“The leaders of nine southern European Union countries and Jordan are meeting
in Cyprus on Friday to come up with ways to de-escalate the crisis in the
Middle East that is threatening to engulf Lebanon and trigger a wider
humanitarian crisis. Jordan’s King Abdullah will join the leaders of the
so-called MED9 — including Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta,
Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia — as well as European Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen to brainstorm initiatives aimed at protecting Lebanese
civilians caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah. The leaders
will also focus on helping clinch a ceasefire deal between Israeli forces and
Hamas in the Gaza strip in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted
unanimously in June. Cyprus’ government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said
Thursday the Jordanian monarch’s presence at the meeting lends additional
weight to the proceedings given his country’s role in helping peace efforts in
the region.”











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Eye on Extremism



October 11, 2024



Associated Press: Leaders Of Jordan And Southern Europe Meet In A Bid To Help
De-Escalate Middle East Crisis
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“The leaders of nine southern European Union countries and Jordan are meeting
in Cyprus on Friday to come up with ways to de-escalate the crisis in the
Middle East that is threatening to engulf Lebanon and trigger a wider
humanitarian crisis. Jordan’s King Abdullah will join the leaders of the
so-called MED9 — including Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta,
Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia — as well as European Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen to brainstorm initiatives aimed at protecting Lebanese
civilians caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah. The leaders
will also focus on helping clinch a ceasefire deal between Israeli forces and
Hamas in the Gaza strip in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted
unanimously in June. Cyprus’ government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said
Thursday the Jordanian monarch’s presence at the meeting lends additional
weight to the proceedings given his country’s role in helping peace efforts in
the region.”



Reuters: Unidentified Gunmen Kill At Least 21 Coal Miners In Pakistan
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“Unidentified gunmen attacked a cluster of small private coal mines in
southwestern Pakistan early on Friday, shooting some miners as they slept and
lining up others before opening fire, killing 21 in the restive region, police
said. The attack by 40 armed men days before Pakistan hosts a summit of the
Shanghai Co-operation Organization grouping is the worst in weeks in the
mineral-rich province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran. "The armed
terrorists remained for around 1-1/2 hours in the mining area," regional police
official Asif Shafi told Reuters. "They fired rockets and hurled grenades at
the mines and miners' quarters." There was no immediate claim of responsibility
for the attack on the mines of the Junaid Coal Co in the Duki area, which
injured six. Among the dead were four Afghan nationals and another four were
injured. Businesses and shops were shut in Duki as hundreds of people gathered
along with the bodies of the dead in a protest to demand the arrest of the
attackers, police said.”




Recent CEP Press Releases

* One Year After October 7
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* Counter Extremism Project Statement Marking 9/11
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* CEP Statement on U.S. Indictment of Hamas Leaders
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* Extremist Content Online: Active Clubs Celebrate "Frontier" Boxing and MMA
Event, White Supremacist CashApp Fundraiser Removed, White Power Webstore
Advertises on Telegram
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CEP Mentions



Cuba Periodistas: How A Neo-Nazi Group Is Using Sports Clubs To Recruit Young
People And Build A 'Militia' In The UK, US And Europe
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“Reviving England’s warrior culture” by posing as a sports club. That is what
a far-right group linked to a violent white supremacist collective is doing,
which has been recruiting young people to achieve that goal, according to a BBC
investigation. […] Alexander Ritzmann, a researcher at the international
organisation The Counter Extremism Project and an advisor to the European
Commission's Radicalisation Awareness Network, says he has “never seen a
far-right network grow so fast”. He described Active Club as a “sophisticated
operation” and warned that if it was allowed to “continue to operate and
multiply, the likelihood of targeted political violence would increase.” He
added that his aim was to “build a kind of militia hidden behind the image of a
sports club, but which in reality is preparing for organised violence.”



