Eye on Extremism
February 21, 2020
Foreign
Policy: Terrorist Rehab
“You’re not scared of me?” Yusuf sked half-jokingly as he tossed
his burnt pizza crust on the plate. “No,” I told him, but I probably
should have been. Yusuf was convicted on terrorism charges for his
connection to the 2002 Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people.
He spent 10 years in an Indonesian prison, fought with al Qaeda, and
personally knew Osama bin Laden. In his crowded restaurant in
Surakarta, Indonesia, all that seemed very far away. But to him,
perhaps it did not. “I built my business the same way I built my teams
in Afghanistan,” he explained. “I fundraise, recruit people, track
spending, monitor competition—it’s the same game.” In the United
States, someone like Yusuf might never walk free once in prison due to
fears that he might return to militancy. The November 2019 terrorist
attack in London, in which two people were stabbed to death by a man
released from jail after serving half of his 16-year sentence for
terrorism offenses, catapulted fears about recidivism into the public
eye. Those concerns were deepened in February after another stabbing
in which two people were killed by a man who had recently been
released from prison for terrorism offenses.”
The
Guardian: Britain First Leader Paul Golding Charged By Anti-Terror
Police
“Paul Golding, the leader of the fringe far-right group Britain
First, has been charged with an offence under the Terrorism Act after
refusing to give police access to his phone. He was stopped at
Heathrow airport in October while returning from a trip to the Russian
parliament in Moscow by officers from the Metropolitan police’s
counter-terrorism command. He refused to give the Pin codes for a
number of his electronic devices. Golding, 38, is charged with
refusing to comply with a duty under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act.
A Met spokesman said Golding, of Bexley in south-east London, was
charged by postal requisition on Wednesday. He is due to appear at
Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 27 February. In a statement Golding
said he was not a terrorist and described the charges as “an abuse of
legislation”. Schedule 7 allows police to interrogate, search and
detain anyone for up to six hours at UK ports. It is designed to
determine whether an individual is involved in the “commission,
preparation or instigation” of acts of terrorism. Britain First
achieved brief notoriety in late 2017 after Donald Trump retweeted
anti-Muslim messages sent by the party’s then deputy leader, Jayda
Fransen, prompting international condemnation.”
Washington
Examiner: Terror In South America: Iran And Hezbollah Threaten The
Region, Insiders Say
“The phrasing and emphasis were deliberate. Colombian Defense
Minister Carlos Trujillo stood at a podium at the Pentagon reading a
prepared statement in English when he turned to U.S. Defense Secretary
Mark Esper to pause and enunciate one word at the end of a list of
shared threats: “Hezbollah.” The Iranian-sponsored terrorist
organization has long had a presence in Latin America, but recent
United States-Iran tensions and the potential for a proxy strike on
U.S. interests from a staging point in not-so-friendly Venezuela have
brought concerns to the forefront. “We also reaffirmed our joint
commitment to counterattack the illegitimate Maduro regime's harboring
of terrorist groups such as the ELN, the FARC, and others, such as
Hezbollah,” Trujillo said of his Feb. 7 meeting with Esper. Colombia
took the opportunity to highlight its most important bilateral defense
partnership at a time when U.S. Southern Command, or SOUTHCOM, is
undergoing a budget review that could scale back U.S. military
operations in the region. The South American nation, with U.S.
support, has in recent years made great strides against domestic
terrorist groups ELN and FARC. Battlefield successes have led to a
peace agreement with FARC leaders and paved the way for commercial and
tourist growth.”
United States
U.S.
News & World Report: Utah Man Convicted Of Hate Crimes For Attack
At Tire Shop
“A jury found a Utah man guilty of three hate crimes for shouting
that he wanted to “kill Mexicans” before attacking three Latinos at a
tire shop. Alan Dale Covington, 51, was convicted of attacking Jose
Lopez and his 18-year-old son Luis with a 3-foot (0.9-meter) metal
pole in November 2018, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday. He
faces life in prison. “This defendant attacked this family because of
who they are,” said Rose Gibson, representing the federal government
in this case. “He came armed.” Jose Lopez's brother Angel Lopez joined
them outside after Covington refused to leave the property,
prosecutors said. Covington then swung a metal pole twice, hitting the
18-year-old in the face the second time before Angel Lopez eventually
scared him away, prosecutors said. Evidence was presented against
Covington that showed he went to another auto shop two days earlier
allegedly screaming similar slurs before eventually leaving when he
found out the man was from Venezuela, according to court documents.
