“Suspected Islamists attacked the northeast Nigerian border town of Damasak,
killing at least eight people and causing hundreds to flee to neighbourin

 

 


<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
Eye on Extremism


April 15, 2021

 

Reuters: Islamists Kill At Least Eight In Nigeria's Damasak, Hundreds Flee To
Niger
<[link removed]>

 

“Suspected Islamists attacked the northeast Nigerian border town of Damasak,
killing at least eight people and causing hundreds to flee to neighbouring
Niger, local officials and a resident said on Wednesday. No group claimed
responsibility but militant Islamist group Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic
State West Africa Province, carry out attacks in the northeast. Some 2 million
people have fled their homes and 30,000 have been killed since Boko Haram
launched its insurgency in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state in the
region. Nigeria, which has Africa’s biggest economy, faces a raft of security
challenges. Authorities are grappling with the insurgency, a spate of school
kidnappings in the northwest and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. The insurgents
attacked Damasak, a few kilometres from the border with Niger, at around 5 p.m.
on Tuesday, three soldiers speaking on condition of anonymity said. “Ten
residents were killed in attacks on Tuesday. Our people have fled to villages
in Niger while some are trapped in the bush,” local government official Bukar
Mustapha told Reuters on Wednesday. “Boko Haram men are still at Damasak,” he
said.”

 

The Guardian: Christchurch Terrorist Chooses Not To Attend Court To Launch His
Own Legal Challenge
<[link removed]>

 

“The Christchurch terrorist who said he wanted to take the government to court
over a lack of access to news and letters in jail and his designation as a
terrorist entity has failed to attend the first court hearing on the matter.
The hearing in Auckland, New Zealand, was indefinitely postponed and the
terrorist must ask to have it rescheduled after his no show on Thursday.
Brenton Tarrant, a 30-year-old Australian, was jailed for life in August last
year without the chance of parole for the murder of 51 Muslim worshippers at al
Noor and Linwood mosques on 15 March 2019, the attempted killing of dozens
more, and a terrorism charge. He remains in a maximum security prison in
Auckland, where he is in solitary confinement. He was due to represent himself
over the phone at Thursday’s high court hearing. It was convened after he said
in a letter to the high court on 27 February that he wanted to challenge his
conditions in jail and official designation as a terrorist. His complaint was
made shortly before the second anniversary of the attacks.”

 

United States

 

The Washington Post: Top Intelligence Officials Testify On China, Pandemic And
Other Global Threats
<[link removed]>

 

“The nation’s top intelligence and law enforcement officials testified
Wednesday before the Senate on a range of threats facing the United States,
including a rising China and the origins of the virus that caused the covid-19
pandemic. The annual hearing brings together the top leadership of the
intelligence community for what often amounts to a tour of the world’s
tribulations. This year, officials faced questions from members of the Senate
Intelligence Committee about President Biden’s decision to withdraw all
American troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the
terrorist attacks that drew the United States into the longest war in the
nation’s history. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) asked whether the departure of
U.S. troops put the country at a greater risk of terrorist attacks should
al-Qaeda or Islamic State fighters gain a new foothold in Afghanistan. CIA
Director William J. Burns said that the presence of U.S. and coalition forces
has enhanced the intelligence community’s ability to monitor terrorist threats
in the country, including those that could affect the United States directly,
and that that ability will diminish when forces leave. But, he said, the agency
will “retain a suite of capabilities,” some of which are already in place, and
some which will have to be developed, to help provide warnings to U.S.
officials.”

 

BuzzFeed News: This Lawmaker Wants To Label Foreign White Supremacist Groups
As “Terrorists,” But Some Of Them No Longer Exist
<[link removed]>

 

“Rep. Elissa Slotkin last week sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony
Blinken asking him to take the unprecedented step of designating 13 extremist
movements as foreign terrorist organizations, arguing that such a move “will
help apply more stress to curtail these violent organizations’ and their
leaders’ ability to operate their groups.” But of the 13 groups listed in her
letter, which her office provided to BuzzFeed News, at least four are defunct,
one is an American club founded in California that has splintered and
rebranded, and another changed the name used in Slotkin’s letter six years ago
when it became part of an allied nation’s national guard. …Kacper Rekawek, a
Slovakia-based researcher at the nonprofit Counter Extremism Project, said
Slotkin’s list is the type of list someone searching for far-right extremist
groups on Google might draw up. “The effort of Rep. Slotkin is commendable.
Designations, underused in the European context, should help with countering
the threat of violence from extreme right-wing organizations,” Rekawek told
BuzzFeed News. “However, this must be informed by a thorough analysis of the
local far-right scenes which include a plethora of actors who often talk the
talk, but do not walk the walk as far as violence is concerned.”

