Eye on Extremism
September 25, 2019
NBC
News: U.S. Exit From Syria Could Bolster ISIS Threat, Strengthen Iran,
Bipartisan Report Says
“A bipartisan report Tuesday urged the Trump administration to halt
a planned troop drawdown from Syria and to step up diplomatic efforts
to counter Iran's influence and stave off a resurgence of the Islamic
State militant group. The 12-member Syria Study Group appointed by
Congress warned that the Syrian conflict was far from over, that ISIS
was still a threat and that without a determined U.S. response —
backed up by troops on the ground — ISIS and other terror groups could
flourish and Iran and Russia could expand their reach. “The United
States cannot avoid or ignore the conflict in Syria,” the report said.
“While some argue that it is too late for a reinvigorated U.S.
approach to Syria, we conclude that the United States can still
influence the outcome of the Syrian war in a manner that protects U.S.
interests,” it said. But President Donald Trump has sent mixed
messages about the future U.S. military presence in Syria and the
report said that the Trump administration's flip-flops had sown doubts
among allies about America's reliability. “Sharp shifts and reversals
in American policy, and the failure of senior U.S. government
officials to prioritize the issue with their counterparts, have
undermined American credibility and the effectiveness of U.S. policy,”
the report said.”
ABC
News: Urgent New Warnings About ISIS Fighter Jailbreaks, As Trump
Threatens Europe With Releasing Them
“The threat of ISIS fighters breaking out of the massive prison
camps where they're being held in Syria and Iraq is growing, according
to a new report and a senior U.S. official. While President Donald
Trump has also warned of the urgency, he took the issue a step further
in recent days and threatened to free ISIS fighters at Europe's
borders if countries don't repatriate them. U.S. ambassador-at-large
for counterterrorism Nathan Sales rang those alarm bells Tuesday, but
wouldn't say whether the U.S. was actively planning to carry out
Trump's threat. "It's impossible to predict what tomorrow is going to
look like in Syria, let alone two months or six months from now ...
You could envision all sorts of other scenarios playing out," Sales
told ABC News in response to questions about Trump's comments. "We
don't want to assume that the relative stability that we see today is
an enduring feature."
New
York Daily News: Brooklyn Man Who Gave Cash To Wannabe ISIS Fighter
Found Guilty In Federal Court
“A Brooklyn man who handed a wannabe ISIS fighter a stack of cash
to cover his travel and weapon expenses bought himself a prison term
Tuesday instead. Dilkhayot Kasimov was convicted in Brooklyn Federal
Court Tuesday of trying to support the terror group. Kasimov, 31,
drove to JFK Airport in February 2015, and over the course of just
three minutes, found the would-be terrorist and handed him $1,600.
Security footage showed Kasimov stroll into Terminal 7, leave three
minutes later and then come and go a second time. The ISIS hopeful,
Akhror Saidakhmetov, then 19, was about to board a flight to Istanbul,
then head to Syria, but the feds intercepted him at the airport and
arrested him. “As found by the jury today, Kasimov was part of a
conspiracy in which he sought to help fund a foreign fighter’s travel
and expenses in Syria to wage violent jihad,” United States Attorney
Richard Donoghue said. The government learned of the conspiracy when
Saidakhmetov’s roommate, Abdurasul Juraboev, detailed on a pro-ISIS
Uzbek-language website that he wanted to martyr himself by planting a
bomb on Coney Island or shooting President Obama.”
Military
Times: Three US Service Members Wounded In Afghanistan Insider
Attack
“The Taliban took credit for killing three troops in a
green-on-blue attack Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Monday afternoon, but
an U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman fired back at the claims on
Twitter, clarifying that the only injuries sustained were non-life
threatening. A defense official, who was not authorized to speak on
the record, confirmed that all three wounded troops were Americans. A
member of the Afghan National Civil Order Police fired on a coalition
convoy, Col. Sonny Leggett tweeted, without providing details about
which coalition country they belonged to. “The attacker was killed by
return fire from Resolute Support forces,” he tweeted. The incident is
under investigation, he added.”
Stars
And Stripes: Egypt Says 6 Muslim Brotherhood Killed In Cairo
Shootout
“Egyptian security forces killed six suspected members of the
now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in a shootout in Cairo, the Interior
Ministry said Tuesday, amid tight security across the capital
following rare anti-government protests over the weekend. The six were
killed in a firefight when police raided their hideout in the Cairo
suburb of Sixth of October, the ministry said in a brief statement.