Jose Lopez testified that Covington shouted, “Go ahead and call the
police, but I’m going to kill you guys. You’re part of the Mexican
mafia. You killed my daughter.”
The
Washington Post: This Renowned German Professor Was Headed To U-Va. To
Teach About The Rise Of Far-Right Extremism. The State Department Held
Up His Visa.
“When German academic Hajo Funke received word he was selected to
be a visiting professor at the University of Virginia, he hastily
began preparing. He arranged documentation to apply for a visa and
delivered it to the U.S. Consulate in Berlin on Nov. 18, his 75th
birthday. After an interview at the consulate in December, Funke
rented an apartment in Charlottesville and arranged health insurance.
When the consulate returned his passport, it was accompanied not by a
visa but by a letter that said a decision about his visa had been
delayed for three to six months. The two classes he was set to teach —
one on far-right populism and another on political memory in Germany —
were in jeopardy. On Thursday morning, after spending weeks teaching
the course over video conferencing from his home and after an appeal
from U-Va. officials, Funke got an email from the consulate saying his
visa had been granted. The news comes just in time for Funke to finish
the academic term with his students. But questions have been raised
about what prompted the delay, which was first reported by the
Cavalier Daily, the independent student newspaper. A State Department
official declined to answer questions about Funke’s case, saying she
is barred by law from commenting on individual visa cases.”
Syria
The
Hill: The Missing ISIS Victims And The Families They Left
Behind
“In 2013, Ismail al-Hamed, a Syrian doctor and resistance leader,
was kidnapped by a group of armed men in Raqqa, the city in northeast
Syria that soon would become the headquarters of the so-called
caliphate of the Islamic State (ISIS). Al-Hamed’s kidnapping was one
of thousands that the armed group carried out to crush resistance
during its rule over large swaths of Iraq and Syria. When a U.S.-led
international coalition and its local partner, the Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF), routed ISIS from its last holdout in Syria last March,
the families of ISIS victims were filled with hope that the local
authorities and coalition countries would help them find their missing
loved ones. But the coalition and the SDF, as well as other
authorities that now control areas formerly under ISIS, reportedly
have been doing little to help. “Qasd (the SDF), the coalition,
they’re refusing to have a mechanism to find our children,” Faten
Ajjan, the mother of a young journalist who was kidnapped by ISIS in
2013, told us. “There is total absence internationally. I’m a mother
and I was never afraid of ISIS. You are nations, why are you afraid?”
The situation in Northeast Syria has only become more complex, and
post-ISIS recovery efforts are stalling.”
Turkey
Reuters:
Russia Accuses Turkey Of Shelling Syrian Army To Help
Militants
“Russia accused Turkey on Thursday of providing artillery support
to militants fighting the Syrian army and said militants briefly broke
through Syrian military positions in Idlib, Russian news agencies
reported. Russia’s air force carried out strikes on pro-Turkish
militants who burst through Syrian government positions in two areas
of Idlib province, allowing the Syrian army to repel the attacks, the
ministry was cited as saying. “The actions of the militants were
supported by artillery fire from the Turkish armed forces, which
allowed the terrorists to break through the defense of the Syrian
army,” the Russian defense ministry was quoted as saying. The Turkish
artillery fire wounded four Syrian soldiers, it said. The accusations
add to mounting tensions between Turkey, Syria and its ally Russia
over the conflict in Idlib province, the last remaining rebel bastion
in Syria’s nine-year-civil war where government forces are mounting an
offensive. The offensive has prompted thousands of civilians to flee
and Turkey has demanded a ceasefire and told Syrian government forces
to pull back.”
Afghanistan
Los
Angeles Times: Fighting Could Disrupt U.S.-Taliban Truce In Afghan
Hinterlands
“The road to Zabul province is specked with craters. Army outposts
line a raw landscape of mountains and open steppe. Winds snap hard;
signs warn of minefields. The Taliban has blown up most of the
bridges. Children stand by the roadside, making money shoveling dirt
into the craters, evening out the road, which is shared by tanks and
trucks, soldiers and civilians. Men on crutches with missing legs beg
through endless hours. Even if the war ends — it has been going on so
long, many have lost hope — their suffering will last a lifetime.
