Idaho Statesman$1 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

IDAHOSTATESMAN:AMcClatchyNewspaper, 1200N. Curtis Road, Boise, ID • P.O. Box 40, Boise, ID 83707 • (208) 377-6200 •©2015 Idaho Statesman, Vol. 151, No. 54, 3 sections, 26 pages

SENATORS: U.S. PROGRAM IN SYRIA ‘A FAILURE’ NEWS, A6

SHOWERSLIKELY

59° / 44° SEE A8

INSIDE TODAYANEWSCatchingUpA2-3 | LocalnewsA4-5 | BusinessA5, 7 |Nation/WorldA6-7 |WeatherA8 | StocksA8

DDEPTH/EXPLORE RobertEhlertD1 |OpinionsD2 | Letters to theEditorD2 |DaveRamseyD5 |CarolynHaxD5 |ObituariesD8SSPORTSCollege football S1 |Golf S1 | SportsonTV/radio S2 |NFL S3 | Scoreboard S4 |Hockey S2

BOISE APARTMENT COMPLEX

Notice to vacate putstenants in tight spot

NEWS, A4

THAT’S NO BOMB, GENIUSES

TEEN’S CLOCK GETSHANDS PUT IN CUFFSOUTRAGE FOLLOWS INCIDENT • NEWS, A6

GOP DEBATE

Candidatestake shots atforeign policy

NEWS, A7

RayFlachbarthasbecomeabeliever inregularexerciseandactivitiessincedoctorsdiagnosed

early-onsetAlzheimer’s in late2013.Asidebenefit is thathefeelsbetter thanhe’s felt inyears, the

retiredCEOforBlueCrossof Idahosays.The64-year-old,workingoutwithpersonal trainer

TonyKubitschek,openeduptoStatesmanreporterKatyMoelleraboutAlzheimer’s in thehope

thatsharinghisstorymighthelpothers.Expertssaythatearlydetection iskey—thetimewhen

the incurabledisease ismostreceptivetotreatment—andsharewhat towatchfor.DEPTH,D1

DEPTH: ALZHEIMER’SVIDEO: FLACHBART TALKS ABOUT LIVING WITH THE DISEASE AT IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM

FORMER CEO GETS BUSYAFTER SCARY DIAGNOSIS

‘The workouts and family togetherness, it’s what works for me’

KYLE GREEN / kgreen@idahostatesman.com

Anabundanceofroadracesandother

runningeventshassaturatedthe

regionalmarket,endangeringsome

olderevents thatare losing

participants tonewandnoveltyruns.

The38-year-oldBarber toBoise isone

of thecasualties.NEWS,A5

RACE FINISHED

BARBER TO BOISEFORCED TO END ITSFOUR-DECADE RUNIfTimberlineHighgraduate

MadisonMangumweretocatch

apass thisweekforISUtodefeat

Boise,oneweekafterhisbrother,

BYUQBTannerMangum,threw

onetobeatBSU...well,whatare

theodds?DaveSouthornreports

onafamily that’salreadyhavinga

seasontoremember. SPORTS,S1,S3

IDAHO STATE AT BOISE STATE • FRIDAY 7 P.M.

Broncos face another Mangum;scouting report on Bengals

Scientistssurveyinggla-ciers inWashingtonstatefoundwhat theyde-scribedasadisaster thissummer:Theicewasfad-ingmorequickly thantheyhadeverseen.Whatliesaheadfor theshrink-ingformations?DEPTH,D1

DEPTH: GLACIERS

MELTING AWAYIN NORTHWEST

Asettlementhasbeenreachedinthe investiga-tionoverGeneralMotorsignitionswitchesthatmalfunctioned,causingwrecksanddeaths. In-dictmentsof individualsareunlikely.NEWS,A6

FAULTY IGNITIONS

Feds to have GMpay nearly $1B

ROBERT EHLERT

Vaccinations ensure safe world,are only way to go DEPTH, D1

CAROLYN HAX

Citing ‘other plans’ fine wayto avoid gathering EXPLORE, D5

ANOTHER VIEW

IN BERGDAHL CASE, ARMYALSO CULPABLE OPINIONS, D2

Trafficonneighborhoodroadswasonereasonanassisted-livingprojectonHillRoadanda60-homeFoothillsdevelopmentweredenied.NEWS,A5

REAL ESTATE ANDCONSTRUCTION

Boise plannersreject pairof projects

D LETTERS TO THE EDITOR D2 • OBITUARIES D8 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

Depth Who tried hardest to “channel” Ronald Reaganduring the GOP debate last night?

