ISIS Urges Sympathizers to Kill U.S. Service Members It Identifies on Website

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and HELENE COOPER

WASHINGTON — In a new online threat to American military personnel, the Islamic State has called on its members and sympathizers in the United States to kill 100 service members whose names, photos and purported addresses it posted on a website.

The group said that the personnel had participated in efforts to defeat it in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere.

Defense Department and F.B.I. officials said that they were aware of the website and were investigating the posting.

It does not appear that the information had been hacked from government servers. One Defense Department official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that most of the information could be found in public records, residential address search sites and social media.

The officials said the list appears to be drawn from personnel who have appeared in news articles about airstrikes on the militant group.

Some of the names also appear to be drawn from the Defense Department’s own official reports on the campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL.

But the list also included armed services personnel and others in the United States or elsewhere who have had nothing to do with the bombing campaigns, officials said.

For instance, the list includes B-52 crew members stationed in Louisiana and North Dakota, but the air campaign is not using those bombers, the Defense Department official said. Several women are included on the list, but their faces in the photos were blurred. One of the photos appears to be at an official meeting with President Obama.

American officials have grudgingly acknowledged the cleverness with which the Islamic State has used the Internet, in particular social media. The posting of military personnel includes names, photographs and other information neatly formatted.

“With the huge amount of data we have from various different servers and databases, we have decided to leak 100 addresses so that our brothers in America can deal with you,” the Islamic State’s so-called Hacking Division said in the web posting.

It added: “And now we have made it easy for you by giving you addresses, all you need to do is take the final step, so what are you waiting for?”

The disclosure by the Islamic State highlights some of the challenges facing the military in balancing how it performs two essential functions: protecting its personnel while providing the American public with information.

Unlike other parts of the United States government, in particular other agencies dealing with national security affairs, the American military allows members of the media to spend time embedded with its personnel in the field, granting permission to identify and quote them in reports.

IS公布美軍個資 要「孤狼」行刺

伊斯蘭教遜尼派激進組織「伊斯蘭國」（IS）廿一日在網路上公布一百名美國軍人的姓名、住址和照片，號召「住在美國的弟兄們」刺殺這些美軍。美國國防部與聯邦調查局尚未證實資料可信度，指多數資訊可從公開資訊中取得，但已介入調查。

自稱「伊斯蘭國駭客部門」（Islamic State Hacking Division）的組織以英文發布這份「殺戮名單」，內含百名美軍的姓名、住址、照片、兵種和軍階，但基於宗教因素修圖移除照片中的女性。

該組織宣稱入侵大量軍用伺服器、資料庫和電子郵件，決定公開一百名美軍個資，好讓「孤狼」攻擊者循線下手。該組織寫道，「我們給你地址，讓事情變得簡單許多，你只需執行最終步驟，還在等什麼？在他們的土地上殺了他們，在他們家裡將他們斬首，讓他們自認安全無虞地走在街頭時刺死他們。」

IS公開殺戮名單後，美國國防部匿名官員表示無法證實消息的真實性，但相關單位已著手調查，並通知名單內的美軍家屬。紐約時報指出，這些資訊不像從政府伺服器外流的資料，並引述匿名國防部官員說法表示，大多數資訊都能在公開記錄、居住地址搜尋網站和社群媒體中找到。

時代雜誌網站引述多名官員的說法報導，名單內的美軍顯然是從美軍空襲IS的新聞報導中選出來的。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/world/middleeast/isis-urges-sympathizers-to-kill-us-service-members-it-identifies-on-website.html

2015-03-23．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯陳韻涵