“A Brooklyn man who prosecutors say twice pledged allegiance to the Islamic
State group and encouraged deadly “lone-wolf” attacks in New York City’s s

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


May 13, 2021

 

NBC New York: Brooklyn Man Sentenced To 20 Years For Aiding ISIS, Encouraging
Attacks In NYC Subways
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“A Brooklyn man who prosecutors say twice pledged allegiance to the Islamic
State group and encouraged deadly “lone-wolf” attacks in New York City’s
subways and elsewhere was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison. Zachary
Clark’s penalty was announced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Naomi Reice
Buchwald. The judge said she wanted to send the message that “provide or
attempt to provide materials or support to a foreign terrorist organization and
you will spend a very long time in jail.” Beginning in at least March 2019,
Clark was accused of distributing ISIS propaganda through encrypted chatrooms
intended for members, associates, supporters and potential recruits of ISIS.
One of the chatrooms for which he served as administrator “was among the most
popular and well-known sources of ISIS media and recruitment propaganda
online,” the a criminal complaint said. The bearded Clark, in an orange prison
jumpsuit and black glasses, tried along with his lawyer to persuade Buchwald
that he had reformed himself behind bars since his November 2019 arrest, in
part by attending drug and anger-management programs. But the judge remained
unconvinced. “I have no confidence Mr. Clark can be a productive and law
abiding citizen,” Buchwald said as she ordered supervision for life once he is
freed.”

 

New York Post: Hamas Official Reportedly Urges People To ‘Cut Off The Heads Of
Jews’
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“A senior Hamas official has reportedly called on Jerusalem residents to buy
“five shekel knives” to “cut off the heads of Jews” in a recent video. “People
of Jerusalem, we want you to cut off the heads of the Jews with knives. With
your hand, cut their artery from here,” Fathi Hammad, Hamas Political Bureau
member and former interior minister, says in the clip, which was translated by
the Middle East Media Research Institute. “A knife costs five shekels [about
$1.50]. Buy a knife, sharpen it, put it there, and just cut off [their heads].
It costs just five shekels. With those five shekels, you will humiliate the
Jewish state,” he said. “The Jews have spread corruption and acted with
arrogance, and their moment of reckoning has come. The moment of destruction at
your hands has arrived,” Hammad added. Several people cited the Hamas honcho’s
call to arms in the context of his militant group’s firing of rockets into
Israel and the clashes between Palestinian rioters and Israeli forces in
Jerusalem, the Jewish Journal reported. “This week’s events are part of a wave
of terror led by the terrorist organization Hamas, resulting from reckless and
irresponsible incitement to commit violence,” Dov Hikind, a former Democratic
New York assemblyman from Brooklyn and head of Americans Against Antisemitism,
said in a tweet.”

 

United States

 

The New York Times: Top Law Enforcement Officials Say The Biggest Domestic
Terror Threat Comes From White Supremacists.
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“Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro
N. Mayorkas told senators on Wednesday that the greatest domestic threat facing
the United States came from what they both called “racially or ethnically
motivated violent extremists.” “Specifically those who advocate for the
superiority of the white race,” Mr. Garland told the Senate Appropriations
Committee. The cabinet secretaries’ comments reflected a dramatic shift in tone
from the Trump administration, which deliberately downplayed the threat from
white supremacists and similar groups, in part to elevate the profile of what
former President Donald J. Trump described as violent threats from radical
left-wing groups. Last year, a former head of the Department of Homeland
Security’s intelligence branch filed a whistle-blower complaint in which he
accused the department of blocking a report about the threat of violent
extremism and described white supremacists as having been “exceptionally lethal
in their abhorrent targeted attacks in recent years.” Mr. Mayorkas told
senators on Wednesday, “The department is taking a new approach to addressing
domestic violent extremism, both internally and externally.”