 

Fox News: 'America's Most Wanted' Profiles Oregon Arson Fugitive Tied To
Domestic-Terrorist Group
<[link removed]>

 

“A fugitive wanted for arson in Oregon due to her ties to a domestic terrorist
organization was profiled on the new “America’s Most Wanted” this week after
being on the run for more than 16 years. Josephine Sunshine Overaker is a
wanted woman after starting fires and committing other crimes in the late 1990s
and early 2000s as part of her work with the eco-terrorism organization known
as “The Family.” Special Agent Tim Suttles told FOX 12 in Oregon that the group
acted in the name of extremist groups such as the Animal Liberation Front and
the Earth Liberation Front to commit a series of domestic terrorist crimes in
the state as well as Washington, California, Colorado and Wyoming. “Locally it
involved the arson of a Detroit Ranger Station, Oakridge Ranger Station, Cabel
West in Redmond. Most famously is Vail ski resort arson. Overaker was involved
in all of those actions and has been a fugitive since 2004,” Suttles told FOX
12. According to the FBI, the Vail ski resort remains the largest eco-related
arson in history. The Bureau believes that Overaker was responsibile for
shoplifting many of the components “The Family” needed to build their
firebombs. Overaker is the one remaining member of “The Family” to evade
justice after an FBI operation led to a national takedown of every other member
in 2004.”

 

Syria

 

Asharq Al-Awsat: Remains Of ISIS-Beheaded Syria Archaeologist Still Missing,
Says Son
<[link removed]>

 

“The remains of Khaled al-Assaad, a Syrian archaeologist beheaded by ISIS
militants, have yet to be recovered, his son told AFP on Wednesday. The
official SANA news agency reported in February that authorities had uncovered
three corpses in Kahloul, 10 kilometres (six miles) east of the ancient city of
Palmyra where Assaad was killed in 2015. Assaad was believed to be among them,
SANA said at the time, ahead of DNA testing. But two months later, DNA results
have shown that the remains of the archaeologist have yet to be found, his son
Tareq said. “Authorities have just informed us that the DNA test results are
not compatible with my father,” he said. “Our sorrows and wounds have
returned,” he said. “We had hoped to close this wound.” Assaad, known as “the
father of Palmyra”, was 82 when ISIS militants executed him on August 18, 2015,
three months after they overran the so-called “Pearl of the Desert”. Seen as a
pioneer of Syrian archaeology, Assaad was director of antiquities in Palmyra
for 40 years until 2003. He was responsible for the discovery of several
ancient cemeteries and oversaw the excavation of 1,000 columns as well as the
site's stunning necropolis of 500 tombs.”

 

Iraq

 

Voice Of America: Drone Attack Targets Kurdish Iraq's Irbil Airport
<[link removed]>

 

“An attack Wednesday at the airport of Irbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, was
carried out by drone, the Kurdish interior ministry said — an unprecedented
escalation of the arms used to target U.S. soldiers based there. “A drone
charged with TNT targeted a coalition base at Irbil's airport,” the ministry
said, adding that no one was hurt in the blast but a building was damaged.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which caused a
loud explosion heard across the city. However, a shadowy pro-Iranian group,
blamed for a similar attack in mid-February, hailed the blast in pro-Iran
channels on the messaging app Telegram.  A security cordon blocked all access
to the airport, witnesses reported. The governor said air links were not
interrupted. Some 20 bomb or rocket attacks have targeted bases housing U.S.
soldiers or diplomats in Iraq since U.S. President Joe Biden took office at the
end of January. Dozens more took place during the preceding 18 months, with
Washington consistently blaming pro-Iran armed factions. Washington and Tehran
are both allies of Baghdad but remain sharply at odds over Iran's nuclear
program. On February 15, more than a dozen rockets targeted a military complex
inside Irbil airport, killing an Iraqi civilian and a foreign contractor
working with U.S.-led troops.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The Washington Post: Taliban Issues Warning Over U.S. Troop Plan, Demanding
Forces Withdraw From Afghanistan By May 1 Or Risk ‘Compounded’ Problems
<[link removed]>

