“Israel’s military said Thursday it is prepared to defend the country and
strike back if Iran retaliates for a deadly airstrike on the Iranian Consulate
in Syria. Tehran holds Israel responsible for the attack earlier this month,
which the U.S. military believes Israel carried out. Israel has not commented
on it. The increased tensions have sparked international concern that Israel’s
devastating war against Hamas in Gaza could spill over into the rest of the
Middle East. Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian
territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the
brink of starvation. The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development,
Samantha Power, told lawmakers Wednesday she accepted “credible” reports that
famine is now occurring in hard-hit northern Gaza. President Joe Biden said
this week that Israel is not doing enough to increase the flow of humanitarian
aid into Gaza. Israeli bombardments and ground offensives have killed at least
33,360 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 74,993, the Health Ministry says. The
ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally,
but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.”











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Eye on Extremism



April 12, 2024



Associated Press: The Latest | Israel Vows To Defend Itself If Iran Responds
To Attack On Its Consulate
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“Israel’s military said Thursday it is prepared to defend the country and
strike back if Iran retaliates for a deadly airstrike on the Iranian Consulate
in Syria. Tehran holds Israel responsible for the attack earlier this month,
which the U.S. military believes Israel carried out. Israel has not commented
on it. The increased tensions have sparked international concern that Israel’s
devastating war against Hamas in Gaza could spill over into the rest of the
Middle East. Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian
territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the
brink of starvation. The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development,
Samantha Power, told lawmakers Wednesday she accepted “credible” reports that
famine is now occurring in hard-hit northern Gaza. President Joe Biden said
this week that Israel is not doing enough to increase the flow of humanitarian
aid into Gaza. Israeli bombardments and ground offensives have killed at least
33,360 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 74,993, the Health Ministry says. The
ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally,
but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.”



Voice Of America: Taliban Facebook Plan Is Attempt To Silence Critics,
Journalists Say
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“Plans by the Taliban to block access to Facebook are a further attempt to
curtail freedom of speech and silence critics in Afghanistan, according to
journalists and activists. The proposal was announced by the Taliban’s acting
minister of telecommunication and information technologies, Najibullah Haqqani.
In an interview with TOLO News, Haqqani said his ministry was preparing a
policy “either to restrict or block” access to Facebook in Afghanistan. Haqqani
said that blocking the social media platform was “in the interest of the
nation.” He added that because Afghan youth are too uneducated to use Facebook
in a “positive way,” using it “is a waste of time and money.” Afghan
journalists and activists, however, see the proposal as an attempt to further
curtail free expression and media freedoms. The proposed policy is a
continuation of the Taliban’s “repressive restrictions,” said one Kabul-based
journalist, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. The journalist said
that “by blocking Facebook, they [the Taliban] want to limit journalists from
sharing news and information and silence activists and [government] critics.””




Recent CEP Press Releases

* Extremist Content Online: Content Containing Clips From Christchurch
Terrorist Attack Located On Twitter, TikTok, And Instagram
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* UANI and CEP Mourn The Loss of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman
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* Extremist Content Online: Pro-ISIS TikTok Users Celebrate Accused Attacker
In Zurich Stabbing
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* CEP Marks 20th Anniversary Of The Madrid Train Bombings
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* CEP Statement Calling For U.S. Sanctions Against Qatar, DIMDEX Conference,
And Al Thani Royal Family
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CEP Mentions



The New Daily: Ways To Counter Australia’s Growing Neo-Nazi Threat
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“Australian white supremacists and neo-Nazis are encouraging members to
undergo combat sports training and law enforcement avoidance under the banner
of “Active Clubs”, a parliamentary inquiry into right-wing extremism heard from
the Counter Extremism Project (CEP). The CEP called for close monitoring of
this activity. “There is increasing evidence suggesting that the network’s main
objective is instead the creation of shadow militias that can be activated when
the need for co-ordinated violent action on a larger scale arises,” CEP said.”



