1. Yesterday, my team made it to the furthest point I've gone northwest of Mosul to the locality of Badoosh, where we interviewed residents:pic.twitter.com/N6m49qGf1d
2. I noticed that everywhere we went in Badoosh, residents were "wearing" packs of cigarettes, like this gentleman:pic.twitter.com/xFGBLU55up
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3. His name is Mohamed Ahmed Saleh, and he's a cow herder, and he asked my colleague to light his cigarette when we got out of the car:pic.twitter.com/KPUHoseaHi
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4. His village near Badoosh was liberated 10 days ago & he launched into a diatribe about IS & how happy he is to be able to smoke againpic.twitter.com/DWELiETHAk
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5. Let me just say that I'm a California girl through & through & I hate 2nd hand smoke but it was obvious that smoking for this man=freedompic.twitter.com/05uGKM0EUr
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6. That's when Mohamed began describing the lengths he took to find cigarettes under ISIS & the thrill it gave him to break their rules.pic.twitter.com/WyI15Kp0ee
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7. This brand was the only 1 smuggled into ISIS territory. A packet used to cost 750 dinars or $0.63. Under ISIS, it spiked to 20,000 or $17pic.twitter.com/cLYk9Pqaoi
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8. He couldn't afford $17. So he & 4 friends pooled money to buy 1 pack of 20 cigarettes. Here's how he broke them up 2 make them last:pic.twitter.com/seLDwpUida
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9. He said he and his buddies used to go out with their cows into the fields and smoke covering their faces like this to reduce the smoke:pic.twitter.com/8OCixf8dnQ
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10 Then they used to brush their teeth & spritz each other with perfume before heading back. At a checkpoint he said an ISIS guy sniffed him
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11 The day ISIS left, he chainsmoked 4 packs. Now he proudly wears his smokes. "I just like to walk around holding it in my hand bc I can."pic.twitter.com/fI6Jg8I3DG
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12. In the next house we visited, I saw a young man walking in with a carton of the same cigarettes:pic.twitter.com/YbFUvtLOsZ
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13. He too described pooling money with 4-5 friends. One carton like this cost over $100, which used to be the salary of an ISIS fighter
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14. ISIS punished smoking with 20 lashes. It was a punishment he could face, he said. By the end, he claims ISIS began chopping fingers
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15. I've not seen that in ISIS media, but I heard it from 3 families in Badoosh. They claim ISIS chopped off the 2 fingers used to hold cigpic.twitter.com/WPcNqFMXrL
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16. In all I interviewed 6 ppl who'd smoked in defiance of IS' ban. "I'm addicted," said 1. "But I also wanted to do it to show resistance."pic.twitter.com/dCP2owxJsn
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17. I headed back in the early evening, passing this pretty, abandoned village. In another time, this could have been a tourist spot:pic.twitter.com/omtzm9uqDV
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I can't believe westerners are glorifying and encouraging tobacco smoking. Cow herders can't afford cancer treatment.
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Miss the point much?
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Ok I kinda get it, making poor health choices is all the rage if it pisses off IS. Go ahead and promote alcoholism while you're at it.
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Ha Ha ! Poor health choices whilst terrorists are holding village hostage and stoning women. Pleasure is important when you have fuck all.
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WW2 was won by soldiers who all smoked ~ their 'poor life choices' just happened to save the world. Get some perspective & empathy.
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I give credit to Alan Turing who helped shorten WW2. Soldiers kill bc they're don't question authority.
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You'd likely be speaking German now if the soldiers who fought fascism in World War II questioned authority.
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It astonishes me that there aren't more positive freedoms to show to the world other than poisoning cigarettes.
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