CEP Mentions
The Guardian: ‘He’s Like A Gangster’: How Tommy Robinson Became Leader Of Britain’s Far Right
“... Robinson presents a problem for the prison service. “The decisions around how and where Robinson will be held are fraught with difficulty for prison bosses,” said Ian Acheson, a counter-extremism adviser and former prison governor. Robinson’s supporters report that he is being held in a segregated unit in Belmarsh prison for his own safety. They claim he is at risk of attack from Muslim prisoners. Acheson warned that attempts were being made to propagandise his imprisonment, and misinformation about his treatment was already spreading on social media. The Tommy Robinson propaganda machine seems unlikely to go away.”
The Times: Three Months After Southport Stabbing, Separate Terrorism Claims Emerge
“Tuesday was three months to the day that Axel Rudakubana is accused of carrying out a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport… Writing in August, Ian Acheson, a former counter-terrorism official who also worked as director of community safety at the Home Office, warned that pursuing a strategy of minimal information risked creating a void that would be exploited by elements of the far-right determined to break community cohesion. Acheson called for all the facts about the background of the alleged perpetrator to be disclosed “as soon as possible,” urging the police not to engage in “further dithering”.”
Daily Mail: Tommy Robinson 'Will Be Held In Segregation' For His Own Protection As Prison Bosses Face A 'Nightmare' Over How To Deal With Far-Right Activist After He Was Jailed For 18 Months
“Tommy Robinson faces a long spell in segregation for his own protection after being jailed for 18 months for contempt of court. The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, admitted 10 breaches of a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against Syrian refugee Jamal Hijazi, who had successfully sued him… Former prison governor Ian Acheson said the decision where to put Robinson would be a 'real headache' for the prison service. 'You have someone who would not be considered an escape risk, hasn't been convicted for a crime of violence and has been found guilty of breaking a civil restriction, so normally he could be put in open conditions,' he said.”
Express: Tommy Robinson’s Life In Prison: Far-Right Activist ‘Kept In Isolation For Own Safety’
“Tommy Robinson is returning to prison after he pleaded guilty to contempt of court after repeating libellous claims he made about a Syrian refugee. The far-right activist repeated his remarks that schoolboy Jamal Hijazi "violently attacks young English girls in his school”, comments that led to him being ordered to pay £100,000 in damages in 2021… Robinson was also kept isolated during his last stint in prison, something which would be a "headache" for prisoner officers, according to former prison governor Ian Acheson. He said: "You have someone who would not be considered an escape risk, hasn't been convicted for a crime of violence and has been found guilty of breaking a civil restriction, so normally he could be put in open conditions,' he said.”
GB News: Tommy Robinson Is Guilty But Is ‘Solitary Confinement’ A Disproportionate Punishment – Charlie Peters Analysis
“Love or loathe him, all can agree that Tommy Robinson faces a torrid time as he is committed to imprisonment after pleading guilty to contempt of court. At Woolwich Crown Court this week, we heard from Mr Justice Johnson that Robinson’s breaches of an injunction following a libel trial that he lost were so serious that any suggestion of a non-custodial sentence was impossible… Ian Acheson, the former head of security at HMP Wandsworth, told me the authorities will face ‘a big headache when dealing with Robinson' s custody.’ He said that on the one hand the offence for which he received a prison sentence is relatively minor and there is no record of him misbehaving in his previous sentence.”
Voice Of America: Recent US Strikes Spotlight Growing Islamic State Threat In Syria
“... IS had maintained training camps in the Syrian desert for many years, according to Gregory Waters, a research analyst at the Counter Extremism Project who closely follows IS activities in central Syria. "These are the places where it trains the next generation of fighters — often children it recruits from northeast Syria — and where adult fighters can return to in between their operations," Waters told VOA. "While the central Syrian desert is under Russian and Syrian regime control, ISIS does not abide by these arbitrary lines." He added that IS cells in the central desert support the cells operating in northeast Syria, which is largely under the control of U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.”
United States
NBC News: Hate Crime And Terrorism Charges Filed After Jewish Man Shot In 'Targeted' Attack
“Hate crime and terrorism charges were announced Thursday after a Jewish man was shot while walking to synagogue in Chicago over the weekend in what police now say was a “targeted” attack. Police had earlier this week announced multiple charges against 22-year-old Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, who originally faced six counts of attempted first-degree murder and seven for aggravated discharge of a firearm at officers and firefighters, among other charges. On Thursday, Abdallahi was charged with an additional felony count of terrorism and one felony count of a hate crime, Chicago’s top cop, Supt. Larry Snelling, said. “We want everybody to know that we will never tolerate violence that’s rooted in hate and bigotry,” Snelling said during a press conference announcing the charges.”
Associated Press: Pentagon Bolsters the US Presence in the Middle East with Bombers, Fighter Aircraft and Warships
“Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is sending bomber aircraft, fighter jets and more Navy warships to the Middle East to bolster the U.S. presence in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday, as an aircraft carrier and its ships are preparing to leave. Austin ordered several B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft, a squadron of fighter jets, tanker aircraft and Navy destroyers to deploy to the Middle East, said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, in a statement. He said they will begin arriving in the region in coming months, as the USS Abraham Lincoln begins to head home. The military moves come as Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon rage, including a retaliatory strike on Iran a week ago that likely damaged a base that builds ballistic missiles and launches rockets as part of Tehran’s space program.”
