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Eye on Extremism
October 30, 2020
The Detroit News: FBI Arrests White Supremacy Leader In Extremism Crackdown In Michigan
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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 Abroad
“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
“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?
“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'
“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
“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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