A man who fought for a Islamist militant group as a teenager in Libya was
jailed for the rest of his life on Monday for murdering three men in a

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


January 12, 2021

 

Reuters: Libyan Jailed For Life For UK Attack That Killed Three
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“A man who fought for a Islamist militant group as a teenager in Libya was
jailed for the rest of his life on Monday for murdering three men in a stabbing
spree in a park in England last year in what the judge said was a terrorist
attack. Libyan Khairi Saadallah, 26, used an 8-inch (20 cm) knife to kill the
three men and attacked others in the park in the southern English town of
Reading on a balmy summer evening on June 20. Witnesses heard him shout “God is
greatest” in Arabic during the incident, and he later told police that what he
had done was “Jihad” and he would go to paradise as a result, Judge Nigel
Sweeney said. “His attack was so swift, ruthless, and brutal that none of them
had any chance to react, let alone to defend themselves,” Sweeney said.
Saadallah pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder in November and his
defence team argued that he was suffering from a mental disorder. But the judge
rejected this and said he had made crude attempts to portray himself as “mad”
in police interviews. “Having no doubt that this is a rare and exceptional case
in which just punishment requires that you must be kept in prison for the rest
of your life, (I) make a whole life order,” Sweeney told him.”

 

NBC News: U.S. Declares Cuba A State Sponsor Of Terrorism
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“The Trump administration declared Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism on
Monday, the latest in a series of actions aimed at undoing the Obama-era legacy
of opening U.S. relations with the island nation just weeks before
President-elect Joe Biden takes office. “The Trump Administration has been
focused from the start on denying the Castro regime the resources it uses to
oppress its people at home, and countering its malign interference in Venezuela
and the rest of the Western Hemisphere,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in
a statement. “With this action, we will once again hold Cuba’s government
accountable and send a clear message: the Castro regime must end its support
for international terrorism and subversion of U.S. justice.” The State
Department had briefed Congress on the impending move Monday morning, according
to two congressional aides who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity,
as they were not authorized to speak publicly. Bloomberg had first reported on
the impending action. Cuba was placed on the list in 1982 under President
Ronald Reagan but was removed in 2015 by President Barack Obama as part of a
normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba.”

 

United States

 

CNN: Law Enforcement Braces For More Extremist Violence In DC And Around The
US Ahead Of Inauguration Day
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“Calls for new protests in Washington, DC, and states across the country have
law enforcement bracing for more possible violence in the coming days after
rioters stormed the US Capitol last week leaving five people dead, including a
Capitol Police officer. Authorities are preparing for additional personnel to
help secure the nation's capital in the coming days. A Department of Homeland
Security official told CNN that the breach of the Capitol will sharpen the
response and planning for inauguration. “Now that it happened people will take
it much more seriously,” the official said, referring to last week's violence.
“Now, the planners, they are all going to take it much more seriously.” Rep.
Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, said in a statement Sunday that the Department
of Defense is aware of “further possible threats posed by would-be terrorists
in the days up to and including Inauguration Day.” Crow spoke with Secretary of
the Army Ryan McCarthy about the January 6 events and planning for the coming
days. Wednesday's riot has set off a shockwave of concern among federal, state
and local officials for more possible bloodshed over the outcome of the 2020
election that ousted President Donald Trump from office.”

 

Chicago Tribune: Column: The Capitol Riot Shows The Growing Danger Of
Right-Wing Extremism
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“In 2009, Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security published a report on
the rising danger posed by right-wing extremists. The Great Recession, the
authors warned, “could create a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing
extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government
authorities.” But a lot of people didn’t want to hear it. Critics accused DHS
of slandering American troops by suggesting that violent groups might recruit
veterans returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. The national commander of the
American Legion declared: “I think it is important for all of us to remember
that Americans are not the enemy. The terrorists are.” Daryl Johnson, a
domestic terrorism expert who helped produce the report, recalled years later:
“Work related to violent right-wing extremism was halted. Law enforcement
training also stopped. My unit was disbanded.” Americans were preoccupied with
the threat from radical Islamist terrorists. They had trouble believing there
was a worse danger from homegrown extremists who portray themselves as
patriots. Apparently many people still have trouble believing it — notably the
U.S. Capitol police.”

