“Three million Yemeni children living in areas under Houthi control are being
indoctrinated with education material filled with violent, anti-Semitic

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


April 16, 2021

 

The Telegraph: Houthis Indoctrinating Children In Yemen 'With Violent,
Anti-Semitic And Extremist Material'
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“Three million Yemeni children living in areas under Houthi control are being
indoctrinated with education material filled with violent, anti-Semitic
propaganda, an official from the Yemeni Teachers Syndicate has told the
Telegraph. Yahya Al-Yinai, the union’s head of media, said he had documented
hundreds of changes to the teaching curriculum by the Iran-backed group, which
since 2014 has fought a war against the government of Yemen. The group has also
replaced nearly 90 percent of school principals with pro-Houthi figures, he
told The Telegraph. Iran is overseeing the changes, he said, accusing Tehran of
pursuing a “policy of cultural colonialism” by trying to introduce the
“ideology of the Khomeinist revolution in Yemen through public education.” The
Houthis emerged from northern Yemen in the 1990s and were named after their
original leader Hussein al Houthi, who returned from time in Iran inspired by
the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. Officially known as Ansar
Allah, the Houthis today control an area of Yemen in which two-thirds of the
population lives, including the capital Sanaa. The group’s worldview is
reflected in its slogan, which translates as, “Allah is great, death to
America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam,” which was
officially adopted after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.”

 

Reuters: Car Bomb Blast Kills Four In Baghdad’s Sadr City - Police
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“Four people were killed and 20 wounded in a car bomb attack on Thursday in
the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraqi police and medical workers said.
The car was parked at a busy second-hand equipment market in the mainly Shi'ite
Muslim district, police said. An Iraqi military statement said the blast had
killed one civilian, wounded 12 others and set several vehicles on fire. A
second statement by the military said only one person, the driver, had died.
Medics in Sadr City put the death toll at four. Black smoke rose from the
market place after the blast and ambulances rushed to save the wounded, Reuters
witnesses said. Police cordoned off the site of the blast shortly afterwards.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. It was the
second big deadly bombing to hit Baghdad this year after a suicide attack
claimed by Islamic State militants killed at least 32 people in a crowded
market in January. Large bomb attacks, once an almost daily occurrence in the
Iraqi capital, have halted in recent years since Islamic State fighters were
defeated in 2017, part of an overall improvement in security that has brought
normal life back to Baghdad. The January blast was the most deadly in three
years.”

 

United States

 

The New York Times: The ‘Herald Square Bomber’ Who Wasn’t
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“Shahawar Matin Siraj first met the older man late in the summer of 2003. He
would see him at the mosque in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, sobbing loudly during
prayers and hovering near the imam. But when the man entered the bookstore
nearby, where Siraj worked, he was warm and easygoing. He said his name was
Osama Eldawoody, and the two men struck up an unlikely friendship. Siraj, at
21, had a hulking build and a tendency to ramble when he spoke. He usually
lingered around the store with friends from the neighborhood, talking about
Islam and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He had difficulty grasping new
ideas and would need them explained multiple times, but in front of his
friends, he pretended to know more than he did. Eldawoody was the son of an
Egyptian religious scholar and said he studied nuclear engineering. He was
knowledgeable about the world and had a flair about him, gesticulating
excitedly as he spoke. To Siraj’s delight, Eldawoody took an interest in him,
encouraging him to pursue his interest in computers. Never before had someone
this sophisticated, an adult more than twice his age, taken him so seriously.
Siraj’s family fled Pakistan several years earlier, seeking to escape the
violence against their Shiite minority sect.”

 

Reuters: FBI Director Says U.S. Far-Right Extremists Traveled To Network In
Europe
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“Racially motivated and far-right American extremists have engaged with
like-minded activists overseas and traveled abroad to meet with them, the head
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation told a Congressional hearing on
Thursday. FBI director Christopher Wray told a House of Representatives
Intelligence Committee hearing that his agency considered right-wing militants
in the United States to be the domestic extremists with the most extensive
international ties and that they had established social media connectivity
across borders. Wray said some U.S. far-right extremists had traveled to Europe
to meet and possibly train with activists. But he also noted that a lot of
violent extremist threats “do not fit into nice ideological buckets.” Wray's
comments about far-right U.S. extremists traveling to Europe track the findings
in a non-public version of a report on domestic extremists recently published
by U.S spy agencies. Reuters reported that the non-public report said Americans
had traveled to Ukraine to fight with pro-Russian forces against the country’s
elected government. Wray did not specify who the racially-motivated extremists
he mentioned were but the report said U.S. white supremacists are the “actors
with the most persistent and concerning transnational connections.”

