Two of the British Islamic State terrorists dubbed the "Beatles," accused of
involvement in the murders of U.S. hostages in Syria, are likely to be

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


October 6, 2020

 

NBC News: ISIS Terrorists Known As The 'Beatles' Likely To Be Brought To U.S.
In Coming Days
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“Two of the British Islamic State terrorists dubbed the "Beatles," accused of
involvement in the murders of U.S. hostages in Syria, are likely to be brought
to the United States in mid-October, according to two government officials. The
men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, who are being held in U.S. military
custody in Iraq, are accused of taking part in the kidnappings of international
hostages, including U.S. aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig and U.S.
journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Kotey and Elsheikh admitted their
involvement in the captivity of Mueller for the first time in an interview
obtained exclusively by NBC News, which aired in July. Mueller was tortured and
sexually abused before her death in 2015. In the interview, the men also
admitted for the first time to having beaten Foley, who was beheaded on camera
by the leader of the so-called Beatles, Mohammed Emwazi, who was killed by
Hellfire missiles fired from a CIA drone in 2015.”

 

BBC News: Manchester Arena Inquiry: Terror Threat 'Not Adequately Assessed'
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“Four risk assessments carried out prior to Manchester Arena attack “failed to
adequately assess” the terror threat at the venue, an inquiry has heard.
Security expert Colonel Richard Latham said the risk of a suicide bombing at a
venue like the Manchester Arena should have been “crystal clear”. The terror
threat level at the time of the 2017 bombing was classed as severe. The public
inquiry, scheduled to last into next spring, is looking at events before,
during and after the attack. Twenty two people were killed and many more
injured when Salman Abedi detonated an explosive as fans left the Ariana Grande
concert. What is the Manchester Arena inquiry? The inquiry, which is taking
place at Manchester Magistrates' Court, heard how Mr Latham along with Dr David
BaMaung have jointly analysed more than 1,000 documents relating to the
Manchester Arena attack. This has accumulated in three reports, which review
the adequacy and effectiveness of security at the arena, what lessons ought to
be learned and what changes need to be made.”

 

United States

 

CBS News: China, Russia And White Supremacy Top DHS' First Public Threat
Assessment
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“The Department of Homeland Security has concluded its first-ever “Homeland
Threat Assessment,” a comprehensive report designed to educate the public on
the largest threats facing the country. The report, first obtained by CBS News,
highlights major threats posed by China and Russia and identifies white
supremacists as posing the “most persistent and lethal threat” of all domestic
violent extremist groups. In an exclusive interview, acting Secretary of
Homeland Security Chad Wolf said the report “touches on all the major threat
streams that I look at on a daily basis.” In September, a senior DHS official
alleged in a whistleblower complaint that Wolf told him to withhold an
intelligence notification on Russian activities because it “made the president
look bad,” and claimed senior Trump administration officials urged analysts to
downplay the threat of violent white supremacy. But Wolf told CBS News on
Monday that the Homeland Threat Assessment was free from political influence.
“I am obviously aware of those complaints,” he said. “I think if you look at
the document, Russia is mentioned somewhere in the document between 30 and 40
different times, so if we were trying to downplay Russia, we didn't do a very
good job, I would say.”

 

Syria

 

The Washington Post: Kurdish-Led Zone Vows To Release Syrians From Detention
Camp For ISIS Families
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“Authorities in northeastern Syria said Monday that they were preparing to
release thousands of Syrian families from a detention camp holding civilians
displaced during the final battle to defeat the Islamic State's self-proclaimed
caliphate. Conditions inside al-Hol displacement camp, a sprawl of tents
perched in the desert west of Hasakah city, have alarmed humanitarian groups
and in some cases aided the radicalization of women and children who spent
years under Islamic State rule. Health-care services for the roughly 65,000
camp residents are almost nonexistent, and children who began their education
inside the group’s caliphate often have little to no access to schooling.
Sewage leaks into tents, and wild dogs prowl the perimeter for food. “A
decision will be issued to empty the Syrians from the camp completely,” said
Ilham Ahmed, president of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Council’s
Executive Committee, which is responsible for governing the area. She made the
announcement in a video shared on the body’s Twitter page. “Those who remain in
the camp will not be the responsibility of the Self-Administration,” Ahmed
said, referring to an autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It was not clear
what this would mean in practice.”

