weapons that were lost or stolen after being issued to Iraqi units. The arms dealers said this was the main source of their goods.

The arms dealers described several factors that kept weapons flowing from state custody.

>>31797188
>>31797216
>>31797226
>>31797235

Sounds like they need common sense background checks and magazine regulations.

Someone needs to organize a cocks not blocks protest here ASAP

File: 14650087_1195240070531130_4876482544791583436_n.jpg (22KB, 552x414px) Image search: [Google]

22KB, 552x414px

>>31797275

Haha, at least there's no NFA there.

File: 10.si[1].jpg (89KB, 690x388px) Image search: [Google]

89KB, 690x388px

>>31796823

Eric Harroun (11 June 1982 – 8 April 2014)

American volunteer to the FSA in Syria, he kept regular updates to his status while serving with the Free Syrian Army. He was a former soldier with the US Army (separated for medical discharge based on disabilities created by a car accident he was in while on active duty), serving in the U.S. Army's 586th Engineering Company from 2000 to 2003 attaining the rank of Private First Class (E-3).

Eric traveled to Syria by way of Turkey and crossed by illegal means. Upon his return to the US he was arrested in VA and prosecuted for Terrorism, he accepted a plea deal of providing material support to a terrorist organization and was released on time served and a parole program. He passed away 1 month short of his parole timeline and his family indicated that he was planning on returning to Syria to fight again.

>>31797306
at least you can full machine guns there for a decent price. seriously americans are there own soveriens if we have the money and want to wage war for profit on our own behalf that does not lead to a conflict of interests then why not just impose a license and taxes and american lobbyists will get there cut. Then AGAIN AMERICA DOES NOT WANT TO MAKE MONEY PERIOD IT SEEMS.

>>31798309

yo there are so many errors in this

>>31797062
Just throwing it right in the water are ya?


Alright, I'll bite...

A lot of people aren't desperate to kill someone, most of them just see the huge threat that ISIS is and want to help stop it before it kills more people.

Also you're drastically underestimating how much the help is appreciated by the locals, let alone how people are viewed in their home countries. Most of which have put out a list of 'approved' groups you can fight for. (ie: basically not ISIS or anyone else registered as a terrorist group, which includes the PKK) and not be considered a criminal.

>>31796860

>$150,000 USD for any westerners killed inside any conflict area, regardless of occupation or activity.

Seriously where do they get this money?

>>31798188
how did he die?

suicide? also what do these people do there

File: maxresdefault[1].jpg (163KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

163KB, 1280x720px

>>31798324

This is accurate, it is technically not illegal to travel to Iraq/Syria (if you are American) to fight ISIS, but depending on what organizations you connect with, what kind of ideology they fight for, and what kind of weapon systems they put you in charge of (operating surface to air missiles, coordinating suicide attacks, attacks on assets friendly to your host nation) could land you in court upon your return.

The PKK and YPG would be the largest non military associated organizations that would be willing to take volunteers with little to no questions asked. They are also the only groups in the region that utilize both genders of the species for combat. There are plenty of qt waifus in the PKK.

File: ISIS+Central+Bank+Reported+Pictures+Of+ISIS+Cash+Warehouse+In+Mosul+2[1].jpg (33KB, 538x305px) Image search: [Google]

33KB, 538x305px

ISIS has a central bank and smaller banks in there territories. At this point they've become a federalized government with heavy influence from IS Sharia Law.

>>31798360
Overdose

File: DSC_12451531165222[1].jpg (1MB, 6016x4016px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 6016x4016px

Medics are more valuable than volunteer riflemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mmwC4zoXgo
http://www.vocativ.com/370154/medics-on-mosuls-frontline/

File: 5d56ea7d5[1].jpg (99KB, 630x420px) Image search: [Google]

99KB, 630x420px

>>31796823

Christopher Smith is a 26 year old Vermont native, he served in the US Marines. He contacted the FBI prior to leaving to notify them of his whereabouts and intentions, he plans to return a free man as he left. He purchased tickets from Boston to Turkey and then flew into Sulamaniyah. He brought his military service record and went directly to a Peshmerga recruiting station, attempting to enlist directly into there Army.

He was attached to a Border Security unit near the IS no man lane seperating Iraq and Syria.