 

The Washington Post: National Digest: Suspect In Times Square Shooting That
Injured 3 Held In Florida
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“A man suspected of shooting three bystanders in New York’s Times Square was
arrested Wednesday in Florida, four days after the gunfire wounded people
including a 4-year-old girl out toy shopping in the tourist haven known as the
“Crossroads of the World.” Farrakhan Muhammad was taken into custody while
eating lunch in a McDonald’s parking lot near Jacksonville, police said.
Muhammad, 31, was listed Wednesday in an inmate database for the sheriff’s
office in Bradford County, Fla. Muhammad is suspected of wounding the three
victims with stray bullets during a dispute in Times Square at about 5 p.m.
Saturday. Wendy Magrinat, a 23-year-old tourist visiting from Rhode Island, was
shot in the leg. A 43-year-old woman from New Jersey was shot in the foot. The
4-year-old girl, from Brooklyn, was also shot in the leg. Muhammad was
apparently aiming for his brother, but investigators haven’t yet pinpointed the
motive, chief of detectives James Essig said. He said the brothers apparently
both sold CDs in the Times Square area. Police released videos and photos of
Muhammad and asked the public for help tracking him down. His family made a
public plea for him to turn himself in.”

 

CNBC: Hacker Group Behind Colonial Pipeline Attack Claims It Has Three New
Victims
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“The hacker group DarkSide claimed on Wednesday to have attacked three more
companies, despite the global outcry over its attack on Colonial Pipeline this
week, which has caused shortages of gasoline and panic buying on the East Coast
of the U.S. Over the past 24 hours, the group posted the names of three new
companies on its site on the dark web, called DarkSide Leaks. The information
posted to the site includes summaries of what the hackers appear to have stolen
but do not appear to contain raw data. DarkSide is a criminal gang, and its
claims should be treated as potentially misleading. The posting indicates that
the hacker collective is not backing down in the face of an FBI investigation
and denunciations of the attack from the Biden administration. It also signals
that the group intends to carry out more ransom attacks on companies, even
after it posted a cryptic message earlier this week indicating regret about the
impact of the Colonial Pipeline hack and pledging to introduce “moderation” to
“avoid social consequences in the future.” One of the companies is based in the
United States, one is in Brazil and the third is in Scotland. None of them
appear to engage in critical infrastructure.”

 

U.S. News & World Report: Biden Signs Cybersecurity Executive Order Following
Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Attack
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“President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed at improving
the nation's cybersecurity on the heels of a ransomware attack on the Colonial
Pipeline that shut its operations down for days. “Recent cybersecurity
incidents such as SolarWinds, Microsoft Exchange and the Colonial Pipeline
incident are a sobering reminder that U.S. public and private sector entities
increasingly face sophisticated malicious cyber activity from both nation-state
actors and cyber criminals,” the Biden administration wrote in a fact sheet on
the order. The order creates a standardized cybersecurity playbook to “ensure
all federal agencies meet a certain threshold and are prepared to take uniform
steps to identify and mitigate a threat.” The administration hopes that
companies in the private sector will use it as a template for their response
efforts. The order makes clear that information technology service providers
who sell to federal agencies must share certain breach information with the
government. It also “establishes a Cybersecurity Safety Review Board,
co-chaired by government and private sector leads, that may convene following a
significant cyber incident to analyze what happened and make concrete
recommendations for improving cybersecurity,” according to the fact sheet. “For
too long we failed to take the necessary steps to modernize our cybersecurity
defenses because doing so takes time, effort and money, and instead we've
accepted that we'll move from one incident response to the next,” a senior
administration official said Wednesday on a call with reporters.”

 

Syria

 

Kurdistan 24: Kurdish-Led Forces End Operation Aimed At Clearing ISIS Remnants
From Syrian-Iraqi Border Area
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“The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Wednesday finished a four-day
operation to clear areas in Syria located near the Iraqi border area province
of various stores of weapons, tunnels, and other resources used by ISIS in its
ongoing campaign of violence there. During the operation, which focused on
areas near Wadi al-Ajij in the province of Deir al-Zor, some 12 ISIS hideouts
were demolished. “A number of smuggling routes & TUNLs (tunnels) were located &
destroyed & WPN (weapon) caches were seized,” said Col. Wayne Marotto, a
spokesperson for the US-led Coalition to Defeat ISIS, in a Twitter post on
Wednesday. “There’s no safe place for Daesh (ISIS) in NE (Northeast) Syria,” he
added. The SDF’s Coordination and Military Operations Center said in a Tuesday
statement that “weapons caches and smuggling routes have been found.” The SDF’s
media center announced on Wednesday that the offensive had ended, explaining,
“The operation lasted for four days accompanied by the continuous flight of
international coalition aircraft that conducted missile strikes targeting
specific positions used by Daesh (ISIS) cells in the area.” “The forces were
able to sweep parts of the Wadi al-Ajij area in order to detect smuggling
routes used by Daesh to infiltrate inside northern and eastern Syria and to
move terrorist cells to and from Iraq.”

