Sept.

20, 2018


 Editors’ Note [Dec. 18, 2020]: In 2018, The Times released a

12-part narrative podcast series called “Caliphate” on the Islamic
State terrorist group and its operations. While parts of the series
involved a broad examination of the group’s tactics and influence,
multiple episodes were driven primarily by the confessional tale
of a Canadian man of Pakistani origin who called himself Abu
Huzayfah and claimed to have been a member of the Islamic State
who had taken part in killings in Syria.
During the course of reporting for the series, The Times
discovered significant falsehoods and other discrepancies in
Huzayfah’s story. The Times took a number of steps, including
seeking confirmation of details from intelligence officials in the
United States, to find independent evidence of Huzayfah’s story.
The decision was made to proceed with the project but to include
an episode, Chapter 6, devoted to exploring major discrepancies
and highlighting the fact-checking process that sought to verify
key elements of the narrative.
In September — two and a half years after the podcast was
released — the Canadian police arrested Huzayfah, whose real
name is Shehroze Chaudhry, and charged him with perpetrating a
terrorist hoax. Canadian officials say they believe that Mr.
Chaudhry’s account of supposed terrorist activity is completely
fabricated. The hoax charge led The Times to investigate what
Canadian officials had discovered, and to re-examine Mr.
Chaudhry’s account and the earlier efforts to determine its
validity. This new examination found a history of
misrepresentations by Mr. Chaudhry and no corroboration that he
committed the atrocities he described in the “Caliphate” podcast.
As a result, The Times has concluded that the episodes of
“Caliphate” that presented Mr. Chaudhry’s claims did not meet
our standards for accuracy.
From the outset, “Caliphate” should have had the regular
participation of an editor experienced in the subject matter. In
addition, The Times should have pressed harder to verify Mr.
Chaudhry’s claims before deciding to place so much emphasis on
one individual’s account. For example, reporters and editors could
have vetted more thoroughly materials Mr. Chaudhry provided for
evidence that he had traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State,
and pushed harder and earlier to determine what the authorities
knew about him. It is also clear that elements of the original fact-
checking process were not sufficiently rigorous: Times journalists
were too credulous about the verification steps that were
undertaken and dismissive of the lack of corroboration of
essential aspects of Mr. Chaudhry’s account.
In the absence of firmer evidence, “Caliphate” should have been
substantially revised to exclude the material related to Mr.
Chaudhry. The podcast as a whole should not have been produced
with Mr. Chaudhry as a central narrative character.
A fuller description of what The Times has learned about Mr.
Chaudhry was published on Dec. 18, 2020.

In the war on terror, who is it that we’re really fighting?

“Caliphate” is a documentary audio series from The New York
Times that follows Rukmini Callimachi, who covers terrorism for
The Times, on her quest to understand ISIS. For more information
about the series, visit nytimes.com/caliphate.
The following is a transcript of Chapter 5. The episode was
released on May 17, 2018. The portions in italics were recorded
outside of a studio or excerpted from archival tape.
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What He Hadn’t Told Me

Watch the Throne: How Joel Coen Came to Make ‘The
Tragedy of Macbeth’

The Heart
[Music]
Rukmini Callimachi: On July 4, 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
the leader of the Islamic State, arrives in western Mosul in a
convoy of cars, in great secrecy. I remember residents telling me
that all of the streets were roped off suddenly. They didn’t know
why.
[Call to prayer]
Callimachi: He walks into the historic Al Nuri mosque, a famous
mosque in western Mosul. The mosque is full, because it’s Friday,
and the congregation is waiting for the Friday sermon. And then
——
[Music]
Callimachi: Baghdadi ascends the pedestal to a little podium. He
approaches the microphone.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: [Arabic]
Callimachi: And he declares the caliphate.
[Music]
Baghdadi: [Arabic]
Callimachi: This is what Al Qaeda had planned for for years, and
had never succeeded in doing.
Baghdadi: [Arabic]
Callimachi: In this moment, on this day ——
Baghdadi: [Arabic]
Callimachi: ISIS did it.
[Music]
Callimachi: By the way, I forgot to ask you, the day when
Baghdadi stood at the pulpit at the mosque in Mosul and
announced the caliphate, where were you?
Huzayfah: I was in Syria at that time.
Callimachi: In what city?
Huzayfah: I was in Manbij.
Callimachi: And do you remember that day?
Huzayfah: Yes. Oh, there was a lot of celebration that day. They
celebrated. It was — throughout the night, they just would have
sweets handed out. Food, free food, restaurants would be giving
out free food. They’d be hugging each other, you know? The ISIS
fighters themselves would be in the city, gloating about their
victories and everything, and how they helped create this dream.
