Eye on Extremism
March 26, 2020
The
Sydney Morning Herald: Australian Pleads Guilty Over Christchurch
Mosque Attacks
“The Australian man accused of the Christchurch mosque attacks has
entered shock guilty pleas. Amid extraordinary coronavirus lockdown
restrictions, Brenton Tarrant, 29, appeared via video-link in the High
Court in Christchurch on Thursday morning and admitted 51 charges of
murder, 40 charges of attempted murder and a charge of engaging in a
terrorist act. He previously pleaded not guilty to all the charges and
was scheduled to stand trial on June 2. Tarrant, who wore a grey
prisoner sweater, was largely silent and emotionless throughout the
hearing. He sat alone in a white room with a grey door at Auckland
Prison where he's held in maximum security. The terrorist's lawyers,
Shane Tait and Jonathan Hudson, appeared via video-link from another
court room. The names of all 51 people killed were read to Tarrant,
before he was asked how he pleaded to the murder charges. He queried
the name of a victim before saying, “Oh, OK. Yes, guilty”. The same
process was followed for the attempted murder charges. Justice Cameron
Mander remanded Tarrant in custody, but has not yet set a date for
sentencing, when the summary of facts would be made public."
ABC
News: Domestic Terror Suspect Allegedly Plotted To Use Car Bomb On
Hospital During Coronavirus
Outbreak
“The FBI announced on Wednesday night that a domestic terrorism
suspect who was allegedly planning to use a car bomb at a local
medical facility was killed during an attempt to apprehend him just
outside of Kansas City, Missouri. Timothy Wilson, 36, was “actively
planning to commit an act of domestic terrorism -- a bombing -- and
over the course of several months had considered several targets,”
according to the FBI. He had recently decided to target a hospital as
news surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic picked up, sources familiar
worth the investigation told ABC News. Wilson was killed Tuesday when
he allegedly showed up armed to pick up an inert explosive device
supplied by authorities. He was injured and taken to a local hospital
where he was pronounced dead. It is unclear whether the suspect killed
himself or he was shot by authorities. According to the FBI, Wilson
sped up the plan to use his car as a bombing device “in an attempt to
cause severe harm and mass casualties” during the coronavirus
pandemic.”
United States
NBC
News: Federal Prisons Aren't Properly Monitoring Terrorist Inmates,
Report Says
“The U.S. Bureau of Prisons is not adequately keeping tabs on
inmates with terrorism connections, and wasn't even aware of more than
two dozen of them in its own facilities, according to an audit report
released Wednesday. The Justice Department inspector general, Michael
Horowitz, said his team identified 28 inmates who met the federal
definition of an international or domestic terrorist who were not on
prison lists as requiring special monitoring. The report said in most
of those cases, courts or law enforcement agencies didn't provide
sufficient information about them. In other cases, prison officials do
not use the FBI's terrorist definition, Horowitz said, and for that
reason were not monitoring most of the 462 inmates considered
“sovereign citizens.” The FBI considers members of that movement to be
domestic terrorists and defines them as “anti-government extremists”
who believe they are not subject to any government authority and
sometimes target police and other officials for violent attacks.”
The
Hill: Better Intel Could Help The US Designate White Supremacist
Groups As Terrorists
“A recent Politico article noted that the U.S. Department of State
is intent on sanctioning a white supremacist group as a Foreign
Terrorist Organization (FTO). The story explained that the White House
had yet to approve the State Department plan. Historically, the White
House, until the Trump administration, has played a secondary and
non-directive role in shaping terrorist designations. There are some
exceptions. During the Obama years, the White House got involved in
the FTO designations of Boko Haram, Pakistan Taliban and Haqqani
Network. In those cases, however, the National Security Council served
as a forum to mediate a policy approach where disagreement existed
between agencies and departments. In contrast, the Trump
administration has been more directive by pushing forward the
possibility of sanctioning as terrorist groups the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the
latter of which remains undesignated. The Trump administration has
been identified, fairly or unfairly, as being reluctant to take action
against the rising challenge of white supremacy.”
