Three people were killed Thursday in a knife attack at a church in the French
Riviera city of Nice, in an assault prosecutors are treating as an act

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


October 29, 2020

 

The Wall Street Journal: Knife Attack In Nice, France, Leaves Three People Dead

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"Three people were killed Thursday in a knife attack at a church in the French
Riviera city of Nice, in an assault prosecutors are treating as an act of
terrorism.A man wielding a knife entered the Notre Dame Basilica in the center
of Nice in the morning and killed two people, officials said. The third victim
managed to escape and flee the church but later died from her wounds, they
added. A suspect was taken into custody shortly after the attack, police
officials said. Officials cordoned off the area around the church while French
government officials gathered for an emergency meeting at the interior ministry
in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Nice later Thursday, a close
presidential aide said. “Everything leads us to believe it was a terrorist
attack within the Notre Dame basilica,” Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said on
Twitter. The attack is the third such assault in France over the past month.
Two people were seriously wounded in a knife attack near the former office of
satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in late September. Earlier this month, a
middle-school teacher was beheaded in a suburb of the French capital after he
shared cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad drawn from Charlie Hebdo.

Together, the attacks recall the era of terrorism that shook France five years
ago."

 

The Jerusalem Post: Czech Parliament Calls To Designate Hezbollah A Terrorist
Group
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“The Czech parliament called on the government to designate Hezbollah in its
entirety as a terrorist group, in a resolution passed on Wednesday. The Czech
Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the parliament in Prague, voted 63-7 to
adopt the motion calling the Lebanese Shi’ite group “an indivisible whole and a
terrorist organization that significantly destabilizes the Middle East region
and, through its global network, also threatens all democracies.” The Czech
Republic does not currently have its own list of terrorist organizations, and
the legislature called to establish one and put Hezbollah on it. The resolution
added that the parliament “rejects the misleading division of this organization
into military and political parts, as this organization acts as an internally
interlinked structure.” The European Union claims that there is a division
between the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization’s political and military
wings, banning only the latter, though Hezbollah itself does not recognize such
a division. The resolution also calls for Prague to push for the EU to abandon
this policy. Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi thanked the Czech parliament on
Thursday, saying that the decision follows similar decisions made by other
countries in the EU and Latin America in the past months.”

 

Voice Of America: UN Rights Office Condemns 'Merciless' Attack On Cameroon
School
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“The U.N. human rights office has joined a chorus of voices in strongly
condemning what it calls the vile, merciless attack on a private school
Saturday in southwestern Cameroon. The attack killed at least six children and
injured another 13. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on
Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy in Kumba, in the southwestern
region of Cameroon. U.N. human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani
tells VOA her office has not been able to verify the identity of the
perpetrators. “But we have been able to get information corroborated by various
sources that it was perpetrated by a group of men armed with guns and machetes,
who broke into the school and they shot indiscriminately while the students
were studying,” Shamdasani said. Cameroonian authorities blame the attack on
Ambazonian separatists. The English-speaking militants, who want independence
from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority, accuse the government of being
behind the assault. Shamdasani says the killing and maiming of children as well
as attacks on educational facilities constitute serious violations of
international law and says the perpetrators must be held accountable.”

 

United States

 

ABC News: 3 Men Facing Firearms Charges Had Extremist Ties, Possible List Of
Targets: Official
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“A senior law enforcement official told ABC News Wednesday that three men
charged with federal firearms violations earlier this week have alleged ties to
a white supremacist extremist group and were found to be in possession of what
is being investigated as a possible list of targets. Black Lives Matter
co-founder Alicia Garza tweeted last week that she received a visit from the
FBI and agents informed her that they had arrested a man in Idaho on weapons
charges who they described as a white supremacist with a list that included her
name. Garza declined ABC News' request for further comment, and the Justice
Department declined to comment when asked about any connection between the
'list' and the arrests announced Tuesday. The senior official who spoke to ABC
News also declined to further characterize the list. The three men - Liam
Collins, Jordan Duncan and Paul Kryscuk -- are facing gun trafficking charges.
According to a report from Newsweek last year, prior to officially joining the
Marines, Collins was a frequent poster on a message board associated with white
supremacists and neo-Nazis. For the moment, prosecutors have kept further
details of the case under seal. Listed attorneys for all three men did not
immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.”

