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Eye on Extremism
December 14, 2020
The New York Times: Hundreds Of Students Feared Missing After Attack At Nigeria School
“Hundreds of students in Nigeria are feared missing after gunmen stormed a secondary school in the northern state of Katsina, news agencies and the Nigerian authorities said. Gunmen rushed into the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara at around 9:40 p.m. Friday, shooting AK-47 rifles into the air and rounding up students, the police in Katsina said. It was unclear how many students had been kidnapped. Witnesses and officials have estimated that the school typically holds 800 to 1,200 students. More than 200 students who were abducted were rescued, Isah Gambo, a police spokesman, said Saturday in a statement. But about 400 students remained unaccounted for, a parent and school employee told the Reuters news agency, and the authorities, including the army and air force, were working to get the missing students back. The attack was met with resistance by the police, which allowed some students to scale the fence of the school and run for safety and “forced the hoodlums to retreat into the forest,” Mr. Gambo said. The military tracked the attackers and exchanged gunfire with them in a forest in Kankara, Garba Shehu, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, said Saturday.”
The New York Times: Hezbollah Member Sentenced In Absentia Over Killing Of Ex-Premier In Lebanon
“A United Nations-backed tribunal in The Hague on Friday sentenced a member of the Hezbollah militant group to life in prison after convicting him in absentia of conspiring in the 2005 car-bomb attack that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon. The defendant, Salim Ayyash, was convicted in August on five charges related to the attack, and on Friday the court sentenced him to a life sentence for each one, to be served concurrently. But the sentence was entirely symbolic because Mr. Ayyash, whose whereabouts remain unknown, was tried in absentia. That means that if he is apprehended, he will have to be tried all over again. The sentencing was a muted final note to a vast and expensive effort to bring the perpetrators of the most significant political assassination in Lebanon’s modern history to account. But after millions of dollars spent on investigating and trying suspected perpetrators of the 15-year-old crime, not a single person has been punished. Judge Janet Nosworthy announced the sentence in a session held partly virtually because of the coronavirus, saying that Mr. Ayyash’s grave crimes deserved harsh punishment. “Lebanon is a parliamentary democracy,” Judge Nosworthy said. “Its politicians and leaders should be removed from office at the ballot box rather than by the bullet or a bomb.”
The Telegraph: Africa Now At The Heart Of Global Terrorism Threat, According To A New Index
“Sub-Saharan Africa is now home to some of the world’s worst terrorism hotspots, according to a new index released today. Seven African countries are among the top 10 nations facing the greatest terrorism threat, according to a ranking of 198 countries released by Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk consultancy, making the continent the worst performing region globally. With the index’s worst possible score of 0 out of 10, Burkina Faso, Mali and Somalia rank alongside Syria and Afghanistan for the highest risk. Cameroon, Mozambique, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all facing sustained violence from various jihadist groups allied to Al Qaeda or Islamic State, also rank among the worst affected countries in the world. Jihadism in Africa is not new but since rebels and allied jihadists invaded northern Mali in 2012, the security situation has worsened and groups have spread across porous borders, overwhelming local forces. In west Africa, the situation is particularly bad. An array of jihadist groups such as Boko Haram, Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), wreak havoc over vast stretches of land.”
United States
ABC 12: Feds: White Supremacy Terror Plot Timeline Tied To Trump Election Loss
“A white supremacy terror plot targeting power grids across the country was to have its operational status accelerated if President Donald J. Trump lost the 2020 election, an FBI informant told investigators, according to a newly unsealed federal search warrant. According to the warrant, which was unsealed Thursday in Wisconsin's Eastern U.S. District Court, three people were the subject of the investigation. The person described by investigators as a recruiter for the plot was as young as 17 years old. That person, according to the warrant, planned to move from Ohio to Oshkosh and live with one of the other suspects under investigation. The teen, agents write in the warrant affidavit, used multiple encrypted apps to encourage followers to read books by neo-Nazi James Mason and others with white supremacist ideology. “To make America Great Again, you had to make it white again,” Mason is quoted by agents of having said of President Donald J. Trump's 2016 election victory. This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.”
Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Boogaloo Suspects Get Trial Dates In Terror Case
“Suspected Nevada members of the right-wing boogaloo movement will be prosecuted first by federal authorities over an alleged conspiracy to cause violence during Black Lives Matter protests. Stephen Parshall, 36, Andrew Lynam, 23, and William Loomis, 40, are set to stand trial March 8, 2021, in federal court on felony charges of conspiring to cause destruction by fire and explosive and possessing an unregistered destructive device, a Molotov cocktail. All three men, who have military backgrounds, have pleaded not guilty and are in federal custody on no bail. They also face a June 21 trial in Clark County District Court on felony terrorism and explosives charges. Parshall also has been charged in Las Vegas Justice Court with sexually assaulting his teenage stepdaughter and faces related federal charges of sexual exploitation of children, coercion and enticement and child pornography. There is no trial date in the state case, which has not yet moved to District Court. But a Jan. 5 federal trial has been set. “I’m fairly confident that both of his federal trials will take place before the state trials,” Parshall’s lawyer Robert Draskovich said Thursday. “There are a substantial number of backlogged trials in state court due to COVID-19.”
Syria
Voice Of America: Government Troops Target Rebels, Jihadists In Syria's Idlib
“Syria’s government forces and allied militias have continued their assault on targets belonging to rebels and jihadist factions in the northwestern province of Idlib. Government troops Sunday fired artillery and missiles to target their opponents in Idlib’s southern countryside, according to local news media. Nearly a dozen rebels and jihadists were reportedly killed and wounded in the attacks, while at least two government soldiers were killed in counterattacks. Idlib is the last major stronghold controlled by forces opposed to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian troops, supported by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias, for months have been pushing into the enclave. “By intensifying its attacks, the Assad regime wants to fully control the highway that connects Aleppo and Latakia provinces and goes through Idlib,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory, which has a network of researchers in Syria, said that among the groups targeted in the recent government attack in Idlib were Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Ansar al-Tawhid and Hurras al-Din. HTS is the most powerful Islamist group present in Idlib and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.”
Agence France-Presse: Car Bomb Kills 16 Including 3 Turkish Personnel In NE Syria: Monitor
“A car bomb killed 16 people including two civilians and three Turkish personnel Thursday at a checkpoint in the Turkish-held border town of Ras al-Ain in northeast Syria, a war monitor said. The other 11 killed were local security forces or members of a Turkish-backed faction manning the checkpoint, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Twelve more were wounded, it said. Turkey said two of its gendarmes had been killed and a further eight wounded. Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies last year seized a 120-kilometer (75-mile) stretch of land inside the Syrian border from Kurdish forces, running from Ras al-Ain to Tal Abyad. Such bombings are common in Ras al-Ain. In July, the blast from an explosives-rigged motorbike ripped through a vegetable market there, killing at least eight people, including six civilians. The Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG), from whom the Turks and their allies seized the territory, played a key role in the US-backed fight against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria. But Ankara views them as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has waged a deadly insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984.”
Iraq
Reuters: Years After ISIS, Iraqis Forced Out Of Camps Into Uncertain Future
“Last month, Iraqi authorities gave families displaced by the war against Islamic State just 48 hours to pack up and leave the Al-Ishaki camp before it was closed. When the deadline expired, pick-up trucks and military vehicles arrived to take about 200 people back to their hometown. Taama al-Owaisi and others who had lived for years in the camps did not want to leave but they say they were forced to. An uncertain future awaits them – wrecked towns with no services, surrounded by paramilitaries who regard the returnees with suspicion for having survived life under Islamic State. Hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes during the conflict in northern Iraq, which started in 2014 when IS captured vast areas and imposed its own rule and ended in 2017 with the hardline Sunni Muslim group’s defeat by Iraqi forces backed by U.S. air power. Cities, towns and villages - including Mosul, the capital of Islamic States’s self-proclaimed caliphate - were left in ruins. Owaisi now squats outside an abandoned railway station in Balad, about 90 km north of Bagdhad. His home is two miles away, but he dares not negotiate militia checkpoints to reach it. Local people blame Shi’ite paramilitaries that control the predominantly Sunni area for abducting and killing eight men in October.”
