Eye on Extremism
July 25, 2024
Associated Press: Israel-Hamas War Latest: Netanyahu Addresses Congress And Vows To Achieve ‘Total Victory’
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress in Washington on Wednesday as he sought to bolster the United States’ support for his country’s fight against Hamas and other Iran-backed armed groups. Netanyahu has signaled that a cease-fire deal could be taking shape after nine months of war, but during his fiery speech to Congress, he vowed to press forward with Israel’s war until he achieves “total victory.” Meanwhile, thousands of protesters gathered near the U.S. Capitol to denounce the war. Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military’s latest order to leave parts of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis say they are sleeping in the streets. The Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 39,100 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Officials from Egypt, Israel, the United States and Qatar had been expected to meet in Doha on Thursday with the aim of resuming talks for a proposed three-phase cease-fire to end the war between Israel and Hamas and free the remaining hostages.”
Reuters: Salman Rushdie’s Alleged Attacker Faces Federal Terrorism Charges
“The man accused of attempting to kill author Salman Rushdie in New York two years ago now faces federal terrorism charges for his alleged support for Hezbollah, according to an indictment unsealed on Wednesday. The grand-jury indictment charges Hadi Matar, the New Jersey man already facing state charges of attempted murder and assault for a 2022 knife attack on Rushdie, with three terror charges, including carrying out an act of terrorism and providing material support to Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that was founded by Iran in Lebanon during the early 1980s. Matar faces life in prison if found guilty on the federal terror charges. "We allege that in attempting to murder Salman Rushdie in New York in 2022, Hadi Matar committed an act of terrorism in the name of Hizballah ..." Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a written statement.”
CEP Mentions
NTV: Terror Expert: Ban On IZH ‘Is A Very Heavy Blow’
“Hans-Jakob Schindler is director of the Counter Extremism Project. In an interview with ntv, the extremism expert looks at the recently announced ban on the Islamic Center Hamburg and explains why such a process often takes a long time.”
The Guardian: Kamala Harris And Doug Emhoff Face Online Wave Of Sexist, Racist Attacks
“... Joshua Fisher-Birch, an analyst who tracks the global far right at the Counter Extremism Project, noticed the same racist anti-Indian content after surveying similar accounts across a broad spectrum of sites in the last week. “It’s worth mentioning that extreme-right Telegram channels and users posted racist content after JD Vance was chosen to be Trump’s vice-presidential pick,” he said in an email. “The patterns are similar.” Harris and speculation about her pick for running mate have also become a topic of conspiracy theory, with many on the far right predicting she intends to pick either Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, or Illinois’s governor, J B Pritzker, who are both Jewish. “Kamala’s Jewish VP candidate,” reposted one neo-Nazi-adjacent account on Telegram, showing an image of Shapiro, “the Indian-Jew axis is on the ballot.””
ABC: Far-Right 'Active Club' Appears In Australia
“A counter-extremist group has warned a Senate committee a fast-growing, global far-right extremism group has infiltrated Australia. Known as "Active Clubs", the hearing was told the group thrives on social media and exists to build a "shadow militia" while evading law enforcement scrutiny. Featuring Alexander Ritzmann, Counter Extremism Project.”
Daily Mail: Mother-Of-Five Prison Guard, 31, Who Had Affair With Armed Robber, Romped In Prison Storeroom With Him And Later Had His Baby Is Spared Jail
“... Professor Ian Acheson, a former prison governor, revealed that low-paid new recruits were being rushed through a training process which leaves them ill-equipped to properly deal with manipulative criminals. Another insider told MailOnline that some female staff are so ill-prepared for the job that some turn up for a shift 'glammed up' with full make-up and even false eyelashes as if they are going for a night out. The dangers of manipulative male prisoners was illustrated in December last year when prison worker Ruth Shmylo, 26, from Pontypridd was prosecuted but then cleared after she revealed that she only had 'phone sex' with gangster inmate Harri Pullen after he made terrifying threats to harm her and her family.”