The ministry oversees police forces. The statement said the suspects
were planning militant attacks. It did not say when the raids took
place, whether police forces were wounded in the clashes with the
militants, or otherwise elaborate. Egypt branded the Muslim
Brotherhood a terrorist organization in 2013 and arrested thousands of
its members after the military's ouster of elected but divisive
president, Mohammed Morsi, who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood,
amid mass protests against his brief rule. Tuesday's development came
days after rare anti-government demonstrations in several Egyptian
cities over the weekend. The protesters called for President
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to step down. Hundreds, including political
activists and journalists, were arrested, according to rights
lawyers.”
ABC
News: Mother Of San Diego Navy Veteran Held In Iran Says He Lost
Appeal
“The mother of a U.S. Navy veteran from California sentenced to 10
years in prison by the government of Iran said Tuesday he has lost his
appeal and she is worried that he is being forgotten by the U.S.
government. Michael R. White was convicted of insulting Iran's supreme
leader and posting private information online. He was the first
American known to be imprisoned in Iran after President Donald Trump
took office. Few other details are known about his case. Joanne White,
speaking through a family spokesman, said she was disappointed Trump
did not mention her son or other Americans held in Iran when he spoke
to the United Nations General Assembly. Family spokesman Jonathan
Franks said Joanne White has not had any way to communicate with her
son and she relies on officials with the Swiss government who meet
with him when possible. She wants to ask the Iranian government to let
him call her. The White House has not contacted her, he added.”
United States
Fox
News: Missouri Man Pleads Guilty To Role In Plotting ISIS
Attack
“A Missouri man pleaded guilty on Monday to attempting to provide
material support to the Islamic State (ISIS), the Justice Department
said Tuesday. Robert Lorenzo Hester Jr., 28, was arrested in February
2017. Prosecutors have said that he reached out to undercover FBI
agents who were posing as ISIS operatives to say he was willing to
help with an attack. He was told the attack would target “buses,
trains and a train station in Kansas City” on Presidents Day,
according to the affidavit. Hester expressed interest in helping ISIS
from October 2016 to February 2017, authorities say, and his guilty
plea is his admission of wanting to provide support to the terror
organization. The government said it intends to recommend a 20-year
sentence in federal prison under terms of a plea deal, but Hester will
receive no less than 15 years. Authorities say Hester told undercover
law enforcement officers, whom he thought were ISIS members, that he
was ready and willing to participate in a “plot” involving mass
casualties. He expressed increased interest in committing violence and
supporting the terror group as his contact with the undercover agents
continued, the Justice Department said.”
The
Washington Post: White Terrorism Is An International Menace. We Need A
New Strategy To Fight It.
“White terrorism has gone global. Right-wing extremists in the
United States and Europe are increasingly cooperating in a movement
that has become a metastasizing international menace. Even the Trump
administration has taken notice, albeit belatedly — after House
Democrats and nongovernmental experts issued warnings through hearings
and statements that also point to a hamstrung federal response. The
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is blunt — “We are witnessing the
internationalization of the white supremacist movement,” the anti-hate
organization said in a report released last week. It linked growing
racist hate to “surging violence in the United States, Europe and
beyond.” The report was released the same day as a joint hearing on
“white nationalist terrorism at home and abroad” by the House Homeland
Security and Foreign Affairs subcommittees. “White supremacy is a
transnational terrorist threat that has already begun to engulf us all
. . . and our government has failed to take sufficient measures to
also address this rising threat,” Sharon Nazarian, an ADL senior vice
president, told the hearing. “Simply, white nationalism is a threat of
growing lethality with similar global ambitions and a murderous
strategy to achieve those ends.”
ABC
News: Pasco County Veteran Sues Billionaire Qatari Sheik Over
Murder-For-Hire Plot
“A Pasco County military veteran is suing a billionaire Middle
Eastern sheik in U.S. federal court in Tampa -– accusing him of trying
to enlist him to murder two people in California and holding Americans
against their will inside his posh, guarded compound in Qatar. The
lawsuit reads like the plot of an action-adventure movie, but retired
U.S. Marine Matthew Pittard told I-Team Investigator Adam Walser the
events were terrifying and all too real. “He’s a danger to the
public,” said Pittard of his former employer Sheik Khalid bin Hamad
bin Khalifa al Thani. Pittard and another American who worked for the
sheik are now suing him for $34 million in a federal employment
lawsuit.”
Syria
The
Washington Times: ISIS Believed To Be Planning To Free Fighters Held
In Detention Camps In Syria, Iraq
“The terror group Islamic State is preparing a campaign to free
thousands of detained fighters and conduct raids of detainee camps in
Syria and Iraq in the coming month, a new study on the group’s
resurgence found. According to recent findings published Monday by the
Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the terrorist organization is
“preparing to free its loyal fighters and followers from prisons and
displacement camps across Syria and Iraq.” The report comes as
President Trump and his aides have stepped up complaints that
countries in Europe and the Middle East are refusing to take back
thousands of their fighters swept up in the campaign to defeat the
ISIS “caliphate” and now being held in camps in Syria and Iraq.
Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced plans for the
campaign in a speech earlier this month. He asked his followers in the
speech how they could “accept to live while Muslim women are suffering
in the camps of diaspora and the prisons of humiliation under the
power of the Crusaders?” according to information published in the
assessment. ISIS fighters have been boosting its fundraising activity
in the displacement camps across northern Syria and increasing
propaganda distribution through pro-ISIS social media accounts since
at least mid-July.”
The
Washington Post: ‘Forgotten’ War: Syria Conflict A Footnote At UN
Meeting
“As dozens of heads of state convene for the annual U.N. General
Assembly in New York this week, the lingering conflict in Syria is
taking a back seat while tensions in the Persian Gulf and global trade
wars take center stage. Now in its ninth year, many Syrians fear the
unresolved war has become a footnote in a long list of world crises,
with weary leaders resigned to live with President Bashar Assad ruling
over a wrecked and divided country for the foreseeable future. On the
eve of the global gathering in New York, U.N. Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres announced that a long-awaited committee that would
draft a new Syrian constitution has been finalized — a step the U.N.
hopes will put the war-ravaged country on track for a political
solution. But few see any real chance that the committee can make
significant progress toward that end.”
Voice
Of America: New Report To Congress Warns Against Syria
Pullout
“A panel of former national security officials and other experts is
calling for the White House and lawmakers to "halt the U.S. military
withdrawal" from Syria or face potentially dire consequences. The
conclusion, at odds with plans announced late last year by U.S.
President Donald Trump, is part of the final consensus report by the
Syria Study Group, charged by lawmakers with helping the country craft
U.S. strategy going forward. "The Group believes that the United
States is still able to exercise influence over the conflict's
trajectory, and that it must do so given the threats the conflict
poses to American interests," according to the report submitted to
Congress Tuesday. "The United States maintains leverage to shape an
outcome in Syria that protects core U.S. national security
interests."
The
Guardian: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Proposes 'Safe Zone' For Refugees In
Syria
“An expanded “safe zone” in northern Syria could include as many as
3 million people and stretch for 50 miles as far as Raqqa, the Turkish
president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, proposed at the UN general assembly
as he pressed his case to speed up the resettlement of Syrian refugees
living in Turkey. His idea, viewed as controversial with Kurds in
northern Syria and seen by them as a Turkish landgrab, was his main
proposal in a speech projecting Erdoğan as a spokesman for Muslims
across the world. He told the UN: “If this safe zone can be declared,
we can resettle confidently somewhere between 1 to 2 million refugees.
Whether with the US or the coalition forces, Russia and Iran, we can
walk shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand so refugees can resettle,
saving them from tent camps and container camps.”
Iran
The
Washington Free Beacon: Iran Has Spent More Than $16 Billion On
Terrorism In Recent Years
“Iran has spent more than $16 billion during the past several years
to fund militant terrorists across the Middle East, cash that was
repatriated to the Islamic Republic under the terms of the landmark
nuclear deal, according to new disclosures from the Trump
administration. As Iran's economy teeters on the brink of collapse
under the tough sanctions regime imposed by the Trump administration,
the Islamic Republic's authoritarian leadership has spent its limited
cash reserves to bolster terror groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, as
well as militant terrorists in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The Trump
administration is taking a range of steps to thwart what it describes
as Iran's expansionist foreign policy that seeks to establish hardline
governments across the region. “Our pressure is making the regime's
extremist foreign policy and the ideology that drives it more
expensive than ever before,” Brian Hook, the administration's special
representative for Iran told the Asia Society on the sidelines of the
United Nations General Assembly, or UNGA, which is being held this
week in New York City. “This was long overdue.”
The
Wall Street Journal: Europe Turns To Trump On Iran
“President Trump has squabbled with his European counterparts over
Iran since he left the 2015 nuclear deal. But the tactical
disagreements have obscured how much Berlin, Paris and London agree
with Washington about the Iranian threat. Now Tehran’s attack on the
global oil supply finally has moved Europe toward the Trump position.
That’s the meaning of a joint statement Monday evening by German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and
French President Emmanuel Macron blaming Tehran for the Sept. 14
attack on Saudi Arabia. “It is clear to us that Iran bears
responsibility for this attack. There is no other plausible
explanation,” the statement says, contradicting repeated Iranian
denials.”