Afghanistan
“Afghan government security forces killed at least 51 Taliban fighters in the southern province of Kandahar, the latest flare-up in violence as the two sides pursue peace talks in Qatar while simultaneously competing for territory at home. The Afghan ministry of defense said the strikes against Taliban positions in five districts on Saturday night, a mixture of ground and air assaults that also destroyed four Taliban ammunition depots, were in response to insurgent attacks. A delegation comprising the army, provincial police and the Kandahar governor were also investigating allegations from local residents that government airstrikes had killed civilians in Arghandab district, the ministry said. The Taliban said 13 civilians had been killed in an airstrike, while a spokesman for the provincial governor said seven civilians had died after the Taliban detonated explosives laden into a Humvee. Col. Sonny Leggett, spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement that the U.S. had conducted a strike against the Taliban in support of Afghan forces in a different district, adding that the Taliban claim of civilian casualties was false. A video filmed by a local resident in Arghandab, and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, showed the bodies of 11 people, including at least seven children.”
Al Jazeera: Bomb And Gun Attacks In Afghan Capital Kill Three
“Separate bomb and gun attacks have left at least three dead in Afghanistan’s capital, local police said, a day after a barrage of mortar shells shook the city. A sticky bomb attached to an armoured vehicle in northern Kabul killed two and wounded at least two others on Sunday, according to Ferdaws Faramarz, a spokesman for the Kabul police chief. No further details were immediately available. Faramarz also said an Afghan government prosecutor had been shot dead in eastern Kabul. The prosecutor was on his way to work when he was attacked in Kart-e Now neighbourhood, the police spokesman said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. The ISIL (ISIS) armed group has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on the capital in recent months, including horrific attacks on educational institutions that killed as many as 50 people, most of them students. The Sunday attacks came a day after ISIL fighters hit the capital with a barrage of mortar shells, killing at least one civilian and wounding a second, amid a countrywide spike in violence. The armed group claimed responsibility on its affiliated Amaq News site, saying it fired 10 Katyusha rockets towards the capital’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.”
Yemen
The Guardian: Classifying Houthis As Terrorists Will Worsen Famine In Yemen, Trump Is Warned
“The Trump administration is facing mounting calls to abandon threats to sanction Houthi rebels in northern Yemen to avoid an imminent danger of extreme famine in the country, where almost two-thirds of the population are in need of food aid. US state department officials are considering designating the Houthis as a terrorist group before the 20 January inauguration of Joe Biden, a move that would complicate the delivery of essential aid in large parts of the country, senior UN officials and NGOs have said. The widely predicted move would be alongside a raft of flagged sanctions against Iran and its interests over the final five weeks of Trump’s rule, in which squeezing Tehran and its allies looms as a central plank of Washington’s foreign policy. The Labour party in the UK added its voice to the concerns on Sunday, saying the expected move against the Houthis, whom Iran supports in Yemen, would result in aid being unable to reach much of the country’s north. The shadow minister for international development, Anna McMorrin, said this would deprive millions of people who had no choice but to remain under Houthi control of much-needed assistance.”
Middle East
Deutsche Welle: Study Shows How Islamic State Built Arsenal In Middle East
“A small phone store buys six tons of aluminum paste. A fertilizer dealer is interested in 78 tons of a food additive. A British company orders motion control software from the United States — but the bill is paid by a luxury car hire company in Turkey. The organization known as Islamic State assembled the components of its weapons arsenal through transactions like these over years. IS worked to build up a network of suppliers and technicians that provided he group with an extensive arsenal of weapons, according to a newly published study by the London-based Conflict Armament Research organization. Thanks to this arsenal, IS was able continuously to expand its areas of control in Iraq and Syria beginning in 2014. According to the study, the border region in Turkey and Syria was a key hub in this supply chain. IS members, usually using false identities, contacted companies in the area and ordered the necessary components to construct explosives and other weapons. The study's authors repeatedly stress that the companies accepted the orders without knowing what sort of customer they were dealing with. “IS deliberately kept open, as a fallback position, a region where the relevant transactions could be arranged,” Peter Neumann, a professor of Security Studies at King's College London, told DW.”
Egypt
Gulf News: Egypt: Brotherhood Minister Arrested Over Terrorism
“Egyptian police had arrested a government minister in the era of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, on terrorism charges, security sources said. Hatem Abdul Latif, who served as the transport minister under the now-toppled Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, had been caught on the outskirts of Cairo, the sources added. “The accused is a cadre in the terrorist Brotherhood group and has maintained contacted with its leaders abroad. He has been involved in plans aimed at destabilising security in the country,” the semi-official newspaper Akhbar Al Youm quoted a security source as saying. “The accused will appear before the specialised prosecution on charges of joining an outlawed group aimed at inciting chaos and committing acts of violence and sabotage,” the source added. Abdul Latif’s arrest comes days after Egyptian authorities caught two prominent businessmen on suspicion of belonging to the Brotherhood and financing its anti-state activities. In late 2013, Egypt designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation after a spate of violent attacks unleashed in the country following the Islamist group’s removal from power after massive street protests against its divisive rule.”
