“The French senate is set to consider a new counterterrorism bill to tackle
extremism following a spate of terrorist attacks. French interior minister

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


April 27, 2021

 

The National: France To Introduce Extremism Bill After Terrorist Attacks
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“The French senate is set to consider a new counterterrorism bill to tackle
extremism following a spate of terrorist attacks. French interior minister
Gerald Darmanin will present the new intelligence bill at a Cabinet meeting on
Wednesday. The bill was fast-tracked following the murder of teacher Samuel
Paty last October and comes just days after a terror attack in Paris which saw
a female police employee stabbed to death. It will extend measures enabling
authorities to shut down places of worship and better monitor those convicted
of terrorism when they are released from prison. President Emanuel Macron's
government has introduced the legislation in a bid to tackle religious
extremism. The bill, which will allow the government to track foreign funding
of mosques, has been condemned by some critics who see it as stigmatising
Muslims. A police officer holds flowers brought by people to the scene of the
attack in Rambouillet, south-west of French capital Paris. On Friday, Mr Macron
reaffirmed his commitment to tackling extremism and vowed to “never give in” in
the fight against Islamist terrorism. Mr Darmanin said the bill was needed to
toughen anti-terrorist measures, including increased use of computer algorithms
to detect potential terror threats among internet users.”

 

Reuters: Sources: More Than 30 Nigerian Soldiers Killed In Militant Attack
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“Militants overrun an army base in northeastern Nigeria, killing more than 30
soldiers before pulling back in the face of air strikes, sources said. The
attackers were believed to belong to the regional offshoot of Islamic State.
They hit the base in Mainok town in northeast Borno state on Sunday afternoon,
three soldiers and a local resident told Reuters. Rising insecurity across
Nigeria has killed scores of soldiers and civilians this year. Just over a
month ago about 30 soldiers were killed in four attacks by Islamist militants
in northeast Nigeria. A military spokesman reached by phone said they would
issue a statement on the incident but declined to comment further. The sources
told Reuters that 33 soldiers were killed in Sunday's attack. The militants
wore military camouflage and arrived in around 16 gun trucks and six
mine-resistant military vehicles, one of the soldiers said. After several
hours, they captured the base and soldiers called in airstrikes. More soldiers
were killed when militants ambushed reinforcements sent to help, the soldier
sources said. A resident said the attackers also set ablaze the town's police
headquarters. “I saw them while fighting with soldiers,” resident Ba Umar Abba
Tuja told Reuters.”

 

United States

 

The New York Times: Homeland Security Will Assess How It Identifies Extremism
In Its Ranks
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“The Department of Homeland Security will undergo an internal review to root
out white supremacy and extremism in its ranks as part of a larger effort to
combat extremist ideology in the federal government, officials said on Monday.
The task of identifying extremists throughout the United States, and
specifically in government agencies, has come to the top of President Biden’s
agenda since Jan. 6, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. Many of the
rioters were found to be members of extremist groups. “We recognize that
domestic violent extremism and the ideology, the extremist ideologies that spew
it, are prevalent,” said Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security
secretary. “We have a responsibility, given what we do, to ensure that that
pernicious influence does not exist in our department.” The review comes
shortly after the Pentagon completed a 60-day “stand down” to address extremism
after a number of veterans were found to have taken part in the Capitol riot.
The Biden administration is assessing whether other agencies will have similar
inquiries as part of a broader review started this year to assess how the
federal government combats domestic extremist threats.”