Syria
Al
Monitor: Syrian Kurdish Officials Setting Up Court To Try Foreign IS
Fighters
“Amid ongoing operations to find and eliminate remnants of the
Islamic State (IS), the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North
and East Syria plans to begin public trials for accused members of the
extremist organization. The Social Justice Council of the Syrian
Kurdish administration is setting up a special court to prosecute
foreign IS militants whose home countries refuse to allow their return
and to try them. Council member and lawyer Faisal Sabri told
Al-Monitor, “We asked the European countries to assume their
responsibilities toward IS detainees by establishing an international
court on Syrian soil and sending international judges to try them, but
they did not respond to our request. We have to set up public trials
for them in accordance with international laws and human rights
covenants and treaties.” “We have yet to determine when the trials
will start,” Sabri continued. “We called on European and Arab
countries to accept the extradition of their nationals from among IS
children, orphans and wives residing in al-Hol camp. They have been
posing a threat in the camp, which has turned into a hotbed of
terrorism.”
Afghanistan
The
Washington Post: Islamic State Claims Kabul Attack On Sikh
Minority
“An Islamic State gunman stormed a temple used by Sikh and Hindu
minorities in Kabul on Wednesday, killing 25 worshipers during an
hours-long battle with Afghan security forces. More than six hours
after the attack began, the Interior Ministry said the building had
been cleared. Spokesman Tariq Aryan said eight were wounded in
addition to the 25 killed. Afghan security forces rescued 80 others
from the site, he said. The Islamic State asserted responsibility for
the attack in a statement posted by the group’s media arm, according
to SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the online postings of
Islamist militant organizations. Although Afghan President Ashraf
Ghani declared that the Islamic State was defeated late last year,
officials estimated Islamic State fighters scattered across the
country number in the hundreds. The group’s supply and recruitment
networks were also believed to be badly damaged, and for months last
year the extremists were unable to carry out attacks in Kabul. The
Taliban denied any involvement in the attack Wednesday. After signing
a peace deal with the United States last month, the group has been
under pressure to reduce violence and enter into talks with the Afghan
government.”
Reuters:
Taliban Says Prisoner Release By Afghan Government To Start By End Of
March
“The Afghan government said on Wednesday that it would free 100
Taliban detainees on humanitarian grounds at the end of March, raising
uncertainty about the fate of a prisoner release deal with the
insurgents, who have demanded that 5,000 detainees be freed. The deal
announced earlier in the day by the Taliban would have removed a major
hurdle to the convening of peace talks between the sides as part of a
U.S.-brokered process aimed at ending America’s longest war and
bringing peace to Afghanistan. But the announcement by Ashraf Ghani’s
government cast fresh doubt on the prospects for the deal, as well as
the stalled U.S. peace effort. “Subject to further discussions” 100
prisoners would be freed “on humanitarian grounds – including health,
age and vulnerability to #COVID19 – by March 31 after guarantees by
the Taliban and the prisoners that they will not re-enter the fight,”
Ghani’s National Security Council said on Twitter, referring to the
disease caused by the coronavirus. That number is far less than the
1,500 prisoners that Ghani recently agreed to release. The Taliban
have demanded that 5,000 detainees must be freed all at once as a
pre-condition to peace talks, while the Afghan government is seeking a
phased and conditional release.”
Yemen
France
24: Yemen War: Five Years On, Rebels Stronger Than
Ever
“Five years after Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war,
leading a military coalition to prop up the government which had been
driven out of its capital, the Huthi rebels are only stronger, more
resilient and gaining ground. The Iran-aligned insurgents'
capabilities have developed in the past year, with attacks on
strategic targets in Yemen and neighbouring Saudi Arabia using
sophisticated drones. Experts say that pressure on the Saudis to
reduce civilian casualties in air strikes, a drawdown by their
coalition partner the United Arab Emirates' in mid-2019, and rifts
within the government camp, have strengthened the rebels' resolve. The
novel coronavirus sweeping the world could be a wild card in the
conflict. Saudi Arabia has reported hundreds of cases and imposed
tough lockdown measures, while Yemen appears highly vulnerable even if
its broken healthcare system has not yet registered any cases. But
after military victories in recent months that have given them the
upper hand, the sixth year of the conflict is likely to deliver more
gains to the rebels, and more hardship to civilians who have endured
the long war. The Huthi tribal fighters belong to the Zaidi minority,
an offshoot of Shiite Islam, that makes up a third of Yemen's
Sunni-majority population.”