United States
Associated Press: Prosecutor Says The New Jersey Man Who Stabbed Author Salman Rushdie Was Trying To Carry Out A Fatwa
“A man who severely injured author Salman Rushdie in a frenzied knife attack in western New York was motivated by a Hezbollah leader’s endorsement of a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death, prosecutors said Wednesday in announcing new terrorism charges. The three-count indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo offered for the first time a potential motive for the 2022 attack on “The Satanic Verses” author. Hadi Matar, a U.S. citizen from New Jersey, was attempting to carry out a fatwa, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kruly said. According to the prosecutor, Matar believed the call for Rushdie’s death, first issued in 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah. “We allege that in attempting to murder Salman Rushdie in New York in 2022, Hadi Matar committed an act of terrorism in the name of Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization aligned with the Iranian regime,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news release.”
Iraq
Reuters: Five Iraqi Soldiers Said Killed By Roadside Bomb
“Five Iraqi soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in northeast Baghdad on Monday, police said. One soldier was also wounded in the pre-dawn attack on their vehicle convoy in the Boubal-Shama neighbourhood, an old commercial and industrial district. The area is near a highway linking the capital with Diyala province, where thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched a major operation to drive out Islamist al Qaeda militants. Two people were also killed and six wounded by two mortar rounds that struck a residential neighbourhood in southern Baghdad called Abudsheer. The area is a Shi'ite enclave in Dora, a mainly Sunni district and al Qaeda stronghold in the city.”
Turkey
Reuters: Turkey Detains 72 People Over Suspected Islamic State Ties, Minister Says
“Turkish authorities have detained 72 people suspected of having ties to the militant group Islamic State in operations across 13 provinces, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media platform X on Thursday.”
Lebanon
Reuters: On Lebanon Border, Israel And Hezbollah's Deadly Game Of Patience
“Tens of thousands have been evacuated from both sides of the border, and hopes that children may be able to return for the start of the new school year in September appear to have been dashed following an announcement by Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch on Tuesday that conditions would not allow it. "The war is almost the same for the past nine months," Lieutenant Colonel Dotan, an Israeli officer, who could only be identified by his first name. "We have good days of hitting Hezbollah and bad days where they hit us. It's almost the same, all year, all the nine months." As the summer approaches its peak, the smoke trails of drones and rockets in the sky have become a daily sight, with missiles regularly setting off brush fires in the thickly wooded hills along the border. Israeli strikes have killed nearly 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including medics, children and journalists, while 10 Israeli civilians, a foreign agricultural worker and 20 Israeli soldiers have been killed.”
Nigeria
Voice Of America: Nigerian Military Rescues Chibok Girl
“The Nigerian military has rescued Ehi Abdul, one of the “Chibok girls” whose kidnapping by Boko Haram militants in 2014 generated worldwide attention. Authorities say the rescue operation late last month rescued 330 other captives and highlights the ongoing efforts to combat insurgents and rehabilitate victims in northeastern Borno state. Ehi Abdul, a Chibok schoolgirl kidnapped along with 275 others nearly a decade ago, is finally free. She spent about 10 years in the Sambisa Forest, where she says she was forced to marry eight Boko Haram fighters and bear them two children. Abdul and other former captives were handed over to the Borno state government on Monday after a month of health care and reintegration. Now 27, Abdul explains how she was discovered, and suggests some of the remaining Chibok girls may not want to return. She says, “Soldiers stopped us and asked where we were going. We told them we were visiting, and that's how we were rescued...” She says, “I haven't met some of my Chibok colleagues, while others don't want to leave…”
Somalia
Garowe Online: Al-Shabaab Commanders Surrender To Somali Army Amid Offensive
“The government of Somalia has received a huge boost after two high-ranking Al-Shabaab fighters surrendered, in the latest move which bolsters the fight against the militants, who are hell-bent on toppling the government. According to reports, the two ranking members of Al-Shabaab surrendered to the Somali National Army in Bulo Marer District within the Lower Shabelle region, where they have traditionally supported the activities of the group. Government sources identified the two as Abdi Mohamed Araaye, who was in charge of the militant group’s finances and extortion ring and had been a member of the group for 14 years before he decided to quit the notorious group which is dominant in central and southern regions. Another one was identified as Khalif Mohamed Abdi alias Khalid, who had been a member of the Al-Shabaab for ten years and also surrendered to the armed forces, specifically the 19th unit of the 3rd brigade. He was in charge of attacks against the people.”
