Rukmini CallimachiVerified account

@rcallimachi

Correspondent for The New York Times covering ISIS. NBC contributor. Previously, seven years in West Africa as Correspondent & Bureau Chief for The AP.

New York, New York
topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/…
Joined April 2009
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  1. Pinned Tweet
    Apr 5

    1. Hello everyone, I wanted to share what I learned from the more than 15,000 pages of ISIS documents that my team and I unearthed over five different trips to Iraq. We recovered the records in 11 different cities and towns. First up, how we found them.

    220 replies 5,175 retweets 9,619 likes
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  2. 6 hours ago

    I went on tonight to discuss how the records we found shed light on the unlikely success of ISIS’ state. It happened to be the debut show of a new talent:

    12 replies 56 retweets 142 likes
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  3. 7 hours ago

    26. To see these and other documents beautifully annotated by my uber-talented colleague , click below. Good night, everyone. More threads to come this weekend, unless you tell me you’re bored:

    21 replies 72 retweets 198 likes
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  4. 7 hours ago

    26. ISIS placed chokeholds throughout the economy to catch anyone who avoided paying. Cattle herders told me that ISIS made them show the zakat book before they could buy animal feed. No proof of payment? Your animal starved

    8 replies 41 retweets 81 likes
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  5. 7 hours ago

    25. That little book acted as a passport to commerce in the caliphate. Farmers say that when they approached checkpoints & ISIS saw they were hauling grain to market, they asked to see the blue book proving they had paid their “zakat” tax. No booklet? Truck is turned around

    3 replies 35 retweets 64 likes
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  6. 7 hours ago

    24. (Sorry for the long break - went to the gym & dinner!) So farmers explained to me that ISIS took 1/10th of their harvest at the moment that the crop is cut. In return they got another receipt which allowed them to get this little book proving they had paid their tax:

    2 replies 27 retweets 59 likes
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  7. Retweeted
    8 hours ago

    The debut of the formidable , in conversation with the great of on her year-long reporting project: the

    1 reply 30 retweets 37 likes
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  8. 8 hours ago

    This is from my former thesis advisor at Dartmouth, an expert on Joyce:

    Replying to @rcallimachi
    Percy Shelley called poets "the unacknowledged legislators of the world." From ISIS they are finally getting their due.
    6 replies 9 retweets 55 likes
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  9. 8 hours ago

    Thank you for your amazing map, Tim.

    Head to your local newsstand this Sunday for the print special section of 's ISIS Files, including a giant print map of ISIS control over the last two years. Web version here: …
    3 replies 21 retweets 81 likes
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  10. 12 hours ago

    23. When a farmer wanted to thresh his field, he contacted the combine driver and presented him with this "Permission to Harvest" slip. The combine driver alerted ISIS. The harvesting took place in the presence of an ISIS minder. And the "zakat" tax was collected on the spot.

    9 replies 43 retweets 108 likes
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  11. 12 hours ago

    22. Farmers explained to me that they didn't own harvesting combines. ISIS called a meeting of the owners of combines and announced they now reported to ISIS. Their combines would be confiscated if they threshed a field without ISIS' knowledge.

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  12. 12 hours ago

    21. For agricultural land, rent was paid before a single seed was sewn. Then ISIS took 10% of the harvest. To make sure no one cheated, the harvest was tightly controlled. You needed to have one of these "Permission to Harvest" slips before you could thresh your field.

    4 replies 34 retweets 86 likes
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  13. 12 hours ago

    20. He struggled to articulate the injustice of it all. The property he was living in had been entrusted to him by a friend. The money ISIS was taking was theft. But the paperwork he received created a veneer of legitimacy. And that points to why the paperwork is important.

    2 replies 36 retweets 97 likes
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  14. 12 hours ago

    19. The receipts I just posted were issued to shopkeeper Ahmed Ramzi Salim in the town of Tal Keif, whom I met last year. He was entrusted with the shop and a villa by a Christian friend, who fled. ISIS found out about it & came and issued him a lease. Translation of one receipt:

    1 reply 36 retweets 76 likes
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  15. 12 hours ago

    18. The confiscated property acted as ISIS' seed capital. They began raking in cash from the rent being paid. Civilians described how ISIS bill collectors came knocking on their door every month. In return for payment, they got a numbered receipt like the ones below:

    3 replies 39 retweets 83 likes
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  16. 12 hours ago

    17. The spreadsheet shows houses seized in the locality of al-Sallamiya. Each property was given a number. Its use is listed in another column. "Used as a garage" for one, "Used as office" for another. My favorite is No. 55. Apparently it was occupied by the "Poet of the State"

    4 replies 36 retweets 95 likes
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  17. 12 hours ago

    16. Did ISIS bureaucrats actually follow these instructions? I can assure you they did because we picked up 100s of their leases for stolen land. We also found their spreadsheets detailing their inventory. Fourth column from right states "rafidhi" - a derogatory term for the Shia

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  18. 12 hours ago

    15. The manual instructs ISIS administrators to create an inventory, where each house or property is given a specific number. This is to be stored in an online archive (did they upload this to a cloud somewhere?). I love the how-to tone of the section below:

    3 replies 39 retweets 96 likes
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  19. 12 hours ago

    14. Next, they explain that the property will first be allocated to their "brothers" (meaning ISIS fighters) and the rest will be rented out to civilians. They even enclose a sample lease. Notice the contract conditions - ppl leasing property from ISIS cannot sublet it (!)

    3 replies 48 retweets 103 likes
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  20. 13 hours ago

    13. This 27-page handbook explains how ISIS expects its bureaucrats to handle the property of the religious groups they chased out - and without any shame, they state that everything belonging to Shias, Christians, Alawites and Yazidis will be confiscated. Translation below:

    4 replies 71 retweets 115 likes
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  21. 13 hours ago

    12. The emphasis ISIS put on agriculture is evidenced in the byzantine rules they instituted, designed to squeeze every last penny out of the dirt. First, ISIS took over the leasing of farmland. The Iraqi government did this too, but ISIS expanded it, as shown in this manual:

    3 replies 50 retweets 96 likes
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