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Eye on Extremism
May 7, 2021
Newsweek: Taliban Captures District In Afghanistan, Attacks City Amid U.S. Withdrawal
“The Taliban says it has captured most of the district of Burka in north-eastern Afghanistan, after 200 government troops surrendered. Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues its withdrawal of troops from the central Asian country. Baghlan is one of 34 provinces in Afghanistan. A large number of armored government vehicles, weapons and ammunition were seized by the Taliban, a spokesman for the group, Zabihullah Mujahid, said on Twitter. He added that most areas in the Baghlan district had been “cleared of mercenaries”. The BBC and local media outlets confirmed that other areas of central Baghlan had been captured by the Taliban. The armed group captured the Burka district in Baghlan, on Wednesday. Baghlan police spokesperson Ahmad Jaweed Basharat said that the Burka district had been seized by the Taliban at 10.00 a.m. on May 4 following the withdrawal of government forces. Bisharat said after clashes broke out, security forces retreated tactically from the Burka district center. “I can confirm that the enemy has captured the Burka district as a result of an encounter. Security and defense forces tactically, without suffering any losses, withdrew and have plans to recapture it,” Basharat told Arab News.”
The National: UN: ISIS Used Chemical And Biological Weapons Against Iraqis
“ISIS used chemical weapons against Iraqis between 2014 and 2016, a report by the UN investigation body for ISIS crimes said this week, urging authorities to seek justice. The insurgents, which took over large areas of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declared a so-called caliphate and imposed a reign of terror over northern Iraq that included public beheadings and the sexual enslavement of Yazidi women. “A new investigation opened with respect to the development and use of chemical and biological weapons by ISIS in Iraq has developed rapidly,” said a report by the UN investigative body, known as Unitad. The agency was created to bring ISIS suspects to justice. Weaponised vesicants, nerve agents and toxic industrial compounds are suspected to have been used
“Through the collection of a diverse range of evidence, the team has confirmed the repeated deployment of chemical weapons by ISIS against civilian populations in Iraq between 2014 and 2016, as well as the testing of biological agents on prisoners,” said the report. Under pressure from human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and Yazidi survivors, the UN Security Council in 2017 created Unitad to help Iraq collect and preserve evidence for future prosecution.”
Bloomberg: Ethiopia Declares Tigray, Oromia Groups Terrorist Organizations
“Ethiopian lawmakers declared two political groups as terrorist organizations, as the government moves to quell instability in the run-up to elections next month. The House of Peoples’ Representatives backed a government proposal to outlaw the Oromo Liberation Army and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in a vote Thursday in the capital, Addis Ababa. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office at the weekend accused the OLA of carrying out a series of recent attacks against civilians that left many people dead and displaced and put society “in constant anticipation of danger and fear.” Federal troops have been battling supporters of the dissident TPLF in the northern Tigray region since November. The OLA, an separatist group that broke away from the Oromo Liberation Front last year, vowed to step up attacks on Addis Ababa. “The OLA will engage in total war to remove this illegitimate clique from power and to finally enforce the constitutionally enshrined right to self-determination for the Oromo people and other oppressed nations of Ethiopia,” OLA spokesman Odaa Tarbill said in an emailed statement on Thursday. Billene Seyoum, a spokeswoman for Abiy, said she wouldn’t comment about a statement from an entity deemed a terrorist organization by the parliament.”
United States
Houston Chronicle: Appeals Court Yanks ISIS Terrorism Sentencing From Houston Federal Judge
“A federal appeals panel Thursday handed down a rebuke to a lifetime judge in Houston, ruling he’d erred in re-sentencing a Spring man who supported ISIS. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion Thursday ordered the sentence for Asher Abid Khan to be wiped clean and calls for his third sentencing for assisting jihadists overseas be assigned to another trial judge because the first two hearings showed he was not only “biased” but also “fixed and inflexible” on considering the rationale for handing down an unusually short sentence. The court also explicitly challenged the comportment of veteran U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes, who has often drawn attention for his free-wheeling lectures to lawyers and other court participants. “We reverse the defendant’s sentence as substantively unreasonable and remand for a second resentencing,” said the ruling written by Judge E. Grady Jolly. “And because the sentencing judge seems immovable from his views of the sentence he imposed, and because the judge displayed bias against the government and its lawyers we … reassign this case to a different judge..” The ruling comes after Justice Department lawyers twice challenged Hughes’ sentence for Khan, 26, a recent engineering graduate of University of Houston, who traveled to Syria to join ISIS several years ago, before getting cold feet.”
