Federal agents on Thursday arrested two men, including the self-proclaimed
leader of the Base, a white supremacist group, as part of a continuing

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


October 30, 2020

 

The Detroit News: FBI Arrests White Supremacy Leader In Extremism Crackdown In
Michigan
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“Federal agents on Thursday arrested two men, including the self-proclaimed
leader of the Base, a white supremacist group, as part of a continuing
crackdown on extremism in Michigan three weeks after the FBI said it thwarted a
plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A team of FBI agents arrested Justen
Watkins, 25, of Bad Axe, the self-proclaimed leader of the Base, and Alfred
Gorman, 35, of Taylor, during a pair of raids Thursday, including at a rural
farmhouse in Bad Axe, 100 miles north of Detroit. According to Michigan
Attorney General Dana, the 3 1/2-acre farm was being converted into a “hate
camp” for members of the group to prepare to overthrow the government,
according to the criminal case, which also accused Base leaders of encouraging
others to harass a Washtenaw County family online. Watkins and Gorman are
linked to a December incident in Dexter in which a local family was terrorized
by the men, who tried to intimidate a husband and wife and shared their address
with members of the Base, Nessel said in a statement. The developments continue
a string of arrests, raids and operations targeting far-right, anti-government
extremists and white supremacists this month.”

 

ABC News: France On Highest Security Alert After Terror Attack
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“Three people are dead after a series of stabbings in a “suspected terror
attack” that occurred at the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Nice, France, shortly
before 9 a.m. local time on Thursday, ABC News can confirm. France's
anti-terror prosecutor's office took on the case and opened an investigation on
“counts of assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise,” attempted
assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise and “terrorist association
of criminals.” The suspect, who has not been identified, was injured during the
arrest and taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, Jean-Francois
Ricard, France's anti-terrorism prosecutor, told reporters Thursday night.
Authorities said he was believed to have been acting alone, though an ongoing
investigation will seek to determine if there were any accomplices. Two of the
victims were found inside of the church, Ricard said -- a 60-year-old woman and
a 55-year-old man, both with significant injuries to their throats. A
44-year-old woman who managed to escape the church died from her injuries at a
nearby restaurant, Ricard said. The murder weapon, as well as two knives that
were not used, were found in the church, according to Ricard. A Quran and two
phones were also nearby, he said.”

 

The Independent: ‘Isis Member’ In UK Charged With Trying To Help Free Jihadis
From Syrian Prisons
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“A man has been charged with being a member of Isis in one of the first cases
of its kind in the UK. Hisham Chaudhary, from Leicester, is accused of sending
money abroad to help imprisoned jihadists escape from prisons in northern
Syria. The 27-year-old was allegedly a member of Isis since January 2016 and
carried out fundraising and propaganda work for its benefit. He appeared at
Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday charged with membership of a
proscribed organisation, two counts of entering a terrorist funding arrangement
and four counts of disseminating terrorist publications. Mr Chaudhary, who
appeared via video link, was not asked to enter a plea to the charges and was
remanded in custody ahead of a hearing at the Old Bailey next Friday.
Prosecutors say he was an accepted member of Isis, which was banned under UK
law in 2014, who acted as part of a wide network to support the organisation.
As part of his alleged role, he is said to have gathered funds and transferred
money abroad using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin to allow captured Isis militants
to escape Kurdish-controlled prison camps in northern Syria. Mr Chaudhary is
also accused of compiling and disseminating a terrorist publication through
Twitter and the encrypted messaging app Telegram.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Associated Press: Afghan Officials: 8 Inmates Dead After Prison Riot In Herat
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“Rioting at a prison in western Afghanistan has left at least eight inmates
dead, provincial officials said Thursday. The violence erupted on Wednesday
night at the prison in the city of Herat, the capital of western Herat
province, according to Mohammad Rafiq Shirzai, a spokesman for the provincial
health department. He said 12 others — eight inmates and four prison guards —
were wounded in the outbreak at the facility, which holds around 2,000
prisoners. It wasn't immediately known if there are any Taliban at the
penitentiary. The rioting erupted after prison guards began clearing some
partitions created by prisoners in the so-called Block 5 of the prison, said
Jelani Farhad, a spokesman for the provincial governor. The police tried to
collect “unnecessary items in the possession of the prisoners, which the
prisoners resisted,” he said. One of the eight fatalities had gunshot wounds,
Shirzai said, adding that the incident is under investigation. According to a
provincial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to talk to the media, the prisoners torched one prison block. Farhad
and Shirzai could not confirm that. Rundown Afghan prisons have occasionally
seen rioting, with inmates seeking better conditions in the notoriously
overcrowded facilities, many built with poor construction.”

