'The Honey Trap' Documentary Recap: How Did Denis Cuspert Get Killed?

The Honey Trap is a well-made documentary because it talks about a concept that I believe does not get enough attention. It makes us realize how the next war will be fought in cyberspace and not on the battlefield. It makes us realize the importance of shaping a narrative and using media as a tool to do that. The West has long since realized the importance of the entertainment industry in furthering the agendas of the government, but I guess the rest of the world is also slowly catching up. Affecting somebody subconsciously is of the utmost importance, and it is said that no propaganda sometimes proves to be the best propaganda. I mean, we all saw how South Korea made its presence felt on the international forum using that tactic. In the early 2000s, nobody had heard about K-pop or K-dramas, but slowly, we all started consuming that content and liked it, too. There is no overt propaganda that is being pushed in those shows, but they still get a chance to table their perspective in front of the world. Only the Western countries had that privilege back in the day, and that is how they could justify the Iraq war and yet put the blame on the victims. Exerting soft power is of utmost importance, and The Honey Trap showed us how ISIS also used it to its advantage. So, let’s find out what happened in Denis Cuspert’s life and how he became an important member of the ISIS PR wing. 

What made Denis join the Salafist movement? 

We got to know through The Honey Trap that a Black man having an American surname ended up becoming one of the most dreaded terrorists in Germany and how he became one of the most important members of the terrorist organization ISIS. Cuspert’s mother, Sigrid Cuspert, fell in love with a Ghanaian national named Richard Giffard, but a tragedy occurred, and the man was deported back to Ghana before Cuspert was even born.

Post World War II, American soldiers from the armed forces were deployed in Germany. Their role was to maintain law and order, which resulted in their having to interact with the locals quite frequently. Sigrid married a US military officer after Denis’ biological father was deported back. Denis had a difficult childhood, and he was subjected to a lot of racism in his initial years, which had a huge impact on his life. He had a lot of issues with his stepfather, too, and he never got the love and affection that he craved. Denis started a stint in the music industry, and soon he became a well-known rapper in the country. Through poetry, he got a chance to tell his own story to the world. He could tell the world what he felt through his lyrics, how society treated him, and how racism shaped his childhood. Also another thing that had a huge impact on his life was the “military-entertainment” complex. The West, especially the United States of America, in a post-World War II era, had realized that to shape the narrative in their favor, they needed to use films as a tool. Becoming a soft power was of utmost importance, and there were a plethora of films where the depiction of certain communities and people of a particular nationality was done in a stereotypical manner. Now, I believe the best thing that the US did was to make sure that their audience didn’t perceive those projects as propaganda films. They made good quality cinema, but somehow, their biases, the stereotypical representations of people of Middle Eastern countries, affected the people subconsciously.

People started to believe that the sensibilities of a person hailing from the Middle East, especially places like Syria and Iraq, were a certain way, which obviously was not universally true. The Nazis did that back in the early 1930s, but their methods were very explicit, something which the filmmakers hailing from the West knew that they couldn’t do. So the entertainment industry, at least the mainstream films, did that in a subtle manner so the blame for spreading propaganda didn’t fall upon them. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria realized the power of a military-entertainment complex. They started giving importance to their media and PR wing. They produced short cinematic videos, and the kind of production quality they had made it clear that they were quite influenced by the tactics used by the Western countries. Around that time, Denis Cuspert decided to fight in professional MMA. He lost to the reigning champion of the event he was fighting in, which had an adverse impact on him. Though there were many things that pushed him towards joining the jihadist movement happening in Syria and Iraq, that loss in the MMA fight could be said to be the final nail in the coffin. Also, it cannot be denied that people like Pierre Vogel, a former professional boxer turned Islamic preacher, shaped his ideology and made him really think about his life. Before anybody knew it, Denis Cuspert became an important member of the jihadist group.

Why did Daniela Greene betray the FBI? 

Denis Cuspert started using social media to spread hatred against the West. There were many videos that he shared on his account in good faith that he later came to know were fake. For example, there was a video of a US military officer raping an Iraqi woman that Cuspert put on his social media account, which he later came to know was a scene from a famous American film. Many people were influenced by his words, and they joined the jihadist movement. Soon, the US agencies started to perceive Cuspert as a threat. A unanimous decision was taken to use social media to pin down Cuspert and extract information from him. A German woman named Daniela Greene was approached for the job, and she started working for the FBI. Daniela married a US Army officer, and she moved to the States after that. Though Daniela moved to the US and started a new chapter in her life, she was never able to become a part of society. She still felt like an outsider, and she pushed herself to a space where she let her vulnerabilities overpower her. She started talking to Denis Cuspert via social media, but instead of extracting information that could be beneficial for the FBI, she fell for the man. Denis had always been a charmer, and probably, he gave Daniela the comfort that she needed. Without telling her FBI handler, Daniela decided to go to Syria and get married to the man. Imagine the kind of influence Denis must have had on her, for her to decide to take that huge step even when she knew the kind of consequences it could entail. I personally don’t know if she was brainwashed to a certain extent or if Denis actually filled the void that existed inside her. After moving to Syria, things didn’t turn out the way she had imagined. Denis Knew that if his superiors in ISIS got to know that she was working for the FBI, then her life would be in danger. Denis and Daniela tried their level best to live together, but the former knew that before it got out of hand, he needed to send her back to the States. Cuspert helped Daniela escape from Syria, and eventually, she was taken into custody by the US authorities. 

How did Cuspert get killed? 

It was believed that under the Espionage Act, Daniela would get at least a 10-year sentence. She had committed an act of sedition, and the US authorities had a history of setting a precedent when it came to such matters. But Daniela confessed to her crimes, and her lawyer made sure that she was sentenced to only 2 years, which, in retrospect, was a huge victory for her. I don’t know what went on behind closed doors, what kind of deals were made, or why the courts were so lenient towards her, but she was able to negotiate and turn the odds in her favor. Surprisingly, Daniela didn’t hide my information from the FBI, which probably played a huge role in them reducing her sentence. The FBI had their information, but they needed somebody who could give them the exact location where the ISIS high command stayed, where they met, and the hidden bases from where they functioned. As a result of the intel provided by Daniela, the FBI was able to locate Cuspert and, with the help of Syrian Democratic Forces, eventually executed him. Cuspert got killed in an airstrike around 2018, and that was a huge victory for the US authorities, who for years were trying to get some leverage over him. I believe that, to some extent, this entire conflict made the other nation aware of the mediatization of war. It came to be known that, in the future, instead of coercing, the world forces would rather opt for a soft approach where, through their policies, propaganda, and perspective, they would be able to influence others and get the outcome that they want. 

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