“TikTok will prohibit content that promotes Osama bin Laden's 2002 letter
detailing the former al Qaeda leader's justifications for attacks against
Americans, the short-form video app said on Thursday. Discussions of the
20-year-old letter have spread on the platform this week in the context of
debate over the Israel-Hamas war, with some users in the West praising its
contents. The letter, which was written after al Qaeda's attack on the United
States that killed nearly 3,000 people, criticized U.S. support for Israel,
accused Americans of financing "oppression" of Palestinians, and contained
antisemitic comments. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 in Pakistan by a U.S.
military special operations unit. "Content promoting this letter clearly
violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism," TikTok said in a
statement, adding that reports that it was "trending" on the platform were
inaccurate. A search for "Letter to America" on TikTok surfaced no results on
Thursday, with a notice that said the phrase may be associated with "content
that violates our guidelines." Some U.S. lawmakers have called for a ban of the
Chinese-owned app and had renewed their criticisms before Thursday's
announcement.”











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Eye on Extremism



November 17, 2023



Reuters: TikTok To Prohibit Videos Promoting Bin Laden's 'Letter To America'
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“TikTok will prohibit content that promotes Osama bin Laden's 2002 letter
detailing the former al Qaeda leader's justifications for attacks against
Americans, the short-form video app said on Thursday. Discussions of the
20-year-old letter have spread on the platform this week in the context of
debate over the Israel-Hamas war, with some users in the West praising its
contents. The letter, which was written after al Qaeda's attack on the United
States that killed nearly 3,000 people, criticized U.S. support for Israel,
accused Americans of financing "oppression" of Palestinians, and contained
antisemitic comments. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 in Pakistan by a U.S.
military special operations unit. "Content promoting this letter clearly
violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism," TikTok said in a
statement, adding that reports that it was "trending" on the platform were
inaccurate. A search for "Letter to America" on TikTok surfaced no results on
Thursday, with a notice that said the phrase may be associated with "content
that violates our guidelines." Some U.S. lawmakers have called for a ban of the
Chinese-owned app and had renewed their criticisms before Thursday's
announcement.”



Reuters: Shelling Intensifies At Lebanon-Israel Border
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“Shelling intensified across Lebanon's frontier with Israel on Thursday, with
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah saying it had fired missiles at eight positions
across the border and Israel saying it had retaliated with artillery. In
statements throughout the day, the Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had hit eight
sites in Israel, including a group of Israeli soldiers, a barracks and other
military posts. A Lebanese security source said Israeli bombardment, including
drone strikes, hit at least a dozen villages all along Lebanon's southern
border. The Israeli military said in a statement it had struck a "cell" in
Lebanon that had tried launching anti-tank missiles towards Israel and was
firing artillery onto other targets. It said no injuries were reported in
shelling on Israel. The Lebanese security source said it was one of the most
violent days there since Hezbollah began trading fire with Israeli forces
following the eruption of the Hamas-Israel war on Oct. 7. Hezbollah's
statements said its attacks were "in support of our steadfast Palestinian
people in the Gaza Strip". The exchanges mark the deadliest violence at the
border since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.”




Recent CEP Press Releases

* CEP Calls On U.S. Lobby Firms To Cease Work With Qatar Until Hamas
Leadership Is Removed
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* New CEP Report Details Houthi Targeting Of Religious Minorities In Yemen
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* Extremist Content Online: Christchurch Attack Footage, Including
AI-Generated Content, Circulated On Twitter/X
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* CEP Calls On U.S. Law Firms To Cease Work With Qatar Until Hamas Leadership
Is Remanded
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* New CEP Report Details Houthi Arms Procurement
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CEP Mentions



Bellingcat: From Pixels To Punches: Geolocating A Neo-Nazi And White
Nationalist Combat Event In Los Angeles
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“…Several Active Clubs, which experts say form a dangerous bedrock for
far-right activity and recruitment, joined the second annual tournament
alongside extremist groups like Patriot Front and the Hammerskins. Active Clubs
are a network of white nationalist mixed martial arts crews inspired by the
Rise Above Movement, a now-defunct militant streetfighting group whose neo-Nazi
cofounder Robert Rundo is currently in jail awaiting trial on federal rioting
charges. They focus on training their members in combat skills in order to
prepare them to fight against their purported enemies. “Their own propaganda
says ‘we are a white nationalist sports network, it’s about fitness,’” said
Alexander Ritzmann, a political scientist and senior advisor at the Counter
Extremism Project who studies Active Clubs, in an interview. “But reading their
documents and listening to their podcasts, I’m curious about if they are a
combat sports network or if they are a militia hiding in plain sight.”