 

Saudi Arabia

 

Al Jazeera: Saudi Wounds Guard At French Consulate In Knife Attack
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“A Saudi citizen wounded a guard in a knife attack at the French consulate in
Jeddah on Thursday. The assault came the same day as knifings at a church in
the French city of Nice left three people dead and several others wounded, in
what authorities are treating as the latest attack to rock France. “The
assailant was apprehended by Saudi security forces immediately after the
attack. The guard was taken to hospital and his life is not in danger,” the
embassy said in a statement. Police in Mecca province, where Jeddah is
situated, said the attacker was a Saudi, but it did not give the nationality of
the guard, who they said had sustained minor injuries. “The French Embassy
strongly condemns this attack against a diplomatic outpost, which nothing could
justify,” it said in a statement, urging its nationals in Saudi Arabia to
exercise “extreme vigilance”. Security around the Jeddah consulate later
appeared to be tightened with Saudi police cars seen patrolling around the
complex at regular intervals. In Riyadh, two police cars were stationed outside
the embassy located in the city’s high-security Diplomatic Quarter, as Saudi
policemen prevented passers-by from taking photographs. Neither the Saudi
authorities nor the French embassy gave any indication of the motivation for
the attack.”

 

Africa

 

Reuters: Nice Attack Points To Continued Tunisian Struggle With Jihadists
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“Though French police believe the attacker who killed three people in Nice on
Thursday is a Tunisian, the North African democracy has made big strides in
tackling the jihadist threat in recent years. A French police source told
Reuters the man who beheaded an elderly woman and killed two others in a church
in the French Riviera city was thought to be a 21-year-old Tunisian who
recently entered France via Italy. Five years after militant Islamists killed
scores of tourists in two mass shootings in Tunisia, police in the North
African state have grown far better at disrupting plots and responding quickly
when attacks take place, diplomats say. However, a steady series of smaller
attacks has shown that the threat remains. Tunisians made up one of the largest
contingents of foreign fighters for Islamic State, and though many died in wars
in Syria and Iraq, some returned home and were imprisoned. An al Qaeda group is
meanwhile entrenched in a hilly, inaccessible part of the border region between
Tunisia and Algeria but has proven unable to stage attacks beyond that area.
The last major attack in Nice was also carried out by a Tunisian man who had
emigrated to France in 2005 before driving a truck into a Bastille Day crowd in
2016, killing 86 people.”

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Algeria Accuses ‘Foreign Parties’ Of Negotiating With
Terrorists
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“Algeria’s Defense Ministry has implicitly slammed two European governments on
a case involving an alleged ransom to release hostages in Mali, which sparked
controversy earlier this month. In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry said
it arrested Mustapha Derar, an Algerian national, in Tlemcen. Security forces
had tracked him after crossing the border into Algeria. The man had joined a
terrorist group in 2012, it added. In early October, foreign parties held
negotiations that resulted in an agreement in which Mali releases more than 200
terrorist elements and pay a ransom for extremist groups in exchange for
releasing one Malian national and three European hostages. Malian authorities
have neither confirmed nor denied that militants were released in exchange for
Soumaila Cisse, Sophie Petronin, Pierluigi Maccalli and Nicola Chiacchio. The
ministry’s statement on foreign parties involved most likely refers to France
and Italy. This is the first time that Algiers almost directly accuses France
of paying ransom to terrorists to secure the release of captives. “These
actions are unacceptable and violate UN resolutions, which criminalize paying
ransoms to terrorist groups since it would impede efforts to combat terrorism
and dry up terrorists’ sources of financing,” the statement stressed.”

