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A reporter has posted a new trove of IS documents online, mostly combat unit intake forms, w/o redactions. This release makes me viscerally uneasy & uncomfortable. A thread about grey areas #ethics 1/15
The journo notes there is no int’l tribunal to deal w/ IS & argues everyone should have access to docs. Journo is Lebanese, speaks Arabic, was given docs by civilians to photograph, reported on them, posted them publicly in full. (I'm not posting link, ppl. can find on own) 2/15
Different situation than IS debacle at NYTimes, which involved theft of original docs (obtained via embed w/ Iraqi mil), sensationalism, & multiple violations of ethical journo practices, all by someone who couldn’t read docs herself 3/15 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/09/new-york-times-has-its-hands-full-with-review-caliphate/
Why my discomfort? I was talking to @haydenschmidty, one of our @SAIShopkins MES students focused on political violence, a/b vigilantism. We both think unredacted doc release could spur (further) vigilante justice and revenge against innocent family members & communities. 4/15
As Nick Smith, @regina_bateson, @judithverweijen & other scholars have argued, extrajudicial violence/vigilantism emerge both due to state failings & because ppl. see legal systems as *improperly addressing certain crimes and perpetuating injustices* 5/15 http://democracyinafrica.org/contradictions-democracy-vigilantism-rights-post-apartheid-south-africa/
Most Iraqis & observers who I spoke to on the ground have little faith in the IS trials. Elite and influential IS members can escape the system, e.g., through bribery. Forced confessions+5 minute trials+death penalty for others. 6/15 https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/01/1056142
Though, FWIW, @belkiswille noted in @ChathamHouse event this morning that trove of ISIS data out of Mosul improved formal process specifically in Tel Kayf IS court; judges started using that, rather than confessions (which often result from torture). 7/15 https://twitter.com/CH_MENAP/status/1329910421965443075?s=20
But extrajudicial violence certainly a huge issue in fmr IS-controlled areas (see @inquiry_org's work). Ppl such as @mararevkin and @kristenkao have documented how Iraqis think about IS collaboration and guilt. We have less robust data on Syria 8/15
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=3339144
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=3339144
Part of what worries me is that ppl. named in docs face v. diff risks depending on nationality. Syrians-who faced fundamentally diff choices than, say, Germans in terms of joining IS-might simply be disappeared or murdered by Syrian state or neighbors. Germans get a trial 9/15
I see a Russian or Turkish fighter who chose to move to Raqqa, drag family with him (or “marry” a child), & join a combat unit v. differently than a Syrian from Raqqa who might not have really had options once IS arrived. Context matters for justice; docs don't provide it. 10/15
My current thinking is that it would have been wise to anonymize the docs before posting publicly. Granted, de-identifying info goes far beyond names-the docs include PII such as where people are from, marital/social status, how many kids, what mosque they attended 11/15
From an academic perspective, I’m committed to do no harm. If I were going to use this material to draw scholarly conclusions, I wouldn't need ppl's names, specific hometown (someone could replace that with a code or region), specific mosque. Scholars aren't law enforcement 12/15
We can still learn a lot and draw conclusions about IS behavior without the details that can also easily facilitate people’s extrajudicial targeting and that can be used to justify/further justify blanket surveillance of specific Muslim communities in some countries 13/15
Should academics be using these docs? The question is moot. People will. While they likely won’t have to get ethics approval (docs, not human subjects), they (& reviewers) should still think about #ethics. I'd expect articles that use these to provide ethics statement. 14/15
In long run, I think academics and journos might collectively consider how we ethically handle materials such as these when we encounter them, including on social media. Developing q's to ask ourselves & best practices might go a long way to avoiding unintentional harms. 15/15