 

The Oregonian: Feds In Oregon Filed Most Alleged Domestic Terrorism
Prosecutions In US -- Mostly Related To Protests
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“Oregon’s U.S. Attorney’s Office filed the most cases classified as domestic
terrorism in 2020 compared to all other federal districts, according to a court
tracking clearinghouse run by Syracuse University. Most of the cases stemmed
from consecutive nightly protests last summer outside the Mark O. Hatfield
United States Courthouse in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in
Minneapolis. By the end of September, 40 people had been accused of assault on
a federal officer and 15 faced the rare charge of civil disorder during
protests, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Others were charged with
destruction of government property, arson or attempted arson of federal
property and violating national defense airspace. The period covered the
federal fiscal year that runs from Oct. 1, 2019, through Sept. 30, 2020. Across
the country, U.S. attorney’s offices filed 183 domestic terrorism prosecutions
-- the most since such tracking began 25 years ago. That compares with 90 in
fiscal year 2019, 63 in fiscal 2018 and 69 in fiscal 2017. The Transactional
Records Access Clearinghouse is a data gathering and research organization at
Syracuse University.”

 

Syria

 

Agence France-Presse: Daesh Attack Kills 8 Regime Loyalists In East Syria
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“Daesh terrorists killed at least eight regime loyalists in eastern Syria on
Monday, the latest in a series of deadly extremist attacks, a Britain-based war
monitor reported. Five Syrian soldiers and three pro-regime militia fighters
were among those killed in the Daesh attack on one of their positions in a
desert region of Deir Ezzor province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights. Eleven others were wounded, some of them critically, meaning the death
toll could climb, the war monitor added. Daesh in 2014 overran large parts of
Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a cross-border “caliphate” before multiple
offensives in the two countries led to its territorial defeat. The group was
overcome in Syria in March 2019, but sleeper cells continue to launch attacks
in the vast Badia desert spanning from central Syria eastwards to the border
with Iraq. Since the start of the year, Daesh sleeper cells have upped their
attacks on regime forces, killing at least 44, including soldiers and foreign
paramilitaries, the Observatory says. Since the start of the year, Daesh
sleeper cells have upped their attacks on regime forces, killing at least 44,
including soldiers and foreign paramilitaries, the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights says.”

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Almost Two Years After Defeat, ISIS Resurfaces In Syria’s
Badia
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“For weeks, ISIS has managed to escalate its attacks against Syrian regime
forces and their allies in the Syrian Badia, largely suggesting that the terror
group has succeeded in reorganizing its ranks in the vast desert region. This
resurgence comes less than two years after ISIS suffering a crushing defeat in
the town of Baghouz, which was the organization’s final stronghold on the banks
of the Euphrates river in the Deir Ezzor countryside in eastern Syria. In
addition to the terror group’s hit-and-run attacks against pro-regime forces in
the Badia, ISIS fighters have also been active in areas extending from the east
of the Euphrates river to Iraqi borders. These areas are controlled by the
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces which had driven ISIS out of Baghouz in
2019. Tough to secure, long stretches of desert in the Syrian Badia have proven
an ideal environment for ISIS to keep cover and regroup. Isolated villages and
convoys traveling the desert have become popular targets for ISIS terrorists.
Since 2017, forces of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, significantly
backed by Russia and Iran, succeeded in retaking all strategic towns in the
Badia, but effectively failed to control the whole desert region, which makes
up almost half of Syria’s total geographic area.”

 

Kurdistan 24: ISIS Increases Attacks In Raqqa As Turkish-Backed Forces Shell
Ain Al-Issa
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“The so-called Islamic State has claimed seven terrorist attacks in Syria’s
Raqqa province in the past ten days, amid increased shelling of Kurdish-led
security forces by Turkish-backed groups in the town of Ain al-Issa. The
attacks terrorist attacks included improvised explosive device (IEDs) bombings
and hit-and-run assaults against the Internal Security forces (ISF), also known
as Asayish, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) both inside Raqqa city and
the province’s countryside. The Raqqa Asayish has confirmed at least two of the
incidents. According to the ISF, one of the attacks occurred on January 6, in
eastern rural of Raqqa, resulting in the deaths of two of their Arab members.
Another one took place on January 4, later claimed by the Islamic State inside
the city, resulted in the injury of several civilians. The UK-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also reported that a civilian was injured
in an IED explosion that targeted a vehicle in the al-Malahi area of Raqqa city
on Sunday. “The considerable increase in attacks in Raqqa is a significant
indicator of ISIS’s rising capability of conducting attacks beyond its active
operating zone of Deir Ez-Zor,” Mohammad Ibrahim, a Syrian researcher and
analyst who focuses on northeast Syria, told Kurdistan 24.”