 

The Jerusalem Post: Hezbollah Threatens Sudan Over Ties With Israel
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“Hezbollah has condemned reports that Israel and Sudan could normalize ties.
It is the latest setback for Iran’s “axis of resistance,” as the Islamic
Republic has seen Israel growing its network of relations in the region even as
Tehran rages against the “Zionist regime.” Hezbollah is Iran’s main proxy and
ally in Lebanon and has been escalating tensions with Israel in recent months.
Jerusalem has warned Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist group, against threatening
it from Syria. Hezbollah’s latest statement accuses Sudan of “political and
moral collapse” and sinking into a “quagmire of betrayal and normalizations
with the enemy.” Sudan is moving closer to the US and Israel, Hezbollah said,
adding that this will “cause the government to be destroyed as soon as
possible.” This appears to be a threat against Sudan and an attempt to incite
the Sudanese against the current government. Iran has done the same,
threatening Bahrain and the UAE. Hezbollah is holding Lebanon hostage as well,
causing it to be financially ruined so that it cannot work more closely with
Israel. Hezbollah ostensibly praises the Sudanese people and seeks to get them
to  protest any normalization with Israel. It said Sudan is “betraying” the
region and has joined other countries in working with the “Zionist enemy,”
Iran’s Fars News Agency reported.”

 

United Kingdom

 

The Wall Street Journal: Former Leader Of U.K.’S Labour Party Is Suspended
Following Anti-Semitism Report
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“Britain’s main opposition Labour Party suspended its former leader Jeremy
Corbyn after a U.K. watchdog found the party unlawfully discriminated against
its Jewish members during his tenure. A report by the Equality and Human Rights
Commission Thursday said that during Mr. Corbyn’s five-year tenure in charge,
the Labour Party unlawfully harassed and indirectly discriminated against its
Jewish members, with its leadership team interfering in the internal process
for handling complaints of anti-Semitism and a culture of tacit permission for
party members to spread anti-Jewish tropes online. “Our analysis points to a
culture within the Party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent
anti-Semitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it,” the U.K.’s Equality
and Human Rights Commission said in a report. Mr. Corbyn said an “obstructive
party bureaucracy” had prevented improving the complaints-handling process
during his tenure. He added that he abhorred anti-Semitism “but the scale of
the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our
opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”

 

France

 

The New York Times: New Terror Attacks Leave France Embattled At Home And
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“A terror attack that killed three people in Nice on Thursday left France
increasingly embattled at home and abroad, as the government called for
toughening measures against Islamist extremism, amid rising tensions with
Muslim nations. A knife-wielding assailant left two people dead in Nice’s
towering neo-Gothic basilica, including a 60-year-old woman who was nearly
decapitated, and a third victim died after taking refuge in a nearby bar. The
attack in Nice came less than two weeks after the beheading of a teacher shook
the nation and led to President Emmanuel Macron suggesting that Islam was in
need of an Enlightenment. Jean-François Ricard, France’s top antiterrorism
prosecutor, said the suspected killer was a Tunisian man, born in 1999, who had
entered France after arriving in Italy on Sept. 20. He said the man, who was
unknown to the French authorities, was arrested after lunging at police
officers while yelling “Allahu akbar,” and was hospitalized with serious
wounds. “Very clearly it is France that is attacked,” Mr. Macron said after
traveling quickly to Nice. French authorities placed a jittery country on its
highest terrorism threat level.”