Lebanon
The
Jerusalem Post: Now Is The Time To Save Lebanon From
Hezbollah
“The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is quickly sending the world into
the biggest economic crisis in decades. Here in Israel, we’re
witnessing how almost all the macro-economic strides the country has
made in the last decade are quickly eroding. It’s hard to look beyond
the next few hours. With all the threats that this crisis delivers, it
also brings a severe security risk to Israel and the Middle East from
the North; Hezbollah is trying to take advantage of the current
financial distress of Lebanon. Usually we hear about Lebanon when
tensions escalate on the border. In its prime, Lebanon was a European
oasis in the heart of the Middle East. Lately, we neglect to observe
that it is going bankrupt and on the fast track to being declared a
failed state. In recent years, Lebanon has become the third country in
the world that is the most in debt in terms of debt to GDP ratio.
Overly dependent on its banks, Lebanon is now defaulting on its debt.
Most recently, on March 9, it failed to pay a $1.2 billion payment to
Eurobond. At this rate, official bankruptcy seems all but inevitable.
How did it happen?”
Asharq
Al-Awsat: Hezbollah And Its Friends
“The most noteworthy aspect of Hezbollah’s general-secretary's last
speech was the shift from denial to affirmation. Denial reflected an
image of the party as one that is fighting for justice and truth, a
battle that disregards the balance of power in its path to fulfill its
“honest promise”. This allowed the party to speak in the name of the
Lebanese people and threaten its enemies, whom it would frame as the
enemies of the Lebanese. It also allowed it to attract countless
remains of parties, ideologies, and defeated dreams which count on the
party to bring them back from oblivion. Affirmation refers to
admitting to the Lebanese, though with circumlocution, that the party
is subject to certain balances of power and that there are things it
can and cannot do. This affirmation, by extension, confirms the
following: The balance of power has shifted slightly against it after
the US sanctions hit the party and Iran and Lebanon as well because of
it. It also shifted because the economic difficulties facing Hassan
Diab's government became clear. In addition, the revolution showed
that the overwhelming majority of the Lebanese do not favor the same
choices as those of Hezbollah.”
Libya
The
New York Times: Tripoli Officials Say Clashes Escalating Over Libyan
Capital
“Clashes between rival Libyan forces for control of the capital
escalated Wednesday as militias allied with the U.N.-supported
government launched an offensive against a military base held by their
rivals, officials said. The renewed fighting comes despite increased
international pressure on both sides to halt the violence over
concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus. Libya reported its
first case of the virus Tuesday. The fighting has been raging for
nearly a year between military commander Khalifa Hifter's forces,
which are allied with a rival government based in eastern Libya, and
an array of militias in the west loosely linked to the authorities in
Tripoli, the capital. Hifter's self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces
said they repelled an attack on the al-Waitya airbase by Tripoli
militias in the city's southern reaches. Late Wednesday, Hifter's
force claimed to have gone over to the attack in response to its foes'
offensive, saying it captured several Syrian mercenaries and seized
small western coastal towns, including Jumayl, Rigdalin and Zultan.
Videos circulated on social media showing Hifter's fighters
celebrating after reaching the town of Rigdalin. For his part, Ossama
Gowelii, who heads the so-called joint operation room of the Tripoli
militias, said his forces successfully attacked the airbase and
arrested a “number” of Hifter's fighters, including foreign
mercenaries.”
Nigeria
Bloomberg:
Boko Haram Insurgents Kill 139 Chadian, Nigerian
Troops
“Boko Haram Islamist militants operating in Africa’s Lake Chad
region killed 92 Chadian soldiers and 47 Nigerian troops in separate
attacks on the same day, dealing a blow to a multinational effort to
defeat their 11-year-old insurgency. At least 92 soldiers were killed
and 47 injured in the attack on troops on Monday in the southern
village of Boma on the shores of the lake near Chad’s common frontiers
with Nigeria and Niger. “I have taken part in many military operations
and led many operations as well but never in our history have we lost
so many men in one single attack,” Chadian President Idriss Deby said
in a You-tube video of his visit to the attack site. In Nigeria, at
least 47 Nigerian soldiers were killed in an ambush in the
northeastern town of Gorgi in a convoy of troops sent to reinforce the
front lines, according to John Enenche, a military spokesman. Nigeria,
Chad, Niger and Cameroon are members of a multinational force formed
to defeat Boko Haram, which had embarked on a jihad in Nigeria in 2009
before spreading to neighboring countries.”
