ISIS Recruits Getting to Syria by Pleasure Cruise

It’s pretty easy these days to track wannabe terrorists attempting to fly to Syria to join ISIS — which is why so many of them are turning to pleasure cruises to reach the Islamic State.

While the mountains between Turkey and Syria are notoriously porous, the means to get there are getting more difficult and heavily watched, leading terrorists to seek easier routes. One of them, according to Interpol, is booking a seven-day all-inclusive getaway to the beautiful Bosphorous: “There is evidence that the individuals, especially in Europe, are traveling mostly to Izmit and other places to engage in this type of activity,” outgoing Interpol chief Ronald Noble told the AP.

In this example, Izmit is a small Turkish coastal town, formerly one of the capital cities of the Roman Empire under the Tetrarchs. It boasts beautiful architecture influenced by centuries of Byzantine and Ottoman rule, and also an easy route to terrorist-held lands.

Needless to say, Interpol’s not quite used to terrorists on love cruises. “Originally, our concern about people on cruise ships — dangerous people on cruise ships — really focused on the classic sort of rapist, burglar, or violent criminal,” said Noble. We’re not sure whether we’d prefer terrorists or creeps on our seven-day excursion into the Black Sea.

[NBC]
[Image via Shutterstock]

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