CNBC:
Iran’s Rouhani Calls US The ‘Supporter Of Terrorism’ In The Middle
East And Downplays Role In Saudi Oil Attacks
“Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the United States the
“supporter of terrorism” in the Middle East and downplayed Tehran’s
role in the recent Saudi oil facility attacks in a Tuesday interview
with Fox News. “Today, unfortunately, America is the supporter of
terrorism in our region and wherever America has gone, terrorism has
expanded in that wake. Wherever we have gone, on the other side, we
have defeated terrorism,” Rouhani said. Rouhani gave a hypothetical
response when asked about the Sept. 14 strikes on the world’s largest
crude-processing plant and oil field. “Let’s assume if it was from
Iran, all of the monies received from the United States from these
defensive systems, from these weapon systems, from these radar systems
installed in Saudi Arabia and the Arabian peninsula, how come, they
were not able to prevent that missile from hitting the target?” he
asked, adding that the strikes were embarrassing for U.S.-made missile
defense systems.”
Reuters:
British Tanker Stena Impero Still Held In Iran –
Owner
“Iranian authorities have yet to release the British-flagged tanker
Stena Impero even though the vessel, seized by Iranian forces in July,
has been cleared to leave port, its Swedish owner said on Wednesday.
“At this point we are simply waiting for the guards onboard to leave
and for the ship to receive clearance to sail,” Stena Bulk Chief
Executive Erik Hanell said in a text message. Iranian forces seized
the Stena Impero on July 19 for alleged marine violations two weeks
after British marines detained an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar. The
Iranian vessel was released in August. The actions followed attacks on
other merchant vessels in Gulf oil shipping routes which Washington
blamed on Tehran. Iran has denied responsibility.”
National
Interest: Is The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Iran's Most
Dangerous Weapon Of War?
“Key point: The IRGC is a fanatical and elite unit. No other branch
of the Iranian military can claim the notoriety that the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has earned for itself over the last
several decades. Earlier this year, the White House took the
unprecedented step of designating the IRGC as an organization that
“actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool
of statecraft.” It was an IRGC fast attack craft that almost sparked
open military conflict between the U.S. and Iran in June by staging an
unprovoked attack against two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. The
IRGC continues to comprise a substantial part of the Iranian armed
forces, but their influence—both within Iran and across the
Middle-East region—extends far beyond raw combat capabilities. To
understand the full extent of IRGC’s current role within the Iranian
military, we must go back to back to the birth of the Iranian Islamic
Republic.”
Iraq
Iraqi
News: Two Islamic State Terrorists Killed In Airstrike In Iraq’s
Diyala
“Two Islamic State militants were killed Tuesday in an airstrike on
terrorist hotbeds in the eastern province of Diyala, a local source
said. “The Iraqi Air Force launched an air raid on two terrorist
hotbeds of the Islamic State group in Qarah Tapah district, some 110
km northeast of Baqubah, leaving two militants dead,” the spurce told
the privately-owned Almaalomah news website. In January 2015, Iraqi
forces announced liberation of Diyala province from Islamic State
extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and
Syria in 2014. The province has seen months of fighting between Iraqi
troops and IS militants especially in the Jalawla and Saadiyah areas
in the province’s north and areas near the town of Muqdadiyah.”
Afghanistan
The
Independent: Raid On Al-Qaeda Bomb Factory Leaves Dozens Of
Wedding-Goers Dead, In Latest Afghan Violence
“US and Afghan Special Forces carried out a raid in Helmand
specifically targeting a senior al-Qaeda leader who was hiding in a
bomb factory which was producing explosive devices possibly to be used
against voters in the impending presidential election, security
officials have claimed. While Pakistani-born Asim Umar, the first head
of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) escaped, his liaison man
with al-Qaeda, chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as the Taliban
explosives chief for the province, his two deputies and two other
Taliban leaders were among 22 fighters killed. The chief bomb-maker,
according to officials, blew himself up with a suicide vest – causing
many of the deaths of his fellow fighters. Umar’s wife was among six
Pakistani women and a Bangladeshi national arrested, and a huge cache
of weapons was recovered. Tribal leaders, politicians and officials in
Helmand, however, disputed this account and accused the US and Afghan
forces of killing around 40 civilians, most of them returning from a
wedding party on Sunday night, many of them women and children. Hamid
Karzai, the former Afghan president, has been among public figures who
has condemned the deaths and called for an investigation into what
happened.”
Xinhua:
Taliban Shadow District Chief Among 9 Killed In Afghanistan Eastern
Region
“A total of nine militants including a Taliban shadow district
chief have been killed in the eastern region of the war-battered
country over the past 24 hours, officials said Tuesday. According to
Abdul Sattar Mirzakalwal, the governor for eastern Kunar province, the
security forces stormed a Taliban hideout in Dangam district on Monday
evening killing five insurgents including the group's shadow district
chief for the relatively troubled district. Similarly, the security
forces have killed four Taliban fighters in Laghori area of Tanai
district in the eastern Khost province, said a statement of National
Directorate for Security or the country's counter-intelligence agency.