JOIN THE CONVERSATION AT FACEBOOK.COM/IDAHOSTATESMAN

language and motor skills. Re-search shows that regular exercisemay help prevent, slow the pro-gressandbegoodtherapyforthosewithdementia.

Flachbart,64,worksoutsixdaysa week, including three days ofCrossFittrainingandonedayofyo-ga. When he can’t walk on theGreenbelt, he pedals a stationarybike in his house. A fun, if not rig-orous, activity he does regularlywith his wife, Marybeth, is kayak-ingonthe largeman-made lakebe-hind their home in Eagle’s LagunaPointesubdivision.

TheFlachbartshavegonepublicabout Ray’s illness and their jour-ney, and they’ll be speaking at theannualWalk toEndAlzheimer’s inMeridianonOct.3.

One of Ray Flachbart’s initia-tives during his 12-year tenure asCEOofBlueCross of Idahowas tocreate more opportunities for hisroughly 800 employees to live ac-tiveandhealthier lives.

Empty conference rooms wereturned into fitness rooms, trainerswere brought in and partial reim-bursements were offered forweight-lossprograms.Lunch-and-learnsessionswerescheduled,andemployeeswereencouragedtousewalkingpathsoncampus.

“Hejustreallyhadafocusontry-ing toencourageall of theemploy-ees who worked at Blue Cross totake their health as a priority,” said

MacKenzie Rodgers, who at thattime worked for the AmericanHeartAssociationbutisnowdirec-tor of theBoise-basedGreater Ida-ho Chapter of the Alzheimer’s As-sociation.

Flachbart (pronounced flash-bart),whoretired in the fall of 2012and was diagnosed with early-on-set Alzheimer’s disease in Decem-ber2013,believesmorethaneverinthevalueofdailyexerciseandstay-ingactive.

“I didn’t realize I should havebeen doing more,” he lamented ofbusy years during his career. “Iwould work out, but it wasn’t al-waysconsistent.”

Alzheimer’sisthemostcommontypeofdementia.Itisaprogressivebrain disease that affects memory,

“I don’t want to preach to any-body.Theworkouts and family to-getherness,it’swhatworksforme,”hesaid,explainingthathehasgoodandbaddaysbuthasfeltbetterthanhe has in a long time since startingthisroutine.

NOFAMILYHISTORYFlachbart’s illnessdidnotleadto

his retirement, though inhindsighthe and his wife recognize thereweresomesymptoms.

“He was not as sharp and en-gaged,” Marybeth Flachbart re-called. “He went to a doctor sixyears ago. Because of his job, they

chalkedituptostress.”In the fall of 2012, theFlachbarts

returned to Texas — where theywere living before hewas hired byBlueCross of Idaho—afterMary-beth was hired to her dream jobrunning anonprofitNeuhausEdu-cationCenter, a literacy think tankinHouston.Previously,sheworkedfortheIdahoDepartmentofEduca-tion for a decade, including threeyearsasdeputysuperintendent.

One of the first hints thatMary-bethhadthatsomethingwasamisswith Ray was having to repeatthings. She wondered whether itwasahearingproblem.He’dsome-times forget socialobligations, andwordsbecameelusive.

“Weweremoving.Weneededtoget the house on the market. Hewouldsay,I’llcall theRealtor,”Ma-rybethsaid. “Noneof itwouldhap-pen. I wrongly assumed he justdidn’t want to do it. If you’re notlooking for Alzheimer’s, you don’tseeit.”

Shesaiddoctors thendiagnosedhim with depression. The medi-cines prescribed to treat thatseemedtomakehiscognitionevenworse, so shedecided theyneededtopressformoreanswers.

DEPTH: ALZHEIMER’SVIDEO: RAY FLACHBART DISCUSSES COPING WITH THE DISEASE • IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM

Former Blue Cross CEO goespublic with painful diagnosis

Ray Flachbart says support of family, staying active and focusing on fitness have helped him at difficult time

KYLE GREEN / kgreen@idahostatesman.com

Ray Flachbart credits his family, and especially wife Marybeth, for helping him cope with the most difficult time of his life.

