“Pastor Michael Grady was in a store on a Saturday morning two years ago when
he got a call from his wife. She had learned that their daughter was lyi

 

 


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Eye on Extremism


August 4, 2021 

 

NBC News: 'White Supremacy, Racism': Remembering The El Paso Massacre That
Targeted Latinos
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“Pastor Michael Grady was in a store on a Saturday morning two years ago when
he got a call from his wife. She had learned that their daughter was lying in a
pool of blood in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, after having been shot three
times. When Grady arrived to see his daughter Michelle Grady, then 33, they had
to lift her body outside using a shopping cart, fighting other wounded victims
to get her inside an ambulance. “I prayed for the Lord to spare her life, and
he did,” he said. Authorities say that on Aug. 3, 2019, a Texas man drove 700
miles to El Paso from a Dallas suburb and opened fire with an automatic rifle,
killing 23 people, including a man who died as a result of his injuries nine
months later, and injuring about two dozen more. The suspect, who according to
an indictment, told authorities that he targeted Latinos, had railed against
immigrants and Hispanics in writing, law enforcement officials said. The attack
is considered to be the deadliest against Hispanics in modern U.S. history.
Grady, who advocates for gun control legislation and immigrant border reform,
stood alongside members of the nonprofit Border Network for Human Rights, or
BNHR, survivors of the massacre and elected officials at one of the events
Tuesday to remember those who lost their lives.”

 

Daily Mail: Islamist Hate Preacher Anjem Choudary Is Kicked Off Instagram Days
After He Was Banned From Twitter And Facebook
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“Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has had his Instagram account suspended - just
days after he was also booted off Twitter and Facebook. The 54-year-old joined
the social networking site as anjemchoudary1967 and began posting on Monday.
But within hours, Instagram's parent company Facebook moved to take the account
down for violating its policies. It comes days after Choudary's accounts on
Facebook and Twitter were 'permanently suspended for violating the rules' of
its violent organisations policy. The firebrand preacher began setting up
online profiles two weeks ago after legal conditions that prevented him from
speaking publicly expired on July 18. He had been the subject of legal
restrictions since he was released from prison in October 2018 following a
five-and-a-half-year stretch for inviting support for Islamic State. But after
they became void, Choudary joined a number of social networks. He also began
sending essays promoting Shariah Law to a network of Whatsapp contacts, where
he promoted his Instagram account. 'Alhamdulillah (praise be to Allah) I am now
on instagram, feel free to follow me for updates on anjemchoudary1967,' he
texted the group. While active, his Instagram account showed a picture of him
in glasses and another snap read: 'I bear witness that there is no Ilah
(God/diety) except Allah (God Almighty).”

 

United States

 

The New York Times: Biden Officials Open To Tightening Law Authorizing War On
Terrorist Groups
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“The Biden administration is open to several potential ways to tighten a
much-stretched 2001 law that serves as the domestic legal basis for the
open-ended “forever war” against terrorists around the world, a senior State
Department official told Congress on Tuesday. Testifying before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, the deputy secretary of state, Wendy R. Sherman,
favorably — but vaguely — cited ideas to give Congress some role in any future
decisions to expand counterterrorism operations to additional terrorist groups
or to new countries, as well as to require periodic reviews of such groups and
countries. “I think that there is a lot of work to be done,” she said. “It may
be that those kinds of ideas aren’t the right ones, but those are things that
we are willing to discuss — as well as other things that the Senate might put
on the table.” Ms. Sherman made her comments at a hearing that was officially
devoted to pending legislation to repeal two other aging war-powers laws: the
1991 law that authorized the Persian Gulf War and the 2002 law that authorized
President George W. Bush to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein. The
committee has scheduled a session on Wednesday to mark up and vote on
legislation to repeal the two laws.”