 

Iran

 

Arab News: Foreign Terror Cells The Backbone Of Iran’s IRGC
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“Since 1979, Iran has set up many terrorist cells in foreign nations and
trained and armed militants abroad in order to pursue its hegemonic ambitions,
export its revolutionary ideals, carry out assassinations, and undermine other
countries’ national interests and scuttle their foreign policy objectives.
After the Iran-Iraq War, the ruling clergy became very interested in creating
terror cells in other countries because they give the regime several
advantages, including being less costly in comparison to launching direct
attacks against other countries. These cells also give the regime the advantage
of anonymity, making it very difficult for other governments to directly
connect Tehran to terrorist attacks and hold the Iranian leaders accountable.
Over the last four decades, the regime has succeeded in building a worldwide
network of terror cells. Only last month, Saudi Arabia broke up an
Iranian-trained cell, arresting 10 people and seizing weapons and explosives,
including “electrical components used in the making of explosives such as
capacitors, transformers and resistors, gunpowder, chemicals, Kalashnikov
rifles, guns, sniper rifle, live ammunition, machine guns, blades, military
clothes, and wireless communication devices.”

 

Iraq

 

Foreign Affairs: The Death And Life Of Terrorist Networks
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“The Islamic State (or ISIS) is quietly “rising from the ashes” in parts of
Iraq and Syria, but this is not the first time that it has recovered from a
near-death experience. Its predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq, also reconstituted
itself after nearly being defeated in 2007–8. ISIS has demonstrated
extraordinary resilience; about half of all terrorist organizations fail in
their first year, but it has survived for the better part of two decades
despite fighting against an international coalition assembled to defeat it.
This resilience may seem surprising, but it should not. Over recent decades,
militant groups with the kind of vast international network of affiliates,
allies, and supporters that ISIS has assembled have proved difficult to defeat.
Alliances have helped ISIS expand and gain influence in good times and have
relieved pressure by deflecting attention toward affiliates in bad times.
Without defeating this whole network, accordingly, it will be hard to fully
finish off the core group. The value of alliances in geopolitical competition
between states has been frequently noted in the past few years. It turns out
alliances are just as important to often-stateless militant groups. The
difference between a terrorist group with ideologically aligned allies and a
terrorist group without them can mean the difference between survival and
defeat—as the ongoing fight to destroy ISIS is making all too clear today.”

 

Turkey

 

Daily Sabah: Turkey Nabs High-Ranking Terrorists From Multiple Groups
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“As Turkey’s fight against terrorism continues both through internal and
cross-border operations, security forces have killed two high-ranking
terrorists while arresting a far-left terror suspect as well as 25 Daesh-linked
foreign nationals. Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on Monday announced on
Twitter that two high-ranking terrorists, one of which was sought under the red
category and the other in the orange category, were killed. According to the
Interior Ministry’s statement, the terrorists were killed by the provincial
gendarmerie command in Tunceli province’s Ovacık rural area on Oct. 2 as part
of the Lightning-4 anti-terrorism operation. The terrorist in the red category
was determined to be Ali Kemal Yılmaz, code-named Özgür, the so-called Tunceli
head of the Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey (TIKKO)
terrorist group. Yılmaz participated in the terrorist group in 2007 and was an
expert on mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The other terrorist in
the orange category was Gökçe Kurban, code-named Asmin, and was responsible for
the women in the TIKKO. TIKKO is the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party
of Turkey/Marxist Leninist (TKP/ML).”

 

Afghanistan

 

Agence France-Presse: Nearly Two Decades After US Invasion, Afghans Fear
Taliban Return
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“Almost two decades after the United States launched what would become its
longest-ever war with air strikes on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, the
hardline group are in a stronger position than ever. The invasion on October 7,
2001 quickly toppled the militants, who had harboured Al-Qaeda, the group
behind the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in America just
weeks earlier. Nineteen years after their brutal Islamist regime collapsed, the
Taliban are pushing for a return to power, having signed a landmark troop
withdrawal deal with Washington in February and currently holding peace talks
with the Afghan government. Fearful that the Taliban have changed little since
the darkest days of their regime -- when they killed women accused of adultery,
attacked minority religious groups and barred girls from going to school --
many Afghans worry about a new era of Taliban influence. “I remember the
Taliban regime like a nightmare. We are scared for our future and my daughter's
future,” said Kabul resident Katayoun Ahmadi, a 26-year-old mother. She
recalled seeing severed hands and fingers on Kabul's streets following
amputations for petty crimes under the Taliban's strict interpretation of
Sharia law.”