EARLYDETECTION

IS KEYSowhat do youwatch for?➤ Strugglingwith the right

word or name.➤ Trouble remembering

nameswhen introduced topeople.

➤ Greater difficulty per-forming tasks in social orworksettings.

➤ Forgettingwhat you’vejust read.

➤ Losing ormisplacingvaluable objects.

➤ Increased troublewithplanning or organizing.

Source: Alzheimer’s Associ-

ation

BY KATY MOELLER

kmoeller@idahostatesman.com© 2015 Idaho Statesman

!SEE IDAHO’S PLAN FOR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND READ

ABOUT ONE FAMILY’S STRUGGLES IdahoStatesman.com

See DIAGNOSIS, D3

Childhoodvaccinationman-datesarea tough issue—the tough loveofpublic

healthandpubliceducation.Theyshouldbe.

Not toomanypeople Iknowwant toseechildrengetmeasles,mumpsorrubella—what theMMRvaccineprotectsagainst.This isoneof the first andmostcommonvaccinesourkidsen-counter.

Vaccineshaverisks,but thealternative is scary.The federalCenters forDiseaseControlandPreventionnotesa rubellaepi-demic(Germanmeasles) in1964-65that infected 12.5millionAmericans, killing2,000babiesandcausing 11,000miscarriages.In2012 therewereonlyninecases.

Recordedcasesofmeaslesfrom2000through2013—aftergenerationshadbeenvaccinated—haverarelybrokenthe100-cases-per-yearmark.Thattookadramatic turn in2014whentheCDClogged644casesin27states.

Whatchanged is that therateofvaccinatingourkidsnation-

wide is diminishing.That is aproblem.Whenunvaccinatedchildren are around thosewhoarevaccinated, theoneswithoutvaccines still benefit. But if anunvaccinated child travels to acountrywhere there is higherexposure tounvaccinatedkids,the child could return to theU.S.and infectmore children than inprevious years because there aremore susceptible youths in thiscountrynow.This is oneof thetheories about themeasles out-break earlier this year at aCali-fornia themepark that sickened188 children in 24differentstates.

A vaccinated populationmeans better, safer world

Eyes on Idaho

ROBERT EHLERT

See EHLERT, D4

SEATTLE—Inmorethanthreedecades of fieldwork,Mauri Peltohas taken themeasureofWashing-ton’s glaciers during seasons of re-cord-breakingsnowandyears thatbroke skiers’ hearts. But he’s neverseenanything likethissummer.

“The best word for it is disas-trous,” said Pelto, who recentlywrapped up his annual survey inthe North Cascades. Onmountainaftermountain,heandhisteamen-counteredbareiceandgushingwa-teronglaciersthatwouldnormallybe blanketed with snow. On aver-age, Pelto estimates that glaciersacross the ruggedmountain rangewill lose up to 10 percent of theirvolumebeforethesummerisover.

“This is the biggest volume lossinthelast50years,”saidPelto,aNi-cholsCollegeglaciologist.

Oneyearisjustablipinthelifeofglaciers. But 2015’s dramatic meltcomeson topofanongoingretreatthat has seen glaciers across theNorthwest shrink by as much as

40percent since themid-1980s, re-flectingtrendsaroundtheworld.

With President BarackObama’srecent visit to Alaska, where heventured onto a glacier, the fate ofthe world’s icy regions is gettingspecialattention.IntheNorthwest,

where glacial-fed streams and riv-ers providedrinkingwater, hydro-powerandacooling flowfor salm-on, the economic importance ofglaciers isundisputed.

ENVIRONMENT

‘Disastrous’: Heat, low snoweat away at Northwest glaciers

SY BEAN / Seattle Times

Glaciologist Mauri Pelto pours biodegradable dye into a stream to mea-sure the volume of runoff at Sholes Glacier, on the northeast slope ofMount Baker in Washington state’s North Cascades.

