“At least 48% of the Palestinians killed during the May 10-21 Gaza conflict
were associated with terrorist groups, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terr

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


June 23, 2021

 

The Jerusalem Post: 48% Of Gaza War Casualties Associated With Terror Groups –
Intel Report
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“At least 48% of the Palestinians killed during the May 10-21 Gaza conflict
were associated with terrorist groups, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center reported Tuesday. In a copy of the report first obtained by
The Jerusalem Post, the intelligence center broke down the more than 200
Palestinians killed according to their affiliation with terrorist groups,
identified those killed by Palestinian misfires and listed civilian deaths. The
center is viewed as one of the most serious think tanks in Israel since it is
staffed with former high-ranking officers and officials from Israel’s three
intelligence services. Though it also sometimes receives classified information
from the intelligence services, it is not formally connected to the government
or the IDF and reaches its conclusions independently without coordination with
official bodies. In the report, the center recognized that there are different
estimates about the number of dead Palestinians, ranging between 240 and 260,
and it used the number 234. According to the report, some 112 of the 234 were
associated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad or another terrorist group. Breaking down
the 112, there were 63 associated with Hamas, 20 with Islamic Jihad, 25 with a
terrorist wing of Fatah and a few others with smaller splinter groups.”

 

The Sydney Morning Herald: Bipartisan Inquiry Urges Government To Declare All
Of Hezbollah A Terrorist Group
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“Australia is one step closer to listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation
after a bipartisan inquiry urged the federal government to move on the Lebanese
militant group and political party. The powerful intelligence and security
committee has recommended all of Hezbollah be declared a terrorist entity,
rather than just a wing of its security arm. Home Affairs Minister Karen
Andrews last month re-listed Hezbollah’s External Security Organisation, but
maintained Australia’s longstanding position not to do the same for the other
wings of the Iranian-backed group. Tabling its report into the listing on
Tuesday afternoon, the committee’s chair, Liberal Senator James Paterson, said
it was “concerned by the decision to at this stage only re-list Hezbollah’s
ESO”. “In its last review of the re-listing of Hezbollah in 2018, the Committee
recommended that the government consider extending the listing to include the
military wing of Hezbollah,” he said. “In this report, the committee goes a
step further. We recommend the government consider listing Hezbollah in its
entirety as a terrorist organisation. Senator James Paterson says there is no
reason why the whole of the organisation shouldn’t be listed.”

 

United States

 

NBC News: Pelosi Mulling Whether To Form House Committee To Investigate Jan. 6
Attack
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“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is considering whether to form a House
select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot after Republicans blocked
legislation to create a bipartisan panel. Pelosi informed the House Democratic
Steering and Policy committee of her thinking Tuesday evening, stressing the
importance study the attack, which left several dead and dozens injured. The
exact timing of when this will begin remains unclear, a source told NBC News.
There was initial confusion as to whether Pelosi was moving to form the
committee or mulling the possibility. Drew Hammill, the speaker's deputy chief
of staff, clarified her position in a tweet Tuesday evening, saying Pelosi
plans to announce her decision this week. “Her preference continues to be a
bipartisan commission which Senate Republicans are blocking,” Hammill said.
Senate Republicans blocked House-passed legislation in May that would have
established a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack. Fifty-four
senators voted in favor and 35 opposed, short of the 60 votes needed to
proceed. The bill passed the House in late May by a vote of 252-175, with 35
Republicans in favor. It was negotiated by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and
Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., the top Democrat and Republican members of the House
Homeland Security Committee.”

 

Patch: UMass-Lowell Can't Suspend Waltham Man With Neo-Nazi Ties
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“…The nonprofit Counter Extremism Project says NSC-131 is a “leaderless,
decentralized organization” and lists Hood, previously of Malden, as its
“alleged founder.” During the Jan. 6 riot, screenshots taken from Telegram, the
encrypted messaging app NSC-131 uses to communicate, showed members holding up
the group's logo outside the Capitol. “Known NSC tactics include antagonizing
social-justice protesters, vandalism, and posting stickers and other
propaganda,” the Counter Extremism Project says in its entry on NSC-131. “NSC
members have joined right-wing and pro-police rallies where they have displayed
Nazi flags and symbols, as well as engaged in physical altercations.”