United States



Fox News: Afghan Man Charged With Election Day Terror Plot Screened Multiple
Times, Worked CIA Security Job
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“Authorities believe Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, became radicalized after he
arrived in the U.S. Sept. 9, 2021, weeks after the American troops pulled out
of Afghanistan, a senior Biden administration official said. He entered the
U.S. on a special immigrant visa (SIV) and is on parole status pending
adjudication of his immigration proceedings, the Department of Homeland
Security said this week. Those facts were disputed by the State Department.
Officials have since clarified that Tawhedi came to the U.S. via humanitarian
parole and later applied for SIV status. Humanitarian parole is a process by
which Tawhedi would have been held in a third country for screening and vetting
and then flown to the U.S. After moving to the U.S. in 2021, he applied for
special immigrant status, a pathway for a green card, and was approved. He
hadn't finalized his status, which is why the State Department denied a DHS
claim made this week that Tawhedi arrived with an SIV.”



Pakistan



The Washington Post: 2 Pakistani Police And 4 Insurgents Killed In The Restive
North West Ahead Of Asian Security Summit
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“Militants opened fire on a police vehicle and killed two officers on
Thursday in restive northwest Pakistan before fleeing the scene, police said, a
sign of increasing violence ahead of a summit of an Asian security grouping in
the capital, Islamabad. Hours later, the military said it killed four militants
in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering
Afghanistan. The latest attack on police happened in the city of Tank, also in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, local police official Sher Afzal said. No group has claimed
responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known
as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, who often target security forces.”



Yemen



Associated Press: Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Attack A Liberian-Flagged Ship In The
Red Sea
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“Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker on
Thursday in the Red Sea, authorities said. The attack comes as the rebels
continue to threaten ships moving through the Red Sea, a waterway that once saw
$1 trillion in goods move through it a year, over the ongoing conflicts in the
Mideast stemming from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The Olympic
Spirit tanker in the Red Sea had been skirting the coast of East Africa when it
found itself struck first by a projectile that damaged the vessel, but sparked
no fire and caused no injuries, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime
Trade Operations center said. At least three more projectiles later fell in the
waters around the vessel, which was a distance away from Hodeida, the
Houthi-controlled port from which many of the rebels’ attacks have been
launched.”



Lebanon



Reuters: Hezbollah Forges New Command For Crucial Ground War After Heavy
Israeli Blows
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“Hezbollah is preparing for a long war of attrition in south Lebanon, after
Israel wiped out its top leadership, with a new military command directing
rocket fire and the ground conflict, two sources familiar with its operations
said. Hezbollah has been diminished by three weeks of devastating Israeli blows
- most notably the killing of its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Friends and
foes alike are now watching how effectively it resists Israeli troops that have
crossed into Lebanon with the stated aim of driving it away from the border.
The Iran-backed group still has a considerable stockpile of weapons, including
its most powerful precision missiles which it has yet to use, four sources
familiar with its operations said, despite waves of airstrikes that Israel says
has severely depleted its arsenal.”



Reuters: Israeli Forces Fire At UN Position In Lebanon, 22 Killed In Beirut
Strike
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“Israeli forces fired at a watchtower used by U.N. peacekeepers in southern
Lebanon on Friday, injuring two, a U.N. source said, the third day in a row
peacekeepers have reported Israeli fire at their positions as Israel wages war
on Hezbollah. An Israeli strike late on Thursday in the heart of Beirut killed
22 people and injured more than 100, Lebanese authorities said. The target was
a senior Hezbollah official - Wafiq Safa - who survived, according to three
security sources. In northern Israel, a Thai worker was killed when Hezbollah
fired an anti-tank missile at a farming area, the national ambulance service
said. The Israeli airforce killed a Hezbollah commander responsible for attacks
with anti-tank missiles into the area of Ramot Naftali in northern Israel, the
military said. Hezbollah issued no immediate comment on that claim.The conflict
between Israel and Hezbollah erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group
opened fire in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas at the start of the
Gaza war.”