 

Syria

 

ABC News: UN Chief: Threat To Global Peace From Islamic State Rising
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“Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says in a new report that the threat to
international peace and security from the Islamic State extremist group is
rising, pointing to an “alarming” expansion of its affiliates in Africa and its
focus on a comeback in its former self-declared “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq.
The report to the U.N. Security Council, which was circulated Tuesday, said IS
and other terrorist groups have taken advantage of “the disruption, grievances
and development setbacks” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, both on the ground
and online. While lockdowns in non-conflict areas suppressed terrorist
activity, in conflict areas where pandemic restrictions have less impact the
threat from IS, also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh, “has already
increased,” Guterres said. “As pandemic-related restrictions gradually ease,
there is an elevated near-term threat of Daesh-inspired attacks outside
conflict zones by lone actors or small groups that have been radicalized,
incited and possibly directly remotely online,” he said. The U.N. chief said
this exemplifies a wider and evolving risk from the accelerated use of digital
technologies during the pandemic, and the potential for “new and emerging
technologies to be used for terrorist purposes.”

 

Voice Of America: Islamic State Group Smuggling Boys To Desert Training Camps
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“More than two years after the collapse of its self-declared caliphate, the
Islamic State terror group appears to be trying to rebuild its army in the
eastern Syrian desert on the backs of boys and teenagers, many smuggled out of
the displaced persons camps that dot Syria's northeast. The revelation, based
on U.S. military intelligence, is part of a report issued Tuesday by the U.S.
Defense Department's inspector general on American and allied operations in
Syria and Iraq. In particular, the report warned that despite a series of
crackdowns by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, IS, also known as ISIS
or Daesh, retains significant influence in many of the camps, as well as
freedom of movement, allowing it to target “the most susceptible” for
recruitment. “ISIS has given priority to smuggling boys out of these camps to
training locations in the Syrian desert,” the report said, citing assessments
from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. U.S. military officials further
warned that the al-Hol displaced persons camp, in particular, has been a hotbed
for IS recruitment and radicalization. U.S. Central Command, which oversees
U.S. forces in the Middle East, told the inspector general that in exchange for
more money, female IS supporters increased their radicalization efforts at
al-Hol between April and June, using social media to target children and
teenagers.”

 

Fox News: American Girl Whose Mother Took Her To Join ISIS Rescued In Syria
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“An 8-year-old, U.S.-born girl whose parents joined ISIS was rescued from a
Syrian camp and is awaiting approval to return back to the U.S. “She clearly
self-identified as Aminah and talked about her family with deep sadness,” said
Anne Speckhard, after the International Center for the Study of Violent
Extremism interviewed the rescued girl named Aminah Mohamad on Saturday,
according to BuzzFeed. The young girl was born in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 2011
and lived under ISIS rule since 2014, before she was sent to a
Kurdish-controlled detention camp and then rescued on July 17. Speckhard added
that the girl “doesn’t have a clear context as to where she is from,” and needs
“a safe, predictable and loving environment to replace the traumatic one (she)
lived under.” Her American mother, Ariel Bradley, was an evangelical Christian
who joined ISIS and married the girl’s father Yasin Mohamad, a Swedish Muslim,
in 2011. Bradley gave birth to her daughter in the United States, before going
back to Sweden and eventually relocating to Syria. Both of the parents are now
deceased, with Mohamad dying in an airstrike some time after June 2015 and
Bradley dying in an airstrike in late 2018.  The girl is now in a secure
location in northeast Syria, which was made possible by former U.S. diplomat
Peter Galbraith, as well as a Canadian woman who met Bradley while living under
ISIS.”

 

Iraq

 

Kurdistan 24: Two Iraqi Federal Police Killed In ISIS Attack In Kirkuk:
Official
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“Two members of the Iraqi federal police were killed south of Kirkuk early
Tuesday in an attack a police source said was carried out by ISIS. A militant
was also killed and another wounded in the attack, the Iraqi Media Security
Cell said, confirming the confrontation between federal police and ISIS in
Safra village in the district of Rashad. A security source from the Kirkuk
Federal Police told Kurdistan 24 that two members of the police service were
also killed in the attack. Kirkuk province is one of the territories whose
control is disputed between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq’s federal government
where, following its ouster from most territory in Iraq, ISIS has continued
hit-and-run attacks against security forces and civilians. The Iraqi security
forces and Peshmerga have recently formed a number of joint cooperation centers
to try to bring stability to areas disputed by Baghdad and Erbil. There are
also plans to form additional joint Peshmerga-Iraqi brigades in the contested
areas.”