Peace is far from Zabul. But there is a glimmer. The yearlong
negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban ended last week, and the
two sides agreed to a “reduction in violence” followed by a formal
peace deal that could come as early as the end of this month. Ahead of
the easing of hostilities — the U.S. could not secure a full ceasefire
— the reelection of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was confirmed on
Tuesday following a dispute over voting that lasted five months. The
U.S.-Taliban deal is seen as a pathway to peace and will likely reduce
the number of U.S. troops in the war-torn country from about 12,000 to
8,600. It would then lead to further withdrawals. But in the
precarious terrain of the southern Afghan province of Zabul, the
chance of ending America’s longest war could be spoiled.”
Reuters:
Taliban, Afghan Officials Say Reach Pact To Reduce
Violence
“Afghan, international and Taliban forces will observe a seven-day
period of reduced violence in Afghanistan beginning at midnight (1930
GMT), an Afghan official and Taliban leaders said on Friday. The
agreement was struck during protracted negotiations between U.S. and
Taliban representatives that began in Qatar in 2018, and could lead to
a withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, they said. “Based on
the plan, the reduction in violence (RIV) will start between the
Taliban and international and Afghan security forces for one week,”
Javid Faisal, spokesperson for the Afghan National Security Advisor,
told Reuters. “We hope it is extended for a longer time and opens the
way for a ceasefire and intra-Afghan talks,” he added. Three senior
Taliban leaders - two in Doha and one in Afghanistan - also confirmed
to Reuters that they had agreed on reduction of violence in
Afghanistan for seven days starting Friday night. All three spoke on
condition of anonymity. The Taliban is expected to make a formal
announcement of the RIV later on Friday. One Taliban leader based in
Doha told Reuters that the period could not be called a
“ceasefire.”
Pakistan
The
Washington Post: Pakistan Hopes Its Steps To ‘Eradicate’ Terrorism
Will Keep It Off A Global Blacklist
“Over the past year, Pakistan says it has “fought and eradicated
the menace of terrorism from its soil” by carrying out arrests,
seizing property and freezing bank accounts of groups designated as
terrorists by the United States and the United Nations. Analysts and
current and former U.S. officials predict these moves will be enough
to keep Pakistan off a global blacklist for financing terrorism and
money laundering. But they caution they will do little to address
Pakistan’s history of supporting militants, a key U.S. foreign policy
priority. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an obscure
international watchdog, is meeting in Paris this week and is expected
to announce whether Pakistan will remain on the watch list Friday,
according to the organization’s spokesman. If Pakistan were to be
blacklisted, the country’s financial transactions would be subject to
greater scrutiny, a move that could discourage investment and further
isolate its struggling economy. The blacklisting could also complicate
Pakistan’s relationship with the United States. The Trump
administration has pressured Pakistan to crack down on terrorism
within its borders as U.S. negotiators work to finalize a peace deal
with the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan that would pave the way
for the withdrawal of thousands of American troops.”
Yemen
Al
Monitor: Is The Time Ripe For Ultimate Eclipse Of Al-Qaeda In
Yemen?
“It has been two weeks since the United States announced the
killing of the chief of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). This
severe blow has hit al-Qaeda hard, adding to the list of its losses
over the last 10 years. The most recent loss is the death of Qassim
al-Rimi, who was targeted in Wadi Abedah in Yemen's Marib province. On
Feb. 6, the White House confirmed the death of Rimi in an airstrike,
saying that this man’s death “degrades al-Qaeda” and “brings us close
to eliminating the threats these groups pose.” Apparently, it is a big
victory but it is not a cure-all for potential al-Qaeda threats.
Multiple American drone strikes have been conducted to kill al-Qaeda
leaders, but this has not sufficed to wipe out the entire existence of
al-Qaeda in Yemen. The killing strategy has been effective in
uprooting the heads, but the roots of the problem persist. Rimi was a
founding member of AQAP and his influence grew in 2015 when he was
declared as the new head of the group after the killing of his
predecessor. Since then, Rimi has been the mastermind of al-Qaeda
operations in war-ravaged Yemen. Al-Qaeda’s malign activities have
just added to the ordeal Yemen has been witnessing over the last five
years.”
