Terror threat

What to Do with Islamic State Returnees?

"Do you know what the best thing about my jihad for Allah was?" Bajram G., an Islamist from near Bonn who is classified as a potential threat by the German authorities, asked an acquaintance of his over Facebook. The best thing, he wrote, answering his own question, was shooting three enemies to death, all of whom were "infidels." Then he took one of his victim's phones, he wrote, called a woman in the contact list and told her he was standing with his boot on the victim's head. The woman, he claimed, started screaming.

It's not clear whether these atrocities ever really took place, or whether G. was simply trying to sound important. What is clear, though, is that the Islamist has since dramatically changed his tone.

In a letter to his family in Germany, he wrote: "I miss you very much. Maybe you've heard I've been captured?" The letter was delivered via the Red Cross from a detention camp near the northern Syriantown of Qamishli. In another letter, he wrote: "Mama, please let me know how you're all doing and whether you know how to get me out of here. What do the authorities say? I just want to come home. I want to get out of here."