 

Turkey

 

The Independent: Concern Over Struggle To Prosecute Isis Returnees As Turkey
Deportations Loom
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“Concern is mounting over legal barriers that mean Isis fighters being sent
back to the UK from Turkish jails cannot be prosecuted for joining the
terrorist group. Stefan Aristidou, who travelled to Syria in 2015, was charged
with the less serious offence of sharing Isis propaganda because he has already
served a sentence for his activities abroad. The 27-year-old was deported to
Britain from Turkey, where he had been among several British jihadis including
alleged ‘Beatle’ Aine Davis jailed as Isis members. Aristidou had been arrested
on the Syrian border in April 2017, after spending time in the so-called
Islamic State’s former capital of Raqqa, and was jailed for Isis membership in
October 2018. He was released early from a six-year prison sentence because of
the coronavirus pandemic, and sent back to the UK in February. British
authorities are bracing for further deportations from Turkey, but under one in
10 returnees from Syria have been prosecuted so far. Not all of the around 40
prosecutions involved terror offences, and only a tiny proportion were
convicted of Isis membership. Officials say their hands are tied by legal and
practical issues, including the difficulty of proving what people did after
crossing into Syria.”

 

Afghanistan

 

The Washington Post: Multiple Blasts, Gunfire Rock Kabul As Conflict With
Taliban Intensifies Ahead Of U.S. Withdrawal
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“Several explosions and gunfights rocked Kabul on Tuesday night as the
conflict between the Taliban and Afghan government forces is intensifying
elsewhere in the country ahead of the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces this
month. The attack began with a car bomb followed by gunmen on foot targeting
the guesthouse of a senior Afghan security official in downtown Kabul, one of
the largest assaults on the city in months, according to two Afghan officials.
A vehicle laden with explosives detonated at a checkpoint in the city center
and was followed by a barrage of gunfire, the officials said, speaking on the
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Other blasts, rocket and small-arms fire could be heard in downtown Kabul
following the attack. Gunmen entered the acting defense minister’s compound,
but Bismillah Khan Mohammadi was not present, according to one of the security
officials. The acting minister tweeted, “Don’t worry. Everything is fine,”
about an hour after the attack began. It is unclear whether clashes were
ongoing. No group claimed responsibility, and the ministry of interior did not
immediately release information about casualties.”

 

The Wall Street Journal: Taliban Commander Who Led Attack On Afghan City Was
Released From Prison Last Year, Officials Say
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“The Taliban commander overseeing an assault on the key southern city of
Lashkargah is one of 5,000 former prisoners released by the Afghan government
last year under pressure from the U.S., Afghan and Western officials say. The
commander, Mawlavi Talib, is one of thousands of former prisoners freed to
further peace talks who have returned to the battlefield to join the Taliban
onslaught against cities around the country, Afghan officials say. The presence
of the Taliban fighters is a fresh strain in relations between Washington and
Kabul, as the U.S.-backed government struggles to fend off Taliban attacks
throughout the country. Afghan officials said fierce fighting continued Tuesday
in Lashkargah, the provincial capital of Helmand province, after heavy U.S.
airstrikes and a counterattack by U.S.-trained Afghan commandos overnight.
Under Mr. Talib’s command, hundreds of Taliban have pushed toward the city
center over the past week. On Tuesday they launched an attack on Lashkargah’s
prison in a bid to release more inmates and recruit them into the fight. The
fighting in Lashkargah is part of a wider countrywide Taliban offensive that
had captured half of the country’s remote districts by last month and now
threatens provincial capitals.”