Taliban militants who are active in parts of the eastern region and
have intensified activities are yet to make comment.”
Saudi Arabia
The
Guardian: US Patience With Iran Not Inexhaustible, Warns Saudi
Arabia
“Saudi Arabia has said that US patience with Iran is not
inexhaustible and warned that military options are still being
considered following the attack on the Aramco oil facilities earlier
this month. The Saudi foreign affairs minister, Adel al-Jubeir, also
said the UN-commissioned report into the origins of the attack will be
available fairly soon, and described the EU’s Monday statement
ascribing responsibility to Iran as “very significant”. His remarks
suggest Saudi Arabia is still putting private pressure on Donald
Trump’s administration not to limit his response to the 14 September
attack to further sanctions and the deployment of additional troops to
defend the oil facilities. Jubeir said: “We want to mobilise
international support, and we want to look at a whole list of options
– diplomatic options, economic options and military options – and then
make the decision.”
Lebanon
The
National: Senior US Official Says Hezbollah Sanctions Could Hit
Benefactors
“Senior United States Treasury official Marshall Billingslea has
delivered a stern message to Lebanese officials during a two-day visit
to Beirut, warning that those who co-operate with Hezbollah will be
targeted by sanctions. During a meeting on Monday with Prime Minister
Saad Hariri and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Mr Billingslea said
that US sanctions could extend to any party suspected of providing
“material” support to the Iranian-backed group. Hezbollah has been
designated a terrorist group by the US since 1997. This US
administration ramped up pressure this summer by sanctioning two of
the group’s MPs for the first time and a high-ranking security
official. President Michel Aoun struck a political alliance with
Hezbollah in 2006. The Shiite party is a key political force in
Lebanon and maintains a large paramilitary force that has fought both
Syrian rebels and Israel. However, the sanctions “will not target
groups who are only tied to Hezbollah politically,” Mr Billingslea
said, easing concern that the group's political allies, including
President Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement and Berri's Amal Movement,
could be targeted.”
Xinhua:
IS Suspect Arrested In Lebanon
“Lebanon's state security arrested Tuesday a Syrian suspected of
belonging to Islamic State (IS) group, the National News Agency
reported. The Syrian who was arrested in Nabatieh, south of Lebanon,
admitted that he has received religious and military training with the
IS group while he was in Syria. The statement added that the arrested
Syrian entered Lebanon in an illegal way. Lebanon's general security
also arrested earlier this month a Syrian belonging to the IS group
who had planned to implement terrorist attacks in Sidon, south of
Lebanon. The IS claimed responsibility for an attack on the northern
city of Tripoli on June 3, killing two members of the Lebanese
security forces and two others from the Lebanese Army.”
Middle East
Gulf
News: Qatar Continues To Finance Extremists: Al
Jubeir
“Qatar has continued to support terrorist and militant groups
despite a pledge to stop doing this, a Saudi minister has said, amid a
bitter diplomatic row between the two neighbours. “Qatar continues to
finance extremists and terrorists, and interfere in others’ internal
affairs,” Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir
added in New York on the sidelines of the annual General Assembly
meetings. In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt broke off
diplomatic, transportation and trade ties with Qatar over its support
for terrorism and sheltering wanted militants. Saudi television Al
Arabiya also quoted Al Jubeir as saying that Qatar has not observed a
2014 pact it signed in the Saudi capital to mend its ways. “They have
not implemented it over five years. And we said this is enough,” the
official said.”
Libya
Reuters:
U.S. Air Strike Kills 11 In Southern Libya - U.S.
Military
“U.S. forces said on Wednesday they had killed 11 suspected
militants linked to Islamic State in their second air strike near the
southern Libyan town of Murzuq in less than a week. The attack,
carried out on Tuesday, followed a Sept. 19 strike that the U.S. said
had killed eight suspected militants. “This air strike was conducted
to eliminate ISIS terrorists and deny them the ability to conduct
attacks on the Libyan people,” Major General William Gayler, director
of operations for U.S. Africa Command, said in a statement. Some
Islamic State militants retreated south into Libya's desert as the
group lost its stronghold in the coastal city of Sirte at the end of
2016. The U.S. has said it will not allow militants to use a conflict
between eastern and western-based factions around the capital Tripoli
to protect themselves. Eastern-based forces led by Khalifa Haftar
launched an offensive to capture Tripoli in April, upending U.N.-led
plans to broker a political settlement in Libya.”
Somalia
All
Africa: Somalia: Ethiopian Authorities Say Al-Shabaab, Islamic State
Planning Attacks On Hotels
“Ethiopian officials have confirmed that Islamist militant members
of the Somali group al Shabaab and Islamic State were planning to
carry out attacks in the country on various targets including hotels.