Somalia
ABC
News: Somalia Suicide Bomber Detonates In Tea Shop,
Killing 2
“A Somali police officer says a suicide bomber has walked into a
tea shop in Somalia's capital and detonated, killing at least two
people. Capt. Mohamed Hussein says the bomber, posing as a pedestrian,
entered the shop and detonated his vest among the crowd. Wednesday's
blast in Mogadishu was the first since the country confirmed its lone
case of the coronavirus on March 16. The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab
extremist group claimed responsibility. It often targets the capital.
The blast shattered a period of calm amid a large security presence in
Mogadishu that officials had said prevented al-Shabab from smuggling
explosives-rigged vehicles into the city.”
United Kingdom
The
New York Times: Citing Death Penalty, U.K. Court Blocks Giving
Evidence On ISIS ‘Beatles’ To U.S.
“The British government must withhold key evidence from the United
States for the trial of two Islamic State detainees because the Trump
administration has not provided assurances that the men will not be
executed, the British Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday. The detainees
were half of a cell of four ISIS Britons who handled Western hostages
— some of whom were eventually beheaded on propaganda videos — and
whose victims nicknamed them the Beatles because of their accents.
Captured by a Kurdish militia in Syria in early 2018, the detainees,
El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, are being held by the American
military in Iraq. The ruling in a lawsuit was a major setback for
senior law-enforcement officials in both countries. The British
government had stripped the two men of their citizenship and had
agreed to share evidence about them for use in an American trial
without assurances that they would not face capital punishment, even
though Britain has abolished the death penalty. “No further assistance
should be given for the purpose of any proceedings” against the men
“in the United States of America without the appropriate death penalty
assurances,” Justice Brian Kerr wrote.”
The
Independent: Far-Right Terrorism Driven By Austerity In UK, Former
Head Of MI5 Says
“The rise of far-right terrorism in Britain has been driven by
years of austerity, the former head of MI5 has said. Lord Evans of
Weardale, who was the director general of the Security Service between
2007 and 2013, said right-wing extremists had morphed from groups who
“never quite managed to get their act together” into a more organised
threat. He warned that organisations who have “explicitly decided that
terrorism was part of the way forward” were on the rise, adding:
“Partly I suspect it is a reflection of the social pressures on
communities as a result of austerity measures. “There seems to be a
constituency of disaffected males who find extreme right-wing beliefs
attractive, and they have started to get their acts together to
organise into groups and plot.” Lord Evans, who was made a life peer
in 2014, was speaking to Raffaello Pantucci, a senior associate fellow
in international security studies at the Royal United Services
Institute (Rusi). In the interview published in the CTC Sentinel
journal, he said some far-right terrorists had been “consciously and
deliberately inspired by the perceived success of violent Islamists”.
Lord Evans said the English Defence League (EDL) were “mutually
symbiotic” with Anjem Choudary’s al-Muhajiroun (ALM) group.”
France
France
24: France's Virus Lockdown Delays Charlie Hebdo Attack
Trial
“The trial of 14 people accused of helping the jihadist gunmen who
attacked the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and other Paris targets in
January 2015 has been postponed because of France's coronavirus
lockdown, prosecutors said Wednesday. The presiding judge for the
trial, originally set to open on May 4, said the strict home
confinement rules made it impossible to bring together “all the
parties, witnesses and experts under the necessary sanitary
conditions,” according to a court order seen by AFP. No new date has
been set, although the national anti-terrorism prosector's office said
it would probably be pushed back until next autumn. Seventeen people
were killed over three days in and around Paris in the January 2015
attacks, beginning with the massacre of 12 people at the offices of
the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo by Cherif and Said Kouachi on
January 7. Over the following two days, a third gunman, Amedy
Coulibaly, shot dead a young policewoman before killing four people at
a Jewish supermarket. All three gunmen, who had claimed allegiance to
jihadist groups, were killed by police. The 14 accused are suspected
of having provided logistical aid to the attackers.”