 

Syria

 

Voice Of America: Australia Urged To Repatriate Islamic State Widow From
Syrian Camp
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“Family members of alleged Islamic State militants held in Syrian camps are
urging the Australian government to repatriate dozens of its citizens. Kamalle
Dabboussy’s Sydney-born daughter Mariam and her three young children are being
held at the al-Roj refugee camp in north-east Syria. They are among about 60
Australians stranded there. The Australian government has said it was too
dangerous for diplomatic staff to visit the region to try to bring them home. 
Dabboussy believes the security situation is stable enough for his daughter and
grandchildren to be brought home, but he has warned that volatility in the
region could return at any time. It is estimated that 10,000 suspected widows
and children of former Islamic State fighters are among 70,000 people held in
the al-Roj and al-Hawl detention camps, according to Newlines Institute for
Strategy and Policy, a U.S.-based foreign policy think tank, most are Iraqi and
Syrian nationals. They were taken to the facilities after the jihadist group
was defeated in 2019. Charities have said the camps are beset by violence, food
shortages and a lack of medical care. There are concerns that women and
children are at risk of exploitation. The United States and the European Union
have warned that the camps could breed a new generation of militants.”

 

Turkey

 

Daily Sabah: Senior Daesh Terrorist Nabbed, Remanded In Custody In Turkey
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“Turkish court remanded a senior Daesh terrorist after he was nabbed in an
operation led by Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in Syria,
said a security source on Tuesday. Kasım Güler, code-named Abu Usame al Turki,
was remanded by a court in the capital Ankara for managing an armed terrorist
organization. MIT initiated efforts to nab Güler on June 15 after learning that
he was planning to cross into Turkey from Syria and plotting a large-scale
terrorist attack, said the source, who asked not to be named due to
restrictions on speaking to the media. The terrorist, who is responsible for
the terrorist group's activities in Turkey, was in the red category of the
Interior Ministry's wanted terrorist list. The wanted list is divided into five
color-coded categories, with red representing the most wanted, followed by
blue, green, orange and gray. After a period of surveillance, MIT nabbed the
terrorist in Syria and brought him to Turkey for interrogation, said the
source. It was ascertained that the terrorist was preparing to enter Turkey
illegally with arms and explosives. The terrorist moved to the
Afghanistan-Pakistan region between 2008- 2010, operated in conflict areas and
joined Daesh in 2014.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The New York Times: Attacked And Vulnerable, Some Afghans Are Forming Their
Own Armies
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“The slaughter of students, mostly teenagers, at a tutoring center. The deaths
of young athletes in a suicide bombing at a wrestling club. Mothers shot dead
with newborns in their arms. These relentless killings of Hazaras, a persecuted
minority in Afghanistan, finally proved too much to bear for Zulfiqar Omid, a
Hazara leader in the central part of the country. In April, Mr. Omid began
mobilizing armed men into militias to defend Hazara areas against the Taliban
and the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan. He said he now commands 800
armed men at seven staging areas mustered into what he calls “self-protection
groups.” “Hazaras get killed in cities and on highways, but the government
doesn’t protect them,” Mr. Omid said. “Enough is enough. We have to protect
ourselves.” As U.S. and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan, and talks falter
between the Taliban and the American-backed government, ethnic groups across
the country have formed militias or say they plan to arm themselves. The rush
to raise fighters and weapons evokes the mujahedeen wars of the early 1990s,
when rival militias killed thousands of civilians and left sections of Kabul in
ruins.”

 

CNN: 50 Of Afghanistan's 370 Districts Have Fallen To Taliban Since May: UN
Envoy
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“Fifty of Afghanistan's 370 districts have fallen to Taliban militants since
May, according to the UN's special envoy on Afghanistan Deborah Lyons, as the
United States continues its military withdrawal from the country. “The Taliban
recent advances are even more significant and are as a result of an intensified
military campaign; more than 50 of Afghanistan's 370 districts have fallen
since the beginning of May,” Lyons told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
“Most districts have been that have been taken surround provincial capitals,
suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these
capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn,” Lyons continued. The news
came as a local power company told media Tuesday that violent clashes had
damaged key electrical infrastructure, causing power outages in 11 provinces
including Kabul. Over the past 24 hours, Taliban fighters have taken control of
several districts in Kunduz province and the important border crossing with
Tajikistan, according to a Rabani Rabani, a member of the Kunduz provincial
council. The districts include Chahar Dara, Khan Abad, Imam Sahib, and as well
as Shirkhan Bandar, a crossing point with Tajikistan, Rabani said.”

