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Swedish prof hires mercenaries to get back her student


SC Tiger
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(My thread title game is still weak but this is too cool not to share):

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-d...scue-a-college-student-from-an-isis-war-zone/

Some educators genuinely care about their pupils. There are those who go out of their way to tutor, mentor, offer advice or even take personal interest in the struggles impacting their students' lives at home.

Then there’s Charlotta Turner, a professor of analytical chemistry at Sweden’s Lund University, who, upon learning that one of her doctoral students was in hiding in an Islamic State war zone, dispatched a heavily-armed mercenary squad to rescue the student and his family.

Firas Jumaah was completing a doctorate thesis under Turner in 2014 when he received a terrifying text message from his wife, who was home in northern Iraq with the couple’s two young children: ISIS fighters had captured an adjacent Yazidi village and were killing the men and enslaving the women.

“My wife was totally panicking," Jumaah told Lund’s University Magazine LUM. “I took the first plane there to be with them. What sort of life would I have if anything had happened to them there?”

After arriving in Iraq and reuniting with his panicked family, Jumaah packed up some of their belongings and moved them to a hideout in an abandoned bleach factory, Sweden’s The Localreported. All the while, the family could hear the sounds of ISIS gun fire getting closer with each passing day.

Amidst the chaos, Jumaah sent a text message to Turner to inform her that he likely wouldn’t be finishing his doctorate thesis.

“I had no hope then at all,” he said. “I was desperate. I just wanted to tell my supervisor what was happening. I had no idea that a professor would be able to do anything for us.”

But Turner is not just any professor. And as the saying goes, “Those who can, do. Those who cannot, hire mercenaries to get Jumaah the hell out of there.”

[IMG]

“What was happening was completely unacceptable,” Turner told LUM. “I got so angry that IS was pushing itself into our world, exposing my doctoral student and his family to this, and disrupting the research.”

Nobody puts Turner’s research in the corner — especially ISIS.

Desperate to help, Turner contacted Lund University’s security chief, Per Gustafson, to see if there was anything that could be done.

Per usual, Gustafson delivered, and the two university employees collaborated to hire a mercenary team from a security company that put the rescue mission together in less than a week.

“It was almost as if [Gustafson had] been waiting for this kind of mission,” Turner said.

In a matter of days, four mercenaries — armed to the teeth — rolled up to the bleach factory, loaded Jumaah and his family into the vehicles and hightailed it to Erbil Airport, approximately 55 miles east of Mosul.

“I have never felt so privileged, so VIP,” Jumaah told LUM.

With his wife and children safe, Jumaah returned to Sweden and completed his PhD. He currently lives in Malmo.

Turner remains a professor at Lund University, where her badassery knows no bounds.

 

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2 hours ago, M&P15T said:

These stories are so retarded.

You know ISIS is heading your way, and you just choose to stay where you are? You CHOOSE to sit there and wait for them to arrive?

How ****ing stupid. 

His family was there, he went to get them, and got trapped basically.

Remember that in a lot of these countries women cannot even drive, so they may not be able to get out of there.

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2 hours ago, MtnBiker said:

A little difficult to believe, but I like the story;  so I'll assume it's true.

Wouldn't want a grad student with expertise in analytical chemistry captured by ISIS.

 

It does have a little bit of a "too good to be true" vibe, but at the same time, it's not completely unreasonable that a Security Chief would have some contacts that could set something like this up.  There are companies that do this.

 

 

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9 minutes ago, SC Tiger said:

His family was there, he went to get them, and got trapped basically.

Remember that in a lot of these countries women cannot even drive, so they may not be able to get out of there.

I know you like this story, and if it's true it's got some good stuff in it.....

But.

I don't care if you have 20 kids and are walking. If ISIS is heading your way, you GTFO immediately. And the husband was there, he was there and it sounds like it was his decision. There are probably dozens of refugee relief groups working in that area to help people.

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2 hours ago, M&P15T said:

These stories are so retarded.

You know ISIS is heading your way, and you just choose to stay where you are? You CHOOSE to sit there and wait for them to arrive?

How ******* stupid. 

 It isn't uncommon to believe in fatalism.  That is, that God determines your fate and that nothing you can do will change it, therefore it is your place to simply accept what fate hands you because, "It is the will of God".  The phrase  'in sh'Allah' (God willing) is used to justify this thinking

I am definitely not saying that this was this family's belief, just that it isn't uncommon to believe this way in the ME religion.

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18 hours ago, janice6 said:

 It isn't uncommon to believe in fatalism.  That is, that God determines your fate and that nothing you can do will change it, therefore it is your place to simply accept what fate hands you because, "It is the will of God".  The phrase  'in sh'Allah' (God willing) is used to justify this thinking

I am definitely not saying that this was this family's belief, just that it isn't uncommon to believe this way in the ME religion.

Also - if they had to call mercenaries to go get him, he may have been trapped within ISIS territory before they even realized it.  

I imagine moving around in a place like that might be difficult.  Especially if ISIS used the same model the US used in Iraq - take all the area between the cities first, then take the cities.

Edited by SC Tiger
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6 hours ago, SC Tiger said:

There are companies that do this.

 

 

I'm in corporate security and we have a company we use for employee extractions.  We contacted them earlier this year for an employee on a mission trip to Haiti when the fuel tax riots kicked off.

The Southern Baptist church ended up taking care of it.  They had a security company already in place for their people.

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18 minutes ago, PNWguy said:

I'm in corporate security and we have a company we use for employee extractions.  We contacted them earlier this year for an employee on a mission trip to Haiti when the fuel tax riots kicked off.

The Southern Baptist church ended up taking care of it.  They had a security company already in place for their people.

Do they drive a distinctive gmc black van with an angled red stripe?

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13 hours ago, PNWguy said:

I'm in corporate security and we have a company we use for employee extractions.  We contacted them earlier this year for an employee on a mission trip to Haiti when the fuel tax riots kicked off.

The Southern Baptist church ended up taking care of it.  They had a security company already in place for their people.

I always figured the Lutheran church would have their own hostage rescue team.

The Catholics have a pretty impressive array of badassery at the Vatican too - the Swiss guard.  But they are mainly security.

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