Germany
The
New York Times: Intel Chief: German Extremists Disbanding Is 'Smoke
Screen'
“The head of one of Germany's state security agencies has accused
an extremist faction within the country's main far-right party of
trying to create a “smoke screen” by announcing it will disband.
Leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany had called last week
for the radical ‘Wing’ faction of the party to dissolve after the
country's domestic intelligence agency classified it as extremist. The
Wing's leading figures, Bjoern Hoecke and Andreas Kalbitz, agreed
Tuesday to disband the faction. But the head of the domestic
intelligence agency in Thuringia state, where Hoecke is the party's
regional leader, said this appeared to be a tactical maneuver. Stephan
Kramer told German news agency dpa in an interview published Wednesday
the move was “a smoke screen,” adding that it was more important to
see whether the party distances itself from the extremist faction.
Alternative for Germany currently has seats in all German state
assemblies and the federal parliament. It is strongest in the
east.”
Deutsche
Welle: AfD: Too Far-Right
“Albrecht Andreas Harlass loves German traditions. He loves his
German shepherd dog Bruno or the changing seasons and their special
characteristics, for example, the serene atmosphere at Christmas:
that's when Harlass sets up the Yule Candlestick, modeled on pagan
Germanic rituals. And he likes to quote archaic table prayers: “Let us
give thanks for clouds and wind, for bread and fruit, for forebears
and progeny.” Albrecht Andreas Harlass shares all this with his
friends on social media. He is spokesman for the AfD parliamentary
party in the state parliament of Saxony. But Harlass does not stop at
being traditional. According to a court verdict, it is permissible to
refer to him as a “Neo-Nazi through-and-through.” His Yule Candlestick
also belonged to the customs of the murderous SS under the Nazi regime
and the table prayer was penned by an NS ideologue and anti-Semitic
writer. Harlass wears clothes ordered from a neo-Nazi internet
retailer. And in his speeches, he dreams of his party “seizing power”
in Germany – a term generally associated with the beginning of
Hitler's rule. Harlass fantasizes about another Germany. A Germany
that puts an end to the hated policies of the established
parties.”
Southeast Asia
The
New York Times: Police Kill Suspected Militant, Arrest 2 In Indonesia
Raid
“Indonesia's police anti-terrorism squad shot and killed one
suspect and arrested two others in a raid on the main island of Java,
seizing weapons and chemicals allegedly used for bomb making,
officials said Thursday. The man fatally shot by police resisted
arrest by wielding a long sword, said National Police spokesman Argo
Yuwono. The suspects were linked to a banned militant organization
responsible for recent attacks on police, a local affiliate of the
Islamic State group known as the Jama'ah Anshorut Daulah, Yuwono said.
The raid took place in Subah village of Batang district in Central
Java province late Wednesday. Yuwono said police seized two machetes,
a sword, a bayonet blade and materials often used by militants to make
bombs, and were interrogating the two suspects. Indonesia has been
battling militants since the 2002 bombings on the resort island of
Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Attacks aimed at
foreigners have been largely replaced in recent years by smaller, less
deadly strikes targeting the government, police and anti-terrorism
forces, inspired by Islamic State group attacks
abroad.”
Technology
The
Straits Times: Facebook Removes Network Of White Supremacist
Accounts
“Facebook Inc has removed dozens of user accounts plus other Pages
and Groups on its social network associated with the Northwest Front,
a group pushing for a white nation-state in the US Pacific Northwest.
The company doesn't allow groups that “proclaim hateful and violent
missions,” according to a statement on Wednesday (March 25) from Mr
Brian Fishman, Facebook's policy director for counter-terrorism and
dangerous organisations. The removal included 36 Facebook accounts, 10
Instagram accounts, nine private groups and nine Pages, according to a
company spokeswoman. Menlo Park, California-based Facebook had
previously banned the organisation and removed accounts from its
members in 2015, but many of them created new accounts under
pseudonyms, the company said. Facebook's content review processes have
been under some strain as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. The
company has been working to combat misinformation about the disease
caused by the coronavirus, taking up resources typically focused on
other issues. Facebook employees and content reviewers also are
working remotely.”
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