 

Voice Of America: Attack Kills 8 In Afghanistan As President Visits Doha
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“A car bomb attack on the convoy of the governor of Afghanistan’s Laghman
province killed at least eight people, including four of the governor’s
bodyguards. Governor Rahmatullah Yarmal survived but was wounded, along with at
least 40 others. Yarmal’s spokesman, Asadullah Dawlatzai, said several
civilians were killed in the early Monday attack in the provincial center.
Separately, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani arrived in Doha Monday where
he will meet the Afghan team negotiating with the Taliban, according to Dawa
Khan Meenapal, the deputy presidential spokesman. After nearly three weeks of
talks that started on September 12, the teams are still negotiating the ground
rules for what are widely expected to be long, complicated and grueling
discussions. The Taliban want their agreement with the United States, which was
signed in February, to serve as a pillar of future negotiations. That deal
allowed for a comprehensive ceasefire between the two sides to be “announced
along with the completion and agreement over the future political roadmap of
Afghanistan.” The Afghan negotiating team wants the process to be based on the
recommendations of a loya jirga, or a traditional grand assembly of Afghans
that has called for an immediate ceasefire, as well as preserving the Afghan
constitution and the democratic system of governance during the negotiations.”

 

Yemen

 

Reuters: Saudi-Led Coalition Stops Houthi Terror Attack In Red Sea – Report
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“The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen foiled an “imminent terrorist
attack” by Iran-aligned Houthis in the south of the Red Sea, Saudi-owned
Al-Arabiya TV said on Monday. The coalition discovered and destroyed a
remotely-controlled explosive-laden Houthi boat near Yemen's port district
As-Salif, Al-Arabiya TV added.”

 

Middle East

 

The Jerusalem Post: Terrorist Felt 'Like Bride On Wedding Day' Ahead Of Her
Planned Attack
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“Palestinian terrorist turned non-violent peace activist Shifa al-Qudsi felt
“like a bride on her wedding day,” when she attempted to carry out a suicide
bombing in Netanya, she told Channel 11 last month. On April 11, 2002, during
the Second Intifada, Qudsi planned to disguise herself as a pregnant woman by
wearing a maternity dress under which she was to conceal 33 pounds of
explosives. Her motivation, she would later claim in a documentary, was the
destruction of her home in Tulkarem by the IDF. The plan was to detonate it
somewhere in Netanya after 5:00 a.m., but she was arrested at 2:30 a.m. before
she could carry out the attack. However, her memories of planning and preparing
the attack are still fresh in her mind, liking the joy she felt to being “like
a bride on her wedding day, who is preparing to go to her groom. That’s the
only thing that went through my head. I’m preparing to go to my groom, can you
imagine?” It seems she was being literal in this comparison, explaining that if
she died a martyr she believed she would marry a male martyr in heaven,
according to Palestinian Media Watch. The comments she made reflected
interviews she gave in prison in 2002 after her arrest, in which she told an
interviewer that suicide bombings weren't suicide, but were in fact “a
martyrdom-seeking operation.”

 

Africa

 

Arab News: Morocco Says Arrests Four Daesh-Linked Militant Suspects
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“Morocco on Monday arrested four suspects allegedly linked to Daesh who were
plotting “dangerous and imminent terrorist” attacks, the judicial police said.
The four Moroccan men, all in their 20s, were detained in the northern city of
Tangiers during a raid in which police fired warning shots, the Central Bureau
of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) said in a statement. They were planning to
“destabilize security in the kingdom... through terrorist methods inspired by
operations” carried out by Daesh militants in Syria and Iraq, the statement
added. Bladed weapons and electronic equipment were also seized, it said. Saudi
Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised the ability of the security
authorities in Morocco to thwart dangerous and imminent terrorist plots and to
dismantle the terrorist cell aimed at destabilizing the security and stability
of Morocco. The Ministry affirmed the Kingdom’s support for the measures taken
by Morocco to achieve security and stability and to combat extremism and
terrorism in all their forms, Saudi Press Agency reported. The Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also praised the vigilance of the security
authorities and said it stands with Morocco in all measures it takes to combat
extremism and terrorism to preserve its security, stability and territorial
integrity.”

 

United Kingdom

 

BBC News: Westminster Holocaust Memorial Would Be 'Trophy Site' For Terrorists
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“Plans for a Holocaust memorial next to Parliament would create a “trophy
site” for terrorists, the former independent reviewer of terror laws has
warned. The memorial has been proposed for Victoria Tower Gardens on Millbank.
But a planning inquiry has been told by Lord Carlile that the landmark would be
a “self-evident terrorism risk”. The plan was previously rejected by
Westminster City Council, but the final decision will be made by the government
following the public inquiry. In his written evidence to the inquiry, Lord
Carlile said: “From my extensive experience of observing, analysing and
discussing terrorism issues with front-line practitioners, I have absolutely no
doubt that the proposed site raises a clear - indeed self-evident - terrorism
risk. “I give this warning with regret, but with total conviction. This would
be a threat to the public, and also a potential threat to Parliament.” The
project features 23 large bronze fin structures and an underground learning
centre. It was announced in 2016 by then Prime Minister David Cameron, who said
it would be dedicated to the six million Jewish men, women and children and
other victims murdered by the Nazis. However, several senior Jewish figures
have also voiced their opposition to the location of the memorial, while the
Royal Parks said it would have a “significant harmful impact” on the area.”