Bloomberg: Somaliland Warns Somalia Against Turkish Navy Deal
“Somaliland warned Somalia against agreeing to a deployment of Turkish troops off the coast of the breakaway state. Somalia and Turkey earlier this year signed a defense agreement to improve stability in the region, and an economic pact that includes developing the Horn of African nation’s hydrocarbon resources. The move followed Somaliland’s own deal with Ethiopia in January that promised the landlocked nation’s navy an Indian Ocean base for 50 years. In exchange, Ethiopia would recognize the sovereignty of the semi-autonomous Somalia region - the first nation to do so. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking parliament’s approval to send the navy ahead of a seismic research ship that will set sail at the end of September to prospect for oil and gas in three offshore blocks, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. The foreign ministry in the breakaway region said in a statement on X it “vehemently rejects any potential deployment of Turkish naval forces within Somaliland’s recognized maritime zones.””
Africa
The New York Times: A Military Leader To His People: ‘Fight Or You Disappear’
“Teenagers toyed with guns at a museum exhibit. Young men posed in front of posters of the country’s military leader. Over dinner in restaurants, families watched television monitors showing footage of drone strikes. The event was billed as a national cultural festival in the West African nation of Burkina Faso. But it often resembled a mobilization campaign in the all-out war against the Islamist terrorists who have gradually occupied the country in recent years. “The motherland or death,” Alaila Ilboudo, a spoken word artist, shouted onstage to the cheers of crowds at the festival, held in May in Bobo-Dioulasso, the country’s second largest city. Burkina Faso has long been known for its international film festival and arts scene. But as extremists affiliated with the Islamic State and Al Qaeda have turned a swath of West Africa into the world’s epicenter of terrorism, Burkina Faso has been the hardest hit.”
Europe
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty: Mother, Aunt Of Jailed Belarusian Protester Detained On Extremism Charges
“Belarusian activist Yauhenia Douhaya said on July 24 that the mother and an aunt of imprisoned anarchist Alyaksandr Frantskevich -- Tatsyana Frantskevich and Natallya Labatsevich -- were arrested on a charge of taking part in an extremist group's activities. According to Douhaya, the sisters were arrested on July 19 when they came to visit Alyaksandr Frantskevich in prison. He was sentenced to 16 years and 9 months in prison in September 2022 over his participation in mass rallies protesting the official results of an August 2020 presidential election that declared authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka the winner. The opposition and many Western governments have refused to accept the results, saying the balloting was rigged.”
Jurist News: Spain Court Sentences Man To Imprisonment For Terrorism Over Letter Bombs Sent To Prime Minister
“The Spanish National Court on Tuesday sentenced a man to 18 years in prison for sending six letter bombs to prominent personalities, including the Spanish Prime Minister, in November 2022. The Audiencia Nacional, Spain’s apex criminal court, sentenced Pompeyo González Pascual, a 76-year-old Spanish man, to a 10-year prison sentence for terrorism and an additional eight years for preparing and placing explosives for terrorist purposes, stating further that Gonzalez’s actions were intended to create complications in Spanish society and provoked pressure on the governments of Spain, the United States, and other entities to stop supporting Ukraine. The court held that the evidence indicated that the envelopes containing explosive devices were delivered to the US and Ukrainian embassies, Defence Minister of Spain Margarita Robles, a Spanish weapons firm, and a Spanish military station.”
Australia
The Times Of Israel: Australia Slaps Sanctions On 7 Extremist Settlers Over Attacks On Palestinians
“Australia followed Europe and the United States on Thursday by levying financial sanctions and travel bans on Israeli settlers accused of “beatings, sexual assault and torture” of Palestinians in the West Bank. Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the sanctions on seven individuals who “have been involved in violent attacks on Palestinians.” She added: “This includes beatings, sexual assault and torture of Palestinians resulting in serious injury and in some cases, death.” The seven were named in Australian media as Yinon Levi, Zvi Bar Yosef, Neria Ben Pazi, Elisha Yered, David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil and Meir Ettinger, some of whom have been subject to sanctions by other Western countries in recent months.”
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