 

“The Taliban on Wednesday issued a warning in response to President Biden’s
decision to extend the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, increasing fears
that the withdrawal of foreign forces will be met with widespread violence. “If
the [Doha] agreement is breached and foreign forces fail to exit our country on
the specified date, problems will certainly be compounded and those whom failed
to comply with the agreement will be held liable,” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah
Mujahid tweeted Wednesday. Biden’s new withdrawal timeline will keep thousands
of American troops in Afghanistan months past the May 1 deadline negotiated by
the Trump administration last year. Biden’s plan is a phased drawdown to be
completed by or before Sept. 11. He announced the decision Wednesday. Just
hours after news of Biden’s decision broke Tuesday, the Taliban also distanced
itself from a U.S.-led intensified push for peace. The group announced its
representatives would not attend a peace conference in Turkey intended to
jump-start stalled talks between the militants and the Afghan government.”

 

Axios: CIA Director: Afghanistan Withdrawal Poses “Significant Risk” Of
Terrorist Resurgence
<[link removed]>

 

“CIA director William Burns acknowledged Wednesday that there is a
“significant risk” that the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces from
Afghanistan could allow al-Qaeda and ISIS to rebuild, but stressed that these
groups currently do not have the capacity to attack the U.S. homeland. Why it
matters: President Biden is set to formally announce on Wednesday that the U.S.
will withdraw all forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, potentially bringing
America's longest war to a close after 20 years. Driving the news: “We cannot
continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in
Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting
a different result,” Biden will say as he sets out a plan for withdrawal that
will ultimately not be conditions-based. The decision to withdraw from
Afghanistan, ending a war has that killed 2,200+ American troops, wounded
20,000 and cost the U.S. as much as $1 trillion, has prompted a wide range of
reactions from Democrats and Republicans. Some, like Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), warned that the
withdrawal undermines the U.S. commitment to the Afghan people and could
destabilize the country.”

 

Foreign Policy: Taliban Issues Cold Response To U.S. Withdrawal Plans
<[link removed]>

 

“U.S. President Joe Biden is to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by
September 11 of this year, bringing an end to a 20-year war. Although the news
was first reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday, Biden is expected to make
the announcement official today. The date of withdrawal, two decades after the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, is months later than
a previous agreement made between the Taliban and the Trump administration.
Under the so-called Doha agreement, U.S. troops were to have left the country
by May 1. That detail has not been lost on Taliban leaders, who issued a
statement following the news that puts its future participation in peace talks
in question. “Until all foreign forces completely withdraw from our homeland,
the Islamic Emirate will not participate in any conference that shall make
decisions about Afghanistan,” Mohammed Naeem, a Taliban spokesman, said on
Tuesday. The latest round of peace talks is set for April 24, the Turkish
foreign ministry announced on Tuesday. Withdrawal, not isolation. Although the
unconditional withdrawal represents a departure from the nation-building policy
adopted by Biden’s predecessors, it doesn’t signal a broader retrenchment in
U.S. ambitions, at least where spending is concerned.”

 

Pakistan

 

The Telegraph: Pakistan Outlaws Extremist Group After Days Of Anti-France Riots

<[link removed]>

 

“An extremist anti-blasphemy party which has brought parts of Pakistan's major
cities to a standstill in three days of violent protests will now be banned, a
senior minister has said. Followers of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP)
have fought police and blocked major road arteries in protests demanding the
expulsion of the French ambassador in the Prophet Mohammad cartoons row. Two
policemen have died of their wounds and another 340 have been injured in
clashes as officers have fought to keep control. “We have decided to ban the
TLP and the draft is going to the cabinet for approval,” Interior Minister
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a press conference. He said the party's demand risked
making Pakistan look like a “radical nation” to the outside world and the group
would be outlawed under anti-terrorism legislation. The protests had struck as
the country is enduring its third wave of Covid-19 cases and road blockages
have disrupted oxygen deliveries, officials said. The TLP has amassed huge
grassroots support with its rallying cry to  protect the honour of the Prophet
against blasphemy. Its members brought parts of Pakistan to a standstill in
2018 to denounce the acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Christian farm worker wrongly
accused of blasphemy.”