The Messenger: Al Jazeera Forces Mom Of Israeli Hostage To Debate Hamas Head
Of Hostages On Live TV
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“…Jabarin was a convicted terrorist held in Israeli custody until 2011, when
he was released as part of a prisoner swap. At that point, he rejoined Hamas as
a senior leader based in Turkey, according to the Counter Extremism Project.”



Human Events: Al Jazeera Ambushes Mom Of Israeli Hostage, Forces Her To Debate
Hamas Hostage Chief On Live TV
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“…Until his release in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap, Jabarin, an infamous
and convicted terrorist, was detained by Israel. That was when he returned to
Hamas as a top official stationed in Turkey, according to the counter-extremism
project.”



United States



Reuters: Top MS-13 Leader To Stand Trial In New York On Terrorism Charges
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“A top leader of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang will stand trial
in New York on terrorism charges, the U.S. Justice Department said on
Wednesday. El Salvador citizen Elmer Canales, known as "Crook de Hollywood,"
was arrested by Mexican authorities last week and sent to Texas, where a
federal court on Wednesday ordered him to face trial in New York. Canales,
along with 13 other MS-13 members, was indicted in 2020 on terrorism charges
relating to his alleged involvement in organized crime in the U.S., Mexico and
El Salvador over the past two decades. He "bears responsibility for the gang's
efforts over decades to terrorize communities, target law enforcement, and sow
violence here in the United States and abroad," Attorney General Merrick
Garland said in the Justice Department's statement on Wednesday. When Canales'
indictment was unsealed in early 2021, he was behind bars in El Salvador, and
the U.S. requested his extradition. But the Salvadoran government released
Canales around November 2021, and he illegally entered Guatemala, the Justice
Department said. His release has provoked criticism in El Salvador, where a
crackdown on alleged gang members has landed tens of thousands in jail since
March 2022, drawing accusations of human rights abuses and violations of due
process.”



Syria



Reuters: World Court Orders Syria To Stop Torture And Preserve Evidence
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“Judges at the World Court on Thursday ordered Syria to take steps to prevent
torture as part of emergency measures in a case against Damascus brought before
the top U.N. tribunal by the Netherlands and Canada. "Syria must (...) take all
measures within its power to prevent acts of torture and other cruel and
inhumane or degrading treatment" and ensure its officials or others under its
control do not commit torture, presiding judge Joan Donoghue said. The 15-judge
panel also told Damascus to ensure that any possible evidence about allegations
of torture, including medical reports and death records, are preserved. Syria
has boycotted the court's hearings and was not present for the ruling. The case
marks the first time an international court has looked at alleged abuses
committed in Syria during 12 years of conflict. The case before the World
Court, formally known as the International Court of Justice, was filed in June
by the Netherlands and Canada. They say Syria is breaching a U.N. anti-torture
convention by abusing tens of thousands people, many of whom are kept in
Syria's extensive detention system. Syria’s government and President Bashar
al-Assad have rejected accusations of torture and extrajudicial killings in a
war that the United Nations has said claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.”



Iran



Bloomberg: Iran’s ‘Crown Jewel’ Has Much To Lose From A Full-Blown War With
Israel
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“Hezbollah, Israel’s enemy on the northern front, is probably stronger than
it’s ever been – which means it also has more to lose. That’s one reason why
the Lebanese militant group wants to avoid getting drawn into a full-blown war
with Israel, a reluctance shared by its patron Iran. Such calculations may
decide how the latest war in the Middle East unfolds. Hezbollah and the Israeli
military have exchanged almost daily fire since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct.
7. But those clashes across the Lebanese border have been relatively
restrained, even as Israeli troops push into Gaza and casualties soar. A wider
regional conflict -– which could upend oil markets and jolt the global economy
— has been averted so far. Hezbollah and Hamas are both designated by the US as
terrorist organizations. They both help Iran to deter its enemies and expand
its influence. But the Lebanese group is more important, according to Joseph
Daher, author of “Hezbollah: The Political Economy of Lebanon’s Party of God.”
“Iran wouldn’t want to see its crown jewel get weakened,” says Daher. Iran’s
geopolitical goal is not to liberate the Palestinians but to use such groups as
leverage, especially in its relations with the US, he says.”



