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Eye on Extremism
January 12, 2021
Reuters: Libyan Jailed For Life For UK Attack That Killed Three
“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
“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
“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
“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.”
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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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