[Music]
Mills: Chapter 5. “The Heart.”
[Pause]
Mills: So, Rukmini, this is the dream. The arrival at long last of
the state.
Callimachi: Right. I mean, this dream of an Islamic homeland is
what is responsible, in a way, for bringing in people from all
across the world. Forty thousand ended up flooding through the
doors of the caliphate to join ISIS, to join this community and to
help build this Islamic promised land.
Huzayfah: O.K., I guess we’ll start from here.
Callimachi: Mhmm.
Huzayfah: These are the Syria ones.
Callimachi: You took these yourself?
The Aftermath of Syria’s Civil War
After a decade of fighting, many Syrians wonder if the
country can be put back together.
 The ISIS Fight Isn't Over: Attacks in Syria and Iraq make
it clear that the Islamic State is re-emerging as a serious
threat.
 A Landmark Trial: A German court convicted a former
Syrian officer of crimes against humanity in a historic
verdict for those seeking justice.
 The Toll of U.S. Airstrikes: Secret American
forces repeatedly killed Syrian civilians and bombed a vitial
dam on a “no-strike” list.
 Bashar al-Assad’s Tenuous Grip: Despite his apparent
victory in the civil war, the Syrian president remains mired
in crises.
 A Drug Empire Flourishes: Powerful associates of Mr. al-
Assad are making and selling amphetamines, turning Syria
into a new narcostate.
Huzayfah: Yeah. This was on the Euphrates, edge of the
Euphrates.
Callimachi: Wow. Who are those guys?
Huzayfah: Uh, these guys are all, um ——
Callimachi: You took that picture?
Huzayfah: Yeah. Fellow fighters. They were police officers with
us. So, this guy was from, uh, what’s it called? Finland.
Callimachi: Finland?
Huzayfah: Yeah. These guys were local Tunisians. This is where
you cliff dive. That’s, like, the beach edge.
Mills: Oh, so you guys are, like, swimming around, playing on
the beach, like, on your day off? Is that what this is?
Huzayfah: Yeah. We were just chilling.
[Music]
Huzayfah: This is the one video I have of me.
Callimachi: That’s you?
Huzayfah: Yeah.
Callimachi: What are you doing?
Huzayfah: Uh, just firing a gun.
Mills: Is that your Glock?
Huzayfah: Yeah, that’s my personal Glock.
Callimachi: Let me see if I can record it.
Huzayfah: And I put — I slowed it down, just for effects.
Mills: And who’s shooting this video of you shooting a gun into
the Euphrates?
Huzayfah: Oh, that’s a buddy of mine who’s videoing me. And
then that’s me.
Callimachi: Oh, my God, what’s this?
Huzayfah: Oh, they’re just, they’re having — they’re not
throwing a dead body!
Callimachi: They’re not throwing a dead body. O.K.
Huzayfah: There, that’s a friend, and they’re throwing him into
the water.
Callimachi: O.K., God.
Huzayfah: And this was one of my other pictures that I took.
That’s me.
Callimachi: That’s you?
Huzayfah: Yeah. And yeah, that’s Munib.
Callimachi: Oh, wow, that’s beautiful.
Huzayfah: Thank you.
Callimachi: Is he still around?
Huzayfah: I think he died.
[Pause]
Huzayfah: He went to the front lines, and I haven’t heard from
him after that. I could tell maybe he wasn’t gonna come back. He
wasn’t, he wasn’t cut out for that.
Callimachi: I see. Did you keep in touch with him for a while?
Huzayfah: No. No. I — this is the one — this is why I kept telling
you, like, I missed them so much.
Callimachi: I see.
Huzayfah: Like, I literally had to cut everything off. I couldn’t
even say goodbye to them.
Callimachi: So, at a certain point, you decide that you want to
quit.
Huzayfah: Yeah.
Callimachi: Can you, can you — was there one moment, or a
series of moments?
Huzayfah: The second time I did the kill — I killed someone.
[Pause]
Huzayfah: This guy was a drug dealer. I had to stab him in the
heart.
Callimachi: Why did you have to do that?
Huzayfah: That’s his punishment.
Callimachi: And why were you chosen to do this?
Huzayfah: It’s, um, I was, I was just about ready to go to Rayat
al-Tawheed. They needed me — they were kind of preparing me.
So, I was due to go into that training, uh, couple weeks from that
time. They just had to vet me one more time.
Callimachi: People were watching?
Huzayfah: Yep, including my superiors and other fighters and
locals.