 

Iran

 

Reuters: Pompeo, In Tuesday Speech, To Accuse Iran Of Al Qaeda Links: Sources
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“U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to use newly declassified U.S.
intelligence on Tuesday to publicly accuse Iran of ties to al Qaeda, two people
familiar with the matter said, as part of his last-minute offensive against
Tehran before handing over to the incoming Biden administration. With just
eight days left in office for President Donald Trump, Pompeo is expected to
offer details on allegations that Iran has given safe haven to al Qaeda leaders
and support for the group, the sources said, despite some skepticism within the
intelligence community and Congress. It was not immediately clear how much
Pompeo intends to reveal in his speech to the National Press Club in Washington
on Tuesday. He could cite declassified information on the killing of al Qaeda’s
suspected second-in-command in Tehran in August, said the sources, speaking on
condition of anonymity. The New York Times reported in November that Abu
Muhammad al-Masri, accused of helping to mastermind the 1998 bombings of two
U.S. embassies in Africa, was gunned down by Israeli operatives in Iran. Iran
denied the report, saying there were no al Qaeda “terrorists” on its soil. Iran
has been a target throughout the Trump administration and Pompeo has sought to
further ratchet up pressure on Iran in recent weeks with more sanctions and
heated rhetoric.”

 

Turkey

 

Daily Sabah: Drug Trade Major Source Of Funding For PKK’s Activities In Iraq,
Turkmen Leader Says
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“Drug trafficking is a major source of revenue for the PKK terrorist group to
carry out its activities in Iraq, the head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front Ershad
Salihi said Monday. According to Iraqi sources, the PKK has accelerated illegal
drug trafficking activities across the country to fund its terrorist network.
In July 2020, Iraqi security forces arrested two suspects during an
anti-narcotic operation in Kirkuk province. "These two drug dealers are from
Ranya and Kalar – towns located in Sulaymaniyah province in the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq – where the PKK terrorist
organization has serious activities," Salihi told Istanbul-based broadcaster,
TRT World. Terrorist groups, particularly the PKK, have exacerbated the booming
regional drug trade. The group is accused of smuggling drugs to and from
Europe, as well as cultivating cannabis in southeastern Turkey as a way to fund
its illegal activities. In 2018, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said
the PKK terrorist group controlled 80% of the drug trade in Europe, earning
around $1.5 billion (TL 11 billion) annually. Salihi said Kirkuk police set
free one of the two drug dealers – which seemed to be affiliated with the PKK
terrorist group – after it opened an investigation.”

 

Nigeria

 

Agence France-Presse: ISWAP Jihadists Kill 13 Soldiers In Northeast Nigeria
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“Thirteen soldiers have died in an ambush by jihadist fighters from the
Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group in volatile northeastern
Nigeria, two army sources told AFP on Monday. Heavy gunfire and
rocket-propelled grenades hit a military convoy in Gazagana village, 30
kilometers (18 miles) from Yobe state capital Damaturu on Saturday. “We lost 13
soldiers in this ambush and several were injured,” an officer said. The convoy
was headed for a military base at Buni Yadi, another 20 kilometers from
Damaturu, said the second army source, who gave the same death toll. “It was a
fierce battle and the terrorists also suffered casualties,” he said, without
giving a figure. The ISWAP group carries out regular attacks in Buni Yadi
region on soldiers and travelers, with the violence spilling over into Borno
state. Since 2009, the jihadist campaign in northeast Nigeria has focused on
Borno where the Boko Haram group is also active. ISWAP split from Boko Haram in
2016 and rose to become a dominant group. The violence has spread into
neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition
to fight the militants. At least 36,000 people have been killed in the
conflict, which has displaced about two million from their homes since 2009.”