“Wisconsin Dells area man was arraigned in Michigan on a charge of terrorism after being extradited out of Wisconsin. Brian Higgins, 52, was charged in Michigan in October with one charge of providing material support to a terrorist act. He is accused of participating in a right-wing extremist militia plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, specifically by providing use of night-vision goggles and using a dash cam to surveil the governor’s vacation home. Several other men have been arrested for alleged participation in plot and are facing federal or state court actions. Higgins dropped his appeal over being extradited to Michigan last month and was later sto a jail there. He appeared virtually in court and received a $100,000 bond but only needs to provide 10 percent, according to court records. He may not have contact with the governor, her family, her staff or other government officials. He may not have contact with any other defendants or militia members. Higgins cannot go within 500 feet of the governor’s workplace of residences. He may not use or possess any weapons. Higgins must surrender his passport and wear a GPS tracking device. He will be able to leave Michigan, but not the country.”
“The US Cyber Command will be diverting its counterterror resources used against the Islamic State to the Indo-Pacific region, probably to thwart Chinese cyber threats. According to the military portal C4ISRNET, the Joint Task Force (JTF) of the Cyber Command was specifically created in 2016 to fight the Islamic State online. However, in view of the rising cyber threats, which US agencies have linked to China, the JTF would now focus on the Indo-Pacific region. In a written statement submitted to the US Congress in March, General Paul M. Nakasone, Commander of United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), said: “Counterterrorism operations in cyberspace are continuous, helping to protect the force and prosecute targets in Afghanistan and other regions on behalf of USCENTCOM [Central Command] and USSOCOM [Special Operations Command].” “We are also shifting JTF-Ares’ focus (though not all of its missions) from counterterrorism toward heightened support to great power competition, particularly in USINDOPACOM’s [Indo-Pacific Command’s] area of responsibility.” Although the primary objective of the JTF was to lead the joint cyber effort, the US Cyber Command’s digital offensive against the militant group has undergone various changes.”
Iraq
Associated Press: Iraq’s Prank TV Show Depicting IS Attacks Taken Off Air
“Responding to viewer outrage, Iraq’s media regulator canceled a TV prank show that lured guests into simulated ambushes by militants, forcing participants and viewers to relive some of the terror and fear that were widespread under the rule of the Islamic State group. The show, Tannab Raslan, was being aired by the local Asia TV as a special during the holy month of Ramadan until Iraq’s Communication and Media Commission this week ordered it off the air. The show — a form of reality TV — follows Iraqi celebrity guests, including actresses and soccer players, who are invited to what is described as a “charity event” but then fall prey under various scenarios to a staged ambush by actors playing militants. They are later freed by other actors playing Iraqi security forces. The ambush re-enactments include fake weapons and stunt explosions while the “militants” threaten to detonate fake suicide vests. The show’s name Tannab Raslan refers to the name of its presenter, Raslan Haddad, and a popular Iraqi game that children play with marbles in which a score is called “tannab.”
Asharq Al-Awsat: Iraq Starts Repatriating ISIS Families From Al-Hol
“Iraqi MP Sherwan Aldubardany said that a number of ISIS families from Al-Hol camp arrived in Mosul, northern Iraq, amid mounting concerns that some ISIS family members could be a “time bomb” that jeopardizes the country’s security. In his statements on Wednesday, Aldubardany said that secured buses were sent by the Ministry of Migration and Displaced to transfer the families to the south of Mosul through Sinjar. For his part, Iraqi MP Ahmed al-Jabouri described transferring the ISIS family members from Syria to Iraq as a “disaster”. Jabouri told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that this move is a time bomb, reiterating previous warnings of the dangers of this decision. Available data shows that up to 100 families will arrive in Iraq, out of 30,000 Iraqi persons present in the camp. The camp hosts various nationalities, including Iraqis from several provinces such as Nineveh, Anbar, Babel, Kirkuk, Salaheddine, and Diyala. In the same context, strategic expert, Dr. Moataz Mohieddin told Asharq Al-Awsat that the camp has tens of thousands of displaced. A great number of them are Iraqi women and children, he stressed. There are up to 40,000 Iraqis and around 10,000 families from different origins in the camp who live amid an poor security and lack of international supervision.”