 

Associated Press: FBI Says Extremist Threatened Trump, Obama In Online Posts
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“A man charged in an alleged conspiracy to kidnap Michigan's governor also
made threatening online comments about President Donald Trump, former
presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and other prominent political figures,
an FBI agent said in a federal court filing. Barry Croft, a Delaware resident,
railed against numerous present and former elected leaders in private Facebook
posts, special agent Kristopher Long said. Croft is one of six purported
members of an extremist paramilitary group accused of scheming to kidnap
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because of her shutdown orders to control the
coronavirus. Long described the posts in an affidavit supporting a request for
a warrant to search an account that Croft allegedly created Sept. 2 and closed
Sept. 26. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the document Wednesday after
The Detroit News reported its contents."

 

The New York Times: Court Rejects Appeal Of Guantánamo Convict Who Rejoined Al
Qaeda
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“A federal appeals court has refused to review the 2010 war crimes conviction
of a former Guantánamo Bay prisoner who after his return to his native Sudan
ran away and rejoined Al Qaeda. The former prisoner, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud
al-Qosi, 60, pleaded guilty to providing support for terrorism and Al Qaeda in
exchange for his repatriation in 2012. Three years later, he appeared in videos
produced by the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. But an appeals
process went forward in his case nonetheless. Lawyers paid by the Pentagon
filed an appeal after a federal court found that the charge on which he had
been convicted, providing material support for terrorism, did not qualify as a
war crime that could be tried by a military commission, the justice system used
at Guantánamo. The lawyers pursued his defense even after the State Department
established a $4 million reward for his whereabouts, calling him an emir of the
Qaeda affiliate who encouraged “lone wolf attacks against the United States in
online propaganda.” The reward is still on offer. A three-judge panel at the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to hear the
case in an order issued Tuesday night.”

 

NBC New York: Taliban Member Charged In Manhattan In 2008 Kidnapping Of
Then-NYT Reporter David Rohde: Sources
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“An Afghan national and purported Taliban member has been arrested in
connection with the 2008 kidnapping of Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times
reporter David Rohde in Afghanistan, prosecutors and sources familiar with the
investigation tell News 4. He is being charged in Manhattan federal court. An
indictment unsealed in Southern District of New York court Wednesday charges
Haji Najibullah with six counts connected to the 2008 kidnapping of an
unidentified “American journalist,” whom sources confirm to News 4 is David
Rohde, and two Afghan nationals. Rohde was with them at the time. Rohde was
abducted along with Afghan reporter Tahir Ludin and their driver outside Kabul,
where he had been researching a book, on Nov. 10, 2008. He escaped, along with
Ludin, after more than seven months in captivity. According to the indictment
unsealed Wednesday, Najibullah and several co-conspirators forced their
hostages to hike at gunpoint across the border to Pakistan, where they were
held in the mountains for more than seven months. During that time, Najibullah
allegedly forced the victims to make multiple calls and videos seeking help.
Nine days after the kidnapping, one victim, presumably Rohde, was forced to
call his wife in New York.”

 

Politico: Blocking ISIS Fighters From U.S. Shores
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“In another bipartisan push for legislation, Sens. Maggie Hassan and Ron
Johnson are proposing a bill to enhance the Department of Homeland Security’s
visa screening process overseas, including expanding its reach to more foreign
embassies over the next decade. “With the fall of ISIS’s caliphate, I am deeply
concerned about the threat that ISIS foreign fighters, armed with western
passports, could pose to our homeland and our allies,” Hassan, a member of the
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement. The
Visa Security Expansion Act “will help protect us from this threat by expanding
the number of counterterrorism agents who aid the State Department in making
decisions about whether to grant U.S. visas to foreign nationals,” she added.
Johnson, who chairs the panel and also is a member of the Foreign Relations
Committee, said the DHS program “plays a crucial role in keeping the U.S. safe
from terrorists and criminals, and our legislation would strengthen this
important front of our national security.”

