Extremist
Content Online: AQAP Claims Florida Naval Base Shooting, Neo-Nazis
Offer Tech Services For Extremist Groups
(New York, N.Y.) - The Counter Extremism
Project (CEP) reports weekly on the methods used by extremists to
exploit the Internet and social media platforms to recruit followers
and incite violence. This week, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP) claimed responsibility for the December 6 shooting at the
Pensacola Naval Base. Additionally, a Neo-Nazi web security group
affiliated with the Atomwaffen Division (AWD) was located, where they
claim to provide hosting services, tech support, and research
infrastructure to multiple extremist groups. Neo-Nazi and ISIS content
calling for acts of violence were located on Instagram. Following the
February 4 stabbing in the Maldives claimed by individuals supporting
the Islamic State, legacy Maldivian pro-ISIS content was located on
various media platforms. Finally, Neo-Nazi accelerationist channels
uploaded homemade firearms instructions to Telegram.
AQAP Claims Responsibility For Shooting At U.S.
Naval Facility
On February 2, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
claimed responsibility for the December 6 shooting at Naval Air
Station Pensacola by a member of the Royal Saudi Air Force. Second
Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Al-Shamrani killed three people and injured
eight others before he was killed by responding law enforcement
officers. All three base casualties were U.S. Navy sailors. On
February 2, AQAP released a pre-recorded video by their leader, Qasim al-Raymi, stating that Al-Shamrani was in
communication with the group, and that AQAP claimed responsibility.
Raymi also called on Muslims in the U.S. and the U.K. to commit
attacks against commerce, politicians, and members of the armed
forces. The White House announced on February 6 that Raymi was killed
in a U.S. airstrike.
Text of the video was uploaded to the Internet Archive and
was still available three days later. In addition to a website
operated by AQAP, the video was uploaded to at least ten other
websites: Megafiles.in, 1fichier.com, Epicdrive.site, files.fm,
mystream.to, Amazon Cloud Drive, Dropbox, the Microsoft One Drive,
Userscloud, and Zippyshare. Approximately four days later, the video
was still available on the AQAP website as well as megafiles.in, and
Epicdrive.site. The AQAP website uses Cloudflare as their name
server.
Neo-Nazi Web Security Group
Located
CEP researchers located a neo-Nazi web services group that
claims to provide hosting services, tech support, and “research
infrastructure.” The group claims to be providing hosting services to
at least three websites affiliated with the Atomwaffen Division (AWD), and James Mason’s
neo-Nazi accelerationist book, Siege. The group maintains an “.onion”
website and a Secmail email account. One of the websites the group
claims to provide hosting for uses the web service Anonymize (owned by
Epik), which offers a range of services including domain WHOIS
protection. Another website the web services group assists is
dedicated to neo-Nazi “armed struggle” in the U.S. A different white supremacist web security group
launched their own “.onion” page in December.
Neo-Nazi and ISIS Content Located on
Instagram
Several neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division (AWD) and ISIS videos
were located on Facebook owned Instagram. One of the AWD videos was
uploaded in September by an account that has also posted several
additional pieces of neo-Nazi propaganda and prominently features a
neo-Nazi flag in the user’s profile photo. Over a dozen accounts
posting ISIS propaganda were also located, included clips taken from
ISIS videos, propaganda photos including corpses, Amaq news clips and
written reports, and calls to commit acts of violence. ISIS video
segments were not disguised, and included the terrorist group’s logo,
and in some cases the introductory video segments.
An Atomwaffen Division video
on Instagram, February 6, 2020.
Legacy Maldivian Pro-ISIS Content Located After
February 4 Stabbing Attack
Legacy Maldivian pro-ISIS content was located following the
February 4 stabbing claimed by a pro-ISIS group. Three
tourists, an Australian and two Chinese nationals, were injured. A
pro-ISIS video uploaded over four years ago was located on Vimeo and
the Internet Archive in Dhivehi and English, praising a Maldivian man
who had joined ISIS. Pro-ISIS Dhivehi nasheeds were located on
Soundcloud, originally uploaded between two and three years ago. Two
pro-ISIS Maldivian blogs, one last updated in 2016, and another last
updated in 2017, were also located, both of them on the WordPress blog
platform. Over 170 individuals left the Maldives to join ISIS and
other extremist groups in the Middle East, one of the highest per
capita recruitment rates.
Neo-Nazi Accelerationist Telegram Channels Post
Homemade Firearms Instructions
On February 4 and 5, at least six neo-Nazi accelerationist
Telegram channels posted plans, videos, and links to websites that
offer instructions for building homemade firearms. Plans include 3-D
printed firearms, as well as craft produced firearms. At least one of
the plans posted to Telegram was identical to one of the homemade
firearms used by Stephan Balliet, who is charged with two counts of
murder after an attempted terrorist attack on a synagogue in Halle,
Germany on October 9. Balliet stated that he used homemade weapons in
order to show that attacks with “improvised guns” were possible. The
Telegram post was seen more than 2,500 times.
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