 

Iraq

 

Al Monitor: 'Mountain Of Information' Against Islamic State Leads UN
Investigators To Recognize Yazidi Genocide
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“A United Nations investigation into atrocities committed by the Islamic State
(IS) in Iraq found “clear and convincing evidence” of genocide against the
Yazidis, according to a UN Security Council briefing on Monday. The road to
genocide recognition began in September 2017 when the UN Security Council
adopted Resolution 2379 establishing an investigative team to hold IS
accountable for their actions. That team would later be referred to as the UN
Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh
(UNITAD). Da’esh (or Daesh) is the Arabic reference to IS. Five UN staff
members were sent to Iraq in October 2018. Since then, a reported “mountain of
information” was compiled by that team that included testimonies, forensic
evidence from mass grave sites and digital data extracted from IS phones and
hard drives. Over the next two-and-a-half years, the investigation grew to six
field teams, including a gender unit, children's unit, financial and tracking
unit, and witness protection support unit. Together, they painted a clearer
picture for international officials of the targeted actions by the extremist
group.”

 

Afghanistan

 

Reuters: Afghan Forces Fight To Recapture Taliban-Held District Outside Kabul
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“Afghan security forces mounted an operation to recapture a Taliban-held
district outside the capital Kabul on Wednesday just before the start of a
three-day ceasefire at midnight, a local official said. Taliban insurgents had
killed or captured some government soldiers and forced others to retreat after
storming the district centre, which lies in Wardak province less than an hour's
drive from Kabul. Government forces have been struggling against stepped-up
attacks by the insurgents as U.S. troops withdraw after two decades of fighting
in the country. Wardak mayor Zarifa Ghafari said that if the district was not
taken soon, fighting would reach the gates of Kabul in a few days. The defence
ministry said on Wednesday special forces have been deployed in the area to
retake the district after troops made a “tactical retreat” on Tuesday. A senior
government official said they aimed to regain control before a three-day
ceasefire announced by the Taliban for the Muslim religious holiday of Eid,
which starts on Thursday. “We will have to do it today because after the
ceasefire, it will give the Taliban enough time to dig in and will complicate
the operations and increase our casualties,” the official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.”

 

Middle East

 

Associated Press: Israel Steps Up Gaza Offensive, Kills Senior Hamas Figures
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“Israel on Wednesday pressed ahead with a fierce military offensive in the
Gaza Strip, killing as many as 10 senior Hamas military figures and toppling a
pair of high-rise towers housing Hamas facilities in airstrikes. The Islamic
militant group showed no signs of backing down and fired hundreds of rockets at
Israeli cities. In just three days, this latest round of fighting between the
bitter enemies has already begun to resemble — and even exceed — a devastating
50-day war in 2014. Like in that previous war, neither side appears to have an
exit strategy. But there are key differences. The fighting has triggered the
worst Jewish-Arab violence inside Israel in decades. And looming in the
background is an international war crimes investigation. Israel carried out an
intense barrage of airstrikes just after sunrise, striking dozens of targets in
several minutes that set off bone-rattling explosions across Gaza. Airstrikes
continued throughout the day, filling the sky with pillars of smoke. At
nightfall, the streets of Gaza City resembled a ghost town as people huddled
indoors on the final night of Islam’s holiest month of Ramadan. The evening,
followed by the Eid al-Fitr holiday, is usually a time of vibrant night life,
shopping and crowded restaurants.”

 

Nigeria

 

The Defense Post: Nigeria Repels Boko Haram Attack On Northeastern City Of
Maiduguri <[link removed]>

 

“Nigerian troops repelled an incursion by Boko Haram jihadists into the
northeastern city of Maiduguri late on Tuesday, killing five insurgents,
military sources and residents told AFP. The attack, which happened as Muslim
residents observing Ramadan were about to break their fast, was the latest
violence in a more than decade-long insurgency in the region. Around 1700 GMT,
militants in several trucks fitted with machine guns and on motorcycles stormed
Jiddari Polo, an area on the outskirts of the capital of Borno state, firing
indiscriminately. Troops from a nearby base engaged them in a fierce gun
battle, forcing residents to flee the area. “The terrorists came through
Jiddari Polo, firing shots and engaged troops from Giwa barracks in a fight
which led to the killing of five terrorists,” a military officer said, asking
to remain anonymous. “With aerial support, they were subdued and forced to
retreat” and a gun truck was seized from the jihadists, he added. “We have all
left our homes due to the fighting between the insurgents and soldiers,” said
Jiddari Polo resident Aisa Galadima. “We left the food and drinks we prepared
to break our fast, we were frightened by the sounds of guns and explosives,”
said another resident, Ibrahim Bukar.”