Mills: Who else was there watching?
Huzayfah: There’d be other hisbas, like, you know, new guys.
You know, regular street people would watch. A lot of kids watch.
Callimachi: How old was he, roughly?
Huzayfah: I think he’s, um, 30-something, in his 30s. He was
wearing an orange jumpsuit. Slight beard. Cut face, like, square.
He was blindfolded. It was, like, a black leather rubbery-type
blindfold. We tied his hands with this wire thing.
Callimachi: Did you mask your face?
Huzayfah: Yeah, I did. I masked my face.
Mills: Did it help to have that?
Huzayfah: Oh, yeah. Yeah. No one could see your face. It helped
a lot.
[Pause]
Huzayfah: They’re like — you know, the guy just, like, talks to
the crowd, addresses them ——
Callimachi: I see.
Huzayfah: What’s about to happen. And I’m just trying to build
up the, the courage to do it.
[Pause]
Huzayfah: After that, I stabbed him.
[Pause]
Huzayfah: The blood was just — it was warm, and it sprayed
everywhere.
[Music]
Huzayfah: And the guy cried — was crying and screaming. He
did not die after the first time. The second time or so, he probably
just slouched over. That was ——
Callimachi: How hard is it to put a knife into somebody ——
Huzayfah: It’s hard. I had to stab him multiple times. And then
we put him up on a cross. And I had to leave the dagger in his
heart. And then there was a sign that said, uh, it had a code on it.
And, like, 166 — drugs and alcohol-type offense. Yeah.
Callimachi: God.
Mills: How did, how did it feel?
Huzayfah: Um, it just — at the time, it just felt disgusting, but
numb at the same time. Like, gloomy-ish. I just instantly thought,
I’m a psycho killer now. Like, what the hell did I just do?
[Pause]
Huzayfah: That night, I just, I couldn’t sleep at all. I stayed up
all night. I got really sick again. I just kept thinking of the guy.
[Pause]
Huzayfah: I can always — I can still feel having my hand on his
shoulder.
Callimachi: On his shoulder?
Huzayfah: Yeah, it just ——
Callimachi: I see, because you’re, you’re ——
Huzayfah: Yeah. Holding him ——
Callimachi: You’re steadying him.
Huzayfah: I was pushing him into the knife, too. I could still feel
that. I could — you know, stabbing someone in the heart like that,
I just kept replaying the action of my hand going there.
[Pause]
Huzayfah: I just kept thinking of different things. There was a
rush of thoughts in my head.
[Music]
Huzayfah: I stabbed him. The blood was just everywhere. What
the hell did I just do? I’m a psycho killer now. I didn’t give him a
chance to repent. I stabbed him. If I die after doing something
like this, how will I face God? No, no, no. What the hell did I just
do? Then, I started thinking of my family. What if they were here?
What if that had to be my dad? You’re basically killing your own
parents, in a way. Maybe that jihad that I’m doing right now is
the wrong type of jihad. Maybe ——
[Pause]
Huzayfah: No, this isn’t it. This isn’t the right life for me.
[Music]
Huzayfah: During that week, it was just me being depressed. I
only worked for, like, two days that week.
Callimachi: Did your superiors notice your mood?
Huzayfah: They did, yeah. They would talk to me about it. They’d
come and talk. They’d have, like, other guys come and talk to me.
You know, guys who’d lived with me, who knew me very well.
Mills: Can you just explain, as best as you understand it ——
Callimachi: Yeah.
Mills: What is happening to Huzayfah?
Callimachi: So he tells us that, at this point, he’s in his dorm
room. He’s moping around, depressed, having a hard time
recovering from what he just did. And ISIS starts to parade a
number of people in front of him. A commander comes in to tell
him to buck up. And then a bunch of fighters that he knows, and
that I think he looked up to, who had become front-line fighters,
come to see him.
Huzayfah: They’re, like, oh, yeah. That’s — it’s a good thing you
did that. I wish I was in your position. You have such an honor to
do that and everything. They’d try to convince me that I — what I
did was good. I’d be, like, but the way I killed him, stabbing him
in the heart, what kind of punishment is that? I’ve never heard of
it. You know, they’re, like, no, for these guys, we have to put laws
into our own hands. These guys have become so far from Islam.
Callimachi: After everything that we have learned about how
ISIS operates, namely that we are not the law-givers, Allah is the
ultimate law-giver ——
Mills: Tawheed al-hakkimiya?
Callimachi: Tawheed al-hakkimiya, right? Tawheed al-
hakkimiya. He’s — so, the very concepts that brought him to this
place are now being violated.