Syria
Associated Press: Israel Says It Carried Out Ground Raid into Syria, Seizing a Syrian Citizen Connected to Iran
"The Israeli military said Sunday it has carried out a ground raid into Syria, seizing a Syrian citizen involved in Iranian networks. It was the first time in the current war that Israel announced its troops operated in Syrian territory. Israel has carried out airstrikes in Syria multiple times over the past year, targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iran, the close ally of both Hezbollah and Syria. But it has not previously made public any ground forays into Syria. The Israeli military said the seizure was part of a special operation “that took place in recent months,” though it did not say exactly when it occurred.”
Iran
Associated Press: Iran’s Help Has Transformed Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Into a Potent Military Force, UN Experts Say
“Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been transformed from a local armed group with limited capabilities to a powerful military organization with support from Iran, Iraqi armed groups, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants, and others, U.N. experts said in a new report. The Iranian-backed Houthis have exploited the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and worked to enhance their status in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” to gain popularity in the region and beyond, the experts monitoring sanctions against the Houthis said in the 537-page report to the U.N. Security Council. To support Iranian-backed Hamas militants, whose surprise attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza, the Houthis have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, disrupting global shipping in a key geopolitical area.”
Associated Press: Iran Executes a Jewish Citizen Convicted of Murder Following a Dispute Over Money
“Iran on Monday executed a Jewish citizen convicted of murdering another man in 2022 following a personal dispute, reports said. It was a rare case of an execution of a member of a religious minority in the predominately Muslim nation. Mizanonline.ir, a website affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, said 23-year-old Arvin Ghahremani was put to death after the country’s Supreme Court affirmed the capital punishment handed down in the case earlier last year. The report quoted Hamid Reza Karimi, the prosecutor of the western city of Kermanshah, as saying the court and the convicted man’s lawyers and relatives had failed to convince the victim’s family to abstain from qisas — an act under Islamic penal code that calls for similar punishment, or an “eye for an eye” — and effectively pardon his killer. The victim’s name was not provided.”
Lebanon
Reuters: Israeli Military Says It Killed Hezbollah Unit Commander in Southern Lebanon
"The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed Jaafar Khader Faour, a commander of Hezbollah's Nasser Brigade rocket unit in southern Lebanon, and said he had been responsible for multiple attacks on Israel since October 2023." "Hezbollah did not immediately comment or confirm Faour's death."
Israel
Reuters: Israel Says It Kills One Of Hamas' Last Senior Officials
“The Israeli military said on Friday it killed senior Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab, describing him as one of the last high-ranking members of Hamas responsible for coordinating with other groups in the Gaza Strip, in an airstrike in Khan Younis. The Palestinian group mourned the death of Kassab in a statement, adding that he was killed along with another Hamas official named Ayman Ayesh in an Israeli attack on their car in the enclave. Hamas sources told Reuters that Kassab was a local group official in Gaza but not a member of its decision-making political office.”
Bloomberg: Netanyahu’s Office Is Accused Of Leaks To Thwart Gaza Cease-Fire
“Two months ago, when a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas seemed close, a new obstacle arose: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his troops must hold the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent Hamas from rearming and smuggling out Israeli hostages. Many in Israel’s security establishment dismissed the demand and accused Netanyahu of avoiding a deal to keep the war going. Yet within days, two journals — Germany’s Bild and London’s Jewish Chronicle — published articles based on documents that supported Netanyahu’s point, and suggested that Hamas was obstructing a deal. Those reports have since come under harsh scrutiny and triggered a rare top-level investigation accusing officials, including a Netanyahu aide, of leaking classified documents and exaggerating their significance.”
Reuters: Israeli Airstrikes Kill At Least 31 People In Gaza, Medics Say
“Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian medics said, with nearly half of the deaths in northern areas where the army has waged a month-long campaign it says is aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping. Palestinians said the new aerial and ground offensives and forced evacuations were "ethnic cleansing" aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp of their population in order to create buffer zones. Israel denies this, saying it is fighting Hamas militants who launch attacks from there. Medics said at least 13 Palestinians were killed in separate attacks on houses in Beit Lahiya town and Jabalia, the largest of the enclave's eight historic camps and the focus of the army's new offensive.”
Middle East
The Washington Post: Arab States Resist U.S. Pressure To Denounce Houthis
“Timothy Lenderking, President Joe Biden’s special envoy to Yemen, has made several appeals to the Egyptians in recent months. He has done the same with the Saudis and other Arab partners, and each time his message is more or less the same. “I’ve told all of them that they need to do more,” Lenderking said in a recent interview about the Houthis, the Iranian-backed militant group that, for the past year, has waged an aggressive campaign against the United States, Israel and commercial ships traversing the Red Sea — all in the name of defending the Palestinians amid Israel’s devastating war in Gaza. What Lenderking means is that Washington’s Arab partners need to do more to counter the Houthi hero narrative in the Middle East.’
