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Eye on Extremism
April 16, 2021
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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 On Region
“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
“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
“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
“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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