 

U.S. News & World Report: Colorado Man To Remain Jailed After Attack On US
Capitol
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“A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has denied bail for a Colorado
geophysicist accused of dragging a police officer down steps to be beaten by an
American flag outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled
Wednesday that Jeffrey Sabol, 51, is a flight risk and could be a danger to the
community if he were to be released. Sabol was ordered to be held pending a
trial. “To arm himself, he stripped a vulnerable police officer of his police
baton. He then used that stolen police baton to force another officer away from
his post and into a mob of rioters who proceeded to viciously attack him,
leaving him bleeding from the head,” Sullivan wrote in the order. After the
attack, prosecutors said Sabol, who was born in Utica, New York, booked a
flight from Boston Logan International Airport to Zurich, Switzerland, where he
would not be able to be extradited to the U.S. He abandoned that plan and was
arrested in New York after an apparent suicide attempt. Sabol has been charged
with multiple felony and misdemeanor counts stemming from the insurrection.
Investigators say he told them he was trying to help the officer by “patting
him on the back” and saying “we got you man.” Sabol's attorneys have argued for
his release, noting that he does not have a criminal history, and he had steady
employment and the support of family.”

 

Axios: Jake Sullivan: U.S. Will Have “Months Of Warning” Of Potential Al-Qaeda
Attack On Homeland
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“The U.S.' ability to prevent terrorist attacks “will change” but not diminish
after the U.S. withdraws its troops from Afghanistan, National Security Adviser
Jake Sullivan told CNN Thursday. Why it matters: Sullivan's interview comes
after CIA director William Burns told a Senate panel Wednesday that withdrawal
could allow terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS to rebuild, following
President Biden's announcement Wednesday that the U.S. will begin the process
of leaving the country in May. Burns noted that those groups currently do not
have the capacity to attack the U.S. homeland. However, he said it is “simply a
fact” that “the U.S. government's ability to collect and act on threats will
diminish” once forces withdraw from Afghanistan. What they're saying: “It is
simply a fact that our ability to deal with the threat on the ground will
change when there aren't U.S. forces and coalition forces there, but we believe
our posture will remain at a level where we can suppress the terrorist threat
in Afghanistan,” Sullivan said. “We will not have the same level of daily
intelligence, but at a strategic level, in terms of being able to know whether
or not al-Qaeda or ISIS is developing an external plotting capability, which
they do not currently possess ... we will have months of warning.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The Wall Street Journal: Intelligence Was Limited That Russia Offered Bounties
On U.S. Troops, White House Says
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“The Biden administration Thursday said it didn’t have solid intelligence that
Russia had offered bounties to Afghan militants to kill U.S. troops, reports
that last summer shook up U.S.-Russia relations, increased tensions between the
U.S. and the Taliban during a troop drawdown and prompted bipartisan
condemnation over the Trump administration’s inaction. On Thursday, the
administration said U.S. intelligence had only “low to moderate confidence” in
the reports of the alleged bounty program. The administration expressly
declined to link the latest sanctions and expulsions of Russian diplomats
undertaken Thursday to the bounty reports. But in listing the bounties as a
point of tension with Russia alongside the SolarWinds hack of government and
corporate computer systems and interference in elections—actions U.S.
intelligence attributes to Moscow—the administration aimed to put Moscow on
notice and to protect U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan until the withdrawal
is complete in September. “Our focus is on sending a clear message to Russia
about the steps the United States would take in response to such behavior were
it to continue,” a senior administration official said Thursday.”

 

The Washington Post: How The U.S. Plans To Fight From Afar After Troops Exit
Afghanistan
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“American troops are set to leave Afghanistan no later than Sept. 11, but the
Pentagon, American spy agencies and Western allies are refining plans to deploy
a less visible but still potent force in the region to prevent the country from
again becoming a terrorist base. Drawing on the hard lessons from President
Barack Obama’s decision a decade ago to withdraw American troops from Iraq —
allowing the rise of the Islamic State three years later — the Pentagon is
discussing with allies where to reposition forces, possibly to neighboring
Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, according to United States officials.
Attack planes aboard aircraft carriers and long-range bombers flying from land
bases along the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and even in the United States could
strike insurgent fighters spotted by armed surveillance drones. But there are
risks. Afghan commandos who have been providing the bulk of intelligence on
insurgent threats could disintegrate after the United States withdraws, leaving
a large hole to fill. Turkey, which has long had a direct relationship with
Afghanistan in addition to its role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
mission there, is leaving troops behind who could help the C.I.A. collect
intelligence on Qaeda cells, officials note.”