Asharq Al-Awsat: Egypt Trains Sinai Imams On How To Confront Extremist Ideologies
“Egypt’s Ministry of Awqaf launched a training course for imams in North and South Sinai on how to confront extremist ideologies, as part of its efforts to counter the hate speech spread by extremist groups. The course kicked off on Saturday at the International Awqaf Academy, a training institute for imams and preachers. The training aims at spreading the concepts of tolerance and coexistence, a source stated, adding that it contributes to the Egyptian state’s efforts to confront the terrorist groups. In August 2020, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the development of training programs for imams and preachers to bolster the capabilities of imams and maximize their communication skills. Awqaf Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa said Saturday his ministry prioritizes training imams of North Sinai and other border areas because they are on one of the major frontlines in the fight against terrorism. Community participation and the opening of bridges of trust with society can be achieved with time and through imams and preachers, the minister noted. In January 2019, the ministry inaugurated the academy with the aim to train imams and provide trainers from Egypt and abroad. It said the step was a “practical translation of what the president had requested on the importance of having trained, tolerant and educated clerics.”
Nigeria
New York Post: Nigerian Christians Fear A Bloody Holiday Season At The Hands Of Muslim Terrorists
“Their names haunt me: Patience, Revelation and Rejoice. Patience was 13. Revelation was 6. Rejoice was 4. They are the names of three of the youngest victims of a Christian massacre unfolding in Africa. They weren’t the only young victims slain in the same attack in the Nigerian village of Gonan Rogo earlier this year. The terrorists killed at least 20 that evening as they went from house to house yelling “Allahu Akbar” along the way. They also put a bullet in the head of a 3-month-old and hacked a 6-year-old to death. We don’t know their names. We do know the name of a 14-year-old girl who was murdered along with her grandparents. Her name was Blessing. This horror wasn’t even the work of the infamous Boko Haram insurgents who’ve long terrorized Nigeria’s northeast. These massacres came at the hands of a group of radicalized Fulani tribesmen who — profanely inspired by Boko Haram and ISIS — have been summarily executing Christians in the center of Nigeria, not far from the country’s capital, Abuja. In this democracy, almost no one is ever prosecuted for the crimes. According to Stephen Enada, executive president of the International Committee on Nigeria, there have been at least 63,000 victims.”
Somalia
Yahoo News: US Airstrike Kills Eight Al-Shabaab 'Terrorists' In Somalia
“The United States military said in a statement that they killed eight Al-Shabaab “terrorists” and wounded two in an airstrike in Somalia on December 10. United States Africa Command described the targeted individuals as explosives experts, adding that they were killed near the town of Jilib. Lieutenant General Kirk Smith, the deputy commander of US Africa Command, said: “Al-Shabaab’s continuous attacks demonstrate its willingness to accept high numbers of civilian casualties …. The removal of terrorists involved in the making of explosives helps disrupt Al-Shabaab’s ability to conduct attacks of this nature.” No civilians were assessed to have been killed or injured in the strike, the statement said.”
Africa
Agence France-Presse: Niger Votes In City, Regional Polls After Jihadist Attack
“Niger voted in long-delayed municipal and regional elections Sunday, the day after an attack by the Boko Haram jihadist group claimed at least 27 lives, according to local officials, and two weeks ahead of a landmark presidential election. The vote had been postponed repeatedly because of jihadist attacks in parts of the poor Sahel country, notably in the southeastern Diffa region where Saturday's assault occurred. Many parts of the west and southeast have suffered attacks since 2015, preventing people from registering to vote, according to the national electoral commission, CENI. A senior local official said Saturday's attack left 27 dead and was of “unprecedented savagery,” with dozens of assailants laying to waste 60% of the town of Toumour, burning down as many as 1,000 homes and the central market. He blamed the attack on Boko Haram, though officials typically make no distinction between Boko Haram and a splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), when referring to the jihadists. Diffa's governor, Issa Lemine, went to Toumour to attend the victims' burials on Sunday. An official of the Bosso region that includes Toumour said the elections did not go ahead there Sunday.”