 

The Washington Post: Supreme Court To Consider Terrorism Suspect Abu Zubaida’s
Request To Learn More About His CIA-Sponsored Torture
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“The Supreme Court on Monday said it would take up a request by a Guantánamo
Bay terrorism suspect for more information about his CIA-sponsored torture, a
disclosure the U.S. government opposes, calling it a threat to national
security. The prisoner is Abu Zubaida, once a prized capture whose torture
after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been extensively documented. But the
government has invoked the “state secrets” privilege to oppose his efforts for
additional information about foreign intelligence officials who partnered with
the CIA in detention facilities abroad. The government already has declassified
vast amounts of information about Abu Zubaida, whose birth name is Zayn
al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein and whose closeness to Osama bin Laden, the deceased
founder of al-Qaeda, is now questioned. But he and his attorney have asked for
more disclosure and to question two CIA contractors, James Mitchell and John
Jessen, about the interrogations. Abu Zubaida wants the information because he
has intervened, through his attorneys, in a Polish investigation of the CIA’s
conduct in that country, where he was once held. His request was opposed by
then-CIA director Mike Pompeo, who said the disclosure “reasonably could be
expected to cause serious, and in many instances, exceptionally grave damage to
U.S. national security.”

 

Turkey

 

Voice Of America: Turkey Puts 108 Pro-Kurdish Party Officials On Trial
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“One hundred and eight prominent members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP went on
trial in the capital, Ankara, Monday in connection with violent nationwide
protests in 2014 that left 37 people dead. The protests were against the
government's failure to militarily intervene as the Islamic State was poised to
overrun the predominantly Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, on Turkey's border.
Speaking outside the courthouse Monday, HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar said the
trial is politically motivated. “The party official called this a case of
revenge which he said is the product of the defeats that the HDP has made the
government suffer,” Sancar said. Ankara accuses the YPG Syrian Kurdish fighters
defending Kobane of being terrorists no different from Islamic State militants.
The government is vigorously defending the prosecution, claiming the defendants
have to be held to account for the deaths in the 2014 unrest. But Emma Sinclair
Webb of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said the case is part of an
alarming trend.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Stars And Stripes: Taliban Collects Nearly $1 Billion From Control Of Afghan
Businesses
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“Running a business in Afghanistan has one unspoken rule: Pay the Taliban.
Abdul Ahad Wahidi learned that the hard way when insurgents blew up a gas
pipeline last year that fuels the country's only fertilizer plant after its
operator refused to pay up. Now he and other workers at the factory fork over
14% of their wages to the Taliban — nearly five times more than they pay the
government in taxes. “The government can't protect the pipeline, which forced
us to compromise with the government's enemy,” said Wahidi, who heads the labor
union at the plant in northern Afghanistan. “Paying a part of our revenue to
the Taliban is much better than the closure of the factory.” That's just one
example of the vast array of hostile arrangements forced on Afghan businesses
by the Taliban, which controls or contests more than half the country. The
group collects as much as $1.5 billion a year from similar mafia-like deals,
control over the drug trade and donations from abroad, a United Nations
Security Council report said last year. That's equal to roughly 25% of the
government's annual budget.”

 

Asia Times: Cause To Fear A Taliban Victory In Afghanistan
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“With a US troop withdrawal set for September and a national peace deal
nowhere in sight, Afghanistan’s Taliban is claiming victory in its long war to
retake power in Kabul. Taliban leader Haji Hekmat told the BBC soon after US
President Joe Biden announced this month that he would bring home all American
troops in Afghanistan by September 11 that “we have won the war and America has
lost.” The hardline leader made it clear what a Taliban victory would look like
for those who favor the country’s current secular, democratic system. “We want
an Islamic government ruled by the sharia. We will continue our jihad until
they accept our demands,” Hekmat said. The Taliban’s declaration of victory
means it no longer views itself as a mere rebel outfit fighting for a
fundamental shift in Afghanistan’s existing US-backed system of government led
by President Ashraf Ghani. Rather, the Taliban now clearly sees itself as a
government-in-waiting with hard-line plans to replace what it sees as a
“rotten” and “un-Islamic” system of governance imported from the West and with
an Islamic emirate. The Taliban’s recently released governance manifesto openly
rejects democracy and calls for an “Islamic system [that] has been described
and its principles stated and compiled in the Koran, Ahadeeth and in Islamic
jurisprudence.”