 

Nigeria

 

Sahara Reporters: Boko Haram Fighters Attack Another Borno Town During Ramadan
Prayer
<[link removed]>

 

“Boko Haram militants in gun trucks have attacked residents who were observing
the Ramadan fasting break and prayer in Gajiram town in the Nganzai Local
Government Area of Borno State. SaharaReporters learnt that some other Muslim
faithful were attacked in Damasak in the Mobbar LGA on Tuesday evening.
Security sources stated that on Tuesday around the time to break the Ramadan
fast, the terrorists invaded the two towns on a reprisal because the military
had killed some of their commanders in the Lake Chad region a week earlier.
“The fighters came at about Ramadan break on Tuesday in order to catch the
troops unawares. But the Air Task Force component was on standby to repel them.
That was the first day of this year's Ramadan and the terrorists wanted to
destabilise the residents of the two towns,” a security official stated. “They
were on a reprisal over the recent military air bombardments on their
strongholds in Tudun Wulgo, Zari, Tumbun Alhaji, Kusuma, Sigir in Ngala and
Arijallamari, in Abadam, Marte and Ngala LGAs which resulted in the killing of
top Islamic State West African Province leaders.”

 

Somalia

 

Reuters: Somalia's President Signs Law Extending His Term, 15 Killed In Attack
<[link removed]>

 

“Somalia’s president has signed a disputed law extending his mandate for two
years, the state news agency reported, setting the Horn of Africa nation on a
collision course with donors who strongly oppose the move.  Somalia, with only
limited central government since 1991, is trying to rebuild with international
help but the path back to stability has been obstructed by a political crisis
caused by a failure to hold elections that were due in February. President
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s four-year term expired in February and his
successor was meant to be chosen by a new crop of legislators. Uncertainty
deepened after opponents accused Mohamed of packing regional and national
election boards with his own supporters. On Monday, the lower house of
parliament passed legislation to extend Mohamed’s tenure by up to two years,
the state news agency reported, citing Information Minister Osman Dubbe, and
Mohamed signed the bill late on Tuesday. But the decision was swiftly rejected
by the upper chamber of the Mogadishu parliament, sowing confusion that could
abet further attacks by Islamist al Shabaab militants, who have been trying for
years to topple the government.”

 

Africa

 

The New Times: New Report Pins Tribert Rujugiro On Illicit Dealings, Terrorism
Financing
<[link removed]>

 

“A new report on East Africa’s war against extremism, crime, corruption and
related illicit trade has pinned Rwandan dissident Tribert Ayabatwa Rujugiro on
illicit trade and terrorism financing. The report, released this month by
Counter Extremism Project, entitled, ‘An Unholy Alliance: Links between
Extremism and Illicit Trade in East Africa’ says that regional stability is
increasingly threatened by the continued existence of illicit markets and trade
fueled by corruption. The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) is an international
policy organization led by a renowned group of former world leaders and
diplomats operating out of Germany, New York and London. According to the
report, in the East Africa region, illicit tobacco trade has been singled out
to fund extremist groups, with the exiled Rwandan businessman Rujugiro at the
centre of this.”

 

United Kingdom

 

BBC News: Terror Offender Monitoring Rules Lawful
<[link removed]>

 

“The High Court has upheld the Ministry of Justice's power to impose tighter
curbs on the movements of convicted terrorists in the wake of the Fishmongers'
Hall attack. Two judges rejected challenges from an associate of the man who
carried out the 2019 attack saying he had been largely treated lawfully, except
on one specific issue. Omar Latif, from Cardiff, said officials had placed
greater and illegal restrictions on his life after he had been released, amid
fears of copycat attacks. Latif's former associate, Usman Khan, stabbed Saskia
Jones and Jack Merritt at a conference at Fishmongers' Hall in London after he
had been earlier released from prison. Inquests into the circumstances of their
deaths are continuing. In a comprehensive ruling, judges said officials had
acted legally when they changed and toughened Latif's licence conditions. While
the court ruled that Latif should have had the opportunity to make
representations, officials had recognised and corrected that mistake long
before the matter came to court. Latif was jailed in 2012 for his role in a
terror cell operating across England and Wales that had aspirations to set up
training camps in Pakistan and carry out bombings in the UK. Usman Khan was one
of the people jailed alongside Latif.”