 

Nigeria

 

Voice Of America: More Than 100 Chibok Girls Still Missing Seven Years Later
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“Nigeria's government has vowed to rescue 112 former schoolgirls believed to
remain in Boko Haram captivity since they were kidnapped by the militants from
the town of Chibok seven years ago. A statement titled “Chibok Girls Still on
Our Minds” was released by the presidency Thursday as Nigeria marked the
anniversary of the kidnapping in Borno state. But parents and advocates accuse
authorities of negligence and making empty promises. “Seven years down, we're
still asking for accountability and closure on 112 of them?” said Allen
Manasseh, the media and publicity head of the Chibok community. “It's
unacceptable. So the only deliverables that we think will translate into making
their statements sensible is to see the girls being rescued.”  Around 503 girls
were at the school the night of the Boko Haram abduction in April 2014. Out of
276 taken, more than 100 were freed through negotiations, while others managed
to escape.  This week, to mark seven years of abduction, parents of the
remaining girls gathered at the school to pray for their safe return.  Manasseh
said the government is mostly silent on the issue but merely targets
anniversaries to issue statements.”

 

The Defense Post: Thousands Flee After ISWAP Jihadist Attack In NE Nigeria
Kills 8: UN
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“At least eight people were killed when jihadists attacked a northeast
Nigerian town, prompting 8,000 to flee across the border into Niger, the UN
said on Thursday. Fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)
attacked Damasak in Borno state on Wednesday, the fourth assault on the town
since Saturday, military sources and residents said. The UN refugee agency said
eight people were killed and another 12 wounded, with preliminary reports
showing 8,000 had reached the Niger towns of Chetimari and Gagamari. “According
to preliminary reports from our partners on the ground, the armed men also
burned down several buildings, including a police station, a clinic, residences
of local dignitaries and UNHCR’s Protection Desk,” it said. It said the full
scale of displacement was still unclear. Nigeria’s military has struggled for
more than a decade to end a jihadist insurgency in the northeast that has also
spilled over into neighboring Niger and Chad. At least 36,000 people have been
killed and two million have been displaced in Nigeria alone. Many residents had
already fled Damasak towards the regional capital Maiduguri or into the town of
Diffa across the Niger border following three previous attacks, but other
residents decided to stay back.”

 

Africa

 

The Wall Street Journal: Islamic State Seeks Revival In Christian Countries
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“Islamic State was collapsing in Iraq and Syria, but from the jungles of
Eastern Congo a jihadist appeared on YouTube to declare that the so-called
caliphate was regrouping in Central Africa. “I call on all Muslims in the world
to join us in Congo,” said the man, who identified himself as an Arab and
sported an oversize machine gun and bandoleer, flanked by a small group of
ragtag fighters under a dense forest canopy. “I swear by God this is the abode
of Islamic State.” The video was largely dismissed by analysts as an attempt by
the crumbling terror group to gain headlines. But three years after it aired,
Islamic State’s little-known Central African Province has expanded so rapidly
that the U.S. State Department last month imposed sanctions on the group and
its leadership for the first time. In late March, hundreds of the group’s
fighters in Mozambique occupied a key port town after a dayslong siege in which
they massacred dozens of people and sent thousands running for their lives
through forests and mangrove swamps. The attack forced French oil major Total
SE to evacuate all its staff from the $16 billion project along with 2,000
refugees.”

 

The Defense Post: Eight Volunteers Die In Burkina Attack: Security Source
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“Eight civilian members of an auxiliary force in Burkina Faso’s anti-jihadist
campaign died in an ambush on Wednesday in the north and others were still
missing, security and local sources said. “A patrol of the VDP (Volunteers for
the Defense of the Motherland) fell into an ambush in the Gorgadji area,” a
security source told AFP. “There are at least eight dead among the volunteers
and others still missing.” A local official confirmed the ambush, saying: “We
have sustained losses during an attack.” The patrol was sent out after cattle
were stolen by armed men on Tuesday, the official added. Reinforcements had
been sent in after the ambush to hunt for the killers and reassure local
people, another security source said. Burkina Faso, a poor, landlocked country
in the heart of the Sahel, has been fighting a ruthless Islamist insurgency.
The VDP was set up in December 2019 to help the beleaguered military fight
jihadists, but it has suffered major casualties. The volunteers are given two
weeks’ military training, and then work alongside the security forces,
typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering, or escort duties.
According to an AFP tally, well over 200 VDP members have died since January
2020, nearly 50 of them this year.”