The National: Kurdish Official Says Spate Of ISIS Attacks In Iraq Shows Group's Resurgence
“There are growing indications that ISIS is trying to make a comeback in Iraq after a sharp rise in attacks in recent days, a senior Kurdish official said. At least 18 members of Iraqi and Iraqi Kurdish security forces were killed recently across the country, according to military and security officials, prompting calls from Iraq's president for vigilance against the threat of a resurgent ISIS. The attacks came after Baghdad's deadliest suicide bombing in three years, claimed in January by the militant group, and amid fears that a reduction of US-led forces could upset stability. “It seems like [ISIS] have re-organised,” Lahur Talabany, co-president of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party and a former intelligence chief, told Reuters. Originally an offshoot of Al Qaeda, ISIS took large areas of Iraq and Syria from 2014, imposing a reign of terror with public beheadings and attacks by supporters abroad. ISIS was declared militarily defeated in 2017 but has since waged a steady insurgency across parts of northern Iraq and a porous border with neighbouring Syria. In recent months there were more than 25 deadly attacks that Iraqi officials attribute to ISIS militants. The January bombing of a crowded Baghdad market killed more than 30 people.”
Afghanistan
Bloomberg: Pentagon Insists Taliban Victory Isn’t Inevitable In Afghanistan
“The fall of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan to the Taliban isn’t inevitable after American forces leave the country in the coming months, top Pentagon officials insisted on Thursday. While a Taliban victory isn’t a “foregone conclusion,” the Pentagon is considering ways to continue training Afghan government forces in third-country locations after U.S. troops leave, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a news conference with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “The Afghan security forces can fight, and they are fighting for their own country now,” Milley said, adding that Afghanistan’s Air Force conducts 80% to 90% of air strikes in the nation. “There’s a significant military capability in the Afghan government and we have to see how this plays out.” But the U.S. top two military leaders conceded that Afghanistan’s government faces a challenge in fending off a resurgent Taliban, nearly 20 years after the U.S. ousted the group from power following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. “We expect that this will be a challenge for them,” Austin said. Biden has said the approximately 2,500 American troops deployed to Afghanistan will be gone by Sept. 11.”
The Hill: McConnell: Taliban Could Take Over Afghanistan By 'The End Of The Year'
“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday predicted that the Taliban could overrun the Afghan government by the end of the year as U.S. troops withdraw. “I think there's a high likelihood that the Taliban will be back in control of the country, maybe as early as the end of the year,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky. McConnell has previously bashed President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as a “grave mistake” that will “leave coalition partners and vulnerable Afghans high and dry,” but his comments Thursday put a specific marker on the dire predictions. The U.S. military is in the midst of fulfilling Biden’s order to fully withdraw from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that sparked America’s longest war. Some lawmakers and military officials, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, have laid out worst-case scenarios for Afghanistan after the withdrawal where the Taliban overruns the Afghan government, allowing al Qaeda to thrive anew and rolling back the rights of Afghan women and minorities. But Milley has also said he does not think the worst-case scenario is a “foregone conclusion.” In announcing the withdrawal, Biden declared that it was “time to end the forever war.”
Middle East
Yahoo News: What Islamic State Police Files Can Tell Us About Everyday Life Under The Caliphate
“It is not often that regimes wither away and leave behind troves of documents for posterity. It happened in Germany with the Nazi Third Reich and under the German Democratic Republic. Now, to an extent, we have similar evidence of life under Islamic State rule as well. The terrorist network still exists, with many chapters being active in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. But these function as “regular” terrorist organisations and don’t control territory. The caliphate, in its former incarnation of “semi-state organisation” in and around Mosul and Raqqa, no longer exists. But through the ISIS Files Project, run by the Program on Extremism of George Washington University, bit by bit the different institutions, bureaucratic arms and policies of the IS caliphate are being reconstructed and analysed. We were asked to look into the files retrieved and originated from the “ordinary” IS police, the shurta to see what light they shed on the way the caliphate functioned on the ground, in particular in interaction with the populace of that region. To answer that question we used the concept of “rebel governance”. This is understood as: The implementation of governmental practices, or serious and substantial displays of governmental rule vis-à-vis groups and population in a given territory by non-state actors, leading to a de facto sovereignty and public authority.”