The National Intelligence Security Services (NISS) issued a statement
on Saturday saying it had arrested an unspecified number of militants,
some of whom were carrying out intelligence work including
photographing potential targets. “The group was ... preparing to
attack hotels, religious festivities gathering places and public areas
in Addis Ababa,” NISS said in the statement read out on
state-affiliated broadcaster Fana. Ethiopian intelligence coordinated
with neighbouring Djibouti to detain the suspects including their
leader, Muhammed Abdulahi, NISS said. Those detained, NISS said, were
arrested in the capital Addis Ababa, Oromia and Ethiopia's Somali
region. An Ethiopian army official says members of the Islamic State
extremist group have been detained in the East African country.
Berhanu Jula, deputy chief of Ethiopia's military, told the
state-owned Ethiopian News Agency on Wednesday that there is evidence
the extremist group “has recruited, trained and armed some
Ethiopians.” He did not say how many were arrested and how.”
Africa
The
North Africa Post: Tunisia: Police Officer Stabbed To Death In Terror
Attack
“A police officer was stabbed to death Monday near a court in the
city of Bizerte, in Tunis governorate, in what was described as a
terror attack. Police commander Faouzi Houimli who headed the security
district of the Bizerte Court of Appeal was attacked by a radicalized
man who also planned, according to the interior ministry, attacks
against the court with improvised explosive devices found in his
backpack. The attack occurred in a café near the court. The suspect,
who has been arrested and put into custody for interrogation, also
injured a soldier near the city’s bus station. Three accomplices aged
between 25 and 35 have been also arrested as part of the
investigations. Large scale terror attacks in the North African
country have significantly subdued since 2015 when ISIS affiliates
staged attacks in Tunis and Sousse, killing over 70 people mostly
foreign holiday makers. The Monday attack comes as the country heads
to the second round of presidential elections. Independent candidate
Kaïd Saïed led the first round with close to 19 per cent. He will face
on October 6 businessman and Heart of Tunisia’s candidate Nabil Karoui
currently in prison on money laundering charges.”
Asharq
Al-Awsat: US Says Removing Sudan From Terror List Could Take A
Year
“US officials have informed Sudan that removing it from the terror
list is complicated because it is tied to Congress and could take nine
months to a year, announced Finance Minister Ibrahim el-Badawi.
Speaking at a press conference in Khartoum, Badawi said Prime Minister
Abdalla Hamdok, who is participating at the UN General Assembly
meetings in New York, will ask the World Bank for $2 billion in
funding. The Minister noted that Sudan has so far been unable to tap
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for support
because the US still lists the country as a state sponsor of
terrorism. He noted that the ministry is in the process of forming a
committee to recover the looted funds outside the country, noting that
Khartoum received pledges from the United Nations and some
organizations to help in this issue. Meanwhile, the Sovereignty
Council of Sudan discussed the security situation in the country and
solutions to address it, according to the Council’s spokesman Mohamed
Alfaki Suleiman. Suleiman told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Council
decided to hold its regular meeting next Thursday in Nyala, the
capital of South Darfur state, to discuss current situations and
ensure citizens’ safety.”
Daily
Post: Boko Haram: Zamfara Police Ban Meetings, Procession, Party,
Others Over Threats By Insurgents
“The Zamfara State police command has suspended all forms of
meetings, procession, partying and unlawful gatherings considering the
alleged threats by the elements of Boko Haram to unleash terror
attacks on seven local government areas of Zamfara State. According to
the command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) SP Muhammed
Shehu, due to the prevailing security situation, coupled with the
threat by Boko Haram and other criminal elements to destabilise the
relative peace being enjoyed in the state, the Zamfara State Police
Command has warned that all hands must be on deck to normalise the
current security concern. “Consequently, all forms of meetings,
processions, partying and all forms of gatherings by all manners of
people in the state are hereby banned until further notice,” the
police spokesman warned. He noted that the Command seeks for continued
support and cooperation of all and sundry to prevent the calamity,
saying that security is the responsibility of everybody.”
United Kingdom
BBC
News: Terror Accused Hisham Muhammad 'Searched Online For Suicide
Belt'
“An Islamic State supporter accused of plotting a terrorist attack
searched online for “weak points in the human body” and “suicide
belt”, a court has heard. Hisham Muhammad allegedly hoarded an arsenal
of weapons and a drone for a “lone wolf” attack. The 25-year-old's
trial at the Old Bailey heard he also searched online for jihadist
literature. He denies engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of
terrorism. The Bermudan national, from Bury, Greater Manchester, is
accused of plotting to attack an Army barracks with a modified drone.