 

The Independent: Boy, 15, Accused Of Preparing For Isis Inspired Terror Attack
Says He ‘Didn’t Mean’ Martrydom Vows
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“A boy accused of preparing for an Isis-inspired terror attack when he was 14
years old has said he did not mean what he said in a series of extremist
videos. The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, said he had
learned Islamist terminology from the dark comedy film Four Lions. Giving
evidence at Leicester Crown Court on Monday, he called videos where he claimed
he would “carry out jihad” evil, adding: “I don't mean what I said.” The
defendant allegedly tried to create “bottle bombs” and filmed himself setting
out his wish to become a martyr and teaching others how to carry out their own
attacks. While being questioned by defence barrister Mary Prior QC on Monday,
he denied planning to kill anyone or be martyred while “carrying out jihad”. He
said he had learned to make “bottle bombs” from a YouTube video and had picked
up the term “kuffar”, to refer to non-Muslims, from the film Four Lions.
Questioning the teenager on his behaviour as a whole, Ms Prior said: “Why are
you doing this?” “I don't really know,” the schoolboy replied, adding that he
was upset by watching the “nasty” videos he made. He is charged with preparing
acts of terrorism after rapidly developing “extreme views” associated with Isis
at the start of the year.”

 

France

 

Associated Press: Trial Opens For Failed Islamic State Attack On French Church
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“A 29-year-old Algerian man went on trial Monday in Paris accused of killing a
woman and trying to blow up a church near Paris, a failed 2015 attack that
investigators say was orchestrated by Islamic State extremists in Syria.
Instead of bombing a Sunday Mass in the Paris suburb of Villejuif, Sidi Ahmed
Ghlam shot himself in the leg and was soon arrested. The incident came amid a
series of Islamist extremist attacks in 2015-2016 that rocked France. Another
Paris court is currently holding a two-month trial into the January 2015
attacks that killed 17 people at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a
kosher supermarket. While all the gunmen in those attacks were killed by
police, Ghlam survived his attempted bombing three months later, and began a
monthlong trial starting Monday on charges of murder and attempted terrorist
murder. Ghlam, who faces life in prison if convicted, denies wrongdoing. Nine
other defendants are being tried alongside him. Seven are believed to have
provided logistical assistance such as weapons and protective vests. The other
two are extremists accused of guiding his attempted attack, who are believed to
be in Syria and possibly dead.”

 

Technology

 

The Verge: Twitch Clarifies Its Ban On Terrorism And Extremist Content
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“Twitch has updated its community guidelines, the rules that govern the site,
to clarify its ban of terrorist and extremist content. The move appears to be
in order to strengthen its language around that sort of material. Here’s what
it added, per Engadget: Twitch does not allow content that depicts, glorifies,
encourages, or supports terrorism, or violent extremist actors or acts. This
includes threatening to or encouraging others to commit acts that would result
in serious physical harm to groups of people or significant property
destruction. You may not display or link terrorist or extremist propaganda,
including graphic pictures or footage of terrorist or extremist violence, even
for the purposes of denouncing such content. Updating its community guidelines
is a smart way for Twitch to further elucidate how it plans to deal with
offending material in the future. This new definition of terrorist and
extremist content is interesting because it’s actually quite general: it’s easy
to imagine this logic being applied to ban, say, depictions of white
supremacist violence on the platform. All that said, what’s most interesting
about this update is hidden in the last line of the new text: “You may not
display or link terrorist or extremist propaganda, including graphic pictures
or footage of terrorist or extremist violence, even for the purposes of
denouncing such content.”

 

The Times: Far Right Recruiting Children On YouTube
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“Extremist far-right groups are using livestreaming events on YouTube to
recruit children as young as 12 to spread their message. Counterterrorism
experts say that a growing number of “extremely young” British teenagers are
being drawn towards neo-Nazi and fascist ideologies by groups targeting them
online. Tactics include live interviews on YouTube with teenagers who are
considered rising stars of the far right, livestreamed chats aimed at the “Gen
Z” age group born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, and the exploitation
of computer-gaming platforms.”

 



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