 

The Pulse Nigeria: 5 Soldiers, 6 Boko Haram Terrorists Killed In Borno Clash
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“Five soldiers of the Nigerian Army and six Boko Haram terrorists were killed
in a gunfight in the Alagarno area of Borno State on Monday, January 11, 2021.
The terrorists were members of main Boko Haram faction, the Islamic State West
Africa Province (ISWAP), according to a report by HumAngle. The military
reportedly launched an offensive against the terrorists in the Alargano forest
axis of Borno, leading troops to capture one gun truck and one Vehicle-Borne
Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) from the insurgents. At least 17 soldiers
were also injured during the attack, according to HumAngle. The Defence
Headquarters (DHQ) announced last week that an unspecified number of terrorists
were killed in their hideouts at Alagarno and Sambisa Forest area of Borno in
an operation by the Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation Lafiya Dole. DHQ
spokesperson, Major-General John Enenche, vowed that terrorism will
continuously be diminished to appreciable level in 2021. Boko Haram has killed
over 30,000 people and displaced millions in the restive northeast region since
its insurgency escalated in 2009.”

 

Africa

 

Agence France-Presse: How Qaeda-Friendly GSIM Became The Sahel’s Leading
Jihadists
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“A group of jihadists close to Al-Qaeda has emerged as the West’s most
formidable enemy in the Sahel, taking over from the Islamic State as the
region’s major threat. The Group to Support Islam and Muslims, also known by
its Arabic acronym JNIM, is a sworn enemy of the Islamic State in the Greater
Sahara (ISGS). It made headlines most recently when it killed five soldiers of
the French-led Barkhane force in two attacks within a week. The killings are
the latest example of GSIM’s rise to a position that experts say make it an
unavoidable partner in — or the biggest obstacle to — any peace negotiations
for the restive Sahel region, the arid expanse south of the Sahara that is
roughly the size of Europe. “It has gained in influence and territorial power
these past few months,” a high-ranking French officer told AFP on condition of
anonymity, adding that GSIM had become both “more combative and better
structured.” This is a far cry from the situation only a year ago, when France
and the G5 Sahel force, which groups Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Burkina
Faso, named ISGS their number one enemy in the region. But after successful
French-led campaigns against the Islamic State offshoot, ISGS activity has been
much reduced, making GSIM the new group to beat.”

 

United Kingdom

 

BBC News: Terror Plot: Durham Teenage Neo-Nazi Named As Jack Reed
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“The youngest person to be convicted of planning a terrorist attack in the UK
can be named after a bid to keep his identity secret was rejected. Jack Reed,
from New Brancepeth, County Durham, was convicted in November 2019 of six
neo-Nazi terror offences. Last month, two days before his 18th birthday, he
applied to retain his anonymity. But a judge at Manchester Crown Court has now
ruled he had no power to make such an order. Reed is currently serving a
sentence of six years and eight months for the terrorism offences. At Leeds
Youth Court in December he was given another custodial term for unrelated child
sexual offences, namely five sexual assaults against a girl. Reed's terrorism
trial heard he was interested in “occult neo-Nazism” and had described himself
as a “natural sadist”. His preparations for an attack in Durham included
researching explosives, listing potential targets and trying to obtain a
bomb-making chemical. Last year BBC Panorama identified the website's founder
and another young member who had agreed to provide Reed with the chemical
ammonium nitrate. Reed had persistently searched online in relation to rape and
paedophilia and had written about wanting to commit sexual violence.”

 

Arab News: Former Al-Qaeda Spokesman Living In £1m House In London: Report
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“A former spokesman for Al-Qaeda who worked closely with the group’s late
leader Osama bin Laden is now living freely in London after being released
early from a US jail due to the high COVID-19 risk posed by his weight and
asthma, Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper reported on Monday. Egyptian national
Adel Abdel Bary, 60, was jailed in the US for 25 years over the 1998 attacks on
American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. He was
released three years early and returned to the UK after it was deemed that his
obesity and asthma put him at high risk from COVID-19. Abdel Bary and his
family are now living in a £1 million ($1.3 million) house paid for by the
local council in Maida Vale, northwest London, the Daily Mail reported. The
newspaper added that he had been spotted walking around the local area and
looked to be in good health, despite his lawyers citing his ill health as an
“extraordinary and compelling” reason for “compassionate” early release. The
lawyer for the father of six has claimed that Abdel Bary wants to live a quiet
life with his family now that he has finished his sentence.”