Somalia
Military
Times: Record Breaking US Airstrikes Pushing Al-Shabab Fighters Into
Urban Areas
“A recent UN report said that record breaking airstrikes targeting
al-Shabab militants in Somalia is forcing the group to move from rural
areas to urban centers to mitigate American air power. The report also
detailed that improvised explosive attacks carried out by the
al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic extremist group are up. From May 1, 2019
to Oct. 12, 3019, Shabab fighters carried out 99 IED attacks —which is
an increase from the 83 carried out by the group during the same
period in 2018, according to the UN. The U.S. kicked off 2020 with a
bang in Somalia launching nearly 14 airstrikes since the start of the
new year putting the U.S. on pace for another record breaking year for
airstrikes against militants in the country, according to figures
provided by U.S. Africa Command. In 2019, American warplanes launched
63 airstrikes. Air Force Maj. Karl Wiest, a spokesman for AFRICOM,
told Military Times the airstrike totals in 2019 was a record for the
command. The punishing blows by American aircraft appear to have
Shabab fighters attempting to alter tactics. The urban environment
will offer some degree of protection to the militant group, Michael
Rubin, a resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, told
Military Times.”
Africa
Voice
Of America: Boko Haram Raids Displace Thousands More In
Cameroon
“New Boko Haram attacks have displaced more than 3,000 people along
Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria in the past three months.
Authorities say the Nigerian Islamist militants torched houses,
abducted, raped and looted, creating panic among villagers.
Twenty-seven-year-old Cameroonian Alidda Mannodi is getting help from
the Association of Muslim Women in the northern town of Mora, on
Nigeria’s border, after escaping from Boko Haram. Last week, she
managed to flee the border village of Touski, where the Islamist
militants were holding her captive as a sex slave. She said at the
first opportunity she fled a hut in the bush, where she was repeatedly
raped by several men. Mannodi said she told one of the men that she
was menstruating, but the man still raped her. Mannodi said she
trekked for three hours before getting help from a Nigerian fuel
vendor, who brought her to Mora. She said she was among 12 people Boko
Haram abducted from her village - some for a second time. The
Association of Muslim Women is treating her and 16 other women who
escaped Boko Haram in recent months. “
France
RFI:
Trial Opens Of French Jihadist Linked To Bataclan
Killer
“The trial has opened before a special criminal court of Reda Hame,
the French jihadist known to have associated in Syria with one of the
masterminds of the Bataclan killings. Thirty-four-year-old Hame is
accused of “taking part in a criminal group with a view to
perpetrating a crime which would endanger the lives of others”. The
accused spent little more than a week in Syria in June 2015. During
that time, he claims he was approached by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of
the killers who opened fire with a machine gun on the crowd attending
a concert at the Bataclan venue in central Paris in November, 2015.
One hundred and thirty people lost their lives at several venues on
the same night, victims of three coordinated attacks. Hame claims that
Abaaoud asked him if he would be prepared to open fire on a crowd of
people, if someone else could provide the necessary weapons. Hame says
that he accepted the mission, and training in the use of the
kalachnikov automatic rifle, only so that he would be allowed return
to France. He says he never had any intention of committing such a
crime. Hame was arrested in August, 2015, shortly after his return to
France from Syria. He has spent the past five years in police
custody.”
Germany
The
New York Times: Far-Right Shooting Shatters An Already Fragile Sense
Of Security In Germany
“Hanau, a small city in western Germany, considered itself a
melting pot, an island of tolerance. That was before a racist
extremist opened fire at a hookah bar Wednesday night, killing nine
mostly young people in Germany’s worst attack in recent memory. A
working-class community just outside Frankfurt, Hanau was ethnically
diverse long before the issue of immigration began tearing apart
German politics with the arrival of nearly a million asylum seekers
five years ago. “We have lived very peacefully together,” said Metin
Kan, a 43-year-old of Turkish descent, who said he was a friend of one
of the victims, the owner of the Midnight bar. The attack Wednesday
did more than shock Germany. It drove home a fear that no part of the
country is immune to the potential for violence that has been
unleashed with the rise of a far right angered by Germany’s changing
society. The attack, the authorities said, was carried out by a
43-year-old German who had posted a racist video and screed on the
internet. He was later found dead from a gunshot, along with his
mother, at his home, the authorities said, without identifying them.