His main reason for joining was to stop the atrocities committed by IS. He has not returned to the USA.

>>31798583
He seems to be a competent graffiti artist too.

>>31796823
Is it legal to fight for militias fighting ISIS?

File: 150317-aaron-core-mn-1525_4dcffef82e762c55084e32dd00517ecf.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000[1].jpg (137KB, 1000x1000px) Image search: [Google]

137KB, 1000x1000px

>>31798775


In January, former Marine Patrick Maxwell returned from Iraq after spending a few months fighting with a Kurdish militia against ISIS. Maxwell left the Marines in 2011 and worked odd jobs, including a stint as a security contactor in Afghanistan. Last fall, he was selling houses in Austin when he decided to go to Iraq. When the State Department and Special Forces spotted him with Kurdish fighters, they urged militia commanders to keep him out of combat, so Maxwell left. When he arrived in New York with all of his gear, Maxwell expected to get arrested for fighting with the Kurdish peshmerga. But no one stopped him.

Maxwell is just the latest in a parade of Americans who volunteered to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. More than 100 Americans are currently fighting in Iraq, according to the New York Times, while just a handful of Americans are fighting in Syria. Included in the fight are many veterans like Maxwell, including 28-year-old Jordan Matson; Brian Wilson from Ohio; and Jeremy Woodard from Mississippi, who was recently featured on CBS News. Woodard served in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the CBS story, but now he, like his fellow vets, is on his own and without the backing of the U.S. government. This raises a big, murky question: Is it legal to go overseas and fight ISIS?

The answer is not straightforward. U.S. code says any American who "enters … with intent to be … in the service of any foreign prince, state, colony, district, or people as a soldier … shall be fined … or imprisoned." But an 1896 court ruling found it was only illegal if Americans were recruited and not if they volunteered. "The U.S. government only cares what direction you're shooting at and who you are shooting at," said Matthew VanDyke, founder of Sons of Liberty International, a nonprofit group that hires veterans to train Assyrian Christians to fight ISIS in Iraq. "As long as you're shooting in the right direction, at bad guys, they don't really care."

>>31797275
>ISIS has a central bank and smaller banks in there territories.
>the steps for combating gun violence in war-torn middle eastern countries should be the same as the ones we use for college campuses
>conservative logic
Seriously? I didn't know there was so much violence on college campuses that we needed to arm everyone with AK's.

>>31798309
>why can't Americans just wage war on each other with private armies?
Wut? No seriously... wut?

>>31798350
They looted like half the banks in Iraq.

File: image.jpg (48KB, 544x499px) Image search: [Google]

48KB, 544x499px

>>31798844
Interesting dub dubbs

File: 1440296443_AaronCore_Sandbags-2-_t755_h3c116d937e1187b17583205e569911cbd5fc6d50[1].jpg (97KB, 755x755px) Image search: [Google]

97KB, 755x755px

>>31798844

I put the wrong picture with that news clip.

This is Aaron Core's story:

Core was previously in the U.S. Army and did a tour in Iraq in 2009 to 2010. He left the military in 2012 but wanted to come back and fight. He heard of other soldiers in his situation joining the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and decided to fly overseas to volunteer.

In Iraq, he fought with old Soviet rifles because the Kurdish militia he's with doesn't have the same financial support he was accustomed to in the Army. In May, he said his unit was tasked with holding the line against an enemy force.

"I have no regrets," Core said of his time volunteering. "All my experiences, good and bad, have been very enlightening."

The Go Fund Me page says it's trying to make sure Core has enough money to get settled and find a job once he's back in the States. He said several friends have offered him jobs back home.

"Or I'll try getting back in the Army," he said. "[Or] I may just come back here."

Core said if he doesn't get enough money through the crowdfunding site, he will wash dishes until he raises enough money for a flight back home. Or he may just stay overseas.

"One of my kurdish brothers has a music studio," Core said in the email. "Try to work on my album and then marry Taylor Swift. Smiles."

>>31798844
Awesome.

>>31796823
is the nigguh on the right tom sizemore?