 

Canada

 

Global News: Canadian Proud Boys In ‘Panic’ As Platforms Go Offline And
Government Talks Of Terror Listing
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“The bulk of the online platforms used by the Canadian branches of the Proud
Boys were gone on Monday, as the group faced mounting pressure in the wake of
last week’s violence in the U.S. capital. The Proud Boys Canada page, as well
as those of the Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and three other regional chapters,
were all on the social media platform Parler, which went offline. The Edmonton
Proud Boys website, which is used for recruitment, also went down over the
weekend but then resurfaced Monday afternoon. “There’s definitely a sense of
panic,” said Elizabeth Simons, deputy director of the Canadian Anti-Hate
Network. The Canadian Proud Boys had already split into factions last year,
with some members forming the far-right nationalist Canada First, Simons told
Global News … Since then, Proud Boys Telegram channels have posted “statements
and memes” supporting the storming of the Capitol, according to the Counter
Extremism Project. “The group’s chairman, Enrique Tarrio, shared messages on
Parler expressing his support for the attack, including urging those who
entered the building to stay, stating that ‘When the people fear the
government, there is tyranny.'”

 

Southeast Asia

 

Asia Times: More Tinder For Extremist Fires In Indonesia
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“Indonesia’s Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has tossed a political hot
potato back in the lap of President Joko Widodo by accusing police of the
unlawful killing of four members of the extremist Islamic Defenders Front (FPI)
during an early morning highway altercation last December. In a January 8
report, the commission found that two FPI bodyguards were gunned down during an
exchange of fire on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, but that four others were
detained and later shot in what the FPI has always called an “extrajudicial
killing.” As nominal head of the National Police, the president must now decide
how to react to the commission’s demands for a full-scale investigation into
the December 7 shooting and to prosecute the as-yet-unnamed undercover officers
who allegedly carried it out. Despite widespread public ambivalence towards a
violent group that had long been a law unto itself, well-placed sources say a
more comprehensive report, apparently covering many of the obvious holes in the
initial report, will be handed to Widodo this week.  Former attorney general
Marzuki Darusman, who has been involved in United Nations probes into human
rights abuses in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and North Korea, believes Komnas HAM will
be tasked with forming its own team of independent investigators to pursue the
case.”

 

Technology

 

The Washington Post: Gab, The Social Network That Has Welcomed QAnon And
Extremist Figures, Explained
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“After Twitter banned President Trump, and the hosting company Amazon Web
Services suspended conservative network Parler, another social media site found
its name in the news: Gab. The site, which looks like a mash-up of Twitter and
Facebook, calls itself “the free speech social network” and has welcomed
extremist right-wing figures and believers of QAnon, the loose collection of
conspiracy theories that touch on everything from politics to covid-19. Gab
prides itself on allowing users to post whatever they would like, though the
platform notes one of its jobs is to “take action to prevent and remove any
illegal activity in our community.” The site’s generally far-right political
discussion can range from memes to baseless conspiracy theories (one typical
example reads, “What if it can be proven the storming of the Capitol was a
Soros-funded operation of Antifa infiltrators who coordinated with corrupt
police and politicians?”) to taunts (such as one from a user named Catturd
reading, “I bet Nancy Pelosi’s breath smells like vodka, moth balls, and
satan”). Though the platform has existed as an alternative to mainstream social
media sites since 2016, it has reported an significant increase in users during
the past few days.”

 

The Wall Street Journal: Social-Media Watchdogs Detect Signs Of Ongoing
Extremist Threat
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“The deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday has confirmed the fears of
social-media researchers who have been monitoring right-wing extremist groups’
online activity in recent months. Now they’re issuing new warnings about
additional events. Some right-wing extremists who support President Trump are
trying to organize gatherings as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take
office, according to researchers’ review of social-media activity. They include
proposed protests at 50 state capitals and a potential demonstration...”



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