Eye on Extremism

June 11, 2021

 

Reuters: U.S. Sanctions Network Charged With Funding Yemen's Houthis

 

“The United States on Thursday announced sanctions on what it called members of a smuggling network that generates tens millions of dollars for Yemen’s Houthis, pressuring the Iran-aligned movement to accept a ceasefire and peace talks. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to advance a U.N. effort to ease Yemen’s dire humanitarian crisis and end the war pitting the Houthis against the government and a Saudi-led coalition. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated a call for the Houthis to accept a nationwide ceasefire and a resumption of talks on a political settlement to the seven-year-old conflict. “The United States will continue to apply pressure to the Houthis, including through targeted sanctions, to advance those goals,” he said in a statement. Twelve individuals and entities were slapped with terrorism-related sanctions blocking any U.S. property they hold, and barring Americans from doing business with them. Foreign financial institutions that deal with them could be blacklisted. The network works with Iran’s Quds Force, the elite arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to generate “tens of millions of dollars in revenue from the sale of commodities, like Iranian petroleum,” a U.S. Treasury statement said.”

 

The National: Nasrallah Says Hezbollah Ready To Turn To Iran To Solve Lebanon Energy Woes

 

“Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said his group is prepared to buy fuel shipments directly from Iran, as a worsening energy crisis threatens to plunge Lebanon into darkness. Speaking in a broadcast earlier this week, Nasrallah said Hezbollah could go directly to its patron Tehran to buy fuel in Lebanese Lira, as the Lebanese government struggles to release enough dollars to import fuel. “We, Hezbollah, can go to Iran and negotiate with the Iranian government and buy shipments of fuel,” he said. Lebanon’s energy sector is on its knees, with the government unable to release enough dollars to import fuel. Blackouts and fuel rationing have become increasingly common. Even the country’s private generator cartels, long a fail-safe against cuts on the national energy grid, have been forced to ration hours of operation in recent weeks, while meandering queues outside of petrol stations have become the norm across the country. The Head of the Association of Power Generator Owners, Abdo Saadeh said this week that private generator owners would begin switching off their diesel generators for up to five hours per day. In his address, Nasrallah described the queues as “scenes of humiliation,” that “people should not bear.”

 

United States

 

Lansing State Journal: Lansing Man Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy To Support ISIS

 

“A 28-year-old Lansing man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to conspiring to provide support to ISIS, the Department of Justice said in a news release. Mohamed Haji, 28, pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Muse Muse and Mohamud Muse, Haji's co-defendants, pleaded guilty to the same offense in January 2020. The charges stem from an investigation into the three men conducted between December 2018 and January 2019. “According to court documents...co-defendant Muse Muse coordinated with an individual he believed to be a Somali ISIS fighter to wire funds to be used to purchase airline tickets for travel to Mogadishu, Somalia, where he believed he would meet an ISIS representative,” the DOJ said in the release. The three men “picked up money” to assist Muse Muse in traveling to join ISIS and allegedly “pledged allegiance to ISIS in recorded videos, and submitted their videos to individuals they believed were associated with ISIS.” Muse Muse was arrested in January 2019 at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, where he had checked in for the first of several flights that would take him to Mogadishu.”

 

Iran

 

The Wall Street Journal: The Deadly Legacy Of Khobar Towers

 

“Twenty-five years ago, on June 25, 1996, a massive truck bomb detonated at the Khobar Towers building complex near Dhahran in Saudi Arabia, where 2,000 U.S. military personnel lived. The bomb killed 19 American airmen and wounded over 500 other U.S. citizens and non-Americans, most of whom were tasked with enforcing the no-fly zone over Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The U.S. government concluded that Iran had orchestrated the bombing, creating a group—Saudi Hezbollah—to carry it out. In addition to raising the cost of the U.S. presence in the region, the Khobar Towers bombing embarrassed Iran’s Saudi rival by highlighting its military ties to the U.S.—ties that angered influential Saudi clerics and militants like Osama bin Laden, among many others. Khobar Towers was the worst Iranian terrorist attack on a U.S. facility since the early 1980s, when the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah killed almost 300 U.S. Marines, diplomats and others in a series of attacks on American facilities there, eventually driving the U.S. out of the country. After Khobar, the Clinton administration outed Iranian intelligence officers in many countries, leading them to be expelled, and considered military strikes.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The New York Times: As U.S. Withdraws, Afghan Interpreters Fear Being Left Behind

