Getty Images

Once labeled the “J.V. team” by former President Obama, ISIS has proved to be anything but a minor threat. Aside from carrying out increasingly deadly terrorist attacks abroad, ISIS quickly took over large swaths of territory in both Syria and Iraq. And with no real plan from Obama to stop the danger, ISIS was allowed to spread.

Thankfully, recent months have brought increasingly good news in the fight against the upstart terrorist organization. In July, U.S.-backed forces retook the Iraqi city of Mosul. With ISIS in retreat, coalition forces also closed in on Raqqa, the de facto ISIS capital.

At this point, ISIS forces are in complete disarray. Attempts to flee from coalition air power have proven disastrous, resulting in a a convoy of hundreds of fighters being stranded in the desert as air attacks pick them off. However, an enemy this close to defeat is also a desperate enemy. In that desperation, the terrorist group has issued some pretty chilling instructions on how to strike back at the United States.

From Zero Hedge:

After urging its supporters in the west to turn cars into weapons, guidance that inspired terror attacks in the UK, Spain and France, ISIS is now calling for sympathizers to poison the food in US supermarkets with cyanide, according to SITE.

In recent days, channels associated with the terrorist army have posted calls for attacks on Europe, Russia and the United States to mark the occasion of the Islamic “Sacrifice Feast” Eid al Adha. In the third part of an English-language series on jihad, ISIS advised would-be attackers to inject food for sale in markets with cyanide poison. According to Spiesa, the organization has tested these methods on prisons, causing horrifically painful deaths.

As one can imagine, the results of such an attack could be devastating:

Aside from the obvious death toll, we imagine that a terror attack in an American grocery store would annihilate billions in grocery stock market cap, adding to the industry’s Whole Foods Market-inspired woes. Investors who once saw grocers as an oasis in the troubled retail sector are increasingly balking now that Amazon has promised to use sensors and automation to save on staffing costs and undercut rivals on pricing. And the terror threats won’t help.

While most of the recent news surrounding ISIS has been promising, plans like this show the threat is far from gone. With ISIS close to defeat, we can only hope their ability to carry out such international attacks becomes less likely as well.

[Note: This post was authored by Michael Lee. Follow him on Twitter @UAMichaelLee]