Agence France-Presse: Sudan Nears Removal From US Terror List Amid Congress Debate
“Sudan is expected shortly to be formally removed from the US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism but it is still awaiting action by Congress to provide immunity over past attacks. President Donald Trump announced in October that he was delisting Sudan, a step desperately sought by the nation's new civilian-backed government as the designation severely impeded foreign investment. As part of a deal, Sudan agreed to $335 million to compensate survivors and victims' families from the twin 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, carried out when dictator Omar al-Bashir was welcoming Al-Qaeda, and a 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen's coast. Sudan's transitional government, which took over last year following Bashir's overthrow, also agreed to recognize Israel, a major goal for Trump, although Khartoum has sought to downplay the connection. Trump sent his notice to Congress on October 26 and, under US law, a country exits the terror list after 45 days unless Congress objects, which it has not. A State Department spokesperson did not confirm the date for Sudan's formal removal but said it would formally take effect when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signs a notice to be published in the Federal Register.”
United Kingdom
BBC News: Derbyshire Boy, 15, Charged With Terrorism Offences
“A 15-year-old boy has been charged with two terrorism offences. The boy, from South Derbyshire, appeared via video-link at Westminster Magistrates' Court. He is charged with dissemination of a terrorist publication and collecting information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. West Yorkshire Police said he had previously been arrested under the Terrorism Act in September. The force said the teenager was arrested following an investigation by counter-terrorism police and Derbyshire Police. He has been bailed to appear at the same court on 22 January. A 16-year-old boy from south-east London was also arrested as part of the investigation. He has been bailed pending further inquiries.”
BBC News: Osama Bin Laden's 'Spokesman' Adel Abdul Bary Returns To UK
“A man dubbed Osama Bin Laden's spokesman in Europe has returned to the UK after being released from a US jail. Adel Abdul Bary was deported after a senior New York judge concluded the prisoner had a high risk of contracting Covid-19, partly because of his weight. In 1998, Bary was the Europe-based publicist for al-Qaeda leaders and told journalists that the terror group had bombed US embassies in east Africa. MI5 and counter-terrorism police are reviewing his return and resettlement. In 1999, Scotland Yard detectives arrested Bary as a co-conspirator to the embassy attacks. More than 200 people were killed in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam – al Qaeda's then biggest single attack against American targets. That arrest - and those of other major UK-based suspects - triggered a mammoth extradition battle that lasted until 2012, when he was eventually flown to the US. He went on to admit helping to plan the bombings. His confession to a federal court in Manhattan confirmed that, working out of London, he had sent messages from journalists to Osama bin Laden - and also faxed news organisations confirming al-Qaeda had been behind the embassy attacks. In October this year, US authorities approved Bary's release after he had served 21 years of his 25-year sentence.”
France
Agence France-Presse: Trial Over Deadly Paris Jihadist Attacks To Begin Late 2021
“The trial of 20 people charged over the November 13, 2015 jihadist attacks in Paris that were France's deadliest peacetime atrocity will get underway in late 2021, sources close to the case and prosecutors said on Friday. The night of carnage on November 13, 2015 saw 130 people killed and 350 wounded when Islamist suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Stade de France stadium, bars and restaurants in central Paris and the Bataclan concert hall. The trial in Paris will begin on September 8, 2021 and end in March 2022, lawyers were told at a meeting at the Paris court. National anti-terror prosecutors confirmed the dates to AFP. Just one of the suspected perpetrators -- French-Belgian Salah Abdeslam -- will appear in court with the 19 others accused of providing various logistical support. Six of them are targets of arrest warrants and will be tried in absentia. The other attackers, including the suspected coordinator of the attacks -- Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud -- were killed in the wake of the strikes which were which were claimed by extremists from the Islamic State (IS) group. The trial will be a massive undertaking, with 110 days of hearings envisaged. It had been expected in January 2021 but was put back due to the coronavirus pandemic.”
