From CEP's Eye on Extremism <[email protected]>
Subject First Israeli Hostages And Palestinian Prisoners Freed In Ceasefire Deal With Hamas
Date January 21, 2025 2:30 PM
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“Around 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were freed from Israeli jails
and into the occupied West Bank on Sunday, as part of an exchange under
ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel that went into effect Sunday morning.
Their release comes hours after three Israeli women were set free by Hamas-led
Palestinian militants who held them hostage in Gaza for 471 days. This was the
first of several hostage and detainee exchanges set to take place during the
planned six-week ceasefire in Gaza that's aimed at ending the 15-month war.
Negotiations to extend the deal are expected to begin in coming weeks.”











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Eye on Extremism



January 21, 2025



NPR: First Israeli Hostages And Palestinian Prisoners Freed In Ceasefire Deal
With Hamas
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“Around 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were freed from Israeli jails
and into the occupied West Bank on Sunday, as part of an exchange under
ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel that went into effect Sunday morning.
Their release comes hours after three Israeli women were set free by Hamas-led
Palestinian militants who held them hostage in Gaza for 471 days. This was the
first of several hostage and detainee exchanges set to take place during the
planned six-week ceasefire in Gaza that's aimed at ending the 15-month war.
Negotiations to extend the deal are expected to begin in coming weeks.”



Reuters: Negotiators Zero In On Potential Deal To Disarm Syria's Last
Battleground
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“Negotiators are zeroing in on a potential deal to resolve one of the most
explosive questions looming over Syria's future: the fate of Kurdish forces
that the U.S. considers key allies against Islamic State but neighbouring
Turkey regards as a national security threat. Diplomatic and military
negotiators from the United States, Turkey, Syria and the Kurdish-led Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF) are showing more flexibility and patience than their
public statements suggest, a dozen sources told Reuters, including five
directly involved in the intensive web of discussions in recent weeks.”



CEP Mentions



The Times: Criminal Gangs Taking Control Of Uk Prisons, Ex-Governors Warn
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“... Writing in today’s Times, Ian Acheson, who held senior positions at
several prisons including governor of HMP Erlestoke, John Podmore, the former
governor at HMP Belmarsh and HMP Brixton, and Professor David Wilson, a
criminologist and former assistant prison governor at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, said
that the situation was even worse than Taylor has warned. They said that some
prisons were in danger of becoming like some jails in South America where
organised crime groups (OCGs) are in control.”



The Spectator: Empty Pledges Won’t Solve The Knife Crime Epidemic
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“On 23 September last year at 6.30 p.m. in the evening in a street in
Woolwich, London, Daejaun Campbell cried out, ‘I’m 15, don’t let me die’ as he
bled out on a pavement after being stabbed. You probably won’t remember Deajaun
but he was a one of nine children murdered by knives in London last year. He
was a young black man in a city where victims and perpetrators often share the
same ethnicity. An investigation by the Times has revealed that over half the
576 black people murdered by knives between 2013 and 2023 were aged between 16
and 24.”



The Spectator: Prevent Is Not Solely To Blame For Southport Failings
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“The assailant in the Southport massacre has pleaded guilty to the murders of
three children in the town last year. Keir Starmer has leapt with unusual speed
to authorise a public inquiry into what drove Axel Rudakubana into his frenzy
of killing and if it could have been prevented. We now know that the state’s
protective agencies crossed Rudakubana multiple times; he was referred three
times to the government’s Prevent strategy, which is supposed to spot and stop
tomorrow’s terrorists before hateful thought turns into lethal action. The
Prevent strategy has been under huge scrutiny recently following the
publication of a review of its effectiveness by the writer Sir William
Shawcross. My organisation, the Counter Extremism Project, agreed with the key
findings of his 2023 report.”



Atlanta Black Star: ‘Deliberately Plotting’: ‘Radicalized’ White Nationalist
Fight Clubs Are Holding ‘Large-Scale Fight Nights,’ Training For Race War As
Law Enforcement Turns A Blind Eye
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“... They make no mention of their neo-Nazi sympathies and avoid public
discussion about “politics, Jews or history,” the New York-based Counter
Extremism Project reports. Members are encouraged to look and act like “regular
guys” and maintain a focus on recruitment. “The large-scale fight nights, that
sometimes attract upwards of 60 or more attendees from a range of white
supremacist groups across the United States and even abroad, allow the groups
to fraternize and recruit, while also fulfilling the Active Club’s goal of
crafting a transnational white fraternal brotherhood,” Moon said.”



Conservative Home: Ian Acheson: “Community Cohesion” Is Only Enhanced By
Uncovering Truth, And Demanding Accountability
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“We are rapidly becoming a low trust society and this has serious
implications for ‘community cohesion.’ The term, coined by academics after the
2011 riots has lately become a soubriquet for institutional cowardice in the
face of a national child safeguarding catastrophe. But when it was originally
conceived, it was a way of describing the ties that bind communities together
and a means of breaking down stereotypes and misconceptions that can fuel
sectarian alienation and even translate into ideological violence. The
gatekeeper against increasing distrust that fuels this cycle of decline is the
Government. And here lies the problem.”



