Thread by @JakobSheikh

1. Today, one of the most bizar stories I've ever come across covering jihadism just got even more weird. It’s about this guy: Rawand Dilsher Taher. A thread for reporters, journos, researchers, and everyone else on the jihadism beat. 👇🏽

2. In 2015, Taher, a Dane with Kurdish roots, was killed in U.S.-led airstrikes. Operation Inherent Resolve Spokesman Steve Warren described him as a 'senior ISIL leader' and 'an external operations facilitator'. defense.gov/Explore/News/A…

3. I spent months tracking Taher's journey from a renowned Danish high school to IS' secretive intelligence branch. I spoke to family members, Danish IS members in Syria, jihadi ringleaders in Europe, and intelligence sources in US. And wrote this piece: politiken.dk/indland/art564…

4. Researching Taher's whereabouts in Syria, I got access to sound messages sent from Taher to another IS member in which he describes how to make bombs. I also learned he was in contact with the perpetrators of the Paris attacks in 2015 before the shootings.

5. Taher's classmate in high school was Basil Hassan, another alleged external operations plotter for IS. This picture was taken at their graduation ceremony i 2006. That's Taher to the left and Hassan to the right.

6. A Danish tradition makes classmates predict each other's future in a 'blue book'. This pic is from Taher's page in 2006 – years before the emergence of IS. A paragraph reads: ‘Future: Leader of the Islamic State’. Another puts him as the ‘terrorist of the class’ (a joke)

7. Here's the thing: Taher and Hassan were not radicalized at this point. They were religious, but went to mainstream mosques and were setting up a company specializing in energy sources (a skill they later capitalized on as IS members). But there's another twist to the story.

8. Today, U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, met with his Danish counterpart, Jeppe Kofod. That's when a Twitter user that went to school with Taher (@BizMonkeyFilms) pointed my attention to a previous meeting between American and Danish foreign ministers.

9. So, in April 2004, Bush's Secretary of State, Colin Powell, met with his Danish counterpart, Per Stig Moeller. Before the bilateral talks on the progress made in the Iraq war, Powell went to a Danish high school to take questions from the student. Guess which one: Taher's.

10. These are pics taken at the event. It's Taher in the black sweater and white tee behind Powell. So deeply ironic that Taher went on to become a key member of that very jihadist group that capitalized the most on the invasion. The dynamics of geopolitics captured right here.

11. Here's a few more.

12. Once again, thanks to @BizMonkeyFilms for sharing. For Danish readers, his thread can be found right here:

https://twitter.com/BizMonkeyFilms/status/1394265529041444868