 

All Africa: East Africa: Fight Against Violent Extremism, And Graft Take Toll
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“As East Africa struggles to recover from the ravages of the Covid-19
pandemic, the region is also fighting extremism, crime and corruption. In this
mix is illicit trade that is increasingly rising as the principal financier of
extremism, criminal enterprises and breeder of corruption in East Africa and
its surrounding regions, says a report by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP)
released recently. The region's woes are compounded by the fact that it is
surrounded on all sides by potent terror groups, deeply penetrated by domestic
and international crime groups and undermined from within by corrupt members of
its business, civic and political classes. According to the report, terrorists
and international crime groups are increasingly targeting East Africa as a
destination market for illicit trade, as well as a transport hub for the mass
import and export of illegal goods. The report titled An unholy alliance: Links
between extremism and illicit trade in East Africa, which was published last
month, links increasing illicit trade to funding of extremists, terrorists and
warlords.”

 

Europe

 

Bloomberg: Denmark Charges Iranian Dissidents With Terrorism Financing
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“Prosecutors in Denmark charged three members of a dissident Iranian
opposition group with promoting and financing terrorism in Iran in coordination
with Saudi Arabian intelligence. The individuals, who weren’t named before the
April 29 start of their trial, are “leading members” of the Denmark-based Arab
Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz, according to a statement from
the Danish Prosecution Service. Iran has accused the group of masterminding a
September 2018 gun attack on a military parade in the country’s southwestern
city of Ahvaz which killed 25 people. At the time, ASML said it carried out the
attack before denying any involvement when it was also claimed by Islamic
State. The statement didn’t give any details about the group’s alleged
relationship with Saudi intelligence. Iran and Saudi Arabia haven’t had
diplomatic ties since January 2016 and the two countries have been on opposing
sides of conflicts in Yemen and Syria, often via proxy forces. Investigations
into the three started in November 2018, prosecutors said in the statement. The
case is linked to that of a Norwegian citizen of Iranian origin charged with
helping Iranian intelligence services plan to murder one of the ASML members,
they said.”

 

New Zealand

 

NZ Herald: Police Blame Head Hunters And Mongols For Auckland Sofitel Shooting
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“Auckland Mayor Phil Goff saying worsening gang warfare is putting innocent
people at risk and he warns the city cannot go down the track of “gangland
America”. His comments follow a dramatic shooting at a 5-star waterfront hotel
yesterday, which police say was linked to an escalating dispute between the
Head Hunters and the Mongols gangs. A gun was fired soon after 9am at the
Sofitel hotel at the Viaduct, sparking a citywide response with armed officers
and the Eagle helicopter. Detective Inspector John Sutton said the incident -
described by witnesses as “a moment of terror” - was linked to a shooting at
the Head Hunters gang pad in Mt Wellington last weekend. Goff told the Herald
it was “intolerable that gangs are carrying out their feuds in public using
firearms and risking public safety”. “It really is important that New Zealand
not go down the track of gangland America and zero tolerance is now shown to
gangs employing firearms against each other or anybody else.” While police were
yet to make arrests, Goff said they were pouring massive resources into the
investigation and officers believed they knew the culprits' identities. Goff
said he hoped those responsible were bought swiftly to justice and that
subsequent convictions and sentences reflected the seriousness of the crimes.”

 

Technology

 

The New York Times: Feeding Hate With Video: A Former Alt-Right YouTuber
Explains His Methods
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“In 2018, a far-right activist, Tommy Robinson, posted a video to YouTube
claiming he had been attacked by an African migrant in Rome. The thumbnail
image and eight-word title promoting the video indicated Mr. Robinson was
assaulted by a Black man outside a train station. Then, in the video, Mr.
Robinson punched the man in the jaw, dropping him to the ground. The video was
viewed more than 2.8 million times, and it prompted news stories across the
right-wing tabloids in Britain, where Mr. Robinson was rapidly gaining
notoriety for his anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic views. For Caolan Robertson —
a filmmaker who worked for Mr. Robinson and helped create the video — it was an
instructional moment. It showed the key ingredients needed to attract attention
on YouTube and other social media services. The video played into
anti-immigrant sentiments in Britain and across Europe. It also focused
squarely on conflict, cutting rapidly between shouts and shoves before showing
Mr. Robinson’s punch. It also misrepresented what had actually happened. In a
20-second segment of the video posted to YouTube, Mr. Robinson describes his
visit to a train station in Rome. “We would choose the most dramatic moment —
or fake it and make it look more dramatic,” Mr. Robertson, 25, said in a recent
interview.”



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