 

Turkey

 

Reuters: Turkey Has Right To Act If Militants Not Cleared From Syria Border -
Erdogan
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“Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Turkey had the legitimate
right to act again if militants are not cleared from its border with Syria,
where it has carried out several incursions in the last four years. “If the
terrorists here are not cleared as we were promised, we have the legitimate
right to mobilise once again,” Erdogan said in a speech to his AK Party’s
lawmakers in parliament. In an offensive a year ago, with the support of Syrian
rebels, Turkey seized a 120 km (75 mile) stretch of border territory in
northeast Syria from the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara views as a terrorist
group. That incursion was widely condemned by Ankara’s Western allies as the
YPG was a the main component of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
that helped the United States defeat Islamic State. Erdogan also voiced concern
about the situation in northwest Syria’s Idlib region, which was the scene of
heavy fighting between Syrian government forces and Turkey-backed rebels until
Ankara and Moscow reached a ceasefire deal in March. On Monday, air strikes on
a camp in northwest Syria run by rebel fighters backed by Turkey killed at
least 35 people and wounded scores, a war monitor and a rebel source said.”

 

Afghanistan

 

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“Al-Qaeda is still “heavily embedded” within the Taliban in Afghanistan, in
spite of a historic US-Taliban agreement earlier this year, a senior United
Nations official has told the BBC. Earlier this year, the US signed an
agreement with the Taliban committing to withdrawing all American forces from
the country by next summer if the Taliban ensured groups including al-Qaeda
were not able to use Afghan territory to plot international attacks. But Edmund
Fitton-Brown, co-ordinator of the UN's Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and Taliban
Monitoring Team, has told the BBC that the Taliban promised al-Qaeda in the
run-up to the US agreement that the two groups would remain allies. “The
Taliban were talking regularly and at a high level with al-Qaeda and reassuring
them that they would honour their historic ties,” Mr Fitton-Brown said. He said
the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban was “not substantively”
changed by the deal struck with the US. “Al-Qaeda are heavily embedded with the
Taliban and they do a good deal of military action and training action with the
Taliban, and that has not changed,” he said. Eliminating the threat from
al-Qaeda and overthrowing the Taliban regime that had harboured them was the
original basis for the US invasion of Afghanistan, following the 9/11 attacks.”

 

Saudi Arabia

 

The Jerusalem Post: US Alerts Citizens In UAE, Saudi Arabia Amid Terrorism
Concerns
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“The US embassies in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia issued warnings
to US citizens in the two countries on Wednesday, advising that they practice a
high level of vigilance amid security concerns. “The Department of State
remains concerned about the global threat of terrorism, including the
possibility of terrorist attacks against US citizens and interests in the Gulf
and Arabian Peninsula.  Terrorist organizations continue to plan attacks
against Western targets; these attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics,
including suicide operations, assassination, kidnapping, hijacking, and
bombing,” wrote the US Mission to the UAE. “US citizens should maintain a low
profile, be aware of surroundings, and stay alert in locations frequented by
tourists.” Also on Wednesday, the US Embassy to Saudi Arabia warned that it was
tracking reports of missiles or drones that may be headed toward Riyadh. The
embassy later announced that it was no longer tracking such reports, but
advised US citizens to continue to exercise increased caution due to “terrorism
and the threat of missile and drone attacks on civilian targets.”