The Jerusalem Post: Four Palestinians To Be Charged With Diverting European Aid To Terrorism
“Four Palestinians are expected to be indicted for funneling European humanitarian aid to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terrorist group, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Thursday. Charges are set to be brought against the suspects in the Judea Military Court in the coming days. The Foreign Ministry summoned European ambassadors to demand that their countries stop funding organizations that funnel money to the PFLP. The PFLP’s “method of deception,” as the Shin Bet called it, worked in several European countries, bringing in millions of Euros, much of which was used to commit acts of terror. The Shin Bet, together with the IDF and police, found that the funding was sent to Palestinian organizations in the West Bank – particularly one called Health Work Committees – that are affiliated with the PFLP, designated a terrorist organization by the EU, US, Canada, and others. The Shin Bet said it has materials documenting the lengths to which the organizations went to mislead European countries, including diverting large sums of money from European governmental institutions to terrorism. The Palestinian NGOs generated reports of fictional projects, false documents, forged bank authorizations and more.”
“For most Americans, the first they heard of using a vehicle to attack and kill people was in Charlottesville, VA, in 2017 when a man drove his car into anti-white-supremacist protestors, killing Heather Heyer and wounding dozens of others. But Charlottesville was just the tail end of a movement that has killed people across the globe. For Europeans and those in the Middle East, vehicle ramming attacks (VRAs) is a familiar tactic. In fact, according to the Global Terrorism Database, vehicle borne attacks date to the 1970s but accelerated after Hamas’s 2014 attacks against Israeli targets. It was quickly picked up by Al-Queda and Isis as a low-cost, high-profile method to terrorize civilians. It was then exported into Europe and now it is a key tactic used by domestic terrorists around the world. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defines such attacks as deliberately aiming a vehicle intending to inflict fatal injuries or cause property damage. “This tactical evolution is a microcosm of the broader tectonic shifts in today’s terrorism threats,” said Mia Bloom, author of Dying to Kill, in a recent piece.”
Nigeria
“Militants of the Islamic State backed faction of Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), formerly known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād, have killed five soldiers in Ajiri. Ajiri is a community in Mara Local Government Area of Borno State, which is about 52km from Maiduguri, the state capital. SaharaReporters gathered that the insurgents who came in several trucks fitted with machine guns on Monday evening also killed 15 Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) members and 10 residents. Security sources said some CJTF members have still not been accounted for 48 hours after the attack. The incident has since sent panic across the area with residents said to be fleeing the community for fear of another attack by the insurgents. “They attacked a military base, killing five soldiers and 15 CJTF members. For now there's no single human being in Ajiri,” a source said. The incident comes few hours after the insurgent invaded the military base in Ajiri, killing an army commanding officer. SaharaReporters had on Sunday reported how the terrorists attacked the military camp, dislodging the troops.”
Africa
Al Jazeera: Further Militarisation Will Not End Mozambique’s Insurgency
“The recent raid by supposedly ISIL-linked insurgents on the northern Mozambican city of Palma, which left dozens of civilians dead and displaced 30,000 others, has given rise to a narrative that Africa is now a hotbed for international terror groups and should be the next main front in the global “war on terror. Such sweeping framing, if uncritically embraced, could result in the further militarisation of the region. But militarisation would not resolve, and may even exacerbate, Mozambique’s insurgency problem. North, East, and West Africa have been suffering from different forms of insurgency for more than a decade. Since the very beginning, international and regional bodies and Western and African governments have been trying to address the issue by increasing their military presence in these regions. The United States, for example, has 29 bases in 15 different countries or territories across Africa, mostly in the restive Sahel and Horn of Africa regions. France has been leading its largest overseas military operation, Operation Barkhane, in the Sahel region since 2014. The 4,500-person anti-insurgency operation covering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger has an annual budget of more than $700m.”
