--- description: Jürgen Todenhöfer is the first Western journalist to be granted access to Islamic State (IS)-controlled territories title: Western Journalist Gets Access to ISIS image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4b6339514043a39/6987705ef887dc1289e8932a/google-top-searches-o_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Iraq](/tag/iraq/) ## Iraq Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The First Western Journalist to Interview ISIS Is Home With a Terrifying Message by [Elizabeth Barber](/author/elizabeth-barber/) ## Elizabeth Barber Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 22, 2014 9:10 AM CUT  In this June 16, 2014, file photo, supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria chant slogans as they carry the group's flags in Mosul, Iraq In this June 16, 2014, file photo, supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria chant slogans as they carry the group's flags in Mosul, IraqSTR—AP by [Elizabeth Barber](/author/elizabeth-barber/) ## Elizabeth Barber Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 22, 2014 9:10 AM CUT Jürgen Todenhöfer, the first Western journalist to be granted access to territories controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), has returned with a warning: the terrorist group is “much stronger and much more dangerous” than its adversaries understand. The veteran German writer and journalist is back in his home state after traveling through ISIS territories, just months after the extremist group began killing captive foreign workers and journalists. In Todenhöfer’s first [interviews](http://www.tz.de/politik/todenhoefer-ueber-militaerisch-nicht-besiegen-4555507.html "undefined") about the trip with German-language media, translated by the U.K. _Independent_, he [presents](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/inside-isis-the-first-western-journalist-ever-given-access-to-the-islamic-state-has-just-returned--and-this-is-what-he-discovered-9938438.html "undefined") ISIS as having achieved its namesake goal: an Islamic State — or rather, a collection of claimed lands hewed together by an audacious, baffling zealotry that will challenge efforts to beat the group. **READ MORE** [Kurdish Fighters Regain Territory from ISIS in Most Successful Offensive Yet](http://time.com/3641671/kurdish-fighters-isis-offensive/ "undefined") [Todenhöfer](http://juergentodenhoefer.de "undefined"), 74, a high-profile reporter and [antiwar activist](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/world/middleeast/fallout-continues-over-germans-assad-interview.html?pagewanted=all "undefined"), [traveled](https://www.facebook.com/JuergenTodenhoefer/timeline "undefined") to ISIS-held Mosul, in northern Iraq, after seven months of negotiations with the group’s leaders. In Mosul, Todenhöfer found an “almost ecstatic enthusiasm” for the jihadist group that is unlike anything he had seen “in any other war zone,” he tells the German press. Each day, Todenhöfer says, hundreds of new recruits arrive to pledge themselves to the group’s mission, or what he calls the “largest religious cleansing strategy that has ever been planned in human history.” Beyond the challenge of beating ISIS’s psychological pull on its followers, the U.S. and its allies will also confront the problem that the group’s some 5,000 fighters in Mosul sleep in barracks all around the Iraqi city, such that attackers “would have to reduce the whole of Mosul to ruins” to rid it of ISIS, says Todenhöfer. He adds: “With every bomb that is dropped and hits a civilian, the number of terrorists increases.” \[[_The Independent_](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/inside-isis-the-first-western-journalist-ever-given-access-to-the-islamic-state-has-just-returned--and-this-is-what-he-discovered-9938438.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3643610/islamic-state-jurgen-todenhofer-journalist-mosul/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3643610/islamic-state-jurgen-todenhofer-journalist-mosul/"},"headline":"The First Western Journalist to Interview ISIS Is Home With a Terrifying Message","datePublished":"2014-12-22T09:10:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:03:07.284Z","description":"What he found in Mosul doesn't bode well","url":"https://time.com/3643610/islamic-state-jurgen-todenhofer-journalist-mosul/","keywords":["Iraq","Syria","Mosul","Islamic State"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4b6339514043a39/6987705ef887dc1289e8932a/google-top-searches-o_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Barber","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/elizabeth-barber/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4b6339514043a39/6987705ef887dc1289e8932a/google-top-searches-o_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Google Top Searches of 2014 List","caption":"Google Top Searches of 2014 List","creditText":"STR—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/iraq/","name":"Iraq"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3643610/islamic-state-jurgen-todenhofer-journalist-mosul/","name":"The First Western Journalist to Interview ISIS Is Home With a Terrifying Message"}}]}] ```