 

Saudi Arabia

 

Gulf News: Saudi Man Executed For ‘Terrorist’ Acts
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“Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry announced the execution Tuesday of a man it
said had been found guilty of armed rebellion and protesting against the state
in the Shiite populated eastern region of Qatif. The ministry said in a
statement the execution of the convict was carried out in the Eastern
Province’s administrative capital of Dammam. The statement said the convict had
participated in the attempted killing of police by opening fire at various
security points and patrols throughout Qatif. It added he also assisted in
weapons smuggling and took part in marches and riots, which Saudi law deems as
undermining the social fabric and cohesion of society. The statement described
them as “terrorist” acts. The statement said interrogations resulted in related
charges and that a death sentence was administered as punishment. The statement
did not identify the man or specify when the alleged crimes had taken place.”

 

Middle East

 

Arab News: Efforts To Fight Global Terrorism Discussed
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“Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajjraf, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC), met with Jehangir Khan, director of the UN Counter-Terrorism
Center (UNCCT). During the meeting, they reviewed the efforts of the GCC in
combating terrorism. Al-Hajjraf affirmed the council’s continuous support for
the UN in combating crimes of terrorism and extremism, in addition to
strengthening their cooperation while achieving security and peace in the
world. A day earlier, Khan met with Dr. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Rabeeah,
adviser at the Royal Court and supervisor general of the King Salman
Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief). The UN Security Council has
adopted additional resolutions, often under Chapter VII, to address new avenues
of terrorist financing, including by targeting the nexus between terrorists and
organized crime groups and tackling fundraising through kidnapping for ransom.
The council focuses on enhancing capacities of member states and private
organizations in preventing and mitigating the misuse of technological
developments by terrorists and extremists.”

 

Nigeria

 

Reuters: Kidnappers In Nigeria Demand Ransom To Release 80 Schoolchildren
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“Kidnappers are demanding a ransom of one million naira each to release around
80 children snatched from a boarding school in northern Nigeria last month,
according to a pastor involved in the negotiations for their release. The
attack on the Bethel Baptist High School in the state of Kaduna was the 10th
mass school kidnapping since December in northwest Nigeria, which authorities
have attributed to criminal gangs seeking ransom payments. “(Bandits) are
asking for one million naira on each of the 80 students remaining with them,”
Reverend Ite Joseph Hayab told Reuters by telephone. Kidnappers released 28
children last month after a first batch of 28 was released two days after the
raid. But another 81 remain in captivity. Hayab said three students escaped
before the 28 were released last month but they were kidnapped again by an
unidentified person in the forest who demanded a ransom and was paid over one
million naira by parents. Nigerian authorities have attributed the kidnappings
to what they call armed bandits seeking ransom payments.”

 

Africa

 

Voice Of America: Cameroon Says Hundreds Boko Haram Fighters Surrendering
After Abubakar Shekau’s Death
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“Authorities in Cameroon say there are seeing an increase in the number of
Boko Haram militants surrendering at a disarmament center on the northern
border with Nigeria. Officials say there have been hundreds of defections from
the terrorist group since May, when Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Islamist
group, was declared killed. Cameroonian authorities said they are overwhelmed
by the number of militants fleeing the extremist group Boko Haram. The National
Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, or the DDR, a
center set up by the government, hosts about 750 former militants in Meri, a
town on the northern border with Nigeria. Dieudonne Nkollo Zanga is one of the
administrators of the DDR center in Meri. He said the center received more than
155 militants within the past seven days and a total of about 450 militants
have arrived at the center since May. Zanga said the government of Cameroon has
provided space in Meme, another northern town not far from Nigeria, for the
construction of a center that can host 1,500 former Boko Haram fighters. He
said funds to construct the DDR center are available and construction work will
begin soon.”