Mills: Hmm.
Callimachi: And the explanations that they’re giving him aren’t
lining up.
Huzayfah: It was becoming from, increasingly, like, from a
savior force coming in — and you know, guiding them, helping
them live, putting good standards of life — to something that’s
trying to control them completely and telling them that they’re the
wrong type of Muslims. You know, it became from some happy,
like, I guess happy place to an all of a sudden dictatorship.
Callimachi: And I’ve seen this time and again. That is what I saw
with Jesse Morton, who was an Al Qaeda recruiter — how he
pulled himself out. It’s what Mubin Shaikh has said was his
experience. He’s a Canadian who tried to join the Taliban. And
defector after defector, I have seen this process. And that is, I
think, one of the most important takeaways. Because if we take
the time to listen to these people, what we learn is that it is belief
that brought them to this place, but it is also belief that brings
them out. It is the contradictions, the hypocrisy and the moments
in time when the Islamic State does not live up to its theological
message that finally propels people like Huzayfah to leave.
Huzayfah: But, um, Munib, the Australian guy?
Callimachi: So, right as he’s sitting with these doubts, he says,
his buddy Munib walks in.
Huzayfah: His name was Munib. He was young, like me, too.
Callimachi: Munib was in the same training course as him.
Huzayfah: I could tell he was not a guy who would tell on you or
anything. He was a really chill guy, and I miss him so much right
now.
Callimachi: And he feels comfortable enough to share with him
the doubts that he’s feeling.
Huzayfah: Yeah.
Callimachi: And so, what did you tell him?
Huzayfah: I’d tell him all my doubts. I was like, you know, I
don’t feel comfortable with killing, any of that — tell him about
my family history, how I’m not that type of guy. You know, like, if
I die after doing something like this, will — how will I face God?
You know? And it’s just making me feel really sick. And he’d
share that. He’d tell me about himself and everything. He’s, like,
how he has his doubts. He was more of a guy, like, yeah, but I
really did leave everything behind, so I can’t go back. And he was
the one who actually gave me the idea that you could possibly go
back.
[Music]
Huzayfah: You could run from here. Just leave.
Callimachi: So he said, I can’t go back, because he had
problems.
Huzayfah: Yeah. He, he couldn’t go ——
Callimachi: But you realized that your family loves you.
Huzayfah: Yeah. That I could, that I could go back. I have
somewhere to go back to.
Mills: How common is this, that somebody would escape from
inside the caliphate?
Callimachi: So it’s not, it’s not common. Obviously, when you
go there, you know, you’ve left what they call — ooh, let me look
this up. One second. You’ve left what they call Dar al-Kufr,
which means the land of the infidels, and you’ve gone to Dar al-
Islam, which is the land of Islam. And you’re supposed to be
shutting one door, right, and not turning around and going back.
But people did escape. We know that, quite literally, thousands
have escaped, right?
Mills: Thousands of people.
Callimachi: Thousands have escaped.
Mills: So, as you’re hearing him explain his particular escape
story ——
Huzayfah: So, I considered walking ——
Callimachi: It sounds like other stories I’ve heard.
Huzayfah: But it’s a desert.
Callimachi: Right?
Huzayfah: I packed up my stuff, and ——
Callimachi: Getting out of ISIS-controlled territory is not easy.
Huzayfah: I had to steal a motorcycle.
[Music]
Huzayfah: And then, from there, I just straight hauled it out.
Callimachi: You’re trying to get past checkpoints.
Huzayfah: I knew which way to take, and where they’d have their
weakest checkpoint.
Callimachi: Without being detected by ISIS.
Huzayfah: My heart was pounding at this point. I was so scared.
Callimachi: There’s subterfuge.
Huzayfah: They stopped me.
Callimachi: There’s lying to people.
Huzayfah: Told them, just patrolling around the city.
Callimachi: Hiding in the bushes.
Huzayfah: I’d take off my shirt and just lie flat on the ground.
Callimachi: That kind of thing. And they’re all, pretty much all
of them, they’re trying to get to Turkey.
Huzayfah: Then I got a hold of these aid agencies, right?
Callimachi: O.K. That’s the most logical border to go through,
because once you’re in Turkey ——
Huzayfah: The girl that I met, she was an American.
Callimachi: You’re basically in an extension of Europe.
Huzayfah: And she’s the one who ultimately took me to the
Turkish border.
[Music]
Huzayfah: So, I went to Istanbul, and I finally called my parents.
And they were livid. My mom just, like — she just started crying.