 

Africa

 

Reuters: At Least 11 Police Killed In Burkina Faso Ambush
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“Eleven police officers were killed and four are missing after their unit was
ambushed in northern Burkina Faso late on Monday, the country's security
minister said on Tuesday. The ambush occurred while the unit was on a relief
mission to the town of Yirgou, which has been hit by recent violence, Security
Minister Ousseini Compaore said in a statement. “Joint search operations with
the army have been under way since yesterday,” Compaore said. Attacks by
militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State are surging across the Sahel
region, killing thousands and displacing millions across Burkina Faso, Mali and
Niger. About 1.2 million people have been displaced by the violence in Burkina
Faso. At least 132 people were killed by insurgents last month in the worst
single attack yet.”

 

The North Africa Post: Morocco: ISIS-Linked Terror Cell Dismantled, Four
Arrested
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“The Central Bureau for Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) dismantled, this
Tuesday morning, an ISIS-linked terror cell in the rural commune of Sidi Zouine
(Marrakech-Safi region) made up of four extremists aged between 22 and 28. This
security operation is part of the ongoing efforts in the fight against
terrorism and extremist groups that seek to undermine the Kingdom’s security
and stability, BCIJ points out in a statement. The leader of this cell intended
to attack targets and sites in Morocco and was planning to join the camps of
the Islamic State in the Sahel region following contacts with a leader within
this organization who asked him to join the ISIS combat camps in order to take
part in training on the manufacture of explosive devices. the BCIJ statement
says. Investigations carried out revealed that the “emir” of this terrorist
cell used his welding skills to manufacture bladed weapons and explosive
devices. He also carried out tests for the preparation and use of these
explosive materials, before acquiring chemicals to complete the manufacture of
these devices as part of the preparation of his terrorist scheme inside the
Kingdom.”

 

United Kingdom

 

The Independent: British Aircraft Carrier Deployed In First Direct Action
Against Isis
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“The aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, leading the largest naval and air
taskforce under British command since the Falklands, has carried out its first
direct military operation against Isis. British and American F-35B Stealth jets
took part in attacks on insurgent positions in Syria and Iraq in an operation
which, it is claimed, also “denied airspace” to Russian aircraft flying in an
area in support of Bashar al-Assad’s Damascus regime. A number of positions
were targeted in the attack although the details of the damage inflicted by
fighters from the 617 Squadron RAF (The Dambusters) and the US Marine Corps
remain unclear. Defence officials held that the overall aims were achieved. The
deployment, which will take the fleet to the Far East, and into waters disputed
by China and a number of neighbouring states, is part of a post-Brexit tilt
outside Europe in defence and foreign policies announced by Boris Johnson’s
government. The raids took place under Operation Shader, the British
contribution to the international counter-Isis mission. They came amid warnings
that the Islamist group is once again regrouping and growing in strength since
the fall of its caliphate.”

 

Daily Maverick: UK Military Deepens Ties With Regime Accused Of Funding Terror
Groups
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“… When a ceremony was held in London to mark the first joint squadron in July
2018, the MOD stated that Qatar and the UK “share mutual interests in
countering violent extremism” and “ensuring stability” in the Middle East.
However, Qatar’s government “has paid ransom demands, shipped supplies, and
funnelled billions of dollars of funding” to militant groups across the Middle
East, according to the Counter-Extremism Project (CEP), a think tank close to
the US establishment. The BBC noted in 2017 that Qatar has close relationships
with the Taliban, the main force that has fought the British military in
Afghanistan, and “certain al-Qaeda affiliates”, such as in Syria. The CEP notes
that Qatar harbours at least 13 individuals accused of having links to
terrorism and seven al-Qaeda financiers. In August 2019, eight Syrian refugees
filed a lawsuit in the UK alleging that accounts at the Doha Bank in Qatar had
been used to channel funds to the Nusra Front in Syria.”

 

France

 

The Wall Street Journal: France’s Macron Pushes Controls On Religion To
Pressure Mosques
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“President Emmanuel Macron is redrawing the line that separates religion and
state, in a battle to force Islamic organizations into the mold of French
secularism. In recent months, his administration has ousted the leadership of a
mosque after temporarily closing it and poring over its finances. Another
mosque gave up millions in subsidies after the government pressured local
officials over the funding. A dozen other mosques have faced orders to close
temporarily for safety or fire-code violations. The government has taken these
actions as a precursor to a much broader push to rein in the independence of
mosques and other religious organizations across France. Mr. Macron has
submitted a bill to Parliament, called the Law Reinforcing Respect of the
Principles of the Republic, that would empower the government to permanently
close houses of worship and dissolve religious organizations, without court
order, if it finds that any of their members are provoking violence or inciting
hatred. In addition, the bill would allow temporary closure of any religious
group that spreads ideas that incite hatred or violence.”