 

The Defense Post: 16 Killed In Attack In DR Congo’s Restive East: Army
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“At least 16 people were killed in an attack in the Democratic Republic of
Congo’s conflict-plagued east, believed to be the work of armed Islamists,
military and local sources said Tuesday. According to local civilian sources
the victims of Monday’s attack, including two women, had been taken hostage
weeks earlier by members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which the US
says is linked to the Islamic State group. The hostages were knifed to death
along a main highway near Idohu, in the restive Ituri province, local official
Dieudonne Malangai said. Ituri’s military governor Johnny Luboya Nkashama
speaking in Komanda, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the incident, condemned
the killings. “We will reinforce our presence in the region,” he told AFP. The
vast central African country’s government has placed Ituri and the neighboring
North Kivu province under a state of siege since May, in a move aimed at
stepping up the fight against armed groups. The ADF is the deadliest of the
militias operating in the region. It began as an armed Ugandan Muslim group,
and has been active in mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for 30
years.”

 

Europe

 

Reuters: Prosecutors Probe Terrorism Among Reasons Behind Italy Region Hacking
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“Italian prosecutors are considering terrorism among the reasons behind a
cyber attack that shut down all services offered by the Lazio region through
its website, two investigative sources told Reuters on Tuesday. On Sunday the
region, which manages services for 5.9 million people living in a large area
surrounding Rome, said that hackers had attacked and closed down the IT systems
of the company that manages COVID-19 vaccination appointments. It said all
systems had been deactivated, including those of the region’s health portal,
and warned the vaccine inoculation programme could suffer a delay. Two sources
told Reuters on Tuesday that Rome’s prosecutors had opened an investigation
into the attack and cited terrorism as a potential aggravating factor for
people behind the hack. “Lazio had been hit by a ransomware attack”, one of the
sources said, adding that all the computers normally managing online services
for citizens, including appointments for coronavirus vaccinations and swabs,
were still paralysed. The hackers had not yet made a request for money or other
payments, the source said, but added they had opened a dialogue with the region
that could result in a ransom request later on.”

 

Technology

 

NPR: Antisemitic Posts Are Rarely Removed By Social Media Companies, A Study
Finds
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“Five major social media companies, including Facebook and Twitter, took no
action to remove 84% of antisemitic posts, a new report from the Center to
Counter Digital Hate (CCDH) found. Despite promising to crack down on
antisemitic hate, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok did not act
on these posts even as they were flagged through the existing tools used for
reporting malignant content. Researchers from the CCDH, a nongovernmental
organization based in the United States and the United Kingdom, examined 714
anti-Jewish posts on the five platforms published between May and June.
Collectively, they had been viewed 7.3 million times, the report said. “The
study of antisemitism has taught us a lot of things ... if you allow it space
to grow, it will metastasize. It is a phenomenally resilient cancer in our
society,” Imran Ahmed, the CEO of CCDH told NPR. He said social media spaces
have been “unable or unwilling” to take action against antisemitic posts
effectively. This study differs from others, he said, in that CCDH wanted to
prove that social media companies aren't unable to moderate content — they just
choose not to.”

 

Axios: A Model To Predict Terror Attacks Ahead Of Time
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“A new study details a theoretical model that can help predict where terrorism
attacks will occur up to a week in advance. Why it matters: Much of the power
of a terror attack derives from the quality of surprise. Being able to reliably
predict when and where attacks are likely to occur would potentially blunt
terror as a tool and reduce the costs of security. What's happening: In a study
published Friday in Science Advances, researchers outlined a framework that
uses publicly available data about terror incidents around the world between
2002 and 2016 to identify which factors might reliably tip off authorities in
advance of a likely attack. The locations of previous attacks had the best
predictive value — if terrorists thought a location was worth attacking once,
there's a higher chance it'll be worth attacking again. In addition, population
density, the travel time to the nearest city, road network density, and
economic activity (in part as quantified in night lighting that can be seen via
satellite) all correspond to higher likelihood of attack. By the numbers: In
regions with a high prevalence of terrorism, the model was capable of
predicting up to 51% of attacks a week in advance.”



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