United States



Voice Of America: FBI Fears 'Coordinated Attack' On US homeland
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“A surge of confidence by supporters of the Islamic State terror group —
reflected in a series of online threats against Europe combined with its deadly
attack on a concert hall in Russia — is giving security officials in the United
States cause for concern. National security and law enforcement officials have
long been worried about small groups or individuals drawing inspiration from
terror plots around the world to conduct attacks in the U.S. But FBI Director
Christopher Wray told lawmakers Thursday that something more worrisome may be
in the works. “Now increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated
attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia
concert hall a couple weeks ago,” Wray warned lawmakers, using an acronym for
the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate. Just days ago, police agencies across
Europe boosted security after media outlets linked to Islamic State, also known
as IS or ISIS, posted calls to attack stadiums hosting Champions League soccer
matches this week in Madrid, London and Paris.”



The Daily Mail: Devastating New Details Reveal More State Department Chaos In
The Two Weeks Before The Afghanistan Disaster: U.S. Staff Still Didn't Have A
Full Evacuation Plan When The Taliban Stormed Kabul... Days Before The Suicide
Blast
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“Hours of private testimony by two of the top State Department officials who
oversaw the evacuation from Afghanistan lays bare the confusion at the heart of
the operation, and how they failed to respond to warning signs that the Taliban
was sweeping across the country. The result was a chaotic operation at Kabul's
airport in August 2021 with Americans scrambling to get on flights after the
extremist group had seized control of the country. American citizens had to
pass through checkpoints run by the same gunmen who had spent years battling
U.S. forces. Yet even as the Pentagon prepositioned forces to support an
evacuation as ground conditions worsened, the officials, Brian McKeon and Derek
Chollet, said their priority had been to work out how to keep the U.S. embassy
open. They were still working on a plan to evacuate Americans and their Afghan
allies when the militant group overran the capital.”



The Washington Post: Pentagon Frustrated By Lack Of Notice From Israel In
Syria Strike
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“Senior Pentagon officials were frustrated that Israel did not notify the
United States before conducting a strike on an Iranian site in Syria this
month, an escalation that they assess increases risks to American forces in the
Middle East, U.S. officials said. Iran has vowed retaliation for the April 1
strike on a building adjacent to its embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus,
which killed two senior commanders from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
an organization with a long history of supporting violent attacks against
Israel and the United States. U.S. and Israeli officials are closely
coordinating how they may respond to an Iranian counterstrike, officials said,
with a top American general visiting Israel on Thursday.”



Iran



Voice Of America: Israel, Iran Trade New Threats Over Israeli Airstrike On
Tehran’s Consulate In Syria
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“Israel and Iran are trading threats in the aftermath of Israel’s airstrike
that leveled the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus, killing
seven Revolutionary Guards, including two of Tehran’s generals. Iran's supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel "must be punished
and will be punished” for the April 1 attack, days after one of his advisers
said Israeli embassies are "no longer safe." Israeli Foreign Minister Israel
Katz swiftly answered on the social media site X that "if Iran attacks from its
territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran.” Iran partly blamed the United
Nations for the possibility of expanded warfare in the Mideast. “Had the U.N.
Security Council condemned the Zionist regime’s reprehensible act of aggression
on our diplomatic premises in Damascus and subsequently brought to justice its
perpetrators, the imperative for Iran to punish this rogue regime might have
been obviated,” the Iran mission to the UN said on social media site X. During
a visit to an airbase in central Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu spoke of "challenging times" on multiple fronts.”



Iraq



The Washington Examiner: US Troop Presence In Iraq To Be A ‘Very Important
Part’ Of Prime Minister’s Visit
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“Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani is set to meet with President
Joe Biden next week, where the two leaders will discuss, among a litany of
topics, the future of the U.S. military’s presence in Iraq. The U.S. has
approximately 2,500 troops in Iraq who are stationed in the country to continue
the defeat ISIS campaign. The two militaries have and continue to discuss the
next stage of their partnership as they transition from the defeat ISIS mission
to an enduring bilateral security partnership. “We are in the middle of a very
important discussion between our two militaries about how we shape the future
of our cooperation and our partnership,” a senior State Department official
told reporters on Thursday. “The prime minister will be meeting — obviously
this will come up with the president … [Al Sudani is] meeting with the
secretary of defense. So that’s likely to be a very important part of the
discussions.””