 

All Africa: Nigeria: Govt Set To Prosecute 400 Suspected Terrorist Financiers
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“Abuja — The federal government has described the deadly attacks against the
country's security personnel and outfits as a declaration of war against the
nation that will be countered with overwhelming force. This is even as the
government said the act is to instill fear and evoke a sense of pervasive
insecurity among the people, adding that whether known or unknown gunmen, those
engaged in this dastardly act will pay dearly for their actions. The minister
of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this while
addressing a press conference on National Security in Lagos yesterday, also
acknowledged the security challenges facing the nation from terrorism to
kidnapping, banditry, and farmer/herder conflict. He said in the days ahead, it
will confront the challenges headlong and restore law and order, peace, and
security in the country. On suspected sponsors of terrorism, the minister said
the move to prosecute 400 suspects arrested for allegedly funding terrorism is
unprecedented and it's a testament to the government's determination to
decisively tackle terrorism and other violent crimes. He also recalled the
Attorney-General of the Federation and minister of Justice announcement that
the federal government is ready to prosecute them.”

 

Somalia

 

Associated Press: 3 Police Reservists Killed In Attacks In Kenya Near Somalia
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“Three police reservists were killed early Wednesday after Islamic extremists
attacked cell phone towers near the border with Somalia in an effort to cripple
communication. Al-Qaida-linked militants from the al-Shabab group first
attacked a cell phone tower located in northern Mandera County around 2 a.m.,
leaving two police reservists dead, according to a police report. A few hours
later, jihadists killed one other police reservist while trying to blow up
another cell phone tower in Wajir County with a rocket-propelled grenade, a
police official said. “We repulsed them as they attempted to destroy the masts.
Our forces are pursuing them,” said Rono Burnei, the regional police boss. Two
other police reservists were wounded in the attack. Al-Shabab has vowed revenge
on Kenya for sending troops into Somalia to fight the militants. Kenyans troops
have been actively engaged in the conflict in Somalia since 2011 when they were
deployed following a series of kidnappings of Europeans in Kenya blamed on the
militants. The kidnappings threatened Kenya’s vital tourism industry.”

 

United Kingdom

 

The National: Britain To Harness New Cyber Powers In Pursuit Of Hostile States
And Terrorists
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“The British government is going on a cyber offensive against rogue states and
ISIS terrorists, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced. The campaign will
focus on shutting down the ability of ISIS to spread its “poisonous
propaganda”, he said. He declared £22 million ($31m) in funding to help a
number of African countries start joint operations against cyber crime in a
continent where extremists have gained a foothold. Britain’s offensive
capabilities have developed through the National Cyber Force (NCF). Set up a
year ago, it employs personnel from MI6, GCHQ surveillance and the military for
the first time under a unified command. Mr Raab said the unit's offensive cyber
capabilities have already been tested. “We’re not just going to guard against
attacks, we are going to target and impose costs on those who are taking aim at
us,” he said. The unit took the online fight to ISIS in Syria, where it had
“impaired the ability of Daesh to produce and spread their poisonous
propaganda.” The NCF also conducted attacks on military operations that
disrupted “Daesh’s battlefield communications.”

 

Germany

 

Reuters: Germany Detains Suspects For Stoning Synagogue, Burning Israeli Flags
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“German police have detained more than a dozen men in three cities suspected
of damaging a synagogue with stones, burning Israeli flags and starting a fire
at a memorial for a Jewish house of prayer destroyed during the Nazi pogroms of
1938. German politicians on Wednesday condemned the three separate incidents as
anti-Semitic attacks, which coincided with escalating cross-border violence
between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Police said three men in their early 20s were detained on Tuesday night and
released after admitting to throwing stones at the window of a synagogue in the
city of Bonn and burning an Israeli flag. The suspects told police the
Gaza-Israel violence had motivated them to throw stones at a synagogue.
Civilians on both sides took cover as Israel carried out hundreds of air
strikes in Gaza on Wednesday and Palestinian militants fired multiple rockets
at Tel Aviv and the southern city of Beersheba. At least 49 people in Gaza and
six in Israel have been killed in the region's most intense hostilities since a
2014 war.”