Jurors were told he identified a possible target at Castle Armoury, a
territorial army base in Bury. Prosecutor Emma Gargitter told the
court Mr Muhammad, of Victoria Avenue, Whitefield, made a series of
“no comment” responses during police interviews over search terms
including “military base near me”, “Glock 19”, “weak points in the
human body”, as well as for Islamic State and Al-Shabaab literature
and videos. He also made dozens of internet searches between April and
May, including for “armed police Manchester”, “suicide belt” and
“pressure cooker”, as well as for for machetes, Samurai swords,
stainless steel nuts and bolts, potassium nitrate, and aluminium
oxide, the court heard.”
France
Xinhua:
More French IS Children Repatriated From Syria
“France has brought home two French mothers and their nine children
from families that had fought with Islamic State (IS) insurgents in
Syria, local media reported on Tuesday. The children, aged between 3
and 13 years, reached French soil early on Tuesday. They were
scheduled to receive medical and psychological treatment before being
handed over to the judicial authorities to decide whether their
grandparents are able to look after them, France Inter radio reported.
Arrested at the Turkish border, the two mothers were placed under
police custody on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State (IS).
One of them was believed to be the niece of the brothers Fabien and
Jean-Michel Clain, France's most wanted jihadists, who narrated an
audio recording claiming responsibility for the Nov. 13, 2015 terror
attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people in coordinated attacks and
explosions. France has already received 12 children, most of them are
younger than five years of age, from northeastern Syria, where 130
others are still reportedly held in refugee camps. France had
previously expressed preference for their citizens held in Iraq and
Syria and who fought with the Islamic State to be prosecuted there on
fears of growing militancy at home.”
The
Wall Street Journal: Macron Tried To Broker Meeting Between Trump,
Iran’s President
“French President Emmanuel Macron mounted an intensive effort
Tuesday to broker a meeting between President Trump and Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani, but the attempt failed when the Iranian side
insisted the U.S. first commit to easing sanctions, according to
people briefed on the discussions. The meeting would have been the
first of a U.S. and Iranian president since the 1979 Islamic
revolution. The confidential diplomatic maneuvers, which were strongly
supported by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, took place amid
the rising tensions in the Persian Gulf following the alleged Iranian
attack earlier this month on a Saudi oil facility and a war of words
between Washington and Tehran. Mr. Trump told the United Nations
General Assembly Tuesday that his administration was prepared to
increase the sanctions pressure on Tehran until Iran no longer posed a
threat to the U.S. and its allies.”
Europe
The
Washington Post: Lebanese Tourist In Europe Mistakenly ID’d As
‘Terrorist’
“A Lebanese journalist, his wife and their friends had been touring
southern Europe on a cruise ship when on the fourth day, while docked
in the Greek island of Mykonos, a receptionist came on deck to tell
the 65-year-old man that immigration officers would like to talk to
him. Mohammed Saleh went down, thinking it was a matter that would
only take a few minutes. He ended up being detained for five days in
southern Greece on suspicion of involvement in one of the most
notorious hijackings of all time: The 1985 hijacking of TWA flight
847. His wife, Leila, and one of his friends were able to see Saleh
several hours after he was detained last Thursday at an immigration
office where he was being held and he was given the right to use a
mobile telephone. A day later, she was told that he was taken to the
Greek island of Syros where a prosecutor would question him, based on
a request by German authorities. Saleh’s telephone was then
confiscated and the family lost contact with him in Syros. Authorities
even prevented a lawyer from reaching him, saying only Lebanese
diplomats can do so. The first time the family was able to talk to him
again was on Sunday through the telephone of a Lebanese diplomat who
flew from Athens to be with Saleh.”
Southeast Asia
The
Washington Post: Philippine Military Says Suspected Swedish Militant
Arrested
“Philippine military officials say a suspected Swedish militant has
been arrested with two local Muslim militant women in the country’s
south where they have been linked to bomb attacks. The officials say
Hassan Akgun, a Swedish of Turkish descent, was arrested late Monday
with Norshiya Camsa and Normhiya Camsa in Bagumbayan town in Sultan
Kudarat province and troops seized firearms, explosives and an Islamic
State group-style flag from them. Regional military commander Lt. Gen.
Cirilito Sobejana says Akgun is a member of an Islamic State
group-linked organization in Sweden and has been linked to a bomb
attack in August last year in Sultan Kudarat’s capital town of Isulan.
Military officials say the women have been linked to a bombing in
Isulan earlier this month that wounded eight people.”