United Kingdom
Forbes: Britain’s Decisive Role In The Air Campaign Against ISIS
“Recent activities are demonstrative of how Britain’s armed forces continue to make an active and valuable contribution to the U.S.-led multinational campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) group. During its first operational cruise, which will begin later this month, the Royal Navy’s flagship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, will support combat operations in the Middle East with its stealthy F-35B Lightning II fighters, the short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) or ‘jump-jet’ variant of that fifth-generation aircraft. “The F-35B Lightning jets pack a potent punch against Daesh and help prevent them from regaining a foothold in Iraq,” said Britain’s Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. “This is a prime example of the U.K. Armed Forces stepping forward with our allies to confront persistent threats around the world. It is Global Britain in action.” This upcoming deployment is the latest example of the U.K.’s commitment to continuously supporting the air campaign against ISIS. The Royal Navy is also likely taking this opportunity to give its F-35B pilots combat experience and more practice operating off its flagship. Incidentally, this isn’t the first time British F-35Bs have seen combat.”
Evening Standard: Neo-Nazi Student Promoted Extremist Group In Online Campaign, Court Told
“A neo-Nazi student campaigned on social media for an extreme right-wing group which aimed to “stir up a race war”, a court has heard. Andrew Dymock, 23, promoted the System Resistance Network (SRN) group through a Twitter account and a website, the Old Bailey was told. The defendant, from Bath in Somerset is on trial on 15 charges, including 12 terrorism-related alleged offences. Opening his trial, prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward said the case centred on a period in 2017 and 2018 when Dymock was studying politics at Aberystwyth University in Wales. He used online platforms to promote and raise money for SRN, which “preached zero-tolerance” to non-whites, Jewish and Muslim communities and described homosexuality as a “disease”, jurors were told. Ms Ledward said: “Its clarion call was for the expulsion of all minorities and a white revolution. “Its online campaign, comprising virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic propaganda, sought to stir up a race war against ethnic minorities and others that it perceived as ‘race traitors.’” SRN was one of a small number of organisations which filled a “dubious gap” left following the proscription of far-right group National Action and was itself banned in 2020.”
Express: ISIS returns: Counter terror expert warns flood of Brits joining group could be repeated
“Around 900 British citizens joined ISIS before the group’s self-styled "Caliphate" in Syria and Iraq was crushed. However according to Liam Duffy, a strategic advisor to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), it would be “foolish” to claim this won’t happen again. He also argued society must stop the “celebritisation” of western ISIS volunteers which has “inverted the victim/aggressor relationship”. Mr. Duffy is author of ‘Western Foreign Fighters and the Yazidi Genocide’, a CEP report published earlier this year.”
France
The Economist: France Worries About How To Handle Released Terrorists
“Being locked up is a piece of piss if the guy was ready to die,” said Youssef, who had been jailed for jihadism. “Ten years in prison? It’s fi sabilillah (in the cause of Allah). I’m going to learn the Koran, and leave even stronger.” Youssef (not his real name) was speaking to Hugo Micheron, a researcher conducting a study on jihadism in France. By the time the book was published last year, Youssef had served his term and been set free. France is grappling with an unfamiliar challenge: how to handle those let out after serving time for terrorist-related offences. Of the 500 or so such detainees now behind bars, 58 are due for release this year, and a total of some 100 by 2023. Most were convicted for joining jihadist groups in Syria or Iraq, or helping others to do so. They were often sentenced to terms of only five to six years. Far stiffer sentences, including life, were handed down last December to accomplices in the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015.”
Germany
The North Africa Post: German Citizen Beheads Moroccan Wife In ISIS Style
“A German citizen who recently converted to Islam has beheaded his Moroccan wife in a crime that bears the hallmark of the Islamic state group, ISIS. The man in his fifties, living in the city of Hamburg attends a local mosque in the northern German city where there is an important Turkish community, local media report. German security forces and interior intelligence services are investigating the crime and are wondering whether the man acted alone or received instructions for the gruesome assassination. Neighbors and mosque members told security forces that the man’s behavior had changed before the killing as he developed a long bear and was donning Afghan men’s dress code. Germany, several countries have been complaining, has become a safe haven for dozens of former ISIS militants who fought in Syria and Iraq. Morocco has warned the European country against the presence on its soil of former ISIS terrorists. In March, an investigative report by French television M6 raised the alarm over the presence of former fighters of the terror group who are living freely in Germany.”