 

Bloomberg: Macron Tempers Tone On Islamic Extremism After Terrorist Attack
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“French Prime Minister Jean Castex vowed that authorities will stand firm in
the face of Islamist extremism after a knifeman killed three people and injured
several others at the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice, in the second such attack in
as many weeks. “The democratic life that some want to abolish must more than
ever run its course,” Castex said in an address to the senate in Paris. “The
republic will not waver, the republic will not capitulate.” Nice’s mayor,
Christian Estrosi said in a series of statements on Twitter that it appeared a
woman had been decapitated at around 9 a.m. on Thursday inside the church, but
gave no details about how the two other people were killed. He said a suspect
had been arrested. The assault comes as France is reeling from the beheading
two weeks ago by a young Chechen man of a teacher who had showed students
caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed during a civics class. President Emmanuel
Macron is now confronted with two massive crises -- a resurgence of jihadist
violence and the coronavirus pandemic. Still, the lockdown, which goes into
effect from Friday to keep Covid from further spreading and overwhelming
hospitals, will keep people off the streets while increased police powers can
help security forces focus on counter-terrorism.”

 

France 24: Why Has Nice Become A Target For Terrorism In France?
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“France’s Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the country was going on
emergency alert after three people were killed in the southern city of Nice on
Thursday. This is not the first terrorist attack that has coincided with a
major religious or national holiday in the French Riviera city. Nice Mayor
Christian Estrosi said on Twitter the knife attack had happened at the city's
Notre Dame church and that police had detained the attacker. A police source
said three people had been confirmed dead, including a woman who was
decapitated in the attack. One of the people killed inside the church was
believed to be the church warden, Estrosi said. This latest attack happens at a
key time in various religious calendars. The day of the attack itself, October
29, marks the official birthday of the Prophet Mohammed and, in the Catholic
Church, November 1 is known as ‘Toussaint’ or All Saint’s Day. The Conseil
Français du Culte Musulman (French Muslim Council) condemned Thursday’s attack
and called on Muslims to cancel their Mawlid celebrations –to mark the birth of
the Prophet – as a “sign of mourning and solidarity with the victims and their
loved ones."

 

Latin America

 

Reuters: Venezuela Charges Detained Opposition Activist With 'Terrorist
Financing'
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“Venezuelan chief prosecutor Tarek Saab on Thursday announced charges against
Roland Carreno, the coordinator of opposition political party Popular Will, for
alleged “terrorist financing” and conspiracy to destabilize the country.
Carreno had been arrested earlier this week in what opposition leader Juan
Guaido, a Popular Will member, called a “forced disappearance.” Venezuelan
authorities did not disclose Carreno’s arrest for nearly 24 hours after the
party first denounced that he was apprehended by unidentified individuals. “It
has become clear that Carreno is in charge of distributing the money that funds
the groups that are trying to submerge Venezuela in conflict,” Saab said in a
state television address. Carreno heard the charges during a court appearance
on Wednesday, his lawyer wrote on Twitter. Guaido has dismissed Carreno’s
arrest as an act of political persecution by President Nicolas Maduro’s
government. The U.S. National Security Council, a key ally of Venezuela’s
opposition, said on Twitter on Thursday that the arrest was evidence of “the
Maduro regime’s corruption and brutality.”

 

Technology

 

BuzzFeed News: One Of The Alleged Michigan Kidnapping Plotters Used Facebook
To Coordinate With Other Extremists And Target Other Governors
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“A leader of the group charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer had also discussed plans to kidnap or harm politicians in
North and South Carolina and had been under FBI surveillance for at least six
months before the Michigan plot was foiled, newly unsealed affidavits reveal.
Barry Croft, 44, a Delaware resident and the only federal defendant in the
Michigan plot to live outside of the state, used social media to attempt to
organize acts of violence against politicians at least as early as fall 2019,
the affidavits show. At that time, he was in contact with Kevin “KC” Massey,
the leader of a notorious anti-immigrant group in Texas, who was a fugitive at
the time and appears to have killed himself in December. The affidavits, which
were filed Oct. 22 and unsealed this week, also reveal that although the FBI
had monitored a succession of Facebook pages Croft used to communicate with
other militant extremists around the country, the bureau apparently failed to
screenshot or otherwise preserve evidence from the account he used most
recently before his Oct. 7 arrest. The older accounts, however, were full of
messages about violent plans. “I’m going to North Carolina on Saturday to
discuss going to war against the government of North Carolina,” Croft wrote
Massey in private Facebook messages in October 2019. “Please come out bro. We
need you.”



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