 

Somalia

 

Associated Press: US Focused On Disrupting Finances For Somalia’s Al-Shabab
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“The United States strongly backed efforts to disrupt the illegal financing
methods used by Somalia’s al-Shabab extremist group, which according to U.N.
experts raised more than the $21 million it spent last year on fighters,
weapons and intelligence. U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft told the Security Council
on Wednesday the Trump administration is committed to partnering with other
countries and using U.N. sanctions to counter al-Shabab’s “financing of
terrorism” and the threat from homemade bombs the group is making. The United
States also remains focused on limiting the ability of al-Shabab to conduct
attacks against civilians, she said. The Security Council was focusing on the
panel of experts whose latest report stresses the continuing impact of
al-Shabab’s operations not only in Somalia but in neighboring Kenya. “The
threat posed by al-Shabab to peace, security and stability in Somalia goes
beyond the impact of the group’s conventional military action and asymmetric
warfare to include sophisticated extortion and `taxation’ systems, child
recruitment practices and an effective propaganda machine,” the report said.
Al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab remains the most active and resilient extremist group
in Africa, controlling parts of southern and central Somalia and often
targeting checkpoints and other high-profile areas in the capital, Mogadishu.”

 

Mali

 

Reuters: Suspected Jihadist Freed By Mali Is Detained In Algeria
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“Algeria’s defence ministry said on Wednesday it had detained a suspected
jihadist militant who was released this month by Mali as part of a prisoner
swap, underscoring its fears of insecurity in the Sahel region. Mustapha Derar,
an Algerian national, was arrested in Tlemcen after security forces tracked him
from his crossing of the border into Algeria, the ministry said in a statement.
Derar had joined a terrorist group in 2012, it added. Mali, grappling with an
Islamist insurrection, released scores of prisoners including suspected
militants early this month, days before jihadists freed four hostages: a Malian
politician, a French aid worker and two Italians. Malian authorities have
neither confirmed nor denied that militants were released in exchange for
Soumaila Cisse, Sophie Petronin, Pierluigi Maccalli and Nicola Chiacchio.
Algeria defeated its own Islamist insurgency in the 1990s in a civil war that
killed 200,000 people. Its defence ministry said Mali’s release of militants
was “impeding efforts to combat terrorism”. Both al Qaeda and the Islamic State
groups have taken advantage of local conflicts to establish a presence across
the Sahara and the Sahel region to its south.”

 

Voice Of America: 2 Sentenced To Death In Deadly 2015 Mali Attacks
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“A Malian court sentenced to death a suspected jihadist and his co-defendant
for killing more than two dozen people in attacks targeting foreigners in 2015.
Wednesday’s court ruling against Fawaz Ould Ahmed and his co-defendant Sadou
Chaka came after two days of hearings. Ahmed said his militant group,
Al-Mourabitoune, carried out the attack at the La Terrasse club, but he
expressed no remorse for killing five people in revenge for cartoons of the
Prophet Muhammad published by France’s Charlie Hebdo magazine. Ahmed also
admitted to participating in a raid that killed 17 people at Hotel Byblos in
the town of Sevare in August and another that killed 20 people, including 14
foreigners, at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako in November. Two other Malian
nationals were charged in the attacks. Ahmed was reportedly planning other
attacks when he was arrested in 2016.”

 

Africa

 

Agence France-Presse: Moroccan Prison Guard Killed By IS-Linked Inmate
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“A Moroccan prison guard was killed by an inmate who was in jail for belonging
to a militant cell linked to the Islamic State group, prosecutors said
Wednesday. The detainee on Tuesday “took captive an employee in his cell and
assaulted him with a metal object” at Tiflet prison on the outskirts of the
capital Rabat, they said in a statement. “A rapid intervention unit was
deployed to free the employee” but the officer was declared dead of his
injuries in hospital, it added. Three other prison staff were wounded in the
incident. The fate of the inmate was not reported. The prosecutor’s office said
it had “ordered the judicial police to open a careful investigation to
determine legal responsibility.” The detainee had been arrested in September
near Rabat in an operation to dismantle an IS-linked cell. He and five other
men were accused of plotting suicide attacks against prominent figures and
against a Morocco security installation. Morocco has been spared from
jihadist-linked acts of violences in recent years since two Scandinavian
tourists were beheaded in 2018 in the High Atlas mountains in an IS-claimed
attack. The perpetrators were sentenced to death, the first time Morocco handed
down capital punishment since 1993.”