 

“It was an offhand comment, blurted out in frustration. It may have destroyed Shoaib Walizada’s chances of earning a cherished visa to the United States. Mr. Walizada, who interpreted for the U.S. Army for four years until 2013, said that he had complained one day, using profanity, that his assigned combat vest was too small. When the episode came to light later that year, Mr. Walizada’s preliminary approval for a visa was revoked for “unprofessional conduct.” Mr. Walizada, 31, is among thousands of Afghans once employed by the U.S. government, many as interpreters, whose applications for a Special Immigrant Visa, or S.I.V., through a State Department program, have been denied. The program, established to relocate to the United States Iraqis and Afghans whose lives are threatened because they worked for the American military or government, has rejected some applicants for seemingly minor infractions and others for no stated reason. Now, as American troops depart and Afghans experience a growing sense of anxiety and despair, the visa applications have taken on renewed urgency. With the Taliban taking advantage of the U.S. withdrawal, many former interpreters say they are more likely than ever to be killed.”

 

Al Jazeera: US Weighs Attacks If Kabul At Risk Of Falling To Taliban: Report

 

“The United States is considering intervening with drones or warplanes in the event big Afghan cities are at risk of falling to the Taliban, The New York Times has reported. The report comes as the US continues its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, with the Pentagon expected to conclude the pullout in early July, well before the September 11 deadline. A NATO-led coalition is also withdrawing its troops from the country. Since Biden announced the troop withdrawal in April, US military officials have repeatedly raised concerns over the effect the move will have on Afghan security forces in their ongoing fight against the Taliban, which was toppled from power when foreign forces intervened in 2001 but continues to control large swaths of the country. Of particular concern has been the planned end of US air support, which has been credited with giving Afghan forces a tactical edge over the Taliban. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that officials are weighing the option of sending in warplanes in what the newspaper described as “an extraordinary crisis”, such as the imminent fall of the Afghan capital Kabul. Such an intervention would require presidential approval, officials told the newspaper.”

 

Foreign Policy: U.S. Withdrawal Constrains Counterterrorism Options

 

“When U.S. President Joe Biden announced a full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, he said he planned to fight terrorism without boots on the ground. “We’ll reorganize our counterterrorism capabilities and the substantial assets in the region to prevent reemergence of terrorists,” he said in April. In recent days, it’s become clear that is easier said than done. On Sunday, the New York Times reported that U.S. officials have held talks with Pakistan about using nearby Pakistani military bases for U.S. counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan. This option makes sense: Pakistan has the advantage of location and precedent. It previously granted base privileges to U.S. security personnel for listening posts during the Cold War and for drones in the post-9/11 era. But anti-U.S. sentiment runs deep in Pakistan. The public strongly opposes basing arrangements for the United States. Prime Minister Imran Khan is a vocal opponent of U.S. drone strikes, and his government has taken a populist position on the question of U.S. basing—publicly rejecting the possibility of an agreement. According to the Times story, the U.S.-Pakistan talks have not gotten far.”

 

Yemen

 

Arab News: World Media’s Failure To Cover Houthi Terror In Yemen Fuels More Attacks: Correspondent

 

“The mainstream news media’s failure to fully cover violence in Yemen is preventing peace and fueling the continued Iran-backed Houthi violence there, veteran Yemeni journalist Saeed Al-Batati said Wednesday. Al-Batati, a war correspondent for Arab News in Yemen, said that the absence of aggressive media coverage was a contributing factor in why the Houthis have rejected peace and continued their bloody violence. Some media have covered the violence but the reporting has been sparse, he said. Saudi Arabia, which is leading a coalition of forces to stem the Houthi violence, unveiled a peace plan that was hailed as having the ability to help bring the conflict to a non-violent end. But the Houthis, without world pressure, rejected the plan and stepped up ballistic missile and drone strikes against civilian targets. On June 5, a Houthi ballistic missile that many believe was supplied by Iran hit a gas station in Marib, killing 21 civilians, including a 5-year-old girl, and seriously wounding dozens more. The emboldened Houthis doubled-down on their terrorism by sending a bomb-ladened drone to strike the ambulances and first responders sent to aid the victims.”