Egypt
Reuters: Egypt Hosts Fatah-Hamas Post-War Gaza Talks As Part Of Ceasefire Efforts
“Senior officials of the rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas are meeting in Cairo to discuss forming a committee to manage Gaza's post-war governance, an Egyptian security source was quoted as saying by Egypt's Al Qahera News TV on Saturday. The talks are part of Egypt's broader mediation efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas and to expand humanitarian access to the enclave. Leaders from Hamas and the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo last month to discuss forming the committee based on a proposal put forward by Egypt, but talks were adjourned for later discussion, sources close to the talks told Reuters.”
Voice of America: Protesters Demonstrate in Tel Aviv to Demand End of War, Return of Hostages
“Hundreds of protesters in Tel Aviv, Israel, voiced their frustration with the government Saturday for failing to secure a truce to bring the remaining hostages in Gaza home. Flag-waving demonstrators in the country's commercial hub held placards with slogans including "Deal now," "Stop the war" and "We won't abandon them," and beat drums and chanted "Why are they still in Gaza?" "There have been countless opportunities to end this crisis, and each one was torpedoed by the government," said demonstrator Zahiro Shahar Mor, a 52-year-old bank employee from Tel Aviv. "The cycle of violence is escalating week after week and we see no end," said Mor, whose uncle Avraham Munder was killed in captivity in Gaza, and who is campaigning for the release of others' loved ones.”
France
Le Monde: Eight On Trial Over Terrorist Killing Of French Teacher Who Held Class On Charlie Hebdo Cartoons
“Four years after history-geography high school teacher Samuel Paty was assassinated by a radicalized 18-year-old Chechen assailant, on October 16, 2020, the time for the major trial has come. The defendants are eight adults, who were, to varying degrees, involved in the deadly chain of events that led to the teacher being beheaded as he left his school in the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, in the Paris region. Starting on Monday, November 4, they are standing trial before the Paris special criminal court. The courts have already ruled, albeit only partially, on certain responsibilities involved in the chain of events that led to this terrorist attack. At the end of a trial held behind closed doors, as required by the law concerning minors, six former middle school students, who were aged between 13 and 15 at the time of the events, were sentenced by the juvenile court on December 8, 2023, to penalties ranging from a suspended sentence of 14 months to a six-month prison sentence.”
Europe
Reuters: Greek Anti-Terrorism Police Accuse Three Over Athens Apartment Blast
“Greece's anti-terrorism unit has accused three people of participating in a terrorist group, following a bomb explosion which killed a 36-year-old man and seriously hurt a woman in an apartment in Athens this week, police said on Saturday. Anti-terrorism police suspect the case is linked to anti-establishment guerrilla groups and the blast occurred while the bomb was being made, police officials have said. Among the accused in the legal case are the 33-year-old injured woman who is being treated at an Athens hospital since the blast occurred on Thursday, and a 31-year-old Greek man arrested after testifying on Friday night. He is expected to appear before a prosecutor on Saturday. According to police sources, the man said he was linked to the flat but has denied any involvement in the explosion. He has been arrested in the past in Germany.”
Southeast Asia
The New York Times: Sikh Activists See It As Freedom. India Calls It Terrorism.
“In the months since Canada and the United States accused India of carrying out assassination plots against Sikh separatist leaders on North American soil, a lingering question has hung over the accusations: Why would the Indian government take such a risk? Inside India, the Sikh cause to carve out a land called Khalistan from the state of Punjab largely fizzled out decades ago. Yet the Indian government still frames the Khalistan movement as a threat to national security — for reasons more mundane but no easier to weed out. India has repeatedly accused Khalistan-related activists in countries like Pakistan and, more recently, Canada of sponsoring gang warfare, drug trafficking and extortion in India.”
Reuters: Eleven Injured In Militant Attack In India's Kashmir
“At least 11 people were injured when militants threw a grenade at Indian security forces on Sunday in a crowded flea market in Srinagar, capital of India-administered Kashmir, a police official said. Militants missed their target and instead injured at least 11 people, the official told Reuters. The official wished to remain unnamed as he was not authorised to speak to the media. The identity of the militant group responsible for the attack is unknown. The injured were rushed to hospital for treatment where they were in a stable condition, the official said, adding that the explosion had caused panic in the market and sent shoppers scrambling for cover. The attack comes a day after a top commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant Islamist group, was killed along with two other militants by Indian troops in Kashmir.”
The Economic Times: The Economic Times: Jammu and Kashmir: Two Militants Killed in Encounter in Anantnag
"Security personnel on Saturday killed two militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district. Search operations and encounters have been taking place in multiple districts of the Union territory on Saturday. An encounter broke out between security forces and terrorists on Saturday in the Khanyar locality of Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital here, officials said. Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the Khanyar area of the city on Saturday morning following inputs about the presence of terrorists in the area, the officials added. They said the search operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists fired upon a search party of the forces, who retaliated.”
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