Middle East



Associated Press: Middle East Latest: Dozens Killed As Israeli Troops Pound
Central And Northern Gaza
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“Israel’s bombardment of central and northern Gaza has killed dozens of
people and trapped thousands in their homes, Palestinian officials said
Wednesday, as the death toll in the yearlong war passed 42,000. Gaza’s Health
Ministry said it recovered 40 bodies from Jabaliya from Sunday until Tuesday,
and another 14 from communities farther north. The toll is likely higher as
there are bodies buried under the rubble and in areas that can’t be accessed,
it said. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military spokesperson, said that Israeli
forces were operating in Jabaliya to prevent Hamas from regrouping and had
killed about 100 militants, without providing evidence. Israel says it only
targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it fights in
residential areas. A year ago, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s
security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing
some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250.”



The Jerusalem Post: Police Prevent Tel Aviv Terror Attack With Arrest Of Five
ISIS-Linked Suspects <[link removed]>



“Police arrested five Israeli citizens from Taybeh who had pledged allegiance
to ISIS on Thursday, thwarting a planned terror attack at the Azrieli Mall in
Tel Aviv. The five, who were previously unknown to the police, were arrested by
special units officers, who found them with a Carl Gustav rifle and other
materials. The planned attack involved a car bomb and shooting at Azrieli Mall.
Police said the suspects, aged 20-30, pledged allegiance to ISIS and consumed
ideological material from the radical Islamist group.”



Somalia



Associated Press: Somalia Says It Welcomes Egypt’s Offer To Deploy
Peacekeepers There
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“Somalia says Egypt has offered to deploy peacekeeping troops to the Horn of
Africa nation in a security partnership that is emerging as the mandate of a
long-time group of African Union peacekeepers winds down. Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Thursday attended a summit in the Eritrean capital,
Asmara, where he and the leaders of Somalia and Eritrea pledged strong
cooperation in regional security. Somali authorities said in a statement at the
end of the summit that they welcomed Egypt’s offer to deploy troops in Somalia
as part of a stabilization force when the present African Union force disbands
in December. The statement said the leaders welcomed the African Union Peace
and Security Council’s decision to launch the African Union Mission to Support
Stabilization in Somalia, or AUSSOM, under whose mandate the Egyptians or
others would be deployed.”



Europe



Politico: The EU Is Helping Turkey Forcibly Deport Migrants To Syria And
Afghanistan
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“One of the last things Sami saw before Turkey deported him was the flag of
the European Union. This spring, the 26-year-old Syrian was beaten unconscious
at the gates of an EU-funded detention site in southern Turkey, stuffed into a
bus and sent back to the war zone he had escaped from years earlier. In the
detention center, where he spent three miserable months, “the EU flag is
everywhere,” said Sami, who asked to use a pseudonym due to fear of reprisal.
“On doors, windows, soap bags, even on mattresses and pillows.” In the wake of
Europe’s 2015 refugee crisis, the EU has poured more than €11 billion into
Turkey to help the country support, shelter and manage almost 4 million people
who had fled northward to escape Syria’s devastating civil war. These funds
represent the largest humanitarian effort in EU history, but its purpose is far
from altruistic — aiming to minimize asylum-seeker arrivals in the bloc by
ensuring they stay in Turkey.”



Mexico



Associated Press: A New Mayor Takes Office In Southern Mexico After His
Predecessor Was Beheaded
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“A new mayor was sworn in Thursday in a city in southern Mexico where his
predecessor was killed and beheaded less than a week after taking office. The
new mayor, Gustavo Alarcón, a doctor, had been elected as an alternate on the
same ticket as deceased Mayor Alejandro Arcos in the June election. Arcos took
office on Oct. 1 in the violence-wracked city of Chilpancingo, the capital of
the southern state of Guerrero. But his beheaded body was found in a pickup
truck Sunday; his head had been placed on the vehicle’s roof. Two rival drug
gangs are fighting to control the city. Alarcón took the oath of office with a
minimal security detail of a handful of police officers Thursday. He pledged to
“work for the good of all” and fight the violence that has gripped Chilpancingo
for years.”



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