Turkey



Reuters: Turkish Air Strikes Kill 13 Kurdish Militants In Northern Iraq
-Ministry
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“Turkey's military carried out air strikes in northern Iraq and killed 13
Kurdish militants, the defence ministry said on Friday. In a statement on
social messaging platform X, the ministry said 13 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
militants were hit in air strikes in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq, as
well as areas where Turkey conducts its "Claw-Lock Operation". "Our operations
will continue with determination until there is not a single terrorist left in
the region," it said. The PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by
the European Union, United States, and Turkey, took up arms against the Turkish
state in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Ankara frequently carries out cross-border air strikes and operations against
the PKK, which has bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkey has
intensified attacks on Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq in recent weeks
after militants detonated a bomb near government buildings in Ankara on Oct. 1.”



Associated Press: Turkey’s Erdogan To Visit Germany As Differences Over The
Israel-Hamas War Widen
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“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set off for Germany Friday on a short
visit overshadowed by the two countries’ very different stances on the war
between Israel and Hamas. Erdogan is due to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz and
Germany’s largely ceremonial president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Berlin.
Scholz invited Erdogan to visit in May following his re-election. Turkey has
long been viewed as an awkward but essential partner in Germany, which is home
to more than 3 million people with Turkish roots. It’s a NATO ally that also is
important in efforts to control the flow of refugees and migrants to Europe, an
issue on which Scholz faces intense domestic pressure, but there have been
tensions in recent years over a variety of issues. This visit is overshadowed
by a growing chasm between the two countries’ stances on events following
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Germany is a staunch ally of Israel and has
opposed calls for a cease-fire, while pushing for aid to civilians in Gaza,
advocating “humanitarian pauses” and seeking to keep open channels of
communication with other countries in the region to prevent the conflict from
spreading.”



Afghanistan



Voice Of America: Regional Countries Mulling Simultaneous Taliban Recognition,
Pakistani Envoy Says
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“Afghanistan’s neighbors, along with Russia, are sustaining ties with its
Taliban government under an “understanding” that they will grant it formal
recognition simultaneously if certain conditions are met, a regional diplomat
said Thursday. Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s special representative on Afghanistan,
told an international seminar that the regionally developed approach has helped
sustain the crisis-hit country economically. “There is an understanding among
the immediate neighbors of Afghanistan and Russia that we will recognize the
Taliban regime simultaneously and not unilaterally,” Durrani said at the annual
Margalla Dialogue organized by the state-run Islamabad Policy Research
Institute. He noted that the regional consensus enabled these countries to
enter into “bilateral trade, currency swap, and barter trade agreements” with
de facto Afghan authorities. Durrani said if this were not the case, there
would likely be 10 million people fleeing poverty-stricken Afghanistan and
seeking refuge in Pakistan. “The positive thing in Afghanistan is that there is
less corruption, and [the Taliban] have raised their revenues. There’s security
in the country, and ... drug or opium cultivation is at its all-time low,” the
Pakistani envoy said, citing international observations and recent U.N.-backed
studies.”



Middle East


Reuters: Aid Supplies To Gaza Halted Again, UN Says Starvation Imminent
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“U.N. aid deliveries to Gaza were suspended again on Friday due to shortages
of fuel and a communications shutdown, deepening the misery of thousands of
hungry and homeless Palestinians as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in
the enclave. The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) said civilians
faced the "immediate possibility of starvation" due to the lack of food
supplies. Palestinian news agency WAFA said a number of Palestinians were
killed and others injured in an Israeli strike that hit a group of displaced
people near the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt - the
transit point for aid. Al Jazeera TV cited sources as saying that nine people
were killed in the strike. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the
reported strike and Reuters could not verify it. Israel said its troops had
found a tunnel shaft used by Hamas at Al Shifa hospital in the north of the
Gaza Strip. The hospital, packed with patients and displaced people and
struggling to keep operating, has become a major focus of global concern.
Israel says Hamas has stored weapons and ammunition and is holding hostages in
a network of tunnels under hospitals like Shifa, using patients and people
taking shelter there as human shields. Hamas denies this.”