 

CNS News: As US Troop Withdrawal Advances, Numerous Terror Groups Remain
Active In Afghanistan
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“…Since 2017, military analysts have identified some 20 terror groups
operating against the Afghan government, a figure that has largely remained
steady, despite the splintering and morphing of different outfits. “The
counting of how many different groups operate in Afghanistan is more an art
form than a counting job since terrorist networks had the habit of changing,
cooperating and separating over the past two decades,” said Dr. Hans-Jakob
Schindler, senior director at the Counter Extremism Project. “What is clear is
that, in addition to the Taliban, there are several additional groups operating
in Afghanistan.” They include the remnants of a decimated but not dead al-Qaeda
network, ISIS, the Haqqani Network – a Taliban offshoot known in the U.S. for
having held U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl captive – as well as a patchwork of
other violent groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi,
Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan), and the
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. All of these are U.S.-designated FTOs. As
President Ashraf Ghani has noted, many of these terrorist groups are based in,
or have some form of a coordinating presence in, neighboring Pakistan.”

 

Middle East

 

France 24: 10 Years After Death, Bin Laden Still Mobilises Jihadists
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“A decade after he was hunted down and killed in Pakistan by US special
forces, Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden retains the capacity to mobilise
extremists even in a polarised jihadist scene that has radically changed in the
last years. Even though Bin Laden's body was buried in the Arabian Sea from the
deck of a US aircraft carrier hours after his death, to avoid the creation of
any pilgrimage site on land, he remains an example and symbol for many radical
Islamists. The Saudi national shrewdly understood the importance of propaganda
that has helped project his charismatic image long after his death. In videos
he took to appearing with an assault rifle at his side, despite rarely seeing
direct combat himself. “Osama bin Laden carefully curated his public persona to
cultivate a dedicated following,” said Katherine Zimmerman, an advisor for the
Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute's. “His image --
that of a devout Muslim in more traditional dress, but always with his AK-74 at
arm's reach and often in his camouflage jacket -- was tailored to portray
himself as a leader in the jihad, both spiritually and militarily,” she said.”

 

Egypt

 

Star Tribune: Egypt Officials: 9 Men Executed For 2013 Attack On Police
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“Egyptian authorities Monday executed nine men convicted of murder in an
attack on a police station in 2013, security officials and a rights lawyer
said. The assault resulted in the deaths of 15 people, including 11 police. The
nine men were found guilty of attacking a police station in the town of Kerdasa
close to the pyramids at Giza in 2013 in the aftermath of the military's ouster
of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, according to the officials. They spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media. Egypt
was one of four Middle Eastern countries topping the global list of
executioners in 2020, according to Amnesty International. The Arab world's most
populous country held 107 executions last year, a significant increase from the
32 recorded in 2019, the group said. Egypt's government has fought Islamist
insurgents in Sinai Peninsula and sometimes on the mainland in the years since
Morsi's removal. An Islamic State affiliate based in northern Sinai Peninsula
has repeatedly targeted security forces and the Christian minority there. Other
low-profile groups that have targeted security forces are suspected offshoots
of the Muslim Brotherhood. The nine men were among 20 defendants sentenced to
death in 2017 as part of a final verdict that came four years after the attack
— one of the country's worst on police in recent years.”

 

Somalia

 

Bloomberg: Somalia Faces Violent Turn With Factions Seen In Security Ranks
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“The political crisis in Somalia is causing faultlines within its security
ranks that could play into the hands of al Qaeda-linked militants looking to
further destabilize the nation. In the latest sign of a widening schism, some
soldiers abandoned their posts in Middle Shabelle region on Sunday and went to
the capital, Mogadishu, where they clashed with troops loyal to President
Mohamed Abdullahi, also known as Farmajo. The violence came moments after two
former presidents-turned-opposition leaders, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud and Sharif
Sheikh Ahmed, claimed that the national army had raided their homes in
Mogadishu. Tension has been brewing in the Horn of Africa nation since Farmajo
signed a law earlier this month that extends his and the lawmakers’ mandates
without an election -- by as long as two years. On the day lawmakers voted for
the extension, a police commander was fired after he tried to stop the
controversial parliamentary session from happening. Main roads were closed and
public transport limited following hours of gunfire ringing in Mogadishu on
Sunday evening, police officer Yusuf Aden said by phone. The current political
crisis started after the nation failed to hold a scheduled vote in February,
partly because of disagreements between the federal and regional governments on
the electoral process.”