United States



Associated Press: Trump Seeks To Designate Drug Cartels As Foreign Terrorist
Organizations
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“President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday saying the United
States would designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in a
move that could push a militarized agenda for the border and Latin America. The
order highlighted Mexican drug cartels and other Latin American criminal groups
like Venezuela gang Tren de Aragua and Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha
(MS-13), which it said “threaten the safety of the American people, the
security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in
the Western Hemisphere.” The order did not list the groups by name, but said
Cabinet secretaries would recommend groups for designation as terrorist
organizations in the next 14 days.”



Fox News: FBI Assistant Special Agent In Charge Who Said New Orleans Attack
'Not A Terrorist Event' Reassigned
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“The FBI assistant special agent in charge who told the media and the public
the New Orleans attack was "not a terrorist event" has been reassigned, Fox
News has learned. Multiple sources tell Fox News that FBI Assistant Special
Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan has been temporarily reassigned following her
initial press conference in which she stated: "This is not a terrorist event."
It was terrorism. After the original presser, the FBI put out a statement using
the word "terrorism." Attorney General Merrick Garland and President Biden also
used the word "terrorism" in their statements.”



Fox News: Student Admits To Releasing Toxic Gas In Dorm, Forces Evacuations
Hours After FBI Terrorism Questioning
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“A Utah State University student was arrested after authorities say he
contaminated his dorm with hydrochloric acid gas, forcing mass evacuations,
just hours after being questioned by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Joshua
Peter Jager, 20, was arrested Thursday night and is charged with causing a
catastrophe recklessly and disorderly conduct, according to an indictment. USU
authorities responded to a fire alarm just before 7:45 p.m. Thursday at
Mountain View Tower and found the entire first floor covered in a vaporous
substance, later found to be hydrochloric acid gas, according to a probable
cause affidavit filed in 1st District Court.”



Syria



NBC News: He Oversaw The Public Executions Of Two Women. Now He's Syria's New
Justice Minister.
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“In a shaky video recorded in 2015, a woman cloaked in black and kneeling on
a public street begs to see her children for the last time. Instead, a man
identified as Shadi al-Waisi, Syria’s new justice minister, motions to a
gunman, who shoots her in the back of the head. A second video shows al-Waisi
reading out a death sentence for another woman, who, like the first, was
convicted of corruption and prostitution. She is shot and drops to the ground.
The videos were recorded a decade ago, when al-Waisi was a judge for Jabhat
al-Nusra, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria’s northern Idlib province.”



Afghanistan



Reuters: Afghan Taliban Member Freed From US Custody In Exchange For Two
Americans, Kabul Says
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“The United States has freed an Afghan convicted by an American court on
charges of drug smuggling and terrorism in exchange for two U.S. citizens held
in Afghanistan, authorities in Kabul said on Tuesday. Afghan officials said the
man, Khan Mohammad, had landed in Kabul after being released. Mohammad was
sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 by a U.S. court, which was the first
conviction on narco-terrorism charges, according to the U.S. Department of
Justice (DOJ). The prisoner exchange was the result of "long and productive"
negotiations between Afghan and American authorities, Afghanistan's foreign
ministry said in a statement.”



Voice Of America: Taliban Minister Urges Leadership To Lift Afghan Female
Education Ban
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“A senior Taliban leader has publicly criticized his government’s policy of
prohibiting female education in Afghanistan, calling it a “personal choice”
rather than an interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia. The rare public rebuke
from Sher Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban deputy foreign minister, comes amid
persistent international calls for Afghanistan’s rulers to permit girls’
education in secondary schools and beyond, as well as to remove restrictions on
women’s access to public life at large.”



Associated Press: Funding Cuts To Afghanistan Are The Biggest Threat To
Helping Women, Aid Agency Chief Warns
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“Funding cuts to Afghanistan are the biggest threat to helping the country’s
women, the chief of a top aid agency warned Sunday. Jan Egeland, the
secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said women and girls were
bearing the brunt of dwindling financial support for nongovernmental groups and
humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The NRC helped 772,484 Afghans in 2022.
That number fell to 491,435 in 2023. Last year, the aid agency helped 216,501
people. Half of its beneficiaries are women. Egeland, who has made several
visits to Afghanistan since 2021, said: “We see one after the other peer
organization cutting programming and staff in the last two years.”