See GLACIERS, D4

BY SANDI DOUGHTON

THE SEATTLE TIMES

CAROLYN HAX

Nothing wrong

with ‘other plans’EXPLORE, D5

STUDENTS AND FINANCE

WADING THROUGH

CREDIT CARD RIVEREXPLORE, D5

Inside today’s

Exploresection

STARTING ON PAGE D5

IDAHO STATESMAN ● IDAHOSTATESMAN.COM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 ● D3

A battery of tests, includ-ing an MRI and CAT scan,concluded that Ray hadAlz-heimer’sdisease.Theyoptedtopay$3,000outofpockettoconfirmthatdiagnosiswithaPET scan — which showedthe protein buildup in thebrainassociatedwiththedis-ease.

Marybeth said the firsttime they got the news, thedoctor handed them a pam-phlet and left them to talk.Thesecondtime, therewasasocial worker to supportthem.

“I wonder howmany oth-er families getmy first expe-rience and not the second,”Marybeth said. “There isvalue in having social work-ersbecauseit’ssuchashock.”

One of the reasons theFlachbarts were surprisedwas because Ray doesn’thaveanyhistoryofAlzheim-er’sorotherdementias inhisfamily. His father lived to be85, with no sign of dementia,andhismotherdiedinher50sofcancer.

Raywas61whenhewasdi-agnosed — too young for adisease most-often associat-edwiththeelderly.Butabout5 percent of the more than 5million people with Alz-heimer’s and related demen-tias in the United States areyounger than 65, accordingto the Alzheimer’s Associ-ation.

Rodgers, the Idahospokeswomanfortheassoci-ation, said early diagnosis isimportant because that’swhenavailabledrugsseemtobe most effective. There arenodrugsthatpreventorcureAlzheimer’s.

“If thediagnosiscomesaf-ter the first couple years,we’ve missed a window fortreatment,” she said. “Thedrugs slow the buildup ofplaqueinthebrain.We’renotstopping the buildup. We’reslowing it down.What thosedrugsare trying todo iskeeppeople in those early stagesas longaspossible.”

In 2013, the Legislatureadopted a state plan for ad-dressing the needs of peoplewithAlzheimer’sandrelateddementias, their familymembers and caregivers.Rodgerssaidaprivatesector

working group has workedon five strategic goals in theplan,which has not receivedanystatefunding.

INSICKNESSANDINHEALTH

“My job is to walk Rayhome and to ensure thatthereisasmuchjoyandqual-ity of life aswecanprovide,”Marybethsaid.

Ray and Marybeth havebeen married 26 years. He’sfrom Cleveland, and she’sfrom New York City. Theymet at a singles mixer in asmall Connecticut townwhere they both were living— he was working for Pru-dential, she was working onhermaster’sdegreeinspecialeducation.

She recalled not being ve-ry happy that there were 45women and only three menwho turned up at the singlesparty that he organized. Hecalled her for a date a coupledayslater,andtheyhit itoff.

“I just loved her from thebeginning,” he said, his eyeswellingwithtears.

“HewasthemosteloquentmanI’devermet,”shesaid.

With their combined edu-

cational backgrounds, theycould staff a community col-lege. He earned a bachelor’sinreligiousstudiesbeforego-ingon foramaster’s inurbanplanning and then an MBA.She studied art and art histo-ry as an undergraduate andearned a doctorate in educa-tion.Her specialty is literacyinat-riskyouth.

She’s still working full-time but as an off-site em-ployee for Portland-basedEducationNorthwest,anon-profit dedicated to improv-ing communities andschools. During the workweek, they have two care-givers who help them out—Ray does all the groceryshopping but does not drive.Hisdailyscheduleiskeptonawhiteboardinthekitchen.

He tries to stay active, buthesometimesdoesn’t feelupto it. He loves going to BoiseState football games andmeetingfriendsforlunch.

“Sometimeshe’llreachfora memory or a word, but Iquickly forget he has Alz-heimer’s,” said longtimefriend Ward Parkinson, co-founder of Micron. “I don’treally see a big difference

fromtheRay Iused to talk toyearsago.More importantly,I don’t feel a difference. He’sthe same very charming,competentguy.”

Ray said the first sixmonths after his diagnosiswas the toughest time of hislife.

“Sadness was the No. 1thing I remember from thatperiod,”hesaid.“Wewerere-allylost.”

Marybeth described it as“tryingtostandupinatsuna-mi.”