Australia
ABC News Australia: Islamic State Supporter Zainab Abdirahman-Khalif Released From Adelaide Jail
“An Adelaide woman who swore allegiance to terrorist group Islamic State (IS) has been released from prison after serving her sentence, but will remain the subject of a federal control order. Zainab Abdirahman-Khalif, a 26-year-old former nursing student, was intercepted by police in 2016 as she tried to leave Australia on a one-way ticket to Turkey. She was found guilty by a jury in 2018 of intentionally being a member of Islamic State. That conviction was overturned in 2019 on appeal, and she was released — but her acquittal was quashed in October by the High Court, and she was sent back to prison to serve out the remaining 205 days of her three-year sentence. The High Court found that she had taken intentional steps to join the group, and reinstated her conviction for being an IS member. “[This] included swearing allegiance to the Caliph, and answering the call to go to Sham to serve in support of the jihadis by attempting to fly to Turkey by one-way flight without informing her family and without the resources to return,” the High Court said in its judgment. “It cannot reasonably be doubted that it was open to the jury to conclude that the respondent thereby intentionally took steps to become a member of Islamic State.”
Europe
Associated Press: Israel Accuses Spanish Woman Of Aiding Banned Militant Group
“Israeli authorities on Thursday charged a Spanish woman under the country’s anti-terrorism laws, accusing her of funneling large sums of donations from European governments to a banned Palestinian militant group. Juana Ruiz Sánchez was charged in a West Bank military court. Her indictment was the culmination of a more than year-long investigation into financing for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The group is regarded by Israel, the United States, Canada, and European Union as a terrorist organization. Ruiz, a Spanish citizen and West Bank resident, has worked for Health Work Committees, a Palestinian non-governmental organization that provides medical services in the territory. She was indicted on Israeli terrorism-financing offenses and other charges. The Palestinian NGO’s senior accountant, former accountant and former purchasing department manager were expected to be charged with similar offenses in the coming days, according to the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency. Ruiz, 62, had been held by Israeli authorities without charge since her arrest at her home near Bethlehem on April 13.”
Southeast Asia
Deutsche Welle: Former Maldives President Survives Bomb Attack
“Mohamed Nasheed, the 53-year-old former president of the Indian Ocean island nation of Maldives, narrowly escaped what is suspected to have been an assassination attempt in the capital, Male, on Thursday evening. Nasheed was injured by a bomb rigged to a motorcycle as he was getting into his car. A Maldives government statement said: “Nasheed escaped an assassination attempt. He is injured but his condition is stable.” He is currently being treated at ADK Hospital in Male. A pro-democracy fighter, Nasheed currently serves as the country's parliamentary speaker, a position he has held since May 2019. Before that, he became the predominantly Sunni Muslim country's first democratically-elected president in 2008, a role he served in until 2012, when he was forced from office in a coup. Nasheed was subsequently put on trial and sentenced to 13 years in prison on terrorism charges — which were roundly decried by human rights groups as politically motivated. Amnesty International labeled Nasheed a prisoner of conscience. When Mohamed Nasheed was granted leave from prison for medical treatment he fled the country and went into exile in the UK. He returned to the Maldives in 2018 and was elected speaker of the People's Majlis, the country's second most powerful political position, in 2019.”
Technology
Vice: LiveLeak, The Infamous Site For Beheading Videos, Is Gone
“For almost 15 years the website LiveLeak shocked and entertained the internet. If you wanted to see uncensored and horrifying footage of war and violence that YouTube wouldn't allow, then LiveLeak would serve it up to you. In 2014, Business Insider called it “The Islamic State's favorite site for beheading videos.” Now, LiveLeak is gone, replaced with a softer sounding video website called ItemFix that eschews the violence and gore that made LiveLeak a staple of the dark side of the internet. “Nothing lasts forever though and—as we did all those years ago—we felt LiveLeak had achieved all that it could and it was time for us to try something new and exciting,” LiveLeak co-founder Hayden Hewitt said in a blog post explaining the change. “The world has changed a lot over these last few years, the Internet alongside it, and we as people. I'm sat here now writing this with a mixture of sorrow because LL has been not just a website or business but a way of life for me and many of the guys but also genuine excitement at what's next.” LiveLeak began in 2006 as an offshoot of the early internet shock site Ogrish. Along with Rotten.com and others, Ogrish was a place people went to when they wanted to see the worst the web had to offer.”
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