>>31796884
>was an Antifa activist while he was still living in Germany
why am I not surprised? when I saw his vice interview that seemed pretty clear even without him saying it directly. fucking fag

File: die-vice-reports-23-06-der-krieg-der-anderen-1366639[1].jpg (316KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

316KB, 1920x1080px

>>31799042

Talking shit about a guy who obviously has way bigger balls than you.

How many lives you think he's taken? He literally commands his own unit.

>>31798882

The army would never let him back in.

Many countries have laws against it. In the US you relinquish your citizenship by accepting commissioned or non commissioned officer rank in a foreign military. You also give it up if you take on foreign nationality while taking a foreign military oath.

Fighting with the Kurds is a grey area. It is fine for now, but should politics turn you could lose your citizenship. Turkey is trying to get the YPG recognized as a terrorist organization.

>>31799779

The YPG and PKK are already registered as terror organizations.

>>31799098
Still a commie faggot.

>>31797188
Well when you put it that way it almost takes the appeal out of it.....

>>31796884
>Cihan Kendal is a german national who joined the YPG organization and was promoted to the rank of Commander, he leads a 12 man squad in Syria near the Kobane region.
>He had no formal military training and was an Antifa activist while he was still living in Germany.

Sorry but I call bullshit. How bout you post a source for your claim(s).

>>31800047
Maybe in Turkey, but Turks aren't people

>>31800147

Every journey has a process. This one can just lead to you having your head cut off on live tv.

File: commander.png (572KB, 862x611px) Image search: [Google]

572KB, 862x611px

>>31800161

Translate page to English

http://www.vice.com/de/read/das-was-er-macht-ist-gut-aber-meine-angst-bleibt-772

>>31800309
How the fuck do you learn Kurdish?

>>31800396

Almost every bigger German city has community colleges that offer Kurdish courses.

>>31800285
So on the up side I'd be famous?

>>31796823
some guy a few months back in the YPG on /k/ gave the rundown of how he went from here to there. They pretty much paid for his transit, gave him kit and trainnig free of charge and he gets paid. i know someone has a screencap somwhere.

File: 1431047153875.jpg (915KB, 2048x1536px) Image search: [Google]

915KB, 2048x1536px

>>31800523
You mean this guy? The Canadian?

>>31796823
>white guys
>those tattoos
what the fuck, I know it looks cool or whatever but goddam you're white as fuck.

>>31800863
i dont remember. i do remember he frequented /k/ alot and dropped some knowledge here and there about current events and shit going on over there. But then dropped off the radar for a few months. Then came back to check in cause his laptop and phone and shit burned up in a car explosion or some shit.

>>31797062
>this mad about killing terrorists

>>31800047
YPG are not, PKK are. At least by the US.

>>31798850

Please get a sense of humor

File: cette-photo.jpg (1MB, 1600x877px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1600x877px

weirdest one from french volunteers

that pic appeared on some trade union facebook page, basically they wrote on a wall in manbij some shit about AF employees facing trial

Basically some trade union guys are fighting isis kek

>>31801194
Though the PKK it was basically a case where Turkey said they were, and everyone had to humor them because NATO.

B

File: 1470034610227.jpg (161KB, 1890x1417px) Image search: [Google]

161KB, 1890x1417px

>>31801327
doesn't it get hot wearing those shemaghs? Seriously, it's like 120 fucking degrees there. how the fuck do you wear that?

the new age of the mercenary is in full swing. i want like...a sixty minutes or net geo documentary about this. just so more people know about it.

>>31802858

They keep the sun off you. And they're made of a pretty light material.

>>31799098
Better dead than Red you un-American sandnigger propagandist.

>>31799242
yeah looks like he won't meet the weight standards

>>31799098
If it wasn't for the national guard and law school i would have done it.

Fuck that kid.

>>31805583
>law school
How'd yo do on your LSAT's? I'm thinking of taking them but I really want to be a LEO instead.

>>31805596
*You

>>31805596
I got my ass kicked the first time and canceled my scores. Second attempt 158 third 161. Do as much practice as possible if you really want to do it.

>>31805613
>Second attempt 158 third 161
Those aren't awful. Decent GPA?
> Do as much practice as possible if you really want to do it.
No doubt, a friend said to maybe consider a prep class.

>>31800863
The second word on his rifle's stock says kebab. kek