His rampage took place in the heart of a region that prides itself on
diversity and tolerance.”
The
Wall Street Journal: German Killings Spark Debate Over Far-Right
Terror Threat
“A gunman killed at least nine people in an immigrant neighborhood
near Frankfurt after writing a screed calling for the extermination of
entire ethnic groups, authorities said, fueling a tense political
debate over the rise of far-right extremism in Germany. Chancellor
Angela Merkel said in a televised address that racism was a poison
that was likely behind the assault and other recent crimes in Germany.
“There are many indications that the perpetrator acted out of
far-right and racist motives, driven by hatred of people of different
origin, different faith or different appearance,” Ms. Merkel said. The
attack, which authorities said was committed by a mentally ill man,
has raised fresh concern about a rising far-right terrorist threat in
Germany after a string of attacks and foiled conspiracies in the past
year, including an attack on a synagogue on Yom Kippur last year.
Members of Ms. Merkel’s conservative party have connected a rise in
hate crimes to a rival political party, the Alternative for Germany,
and its anti-immigrant and anti-Islam rhetoric. The AfD has risen in
popularity since the 2015 refugee crisis to become the largest
opposition group in Parliament, although recent polls have showed its
popularity has plateaued.”
BBC
News: Hanau Shooting: Has Germany Done Enough To Tackle Far-Right
Terror Threat?
“The shooting dead of nine people in shisha bars in Hanau is being
treated by German investigators as an act of far-right terrorism. The
attack has shocked Germany and added to fears that police may still be
missing vital clues about violent racists and their networks, despite
previous far-right outrages. The ability of violent racists to remain
for long periods below the police radar was exposed in the National
Socialist Underground (NSU) case. A neo-Nazi cell murdered 10 people,
nine of them immigrants, between 2000 and 2007, while police failed to
connect the attacks. The NSU case was a wake-up call for the
authorities, whose anti-terrorism efforts had been focused on the
threat from violent Islamists. But some now accuse the authorities of
still underestimating the far-right terror threat. The Hanau suspect
has been named as Tobias R. The 43-year-old has been described as a
lone gunman, and was found dead later at home next to his dead mother.
He was a licensed gun owner and had not been under investigation
previously. The attack has reignited a debate in Germany about the
extent to which far-right rhetoric may be encouraging racist
violence.”
Australia
The
Australian: First Arrest Warrants For Australian Islamic State
Brides
“The Australian Federal Police has issued the first arrest warrants
for Australian women suspected of fighting with Islamic State, who are
now trapped in northern Syria. Investigators working within the AFP’s
Returning Terrorist Suspect team have obtained briefs of evidence
against a number of the roughly 20 women held in the al-Hawl refugee
camp. The Australian understands the women will be charged with an
array of offences, including travelling to a declared zone as well as
supporting or joining a terrorist group. The warrants will not change
the women’s immediate situation and will be served only should they
return home. The AFP declined to say how many of the women were
subject to warrants but said all told it had obtained 42 arrest
warrants for suspected terrorists. “All of the women who are suspected
to have travelled to the conflict zone are under investigation for a
range of offences,” the spokesman said. A counter-terrorism source
close to the investigation said the number of warrants against
Islamic State brides was expected to rise. In January and early
February, officers from the Joint Counter Terrorism Team conducted
raids of properties across Sydney and Melbourne in connection with
Islamic State brides.”
Technology
University
Of York: Hate Speech Dominates Social Media Platform When Users Want
Answers On Terrorism
“Community question answering sites (CQAs) are social media
platforms where users ask questions, answer those submitted by others,
and have the option to evaluate responses. Previous studies have
mainly looked at terrorism-related data drawn from Facebook and
Twitter, this was the first to examine trends on the CQA site, Yahoo!
Answers. Terrorism: The University of York study explored the use of
Yahoo! Answers on the topic of terrorism and looked at a dataset of
300 questions that attracted more than 2,000 answers. The questions
reflected the community’s information needs, ranging from the life of
extremists to counter-terrorism policies. Sensitive questions
outnumbered innocuous ones. A typical innocuous question was: Who
exactly created ISIS?, while a more sensitive question was: Do you
agree with Donald Trump that we should ban Muslims coming from
countries seized by ISIS, Al Qaeda and other terrorists?”
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