 

Reuters: German Watchdog Orders N26 To Safeguard Against Terrorist Financing
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“German financial regulator BaFin has ordered online bank N26 to put in place
internal controls and safeguards to prevent money laundering and terrorist
financing, BaFin said on Wednesday. The regulator said it has appointed a
special commissioner to monitor the implementation of this order and N26’s
progress in resolving other shortcomings identified. Sources had told Reuters
earlier this year that BaFin was extending its oversight of N26 to cover the
whole company as it tightened controls following the collapse of payments firm
Wirecard.”

 

The National: German Anti-Islam Group Seeks To Rally Supporters After
‘Extremist’ Designation In Saxony
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“The anti-Islam far-right protest movement Pegida will try to exploit its new
official designation as an extremist organisation in its home state to rally
supporters as Germany's coronavirus restrictions are eased. German intelligence
said last week that surveillance of Pegida in Saxony would be intensified after
it took an “increasingly right-wing extremist orientation”. Pegida responded by
urging its supporters to gather for a socially-distanced rally in Dresden, the
capital of Saxony, next week. Online footage of a Pegida event on Monday in
Zittau, Saxony, showed speakers addressing about 20 people. Pegida, which
campaigns against what it calls the “Islamicisation” of the West, was created
in October 2014 and became known for its marches every Monday that grew in size
during the refugee crisis of the following year. During its heyday, the group's
marches attracted more than 20,000 people. The movement's popularity coincided
with the rise of the far-right AfD political party, which entered parliament in
2017 on an anti-refugee and anti-immigration platform. When large gatherings
were banned because of the coronavirus, numbers fell to about 1,500 at
fortnightly events as Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans against Islamicisation of
the Occident, struggled to maintain relevance.”

 

Southeast Asia

 

The Defense Post: IS-Linked Militants Kill Four Farmers In Indonesia
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“Islamic State-linked extremists have killed four farmers in a remote village
on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, police confirmed Wednesday, with one of
the victims reportedly beheaded. Five sword-wielding attackers ambushed a group
of farmers who were harvesting their coffee plantation in Kalimago village in
Poso regency on Tuesday morning, Central Sulawesi police spokesperson Didik
Supranoto said. The police blamed the attack on the Sulawesi-based East
Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), one of dozens of radical groups across the
Southeast Asian archipelago that have pledged allegiance to IS. “Five
eyewitnesses recognized one of the perpetrators as (a man named) Qatar, who is
an MIT member,” the police spokesperson said. Locals were made aware of the MIT
members by their pictures, distributed by the police in their hunt for
suspected terrorists in the area. The attack was motivated by “terrorism as
well as robbery,” according to the police. “Everything the victims had was
taken away by the perpetrators including rice, money, and other belongings they
kept in their huts,” he added. Local media reported that the victims were from
Christian-majority ethnic group Toraja, and one was beheaded. These reports
haven’t been confirmed by the police.”

 

Yahoo News: Muslim Militants Killed In Philippines
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“Four suspected Muslim militants have been killed in a clash with government
soldiers in the southern Philippines, an army commander says. The militants
were among a group that occupied a part of a public market in the town of Datu
Paglas in Maguindanao province, 960km south of Manila, at the weekend, said
Major General Juvymax Uy, an army infantry division commander. The firefight
broke out in the village of Talingko in the outskirts of Datu Paglas, where
soldiers encountered almost 50 militants, he added. The two-hour clash left
four militants killed, Uy said. On Saturday, the militants occupied a part of
the public market in Datu Paglas as they fled an offensive by the military.
They left the area after six hours when more soldiers arrived. No civilians or
soldiers were killed or hurt in Saturday's incident. The militants were members
of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter, a splinter group of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front, which signed a peace agreement with the government in 2014.
It has allied itself with the Islamic State militant group and has been blamed
for bombings, extortion and attacks on government troops in the province of
Maguindanao.”



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