Al
Jazeera: Singapore Arrests Indonesian Domestic Workers For 'Funding'
ISIL
“Singapore has arrested three Indonesian women working as domestic
helpers in the city on suspicion they donated funds to support the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) group, authorities
said. The government said on Tuesday the arrest of the three women
highlighted the continued appeal of ISIL's “violent ideology”. The
three women, who had worked in Singapore for between six and 13 years,
started supporting the group after viewing online material last year,
including videos of bomb attacks and beheadings, the Ministry of
Interior said. Anindia Afiyantari, 33, Retno Hernayani, 36, and
31-year-old Turmini got to know each other around the time they were
“radicalised”, and developed a network of foreign contacts online who
shared their sympathies for ISIL, the ministry added. “The three of
them actively galvanised support online for ISIS,” the ministry said
in a statement late on Monday. “They also donated funds to
overseas-based entities for terrorism-related purposes, such as to
support the activities of ISIS and JAD. Turmini believed that her
donations would earn her a place in paradise,” the statement added,
referring to JAD, the Indonesian armed group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah,
which has pledged allegiance to ISIL.”
Xinhua:
Philippine Forces Arrest Swedish, Three Filipinos Accused Of Bomb
Attack
“The Philippine security forces have arrested a Swedish national
and three Filipinos who allegedly carried out the Sept. 7 bombing of a
public market in Sultan Kudarat province in the southern Philippines
that wounded eight people. Major Arvin Encinas, spokesman for the
Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said
on Tuesday that Swedish citizen Hassan Akgun and three Filipinos were
arrested on Monday afternoon in Bagumbayan village in Isulan town.
“The (suspects) and seized items were brought to Sultan Kudarat
provincial police office for documentation and filing of appropriate
charges,” Encinas said. According to Encinas, the arresting team also
seized an M16 assault rifle, a .45 caliber pistol, a shotgun, an
improvised explosive device, assorted ammunition, 13 cell phones and
bomb-making materials. An ISIS flag was also seized from the suspects,
Encinas added. On Sept. 7, eight people were injured after an
improvised bomb strapped to a motorcycle exploded in front of a public
market in Isulan, the provincial capital of Sultan Kudarat province.
Last year, two successive bombings rocked Isulan that claimed the
lives of five people and injured 45 others.”
Technology
The
Atlantic: I Watched ISIS Videos, And Felt My Soul
Diminished
“Nothing has done more to convince me of the existence of the soul
than watching several hundred of them being snuffed out over the past
five years, in Islamic State videos screened during the course of my
reporting. One need not be spiritual or religious to identify the
instant when a human body, suffering from a mortal wound, stops being
human and becomes a sack of meat, offal, and bone. I experienced
something similar when I worked briefly as a butcher, slaughtering
cows and pigs. Suddenly, subtly, an animal (from the Latin anima, or
“soul”) becomes food. Every slaughterer is familiar with that instant.
In the case of slaughtered humans, the instant is all too perceptible.
Something changes. Something leaves the scene. That something is an
essence that resided in the corpse now being desecrated before you, as
you watch along at home or the office. And exiting the scene along
with it, I found, is a bit of you, the viewer, who has just witnessed
the departure of a soul, and felt a little of your own soul slip away
in the process. Last week, NPR’s Hannah Allam broached the topic of
the mental well-being of terrorism researchers—journalists, academics,
policy makers, and other analysts whose work requires them to watch
ISIS videos.”
The
Wall Street Journal: China Taps Its Private Sector To Boost Its
Military, Raising Alarms
“Beijing is increasingly tapping private Chinese firms to acquire
foreign technology for its military, according to officials and a new
report, in a strategy that is prompting calls by leaders in Washington
to retool U.S. national security policy. China’s President Xi Jinping
is pressing these companies to bid for defense contracts as part of a
“military-civil fusion” drive to upgrade an arms industry long
dominated by a handful of inefficient state-run contractors and
research institutes. The initiative, highlighted in a new report by
nonprofit C4ADS, is alarming U.S. officials, who fear it is a central
plank in Beijing’s attempt to build a world-class military, capable of
challenging the U.S. in Asia and beyond. C4ADS does data-driven
analysis on security issues, and is known for its work detailing how
North Korea evades sanctions.”
Reuters:
Facebook Will Not Label Or Remove Politicians' Rule-Breaking
Posts
“Facebook on Tuesday said it would not take down politicians’ posts
that violate its community standards and will not label them as rival
Twitter has promised, saying it should not be the arbiter of
acceptable speech in the political arena. Social media platforms are
under pressure to block election interference and be more transparent
about policies on political content, after what U.S. authorities
called an extensive cyber-influence campaign by Russia aimed at
helping elect President Donald Trump in 2016. Moscow has denied the
claims. Facebook will take down posts if a politician’s content has
the potential to incite violence or pose a safety risk that outweighs
the public interest value. And political advertisements must still
meet Facebook’s rules. The kinds of posts from politicians that could
be kept up might include cruel or insensitive comments or graphic
content.”
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