 

Germany

 

Daily Sabah: 70% Of Germans See Right-Extremism As Major Threat: Study
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“According to a study commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and
published Tuesday, about 70% of Germans see right-wing extremism as a major
threat. The annual study asked 1,750 people about their political attitudes and
perceptions. It shows that right-wing extremism and climate change are
perceived as the greatest threats by Germans at the moment, with climate change
garnering slightly less concern than extremism. The topic of migration, which
still played a role after Germany accepted a large number of migrants after
2015, is only seen as a threat by 25% of people. According to Beate Kuepper
from the Niederrhein University, who contributed to the study, the center of
society has been “scared and awakened” by a recent increase in right-wing
terrorist attacks. The study found that extreme-right views were only held by a
very small percentage, and especially among less-educated people. While 3.2% of
people with lower education adhered to extreme-right thinking, only 0.8% of
people with a higher educational degree did. The extreme-right sentiment was
especially present in regions “where the AfD (Alternative for Germany) was
successful in the 2017 parliamentary election” and where few foreigners live,
the study found.”

 

Europe

 

The Hill: EU Police: Extremists Used Pandemic To 'Spread Hate Propaganda And
Exacerbate Mistrust In Public Institutions'
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“Terrorist organizations used the pandemic to “spread hate propaganda and
exacerbate mistrust in public institutions,” according to the European Union
police’s annual terrorism situation and trend report. Europol, in the report
released Tuesday, wrote that COVID-19 and the resulting economic and social
crises “contributed to polarisation in society, causing attitudes to harden and
increasing acceptance of intimidation, including calls to commit violent acts.”
Europol added that “Expressions of social dissatisfaction increased, both
online and offline, with social media playing a facilitating and mobilising
role, as well as the proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories.”
The group, in a press release announcing the report's findings, noted that
while terrorists have, in recent years, exploited polarization in society to
“pollute the social climate with violent ideologies,” the pandemic “has further
accelerated this development.” “There has been a notable increase in
intolerance of political opponents, while the number of individuals conducting
verbal or physical violence is also increasing,” the police group added.
Europol recorded 57 “completed, failed and foiled” terrorist attacks in 2020 in
Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, according to the report.”

 

Technology

 

Bloomberg Law: Twitter, Google, Facebook Mostly Immune To ISIS Attack Lawsuits
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“Google, Twitter, and Facebook must continue fighting claims that they aided
and abetted an act of international terrorism after the Ninth Circuit revived a
lawsuit brought by family members of an individual killed at the Reina
nightclub massacre in Istanbul, Turkey. But it’s likely based on the court’s
rulings on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in a related appeal
over terrorist attacks in Paris that the plaintiffs will face long odds on
remand. The issue of immunity wasn’t reached in the Reina nightclub case,
because the lower court dismissed the lawsuit under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed lower court rulings that
most of the plaintiffs’ claims were barred by Section 230 immunity for claims
based on publisher status, but it suggested Congress ought to revisit the
provision. The law, according to the court, “is likely premised on an
antiquated understanding of the extent to which it is possible to screen
content posted by third parties.” “Whether social media companies should
continue to enjoy broad immunity for the third-party content they publish, and
whether their use of algorithms ought to be regulated, are pressing questions
that Congress should address,” the court said.”

 

The Guardian: Myanmar: Facebook Promotes Content Urging Violence Against Coup
Protesters – Study
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“Facebook is promoting content that incites violence against Myanmar’s
anti-coup protesters and amplifies junta misinformation, despite promising to
clamp down on the misuse of its platform, according to a study. An
investigation by the rights group Global Witness found that Facebook’s
recommendation algorithm continues to invite users to view content that
breaches its own policies. After liking a Myanmar military fan page, which did
not contain recent posts violating Facebook’s policies, the rights group found
that Facebook suggested several pro-military pages that contained abusive
content. Among the posts featured on one of the pages was an image of a
“wanted” poster offering a $10m bounty for the capture “dead or alive” of a
young woman. The post claimed she was among protesters who had burned down a
factory following a military crackdown. Images of the woman’s face and a
screenshot of what appeared to be her Facebook profile were posted alongside a
caption reading: “This girl is the one who committed arson in Hlaing Tharyar.
Her account has been deactivated. But she cannot run.” Global Witness said that
its report demonstrated that self-regulation by Facebook was not working, and
called for Facebook’s recommendation algorithm to be subject to independent
audit.”



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