 

Middle East

 

The Wall Street Journal: When ISIS Families Come Home

 

“Sabinella Ayazbayeva has had a more eventful life than most young women from Kazakhstan. Born in 1990, she married at 19. She moved to Syria with her husband and children in 2014 and joined Islamic State. An airstrike made her a widow in 2017. She and her five kids eventually found themselves in al-Hol, a camp for families of ISIS fighters. After more than a year of uncertainty in the Syrian desert, they returned to Kazakhstan. She was 29. “I want my children to forget about what happened,” she told me through a translator on Zoom. “My life is going back to normal.” For the 62,000 people languishing in al-Hol, life remains far from normal. Most are Iraqi or Syrian, but about 9,000 came from other countries. The Syrian Democratic Forces run the 736-acre camp with limited resources. Brutal weather and squalid conditions can kill. And some guards enforce ISIS’ interpretation of Islam: Dozens at this “mini-caliphate” have been murdered this year—with at least 10 beheaded. The Trump administration oversaw the repatriation of more than two dozen American citizens. Some were fighters, but Washington also facilitated the return of wives and children. This was America at its best: offering the children of terrorists a shot at a normal life while giving even the most repulsive citizens their day in court.”

 

Nigeria

 

Premium Times Nigeria: Boko Haram Fuelled By Youth Unemployment, Poverty – Buhari

 

“The Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria is largely fuelled by youth unemployment and poverty, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has said. Mr Buhari said this in an interview with Arise TV aired on Thursday and monitored by PREMIUM TIMES. The Nigerian leader said he believes his government has done a lot to fight the terrorists but the problem in the “North-east is very difficult”. He said he believes the majority of the Boko Haram members are Nigerians after being told so by the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum.”

 

Africa

 

The Wall Street Journal: France Ends Africa Military Operation To Join Broader Alliance

 

“President Emmanuel Macron said he was ending France’s yearslong counterterrorism operation in the Sahel region of Africa as part of a plan to replace it with a broader international force. Operation Barkhane, as the French military campaign is known, will be folded into an international alliance that will include France’s Western and regional partners, Mr. Macron said. Mr. Macron didn’t say if he was planning to withdraw any of the 5,000 troops that France has stationed in the region, the semiarid belt running along the southern edge of the Sahara. “We will begin a profound transformation of our military presence in Sahel,” Mr. Macron told reporters on Thursday. Mr. Macron has led calls for what he has dubbed a European army to help shoulder security burdens as the U.S. has cut troop numbers in Africa. The U.S. military has provided support to the French operation, including drone surveillance, troop transport and other intelligence-gathering activities. In 2017, Islamist militants killed four U.S. soldiers based in Niger. France has been pushing its allies for years to share more of the burden in securing Mali and other Sahel countries that have become routes for people trafficking and terrorism.”

 

France 24: The Sahel: Terror, Poverty And Climate Change

 

“With French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday announcing a revamp of France's military deployment in the Sahel, we take a look at this deeply troubled region and its role in world politics. The Sahel, meaning coast or shore in Arabic, is a vast region that stretches along the southern rim of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Wedged between the desert to the north and tropical forests and savannah to the south, the belt has a semi-arid climate. There is debate over which countries actually belong to the Sahel. But a core group -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -- are gathered in an anti-jihadist alliance called the G5 Sahel. Other definitions of the region take in parts of Senegal, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea. With vast stretches of inhospitable desert and porous borders, the central Sahel is a hunting ground for armed groups, rebels, jihadists and criminal gangs. Jihadist violence erupted after a rebellion in northern Mali in 2012, with the conflict spreading to the centre of the country and then to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, claiming thousands of lives and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. One of the bloodiest flashpoints is the so-called “tri-border area” where the frontiers of Niger, Mali and Burkina converge.”

 

All Africa: Kenya: Two Killed, Vehicle Torched In Mandera Terror Attack

 

“Two people were killed and a vehicle torched on Wednesday when suspected Al-Shabaab militants ambushed Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers at Ireskinto village in Mandera. The vehicle, which had six people on board, was heading to Takaba in Mandera West from Mandera East when it was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device on Mandera-Wardud-Takaba road. Mandera County Criminal Investigations Officer Benedict Kigen said the officers bumped into the militants who were fleeing an ongoing security operation. “We suspect the KWS officers bumped on the militants who were being pursued by the security forces after the Monday bus attack,” he said. “We launched an operation to flush out the militants within Banisa and Mandera North Sub Counties and they are now trying to escape into Somalia,” Mr Kigen said. In the Wednesday attack, a Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and a civilian were killed while four others sustained injuries. The vehicle was also burnt after being hit by the explosive. Mr Kigen blamed lack of cooperation from the local community in the fight against Al-Shabaab. “The residents are withholding information about the presence of terrorists in the county but we are doing everything to weed out the enemy,” he said.”