Pakistan



Voice Of America: Pakistan Bans Iran-Backed Shiite Group Fighting In Syria
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“Pakistan has banned the activities of an Iran-backed Shiite militant group
allegedly involved in recruiting and sending young Pakistanis to fight in Syria
in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. An Interior Ministry
directive, seen Thursday by VOA, identified the proscribed outfit as the
Zaynabiyoun Brigade, saying it "is engaged in certain activities which are
prejudicial to the peace and security" of Pakistan. It did not elaborate. A
ministry official, who spoke to VOA anonymously because he was not authorized
to interact publicly with the media, confirmed the authenticity of the March 29
order and placement of the Zaynabiyoun Brigade on a government list of 79
proscribed organizations. The United States designated the Zaynabiyoun Brigade
as a terrorist organization in 2019, saying it is composed of Pakistani
nationals and provides "materiel support" to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps, or IRGC. The group has reportedly been mobilizing fighters in Pakistan
and among Pakistani refugees in Iran, with the IRGC training them for
operations in the Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011.”



Qatar



Associated Press: Court Allows Case Over Forced Gynecological Exams At Qatar
Airport To Go Ahead Against Operator
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“An Australian court has rejected a case brought by five women seeking
compensation from Qatar Airways over invasive gynecological examinations
conducted on passengers at Doha’s airport in 2020, but their case against the
airport’s operator is going ahead. The five, whose identities have been
concealed by the courts, were among hundreds of women forcibly removed from
airliners in Doha on Oct. 2, 2020, as officials searched for the mother of a
newborn baby found dumped in a terminal trash can. Thirteen women were removed
from a flight to Sydney. Many said they were forced to undergo non-consensual
gynecological or intimate physical examinations. Federal Court Justice John
Halley on Wednesday ruled the women’s argument against state-owned Qatar
Airways did not meet international airline liability protocols. “My conclusion
that the exclusivity principle precludes the applicants from pursuing any claim
for damages against Qatar Airways is a complete answer to the claims that the
applicants seek to bring against Qatar Airways,” Halley said.”



Middle East



Reuters: Hamas Leader Says Group Is Still Seeking Hostage Deal After Three Of
His Sons Killed
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“Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Thursday his Palestinian militant group
was still seeking a deal for a ceasefire and hostage release after an Israeli
strike killed three of his sons in an attack in Gaza. Speaking in Qatar while
receiving condolences, Haniyeh said "the interests of the Palestinian people
are placed above everything" when asked if the strike would affect the talks on
a truce and hostage release. "We are seeking to reach a deal but the occupation
is still procrastinating and evading a response to the demands," he told
Reuters. Israeli forces carried out Wednesday's attack without authorisation
from top commanders or senior leaders, Israeli media said on Thursday, raising
fears among families of hostages it would derail efforts to secure their
release from Gaza. "I can only hope this won't affect the negotiation. I hope
it won't make Hamas put harder conditions on the deal," said Ofri Bibas Levy,
whose brother Yarden Bibas was taken captive with his wife and two small
children during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.”



Somalia



Citizen Digital: Two Men Suspected Of Recruiting Mombasa Youth Into
Al-Shabaab, ISIS Detained
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“Two suspected terrorist recruiters will be detained for an additional 21
days after a Mombasa court granted the State more time to conclude
investigations into their alleged offences. Yusuf Mrafi (27) and Ali Mwalimu
Mwinyi (21) are accused of attempting to recruit youth in Likoni into
Al-Shabaab and ISIS terror groups by propagating the teachings of the late
radical Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo. "Detectives believe that Mrafi, 27, and
Mwinyi, 21, may be part of a terror cell brewing in Likoni sub-county, Mombasa
County recruiting youths to join ISIS and Al Shabaab terrorists in the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia," the Office of the Directorate of
Public Prosecutions (ODPP) said in a statement. "The investigation officer
linked the two to a man called Nassor nicknamed ‘Rogo’ suspected to had gone to
join Al Shabaab, who got radicalized after accessing videos of Aboud Rogo's
preaching from the social media site TikTok," said the ODPP. "The two
respondents allegedly informed detectives that there are others who are still
using Aboud Rogo’s teachings to radicalize and are yet to be arrested."”