 

Africa

 

Al Jazeera: Traditional Rulers Can Help End Violence In Africa
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“On March 21, 137 civilians were killed in localities near Niger’s border with
Mali, in what the Niger government described as attacks perpetrated by “armed
bandits”. Sadly, the deadly attacks were not a standalone incident or an
anomaly. Since January, four separate attacks by armed groups left at least 300
people dead in the land-locked West African country. The problem is not limited
to Niger either – countries across the African continent are suffering from
violence perpetrated by numerous armed groups. According to the World Bank, 20
of the 39 countries most affected by conflict in the world are in Africa. And
most of these violent acts are not stemming from conflicts between nations, nor
being directly perpetrated by international terror groups – they are rooted in
disputes within local communities or between them. According to experts, for
example, the latest attacks in Niger were the result of ISIL-affiliated
militants stoking long-existing tensions between roaming herders and farming
communities. Such communal tensions and conflicts are extremely widespread on
the continent. According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, as much as 81
percent of conflicts in Africa between 1989 and 2011 occurred at the community
level and as many as 23 African countries experienced communal conflict between
1989 and 2014.”

 

France

 

ABC News: Tributes To French Police Official Stabbed By Extremist
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“Masked and in silence, more than 1,000 police officers, family members and
others paid homage Monday to a French police official killed inside her police
station in what authorities are investigating as a terrorist attack. Neighbors,
colleagues and friends of the victim joined local officials at the tribute
ceremony in front of the town hall of Rambouillet, a quiet Paris suburb rocked
by Friday’s stabbing by a suspected Islamic extremist. “A flame has been
extinguished in everyone’s heart,” Mayor Veronique Matillon told the crowd,
honoring a woman who “was killed while serving out her functions.” The victim
was identified publicly only as Stephanie M. From Marseille on the
Mediterranean to Strasbourg on the German border, police unions held small,
wordless gatherings in front of police stations across France at the same time
as the one in Rambouillet. At the Rambouillet tribute, local teacher Adrienne
Nkemba described her distress and that of her students after the stabbing.
“This really hit us,” she told The Associated Press. “My children at school ...
they only talked about this all day.” Meanwhile, a group of imams organized
another small tribute in Rambouillet on Monday to honor the slain official and
show their support for police and national unity.”

 

Arab News: Le Pen’s Comments Criticized Following Terror Attack
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“French far-right politician Marine Le Pen has been criticized for demanding
tighter immigration controls after a police employee was murdered by an
Islamist who had arrived in the country illegally. President Emmanuel Macron’s
government said she had behaved like a vulture by politicizing Friday’s killing
of Stephanie, 47, an administration employee whose surname has not been
released. Tunisian Jamel Gorchene, 37, stabbed Stephanie to death in the
doorway of a police station in Rambouillet, 30 miles from Paris. Officers shot
and killed him after he refused to surrender his weapon. Jean-Francois Ricard,
chief antiterrorism prosecutor, said Gorchene “looked at religious chants and
videos glorifying jihad and martyrdom.” Ricard added that Gorchene’s father
“said he had noticed behavioral troubles since the beginning of this year.” The
killer had consulted a psychiatrist, he said. The father and four others are
being held for questioning. The Macron administration has been depicted by Le
Pen as being weak on national security. She has demanded that the French state
deport illegal immigrants and carry out “the eradication of Islamism.”  She
said: “The French are surrounded by criminals and crime.”



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