“If it’sthishardforus,Icanonly imagine how hard it isforpeoplewhodon’thavethefinancialresources,”shesaid.

Theyfoundhelpandguid-ancethroughsupportgroupsrunbytheAlzheimer’sAsso-ciation in Houston. Ray wasalso a peer mentor to thosewiththediseasewhocouldn’tget to support groups.They’re both active in theBoiseassociation.

TheymovedbacktoIdahothree months ago to be neartheir children: Nick, 32; Ra-chel, 23; andKatie, 21. Rachelmoved back from Washing-ton, D.C., where she workedas a staff assistant for Sen.MikeCrapo.

Katie,whoisworkingonadegreeinsocialworkatBoiseState University, sees herfather several times a week.They often have lunch to-gether. She said she wentthrough a lot of emotions af-terhisdiagnosis.

“It was very hard going toschoolandworkingwiththatkind of burden,” she said. “Iendeduphavingtotelloneofmy profs about it. I wasmis-sing class because I justcouldn’t get myself up to getthere. It tookapretty serioustollonme.”

She said her dad is the“greatest” and “most caring”man she’s ever met. Talkingabouthowherfamilyisgrap-pling with his illness hashelped.

“Themorepeopleyoucantell, the more you kind ofcometotermswith itaswell.It’s less of a dark cloud,” shesaid.

The Flachbarts have de-veloped a dark sense of hu-mor about the whole thing,choosing to laugh instead ofcry.

“We’ve learned to laugh

aboutalotofstuff.Ithasn’tal-ways been that way,” Katiesaid.“Ifmydadforgetssome-thing, he’ll say, ‘Oh yeah, IhaveAlzheimer’s.’ ”

KatyMoeller:377-6413;

Twitter:@KatyMoeller

DIAGNOSISCONTINUED FROM D1

Photos by KYLE GREEN / kgreen@idahostatesman.com

Ray Flachbart goes through a range-of-motion exercise under the watchful eye of personaltrainer Tony Kubitschek.

HELP RAISEMONEY, GET SUPPORTFormer BlueCross of IdahoCEORay Flachbart and his

familywill speak at theWalk to EndAlzheimer’s inMerid-ian onOct. 3.Want to participate?You can register onlineor at thewalk, which raisesmoney for support, educationand research.

The annualWalk to EndAlzheimer’s raisesmoney forsupport services, education and research. About 2,000people are expected to participate in theMeridianwalk,and about 600 in Twin Falls, organizers say.

➤ 10 a.m. Saturday,Oct. 3, at Julius Kleiner Park, 1900N. RecordsAve. inMeridian. Ceremony at 11 a.m., andwalk starts at 11:30 a.m. Route is about 2miles.

➤ 10 a.m. Saturday,Oct. 10, at College of SouthernIdaho campus, 315 Falls Ave. in Twin Falls. Ceremony at 11a.m., andwalk starts at 11:30 a.m. Route is about 2miles.

Early-stage SupportGroupFor peoplewho are living in the early stages of

Alzheimer’s or related dementia—and their carepartners. These groups offer dementia-related education,emotional support and connectionswith resources. TheAlzheimer’sAssociation is nowenrolling people in thenext Early Stage SupportGroup,whichwill startmeetingthiswinter. Formore information or to join the group, callChristine Bubb at (208)-206-0041, ext. 8198.

Greater IdahoChapter ofAlzheimer’sAssociationOffice: 6126W. State Street, Suite 407, Boise, ID

83703. Call for help ormake an appointment: 208-206-0041.

24-hourHelpline: 800-272-3900Alzheimer’sAssociationwebsite: www.alz.org/Idaho

Flachbart greets old friend David Kantor at his house inEagle.

KATYMOELLERKaty is a general news

reporterwho coveredIdaho’s efforts to create a

state planforAlz-heimer’s, aswell assupportservicesavailable to

families caring for aloved one. Her firstexperiencewith thediseasewaswhen hergreat auntwas afflicted.

KILLIS, Turkey—The 15Chechens looking to crossthe border from Turkey toSyria didn’t strike Abdullahas particularly important orunusual.