 

United Kingdom

 

The Telegraph: One In Eight Terror Suspects Is A Child - The Highest Proportion On Record

 

“One in eight terrorism suspects are children, the highest proportion on record, new Home Office figures have revealed.  Thirteen per cent of those arrested in the year to March this year arrested under terrorism laws were aged under 18. This rise, up from five per cent the previous year, came as the Home Office noted that they had seen a fall in the number of older people being arrested for terrorism offences. Experts warned that the “worrying rise” in the number of arrests of under 18s was in part down to influence of far-Right extremists who are eschewing major social media platforms such as Facebook or Youtube and seeding extremism through newer ‘alt-tech’ platforms. Statistics released by the Home Office continue the trend over the last year which in March saw a record proportion of terrorist inmates holding “extreme right wing views”, as well as the highest ever proportion of terrorists who identified as British. The most recent figures show that of the 215 people in custody, 44 were described as “extreme right wing,” while the number of Islamic extremists made up 157, the lowest number in five years. Earlier this year a 16-year-old boy from Cornwall became Britain's youngest convicted terrorist after he admitted two offences of dissemination of terrorist documents and 10 of possession of terrorist material.”

 

The Guardian: Neo-Nazi Ex-Ukip Member Found Guilty Of Terrorism Offences

 

“A former Ukip member and British army employee has been found guilty of a range of terror and explosive charges. Dean Morrice ran a Telegram channel that prosecutors said had “unapologetically, unambiguously pumped out” neo-Nazi propaganda that encouraged the killing of people of colour and Jewish people. The 34-year-old was found to have a stockpile of chemicals used in homemade explosives as well as a cache of terrorism manuals and instructions for a 3D-printed gun when his home was raided in August last year. On Thursday a jury at Kingston crown court convicted him of 10 counts related to terrorism and explosives, all of which he had denied. They were two counts of having an explosive substance, three counts of dissemination of a terrorist publication, one of encouraging terrorism and four of possession of a document useful for terrorist purposes. Morrice, who told police after his arrest that it was clear they were worried he was “the next Christchurch shooter”, was remanded in custody to be sentenced on Monday. A previous hearing was told that Morrice made a video of himself strumming along on a guitar to footage of the 2019 terror attacks on mosques in the New Zealand city, in which 51 people were killed.”

 

The Independent: Was Isis Claim Of Responsiblity For The Fishmongers’ Hall Attack Another Fake?

 

“There was “nothing to support” Isis’s claim of responsibility for a London terror attack that left two victims dead, the security services have said. Usman Khan launched a knife rampage at a prison rehabilitation event at Fishmongers’ Hall on 29 November 2019. The 28-year-old, who was wearing a fake suicide vest, was chased onto London Bridge by attendees and shot dead by armed police.”

 

France

 

The Jerusalem Post: Could Iran Use Shi’ite Centers In France To Spread Terror? - Report

 

“The Alma Research and Education Center reported on Thursday that two organizations in France, referred to as “Al-Ghadir,” and “Imam Al Khoei,” could possibly be used to “spread the dangerous ideology of the radical Shi’ite axis led by Iran to youngsters and adults alike.” The report states that the axis aims to develop “an active civilian and military integrated infrastructure,” as a possible terror base on European soil. These reports and activities all appear to to be part of the movement referred to as “Ahlul Bayt” that was established in 1990. The Alma Research Center has stated that it will continue to examine whether these organizations serve as an outlet to promote “indoctrination and radical ideology linked to terrorist activities.” However, France is reportedly unaware of these organizations and their affiliation to the Shi’ite axis, but has kept a close eye and sometimes closing down religious institutions and organizations with some even linked to the activities of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, according to the press release by the Alma Research Center. The Alma Research Center is a non-profit organization whose goal is to educate on geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East and make this information accessible to English-speakers, according to their website.”

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