‘ISIS BRIDE’ LISA: I DIDN’T TRAIN GIRLS TO FIGHT
Ex-Defence Forces member says she wants to bring daughter home
LISA Smith, the Irish woman who travelled to Islamic State-controlled territory, has insisted she did not provide weapons training to girls in Syria.
The former member of the Defence Forces added that she did not know if Irish people would believe her.
In an interview with journalist Norma Costello for RTÉ at the refugee camp where she is being held, she said: ‘It’s up to them. I’m telling you myself, I didn’t fight.’
When told by the journalist that two children would be interviewed who claimed they had been trained by Ms Smith, she said: ‘Bring them to me.’ Ms Costello replied: ‘Those children are too afraid, they don’t want to see you.’
‘Are you sure it’s me?’ asked Ms Smith.
Ms Costello then said: ‘Let me just run this scenario by you... Basically, you were teaching along with a Tunisian teacher, you were teaching children in weapons, and the Tunisian teacher was being quite aggressive with the children.
‘You complained and said that the Tunisian teacher was being too aggressive and that they should be softer with the kids, and your complaint – exactly like the scenario painted – was trumped by the Tunisian, and the administration of the school agreed with [it] and you were kicked out of the school and you lost your job.’
Ms Smith then laughed and said: ‘This is completely new news to me. This is so not true.’
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he would like to see Ms Smith and her two-year-old daughter return to Ireland for the sake of the child.
But he said he would not pledge resources to bring the former Defence Forces member home.
At present, Ms Smith, 37, is being held in the Al-Hawl displacement camp in Syria for the wives and children of Islamic State fighters.
The Taoiseach told Seán O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One that he wanted her daughter
‘I’d never separate a mother and child’
Rakaya, an Irish citizen, to be able to return to Ireland and he would never separate a mother and child.
‘I want her child to be able to come home, I would never separate a mother and child, so yes, I want her to come home,’ Mr Varadkar said.
Asked about the difficulties associated with returning Ms Smith to Ireland, Mr Varadkar said he couldn’t comment on military operations, adding that he didn’t want to put Irish personnel at risk and that there would be a cost to efforts to bring Ms Smith back to Ireland.
‘There are lots of Irish citizens who get into trouble around the world,’ Mr Varadkar said, citing the case of innocent young Irishman Ibrahim Halawa, who spent four years in jail in Egypt after attending a protest against a military coup.
‘We don’t fly them home from Australia or New Zealand or Egypt as happened with Ibrahim Halawa. There are also security issues should she return. We don’t send out the army to bring home Irish citizens,’ Mr Varadkar said.
Ms Smith moved to Syria in 2015 shortly after leaving the Air Corps where she worked as a flight attendant on the Government jet and as a driver to senior officers.
She had also previously served with the Army as part of the 27th Infantry Battalion.
In the interview with Norma Costello at the camp, Ms Smith said she wants to return to Ireland but fears being made an example of.
‘To be honest I don’t think I will be going back, ever,’ she said. ‘That’s what I feel. That’s what I think. They could be trying to make an example of me because I’m Irish and I’m military and I’m a woman.
‘To be honest, I don’t know what’s going on. If it’s just the Irish Government or it’s Europe as a whole, because there’s a big delay on all the countries at the moment.’
She says her toddler daughter was born to a British father while living in Islamic State territory, a man she says died earlier this year.
‘Everyone is getting stressed and frustrated because they don’t know what’s happening to them,’ she said.
‘One minute they are saying deportation and you are going back to your country and people are coming to talk to you, but nothing is happening,’ she said.
Ms Smith also told RTÉ she does not understand what people mean when they suggest she has been motivated by ‘radical beliefs’.
‘What is radical? I don’t understand clearly,’ she added.
‘Someone needs to explain it to me properly because I don’t understand what radical is. In terms of being a Muslim and wanting to live in a Muslim state, I don’t understand how that is radical.’
Ms Smith again denied fighting for jihadist militants.
‘What did I do? I just joined the Islamic State and now I just become a monster. How?’ Ms Smith asked.
‘The British and the Irish fought for many years. If someone moved from England, then what would they say about them? How am I a monster? I came here to Islamic State and I didn’t do anything.’
She added that she did not know whether the Irish people would believe her.
‘It’s up to them. I’m telling you myself, I didn’t fight.’
Smith has also expressed concerns over returning to Ireland as she fears her daughter will be seen as the child of a terrorist.
‘I don’t want to be without my daughter. I love my daughter. What mother is going to give up her daughter like that?’ Ms Smith said.
She believes that people would soon forget about her if she ever returned to Ireland.
‘Things die down. Then something else might happen in the world. Over time people forget about things. In a year, two years, people forget about things. New generations come, new life comes, new things happen and people forget,’ she added.
Fianna Fáil foreign affairs spokesman Niall Collins called on the Government to make a clear decision on Ms Smith’s case, and to act on that decision.
‘Lisa Smith and her child are being held in a refugee camp on the Syria/Iraq border and whilst I absolutely condemn her decision to associate herself with the death cult of Isis, it is also my view that she and her child are Irish citizens and there is a responsibility on the Irish Government to assist in her return to Ireland,’ Mr Collins said.
‘On her return, she should face the full rigour of Irish law and that process will take its course.’
Speaking to RTÉ yesterday, chair of the Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri said he would be worried if Ms Smith was brought home and allowed to roam freely in Ireland.
‘She should be brought back as the Taoiseach has said, but at the same time I think the security and the safety of the larger society must be prioritised.
‘I don’t think there is any other option.’
‘How am I a monster?