It was early summer in2012,andasasmugglerbasedintheTurkishbordertownofKillis, Abdullah, who’d fledhis home village in Syria be-cause of fighting on the out-skirts ofAleppo,was used tosecretive groups of foreign-ers — journalists, aid work-ers andmany recently aspir-ing jihadists— hiring him tocross Turkish military linesat the border while avoidingwhat was then still a signifi-cant Syrian governmentpresenceinnorthernSyrian.

“In 2012, everyone wascoming to Syria and we hadtoo much work leading allkinds of people across theborder,” he explained overlunch in Killis, a Turkishtown just a few miles fromthe rebel-held Syrian city ofAzzaz. “A lot were Muslimswhohadcometosupporttherevolution against BasharAssadfromeverycountry.Somany from Europe, Russia,Germany,France. ...”

The 15 men had reachedAbdullah through a networkof contacts thatwere funnel-ing new fighters to northernSyria, and Abdullah recalledthey said they were going toSyria to assist in the fightagainst Assad. They werequiet, disciplined and for themost part spoke only a bit ofcrudeformalArabic.

Only later did Abdullahrealize that the network thatfunneled these men to himwas the beginnings of the Is-lamic State, and that one ofthe15wouldturnouttobethemost important non-ArabfigureintheIslamicStatehie-

rarchy, a former American-trained noncommissionedofficerinthespecialforcesofthe nation of Georgia, who’dledhismenheroicallyduringthe 2008Russian invasion ofhishomeland.

Abu Omar al-Shishani, ashe’s now known, had beenbornTarkhan Batirashvili 27yearsearlierinGeorgia’sPan-kisi Gorge, a tiny enclave ofethnic Chechens, known lo-cally asKists,whose roughly10,000 residents representvirtuallyalloftheMuslimsinpredominantly OrthodoxChristianGeorgia.

KEYFIGUREBut analysts of extremist

groups saidBatirashvili’s im-pacthasbeenfargreaterthanthe small numbers of Mus-lims in Georgia would sug-gest. Since he swore alle-giance to the Islamic State in2013, thousands of Muslimsfrom the Caucasus haveflockedtoSyriatojointheex-tremistcause.

“More than anything else,Batirashvili has legitimizedISIS in the Caucasus by thepower of his exploits, whichis amplified by slick ISISpropaganda,” said MichaelCecire, an analyst of extre-mism for the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Re-searchInstitute.

Batirashvili’s battlefieldsuccesses, including orches-trating the capture of Syria’sMenagh Air Base after twoyears of failed attempts,“helped to legitimize ISIS inmilitant circles, including intheNorthCaucasus,” Ceciresaid.

“Batirashvili’s ability todemonstrate ISIS’ tacticalprowess attracted fighters indroves from other factionsand tipped the scales in for-eign fighter flowandrecruit-ment,” Cecire said. “In theNorthCaucasus, young peo-pleno longerwanted to fightinSyriawiththeincreasinglymarginalized CaucasusEmirate but wanted to fightwiththewinners—ISIS.”

Batirashvili’s story alsowas compelling, Cecire said:“Aman with a modest back-ground, sickly and impover-ished before he went to Sy-ria,” becomes “a great battle-fieldcommanderdefyingtheworld” ... a “seemingly emul-able,rags-to-richesstory.”

Thoseseekinganexplana-tion for Russian PresidentVladimir Putin’s insistenceon sending military suppliesand manpower to Syria tobolster the government ofPresident Bashar AssadwoulddowelltoconsiderBa-tirashvili. Putinnot onlyper-sonally oversaw the Russianpush intoGeorgia, buthehastwicewagedwaragainstIsla-mist-led factions in Chech-nyawhosecauseBatirashvilihas supported sincehewasateenager.

Now 30, Batirashvili is akeyfigure,reportedlyamem-ber of the group’s governingcouncil, is said to be the Is-lamic State’s supreme mili-tary leader in northern Syriaand Aleppo, and is perhapsthe group’s most fearsome

groundcommander.Hiscur-rent status is an irony for amanonceconsideredaGeor-gian soldier with a bright fu-ture.

“We trained himwell, andwe had lots of help fromAmerica,” said a formerGeorgian defense officialwho asked to not be identi-fiedbecauseofthesensitivityofBatirashvili’s role in the Is-lamic State. “In fact, the onlyreason he didn’t go to Iraq tofight alongside America wasthatweneededhisskillshereinGeorgia.”