 

France

 

RFI: Security At Religious Sites Beefed Up As France Warns Of Major Terror
Threat
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“France has ramped up security at religious sites ahead of this weekend’s All
Saints holiday amid a heightened terror threat following the beheading of a
teacher who showed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to his class. Interior
Minister Gérald Darmanin warned France faces a “very high” and “constant”
terrorist threat risk on the back of President Emmanuel Macron’s firm stance
against “Islamist separatism”. During a tribute ceremony for history teacher
Samuel Paty, who was given the country’s highest award, the Legion of Honour,
Macron said France would not “renounce cartoons”, adding that Paty “was killed
because Islamists want our future”.  The comments fired up anti-French
sentiment across the Arab world, with protests breaking out and Turkey leading
the charge on a boycott on French products. France’s national police warned of
online threats from extremists against Christians and moderate French Muslims,
including Imams who have publicly supported Macron. A telegram from the
Interior Ministry warned of possible knife attacks, or cars ramming into
crowds, saying the list of potential targets was “numerous”. Fewer people may
be on the streets this weekend if Macron announces a nationwide coronavirus
lockdown, as expected.”

 

Asia

 

The New York Times: In Azerbaijan, A String Of Explosions, Screams And Then
Blood
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“The first explosion was loud enough to make us stop the car. It seemed close
and sounded like a rocket, so we quickly jumped out and crouched down by a
wall. If we hadn’t stopped, I later realized, we might have driven straight
into one of the blasts, a scant 20 yards up the road. At the time of the blast
on Wednesday, we were driving along the main street of the provincial town of
Barda, Azerbaijan, toward an intersection. Azerbaijan is at war with Armenia,
but the frontline was 20 miles away and life to that point was going on
uneventfully in the area. Women were out shopping, men were filling their cars
at the gas station. Then, a string of deafening explosions sounded in rapid
succession, each one seeming closer and louder. A woman started shrieking. A
man bellowed at his family. They rounded the street corner, his wife pulling
the sleeve off one of her children, and they all dashed down a side alley.
Across the road, blood smeared the steps into the basement of a private health
clinic. Inside, a taxi driver, bleeding heavily from the leg, was being
treated. Nurses, patients and passers-by huddled in the basement, stepping
around the blood, calling their families on their cellphones.”

 

Technology

 

Politico: Senate Dem Presses Zuckerberg On Facebook’s Handling Of Extremist
Content
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“Democratic Sen. Gary Peters pressed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a
congressional hearing Wednesday on whether the company has a “responsibility”
to do more to steer its users away from violent extremist groups on its
platforms. The Michigan lawmaker praised Facebook for assisting authorities in
helping to disrupt a recent plot to kidnap the state’s governor, Gretchen
Whitmer, that was planned in part on its sites. But Peters suggested the
company could still do more to prevent its users from becoming radicalized and
engaging with violent extremist groups, like the suspected Whitmer kidnappers.
Peters noted at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing that a new Facebook plan
to redirect users who search for some extremist content toward authoritative
sources seemingly doesn’t apply to “budding violent extremists.” “Do you
believe that your platform has a responsibility to off-ramp users who are on
the path to radicalization by violent extremist groups?” Peters said.
Zuckerberg replied that Facebook does do so in certain instances, but added
that he’s open to expanding the policy. “I certainly agree with the spirit of
the question that this is a good idea and something that we should continue
pursuing and perhaps expand,” the Facebook chief said.”



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