She was like: “Oh, you’re alive! I thought you, you were dead. I
thought I’d lost my son.” This, that. There was just, like, a bunch
of emotion — it was really emotional. I even started crying a lot.
I’m like: “Mom, I’m sorry. I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t
take it. I was wrong. I should have listened to you and everything.
It’s just not right. I saw it for firsthand. Now, what’s it gonna get
me? They’re not — they’re the furthest thing away from Islam.
I’d rather, I’d rather follow what you guys are teaching me and
everything.” You know, it was just an hour-and-a-half, two-hour
call. And then they were like, “O.K., so, you’re not come — you
can’t come back to Canada. You’re gonna be arrested. ’Cause
you have — there’s no way to explain your disappearance.”
They’re like, “Go to Pakistan and stay there.”
[Music]
Huzayfah: So I stayed in Istanbul for a bit and finally booked my
flight back to Pakistan, where my grandparents were already —
they were waiting for me. They’ve, when I met them, yeah, they,
you know — my grandfather just didn’t talk to me at all. He
didn’t — he just ignored the fact that I was right there. My
grandmother was more worried about me and everything. She
was crying and just hugging me. So my parents actually booked
me the ticket from here. They booked it from a travel agent here
and they sent it to me on email.
Callimachi: Did you not worry about what would happen at
immigration?
Huzayfah: I was. I was, but I dressed in a way that didn’t make
me look suspicious, and my beard was in a style, not, like, a full-
on beard.
[Music]
Huzayfah: There’s two guards on each side of the gate, and then
they just, like, look through your passport, where you’re coming
— they ask where you’re coming from. And that’s when I told
them, O.K., “I came from Pakistan. They’re like, “Oh, O.K., how
long were you there?” “Ten months.” “Why were you there for
10 months?” I told them university and everything. They were
like, O.K. And I said it in a way, I guess, that it didn’t make it
seem like I was lying. And I was telling the truth. I guess it was a
sugar-coated version, but I was still telling the truth. Um, when I
got back, I had to face the reprisals from my parents, obviously.
Callimachi: But first, tell me what happened at the airport.
Huzayfah: Ah, yeah. My mom and my sister picked me up. And
they just, you know, they hugged me, and they just started crying.
They couldn’t believe it. I was really skinny, like, scratches on my
face, a lot more scratches on my face. You know, anytime I’d just
drop dead soon — that’s what I looked like. And then, we went
home, and my mom, she wouldn’t leave my side. She just, she’d
keep me in the kitchen with her while cooking dinner. And, you
know, I’d have to sleep on the ground of their room.
Callimachi: Do you think that they’ve been able to forgive you?
Huzayfah: My mom, probably not. I don’t think my mom can ever
forgive me for what I told her — about killing and everything.
Callimachi: I see.
Huzayfah: Yeah, about what I’ve done. She’d never expected that
——
Callimachi: Yeah.
Huzayfah: That I’d ever do something like that. And my dad —
probably not, either. I put them through a lot, and it’s time I make
it up to them now.
Callimachi: And do you think that there’s a chance you could go
back to that ideology and to that life of violence?
Huzayfah: No. No, I cannot, at all. I can’t, no. I’ve come too far
from it. And, you know, and there’s too much here that I have to
give up now. Like, I’ve struggled so much to reintegrate myself.
So, there’s no point in throwing that out all over again and going
back to that ideology. Something that’s not right is not right.
Callimachi: Have you thought of turning yourself in as a way to
kind of try to just, you know, break with it for good, and not, and
not —— ?
Huzayfah: I don’t think I could turn myself in. ’Cause I, if turn —
I mean, it’s scary what they’d do to me. I don’t want to be in a
prison. I don’t want to be cut off again from the outside world.
Even — no matter how much you’re against it now, how much
you hate it, you still did what you did. So it’s — I’d have never
thought of turning myself in. I’d, like, I would turn myself in not
to the police but to religious community leaders. I’d rather turn
myself in to — and tell them what I’ve done.
[Music]
Callimachi: I think we’ve kept you long enough. I don’t want you
to get in trouble with Mom.
Huzayfah: Yes, she’s definitely going to ask where I was, what I
was doing.
Callimachi: I’ll say, yeah.
Huzayfah: Well, it’s O.K. I can handle her now.
Callimachi: Yeah. Yeah, thank you so much.
Huzayfah: You have a good night. Relax and everything.
Callimachi: This — you got your bag, right? That’s yours? Yeah,
O.K. Have a safe trip.
Mills: Thank you. Bye.
[Door closes]
Mills: What the [expletive]?
Callimachi: I know, man, like ——
[Music]