 

Europe

 

The National: Norway Charges Alleged ISIS Extremist With Terror Plot Targeting
London Landmark
<[link removed]>

 

“A man has been charged with three ISIS-inspired terror plots, including one
targeting a London landmark. Prosecutors say the man, 24, who has not been
named, shared bomb-making instructions on social media and plotted two attacks
in Denmark and one in London, claiming Denmark would be the “new France”.
Police in Norway have charged the man with a series of terrorism offences and
say he was the administrator of a number of extremist online communities. He is
also accused of sharing ISIS propaganda and other material produced by the
terrorist group. The man was apprehended after chat messages were discovered in
which he planned the attacks with a second, unknown person. Public prosecutor
Geir Evanger said that police in the UK were able to thwart a planned attack in
London to target St Paul's Cathedral and that two other attacks were planned in
Denmark. “Charges have been brought against a person for three attempts at
participating in terror (attacks),” Mr Evanger said. “We believe that this is
part of the new form of participation in ISIS. It is based on sharing extremist
material, violent material and material with religious content.” Mr Evanger
said the man was an administrator for several groups on social media, including
some he had created, and was considered to be “a relatively central participant
in many of these groups.”

 

Technology

 

Bloomberg: A 23-Year-Old Coder Kept QAnon Online When No One Else Would
<[link removed]>

 

“Two and a half months before extremists invaded the U.S. Capitol, the
far-right wing of the internet suffered a brief collapse. All at once, in the
final weeks of the country’s presidential campaign, a handful of prominent
sites catering to White supremacists and adherents of the QAnon conspiracy
movement stopped functioning. To many of the forums’ most devoted participants,
the outage seemed to prove the American political struggle was approaching its
apocalyptic endgame. “Dems are making a concerted move across all platforms,”
read one characteristic tweet. “The burning of the land foreshadows a massive
imperial strike back in the next few days.” In fact, there’d been no conspiracy
to take down the sites; they’d crashed because of a technical glitch with
VanwaTech, a tiny company in Vancouver, Wash., that they rely on for various
kinds of network infrastructure. They went back online with a simple server
reset about an hour later, after the proprietor, 23-year-old Nick Lim, woke up
from a nap at his mom’s condo. Lim founded VanwaTech in late 2019. He hosts
some websites directly and provides others with technical services including
protection against certain cyberattacks; his annual revenue, he says, is in the
hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

 

The Washington Post: The FBI Wanted To Unlock The San Bernardino Shooter’s
iPhone. It Turned To A Little-Known Australian Firm.
<[link removed]>

 

“The iPhone used by a terrorist in the San Bernardino shooting was unlocked by
a small Australian hacking firm in 2016, ending a momentous standoff between
the U.S. government and the tech titan Apple. Azimuth Security, a publicity-shy
company that says it sells its cyber wares only to democratic governments,
secretly crafted the solution the FBI used to gain access to the device,
according to several people familiar with the matter. The iPhone was used by
one of two shooters whose December 2015 attack left more than a dozen people
dead. The identity of the hacking firm has remained a closely guarded secret
for five years. Even Apple didn’t know which vendor the FBI used, according to
company spokesman Todd Wilder. But without realizing it, Apple’s attorneys came
close last year to learning of Azimuth’s role — through a different court case,
one that has nothing to do with unlocking a terrorist’s device. Five years ago,
Apple and the FBI both cast the struggle over the iPhone as a moral battle. The
FBI believed Apple should help it obtain information to investigate the
terrorist attack. Apple believed that creating a back door into the phone would
weaken security and could be used by malicious actors.”



Click here to unsubscribe.
<[link removed]>