‘PERFECTSOLDIER’AccordingtoBatirashvili’s

ex-comradesintheGeorgianmilitary, Batirashvili wastappedimmediatelyuponhisenlistment to join Georgia’sU.S.-trainedspecialforces.

“He was a perfect soldierfromhisfirstdays,andevery-oneknewhewasa star,” saidone former comrade, whoaskednot tobe identifiedbe-cause he remains on activeduty and has been orderednot to givemedia interviews

about his former colleague.“We were well trained byAmerican special forcesunits, andhewas the starpu-pil.”

ThestoryofhowBatirash-vili left the Georgian armyand later ended up in prisonfor a year on suspicion ofarms trafficking is muddled.Georgian military recordsshow that hewasdischargedformedicalreasonsin2010—he’dcontractedtuberculosis,according to the records —butsomecolleaguesandresi-dents of Pankisi say the realreasonforthedischargewereconcernsabouthisfamily.

“Theguyhastwobrothers,both of whom fought inChechnya,andheisknowntohavehelpedtherebelsbeforejoiningthearmy,”thedefenseofficial said. “As good a sol-dierashewas, therewasalotofconcernabouttheguy’sbe-ing radicalizedover theChe-chenconflictnextdoor.”

By late 2010, Batirashviliwasunderarrestforweaponspossession, which his fathertold the BBC was merely anoldboxofammunition in thehouse.Butprosecutorsaskedfor a significant jail term outof fear that Batirashvili al-ready had been radicalized.Regardless ofwhen this rad-icalization took place, by thetimehe left prison 16monthslater, Batirashvili reportedlywastellingpeoplethatprisonand his Muslim mother’sdeathfromcancershortlyaf-terhisreleasehadconvincedhimtobecomereligious.

In early 2012, Batirashvilidisappeared from Georgia.He told his father he washeaded to Istanbul to getawayfromGeorgianmilitaryintelligence.

“Hewas themost brilliantcommander in the Syrianrevolution,” said Yousef, aSyrian who served as AbuOmar’s deputy and spokefreely of his time with himduring lengthy interviews inGaziantep and Killis, twoTurkishcitieswith largeSyr-ianrebelpresences.

REBELGROUPSAbuOmar’sstringofvicto-

ries included leading broadcoalitions of disparate rebelgroups to victory in Aleppo.In August 2013, he was theleader of the group that cap-tured the Menagh Air Base,whichrebelshadbeentryingtotakefortwoyears.

ButbothYousef andRam-zan said they eventuallybroke with Abu Omar overhis decision in November2013 to throw in with the Is-lamic State. At the time, ten-sions were running high be-tween the Islamic State andother rebel factions, includ-ing al-Qaida’s Nusra Front.Abu Omar had remainedabove the fray, but it eventu-allybecameapparent that hehad sided with the IslamicState.

Yousefremembersaseriesof suicide bombings that tar-getedFreeSyrianArmyunitsat Tal Rifaat, his hometown,whilehewasvisitingfamily.

“TheFSAunitinTalRifaatwasmade of very goodmen.They did not have a reputa-tion for being gangsters orforeignspieslikemanyoftheotherFSAunits,”he said.Butthe Islamic State attackedthemanyway.

Yousefvisiblytearedupashe told of the final text mes-sageshesentAbuOmar,end-ing their friendship and an-nouncing his split from thegroup.

“Itoldhimthatanenemyisanenemy,buthewasabroth-erwhobecameanenemyandit was much worse. That Iwouldforeveropposehim.”

Still, Yousef, who nowfightswithamoderateSyrianrebel movement outsideAleppo, absolves Abu Omarof theworst crimes of the Is-lamicState.

“He’s one of the best menandbestMuslimsIhaveeverknown,” said Yousef. “I amobligated to confront him ifheremainswiththesepeople,butifheweretoleavethemortake control of the IslamicState,Iwouldforgivehim.”

ISLAMIC STATE

U.S. training helped mold top commanderHis allegiance to thegroup has inspiredthousands to join.

BY MITCHELL PROTHERO

STATESMANWASHINGTON

BUREAU

/ Tribune News Service

Abu Omar al Shishani, born Tarkhan Batirashvili in Georgia’sPankisi Valley, is shown in an Islamic State video posted onthe Internet.