RFI: Five Suspected Radical Left Activists Held By French Police On Terror Charges
“Five of the seven people arrested earlier this week by police investigating plans for violent activity by members of the French radical left have been charged with associating with terrorist criminals, and detained in custody. Two others have been conditionally released. The seven, arrested earlier this week in raids in Paris, Toulouse and the Dordogne, are suspected of planning violent activity. No details of the sort of action allegedly planned have been released. The six men and one woman are said to be aged between 30 and 36 years. Weapons and material which could be used to produce explosives were discovered at the time of the arrests, according to the Internal Security branch (DGSI) of the French national police. The French AFP news agency reports that one of those arrested, identified as Florian D and allegedly the leader of a group of activists, is known to have fought alongside Kurdish forces in Rojava, north-eastern Syria. The right-wing politician Eric Ciotti is sure that all seven are guilty. No sooner had they been arrested than Ciotti issued a Twitter message saying “these radical left wing terrorists were planning to attack the police. They attack the uniform of the Republic because it's the only barrier to their hunger for chaos.”
Russia
Associated Press: 6 Officers Injured In Suicide Attack In Southern Russia
“At least six Russian law enforcement officers were injured Friday in the country's south when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a local office of the top security agency, authorities said. The explosion occurred outside the building of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in Uchkeken in the Karachayevo-Cherkessiya region of Russia's North Caucasus, Russia's Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement. The Interfax news agency reported that an explosive device first went off outside the building early Friday, hurting no one. When law enforcement officers gathered to inspect the site, the suicide bomber approached them and detonated explosives, killing himself. Chechnya, Karachayevo-Cherkessiya and other regions in Russia's volatile North Caucasus have faced bombings and other attacks by Islamist militants, some of whom have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group.”
Australia
The Sydney Morning Herald: The Warning Signs In The Christchurch Terrorist's Australian Upbringing
“The Australian-born terrorist behind the Christchurch mosque shootings was openly racist at school, experienced family violence at home and had unsupervised access to the internet from childhood. These details about Brenton Tarrant's early life were revealed last week in a report by the New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 2019 terrorism attack in which 51 people were murdered. The inquiry found Tarrant, who grew up in Grafton in northern NSW, “began expressing racist ideas from a young age” including referring to his mother's then partner's Aboriginal ancestry. Grafton is a town of 19,000, with an Indigenous population of about 10 per cent. At high school, one of his teachers, who was also the Anti-Racism Contact Officer, dealt with Tarrant twice over anti-Semitism. This teacher described the individual as “disengaged in class to the point of quiet arrogance, but also well-read and knowledgeable, particularly on certain topics such as the Second World War.” While no one could have known Tarrant would grow up to commit mass murder, experts say racist commentary is a red flag for violence. Mark Briskey, a senior lecturer in criminology at Murdoch University in Perth, said Australia needed to grapple with the correlation between racism and violence.”
Southeast Asia
Voice Of America: Indonesian Police Arrest Militant Leader Associated With Al-Qaida
“Authorities in Indonesia announced on Saturday the arrest of a top leader of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, an extremist group that has carried out deadly attacks in pursuit of an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia. A National Police spokesperson, Ahmad Ramadhan, said in a statement that counterterrorism police arrested Aris Sumarsono, also known as Zulkarnaen, late Thursday during a raid at a house in East Lampung district on Sumatra island. Ramadhan said the police officers met no resistance from Zulkarnaen, who is suspected of being behind the 2002 bombing attack on the resort island of Bali that left more than 200 people dead, and an attack in 2003 on Marriott Hotel in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, that killed 12 people. Police said they received a tip about Zulkarnaen's location as they were interrogating several suspected militants arrested last month. The United Nations Security Council had included Zulkarnaen on an al-Qaida sanctions list since May 2005 as the network’s representative in Southeast Asia, and directly associated with former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan’s Taliban. A biologist by background, Zulkarnaen was among the first Indonesian militants to go to Afghanistan for military training.”
Technology
“In the fall of 2018, I released a research report warning of a growing trend of far-right radicalization on YouTube. Specifically, I identified a loosely connected network of reactionary YouTubers, ranging from mainstream conservatives and libertarians all the way to overt white supremacists and neo-Nazis, who were all broadcasting their political ideas to young audiences. Tethered together by a shared opposition to “social justice warriors” and the mainstream media, they frequently collaborated with each other and amplified each other’s content. In the process, they made it extremely easy for a viewer to move bit by bit into more extremist content. The following March, I watched in horror along with much of the rest of the world, as a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people and injured 40 more at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand. Throughout the chaos of the day, researchers parsed his manifesto and found that under the layers of irony and memes, the message was quite clear. He had been radicalized to believe in the Great Replacement, a white nationalist conspiracy theory that claims that white populations are being purposefully replaced with (often Muslim) immigrants.”
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