Pakistan



Associated Press: Pakistan Launches Security Operation In The Northwest After
Surge In Violence And Sectarian Strife
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“Pakistani security forces launched an operation targeting militants in a
restive northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, officials said on Monday,
following a surge in attacks and sectarian strife. It is the first large-scale
operation in the area in recent years. The latest attack in Kurram, in the
province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was on Friday when unidentified gunmen ambushed
and burned aid trucks, killing two security personnel and at least five
drivers. The district has been cut off from the rest of the country since
November after authorities blocked roads following clashes between heavily
armed Shiite and Sunni tribes.”



Yemen



Reuters: US Imposes Sanctions On Yemeni Financial Institution In Action
Against Houthis
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“The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on a Yemen-based financial institution
that Washington accused of financially supporting the Houthis, as President Joe
Biden's administration sought to further pressure the militant group before
Biden leaves office. The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it
imposed sanctions on Yemen Kuwait Bank, accusing it of helping the Houthis
exploit the Yemeni banking sector to launder money and transfer funds to
allies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah. The Iran-backed Houthis have carried out
more than 100 attacks on ships since November 2023. They have sunk two vessels,
seized another and killed at least four seafarers.”



Associated Press: Yemen’s Houthis Signal They’ll Now Limit Their Attacks In
The Red Sea Corridor To Israeli Ships
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“Yemen’s Houthi rebels signaled Monday they now will limit their attacks in
the Red Sea corridor to only Israeli-affiliated ships after a ceasefire began
in the Gaza Strip, but warned wider assaults could resume if needed. The
Houthis’ announcement, first made in an email sent to shippers and others late
Sunday, likely won’t be enough to encourage global firms to reenter the route
that’s crucial for cargo and energy shipments moving between Asia and Europe.
Their attacks have halved traffic through the region, cutting deeply into
revenues for Egypt, which runs the Suez Canal linking the Red Sea to the
Mediterranean.”



Lebanon



Business Insider: What Lebanon's Shifting Political Landscape Means For
Hezbollah
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“Lebanon elected General Joseph Aoun, the head of the Lebanese Armed Forces
(LAF), as president earlier this month, ending a more than two-year
presidential vacuum. Just days later, Nawaf Salam, who had been serving as the
president of the International Court of Justice, was named as prime minister,
replacing the Hezbollah-backed caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati. The moves
marked a dramatic shift in Lebanon's power balance and highlighted the weakened
state of Hezbollah, one of the country's most powerful political players.
Here's what we know about Lebanon's shifting political landscape and what it
means for Hezbollah.”



Middle East



Reuters: Gazans Cheer As Ceasefire Between Israel And Hamas Takes Hold
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“Thousands of Palestinians burst into the streets across Gaza as a ceasefire
between Israel and Hamas began on Sunday, some in celebration, others to visit
the graves of relatives, while many rushed back to see what remained of their
homes. "I feel alive again," said Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has
been sheltering in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year. "I
feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert
for 15 months," she told Reuters via a chat app. In the north of the territory,
where some of the most intense Israeli airstrikes and battles with the
militants took place, drone footage showed hundreds of people walking on a
dusty road through a devastated landscape of crushed concrete and twisted
metal.”



United Kingdom



Reuters: UK's Starmer Vows To Uncover Failings, Lead Change After Southport
Murders
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“UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Tuesday to "leave no stone unturned"
to uncover failings in preventing the killings of three girls at a Taylor
Swift-themed event, saying an inquiry could lead to a change in terrorism laws.
Starmer defended his government's stance to not divulge many details earlier
about the British teenager guilty of the killings by saying he did not want to
collapse the case, but admitted there were failings. Axel Rudakubana, 18,
unexpectedly pleaded guilty on Monday to murdering Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot
Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, in the English town of Southport in
July, and to producing ricin and possessing an al Qaeda training manual.”



BBC: Man In Court On Terrorism Charge
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“A man from East Yorkshire has appeared in court accused of of a terrorism
offence. Jordan Richardson, 20, of Oliver Close, Howden, near Goole, was
arrested on 19 December and charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of
an act of terrorism between 1 August and 19 December last year. Appearing on a
video link from Doncaster prison at the Old Bailey on Friday, Mr Richardson
spoke only to confirm his identity. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb set a plea hearing
at the Old Bailey for 2 May, and set a provisional trial date of 7 October at
Leeds Crown Court. Mr Richardson was remanded into custody.”



Russia



Reuters: Three Navalny Lawyers Sentenced To Years In Russian Penal Colony For
'Extremist Activity'
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“Three lawyers for the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny were found
guilty by a Russian court on Friday of belonging to an extremist group and
sentenced to years in a penal colony. Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim
Kobzev were arrested in October 2023 and added the following month to an
official list of "terrorists and extremists". They were sentenced respectively
to 3-1/2, 5 and 5-1/2 years after a trial held behind closed doors in the
Vladimir region, east of Moscow. "Vadim, Alexei and Igor are political
prisoners and must be released immediately," Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the
late politician, posted on X.”



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