Africa



The Cable: Troops Arrest ‘Boko Haram Terrorist’ In Borno
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“The troops of the 115 task force battalion deployed in Askira Uba, Borno
state, have arrested a suspected Boko Haram terrorist identified as Muhammed
Jibrin. Zagazola Makama, a publication focused on the Lake Chad region, reports
that the suspect was nabbed during condone and search operations by the troops
in the Askira Uba community. All residents of the community were said to have
come out for the condone and search operations except the suspect, who was
found hiding. The publication said the suspect has been handed over to the
military intelligence unit for further investigation. The development comes
weeks after troops of the Nigerian Army killed eight fighters of the Islamic
State of West African Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram terrorists during a raid
of a “notorious enclave” in the Sambisa forest in Borno.”



Reuters: Kenya Proposes Maritime Treaty To Defuse Ethiopia-Somalia Tensions
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“Kenya has proposed a regional maritime treaty to defuse tensions between
Ethiopia and Somalia over a deal allowing Ethiopia to set up a naval base and
giving it port access in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland, a top Kenyan
official said on Thursday. Landlocked Ethiopia agreed on Jan. 1 to lease 20 km
(12 miles) of coastline in Somaliland, a part of Somalia which claims
independence and has had effective autonomy since 1991, offering possible
recognition of Somaliland in exchange. That prompted a defiant response from
Somalia and fuelled concern the deal could further destabilise the Horn of
Africa region. The treaty Kenya is proposing in consultation with Djibouti and
regional bloc IGAD would govern how landlocked states in the region can access
ports on commercial terms, Korir Sing'oei, Kenya's principal secretary for
foreign affairs, told Reuters. "IGAD can be able to formulate a treaty for
sharing maritime resources," he said, referring to the bloc which brings
together countries in the region. On Thursday Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh
Mohamud held a meeting with his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto in the Kenyan
capital as part of efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the dispute.”



Reuters: A Decade On, Tragedy Of Nigeria’s Chibok Girls Endures Outside The
Spotlight
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“Ten years ago, Solomon Maina's daughter, Debora, was one of 276 schoolgirls
kidnapped from their dormitory in the middle of the night by Nigeria's Boko
Haram Islamist militants. Global outrage was swift. A ubiquitous "Bring Back
Our Girls" campaign, drawing support from the likes of Michelle Obama and
Sylvester Stallone, shined a spotlight on the abductions. Then, in 2016 and
2017, negotiations led to the highly publicised liberation of around 100 of the
captives. Debora was not one of them. A decade after that fateful night in
April 2014, the world has largely forgotten the plight of the so-called Chibok
girls. But for the victims and their families, the tragedy is ongoing.
"Especially at night, I think about my daughter," Maina, in tears, told Reuters
in an interview at his home in Chibok, a Christian enclave in the West African
nation's majority Muslim north. "I will never forget her." Abductees who have
returned home have struggled to resume their interrupted lives. Some are
raising children fathered by their captors. Others have waited years for funds
promised by the government to continue their education.”



Germany



DW: Germany: 3 Teens Held Over Suspected Islamist Attack Plans
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“Three teenagers who are suspected of having planned an Islamist terrorist
attack are currently in custody, German prosecutors said Friday. According to
the prosecutors, the detained teenagers — two girls aged 15 and 16 and a
15-year-old boy — had "declared themselves ready" to carry out the attack. All
three come from the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The arrest
warrants for the teenagers were issued over the Easter weekend, officials say.
A fourth suspect has now reportedly been identified in the southwestern state
of Baden-Württemberg. A court there has also issued an arrest warrant.”



Argentina



Iran News Update: Argentinian Court Declares Iran A “Terrorist State” For 1992
And 1994 Attacks
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“Over three decades after deadly attacks in Buenos Aires targeted Israel’s
embassy and a Jewish center, an Argentine court has placed the blame on Iran
and declared it a “terrorist state,” according to local media reports. The
ruling states that Iran had ordered the 1992 attack on Israel’s embassy, which
left 29 dead, as well as the 1994 attack on the Argentina Israelite Mutual
Association (AMIA) Jewish center, the deadliest in Argentina’s history, leaving
85 dead and 300 injured. The court also implicated the Iran-backed Shiite
movement Hezbollah in carrying out the AMIA attack, calling it a “crime against
humanity.” “Hezbollah carried out an operation that responded to a political,
ideological and revolutionary design under the mandate of a government, of a
State,” said Carlos Mahiques, one of the three judges who issued the decision,
referencing Iran. The 1994 AMIA attack has never been claimed or solved, but
Argentina and Israel have long suspected Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group
carried it out at Iran’s request.”



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