Bloomberg: Hamas Mastermind Who Tricked Israel Is Top Target In Gaza Tunnels
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“Five years ago, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, scrawled a note
on a document that he knew Egyptian intermediaries would hand to Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Take a “‘calculated risk’ on a ceasefire,” Sinwar
wrote in Hebrew, according to former National Security Adviser Meir
Ben-Shabbat. Not long before, the Hamas chief had said something similar to an
Italian journalist: “I don’t want war anymore. I want a ceasefire.” His
ambition for the impoverished Palestinian coastal strip? “We can be like
Singapore, like Dubai.” In the wake of Hamas’s long-planned and brutal Oct. 7
assault on Israel, the Israeli security establishment is looking back on his
words in a new light: as part of an effort to create the illusion that Hamas,
considered a terrorist group by the US and European Union, was limiting its
embrace of violence to focus on governance. Israeli officials now acknowledge
that a sense of complacency had set in around Hamas. In recent years, the
military had greatly reduced its surveillance of the Gaza border fence, relying
on electronic sensors and transferring troops out of the area to guard
settlements in the West Bank.”



NBC: Family Of 3-Year-Old Kidnapped By Hamas Reveals Harrowing Details
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“The families of American citizens kidnapped by Hamas militants in Israel
nearly 40 days ago said Tuesday they want to focus international attention on
the plight of their loved ones in captivity — including a 3-year-old American
girl who the White House confirmed was taken into the Gaza Strip during the
Oct. 7 terror attack. In an exclusive interview in Washington with NBC News’
Lester Holt, the girl’s great-aunt was joined by seven other families whose
relatives were taken hostage during the brazen Hamas assault on kibbutzim, a
musical festival and homes across Israel’s south. They spoke as thousands of
people from across the U.S. descended on the National Mall for a pro-Israel
march. Liz Hirsh Naftali, the great-aunt of 3-year-old Abigail Mor Idan,
revealed that the little girl’s parents were killed in their home at the Kfar
Aza kibbutz. Abigail was in her father’s arms when a Hamas gunman shot him. He
fell on top of her. Abigail then “crawled out from under her father’s body …
full of his blood,” Hirsh Naftali said. The girl ran over to a neighbor’s house
and sheltered with that family in a bomb shelter. “The last thing we learned
was that somebody saw [a] terrorist taking this mother, her three kids and
Abigail out of the kibbutz,” Hirsh Naftali said. “That’s all we know.””



Mali



Voice Of America: Gunmen Kill One Journalist, Kidnap Two In Mali
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“Unidentified gunmen killed one journalist and abducted two other journalists
earlier this month in Mali, the International Press Institute said Wednesday,
underscoring the threats facing the media in the region. Abdoul Aziz Djibrilla,
a journalist with community radio Naata, was driving in northern Mali on
November 7 along with Radio Coton FM director Saleck Ag Jiddou and Radio Coton
FM host Moustapha Kone when they saw gunmen ahead on the road, according to the
International Press Institute, or IPI. When they tried to turn around, the
unidentified gunmen fired on the car, killing Djibrilla, said Reporters Without
Borders, or RSF. The gunmen then abducted Jiddou and Kone. It is unclear
whether the journalists were targeted over their work. The gunmen asked their
families to pay nearly $5,000 in ransom for each journalist, according to RSF.
“The latest events in Mali are extremely alarming,” Sadibou Marong, director of
RSF’s sub-Saharan Africa bureau, said in a statement. “We call on the Malian
authorities to do everything possible to find them and to arrest those
responsible for Abdoul Aziz Djibrilla’s murder.” Harouna Attino, a journalist
with community radio Alafia, was also in the car and was wounded in the assault
but is now safe, press freedom groups said without providing further details.”



India



Times Of India: Jaishankar Raises Indian Fugitives And Khalistan Extremism
With UK During Visit
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“External affairs minister S Jaishankar raised the delayed extradition of
Indian fugitives such as Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya with the UK government
during his five-day visit as well as Khalistan extremism and the safety of the
Indian high commission building and personnel. “We have longstanding concerns
about extremist, and sometimes even violent, activities of various forces,
including those who propagate Khalistan, and we have been taking it up with UK
to try and get the government here to understand that, as a democracy, we do
understand freedom of speech and expression but they should be on guard against
the misuse of these freedoms to threaten diplomats in the UK and to advocate
causes in a manner in which it could justify violence and extremism,”
Jaishankar said at a press briefing on Wednesday. He said that following the
March incident, when the flag of the mission building was pulled down, the
windows smashed and two security officials assaulted, “We think the gravity of
this situation is sharply recognised. We have seen some steps taken as a
consequence of that.” But he warned it was not a “static situation” as there
“were different aspects to it”, referring to Indian high commissioner Vikram
Doraiswami’s “travels in the UK”. In September, Doraiswami was prevented from
entering a gurdwara in Glasgow by Khalistan activists who tried to open his car
door.”



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