“Even before the Taliban’s stunning takeover this week, American military and
intelligence officials were racing to devise plans for containing extrem

 

 


<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
Eye on Extremism


August 17, 2021 

 

The Washington Post: After Taliban Triumph, Biden Faces Even Greater Test In
Preventing Extremist Resurgence In Afghanistan
<[link removed]>

 

“Even before the Taliban’s stunning takeover this week, American military and
intelligence officials were racing to devise plans for containing extremist
threats emanating from Afghanistan, a task they knew would be more difficult
following completion of President Biden’s order to withdraw U.S. forces. Now,
as the militants commandeer Afghanistan’s security and intelligence
institutions, the Biden administration faces a far steeper challenge in
fulfilling the president’s pledge to prevent al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and
other terrorist groups that have operated there from regaining strength and
threatening the United States. Current and former officials said that the
process for identifying and responding to terrorist plots has been upended as
the Pentagon and the CIA — instead of planning for operations alongside an
allied government and friendly spy agency in Kabul — are forced to contemplate
an environment abruptly off-limits and under the control of a hostile regime.
“The counterterrorism posture went from problematic with the U.S. withdrawal to
extraordinarily bad with the Taliban in full control,” said Marc
Polymeropoulos, a veteran intelligence officer who served as a CIA base chief
in Afghanistan. “Suddenly one wonders if we will go entirely dark. It’s like a
bad dream.”

 

CNN: ISIS Slaughtered My Yazidi Community. We Don't Want Your Pity -- We Want
Justice.
<[link removed]>

 

“Thoughts and prayers. Promises of “never again.” They are not enough. Seven
years after ISIS committed genocide against the Yazidi community, my
ethno-religious minority, in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of people remain
internally displaced and more than 2,800 women and children remain missing.
Shelter, clean water, health care and education are luxuries, if available at
all. Those of us who were there -- who ran for our lives to the protection of
Mount Sinjar, who heard the gunshots as men and older women were shot and
dumped into mass graves, and who, like me, were sold into sexual slavery --
cannot forget what happened or how the world ignored our cries for help. After
escaping from my ISIS captors, I lived in a camp alongside hundreds of Yazidis.
I felt the raw humiliation of residing in makeshift tents without privacy,
work, or education. I saw these conditions erode our traditions, our way of
life, and our communal ties. During that time, I imagined my life swallowed up
by a statistic -- becoming one of the millions of displaced people who live, on
average, 10-20 years in a camp. Today, much of my family still lives in that
same cramped caravan. My niece has never known life outside the camp. When I
visit family, the space between us is emptied by an overwhelming silence.”

 

United States

 

Washington Examiner: Suspected Terrorists Crossing Border 'At A Level We Have
Never Seen Before,' Outgoing Border Patrol Chief Says
<[link removed]>

 

“Unprecedented numbers of known or suspected terrorists have crossed the
southern border in recent months, the outgoing Border Patrol chief said. The
head of the Border Patrol, Rodney Scott, told his 19,000 agents before retiring
on Aug. 14 that their national security mission is paramount right now despite
the Biden administration's focus on migrant families and children who are
coming across the United States-Mexico boundary at record rates. “Over and over
again, I see other people talk about our mission, your mission, and the context
of it being immigration or the current crisis today being an immigration
crisis,” Scott said in a video message to agents, obtained by the Washington
Examiner. “I firmly believe that it is a national security crisis. Immigration
is just a subcomponent of it, and right now, it’s just a cover for massive
amounts of smuggling going across the southwest border — to include TSDBs at a
level we have never seen before. That's a real threat.” TSDB refers to known or
suspected terrorists, as identified in the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database.
“Your peers or you are taking criminals, pedophiles, rapists, murderers, and
like I said before, even TSDB alerts off the streets and keeping them safe from
America,” Scott said.”

 

The San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Man Who Posted Racist, Extremist Views
Online Gets 2 Years In Prison On Weapons Charges
<[link removed]>

 

“A San Diego man who investigators said made violent, racist threats about
racial justice demonstrators and Black Lives Matter in online postings was
sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison on weapons charges. Grey
Zamudio, 33, was arrested in August and pleaded guilty in December to
possessing an unregistered short-barreled rifle and two unregistered silencers.
Rifles with barrels that are shorter than 16 inches are generally illegal under
California and federal law, according to court records. In a sentencing
memorandum filed in U.S. District Court, federal prosecutors said Zamudio “is
motivated by a violent ideology and appears eager to commit acts of violence
against Black people, liberals and others.” In 2020, someone alerted the FBI’s
Joint Terrorism Task Force to posts linked to Zamudio on social media,
including statements about a need for “vigilante militias” and to “crush the
liberal terrorist.” The posts also said Zamudio was “ready to die” for his
beliefs. At the sentencing, Zamudio’s attorney, Leila Morgan, said how her
client acted online was not representative of how he acted in real life. Morgan
said Zamudio, who was a plumber, “had a very strong emotional reaction” to
racial justice protests last summer that affected small businesses.”

 

Afghanistan

 

AFP: Taliban To Give Al-Qaeda Covert, Not Overt Support: Analysts
<[link removed]>

 

“The Taliban will offer support to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan more discreetly
than during their first period in power when they openly embraced the terror
network, analysts say. After conquering Kabul for the first time in 1996, the
Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime provided Al-Qaeda with a safe haven to
operate training camps, even describing its leader Osama bin Laden as a “guest”
of the country. But after being overthrown in 2001 in retaliation for the
September 11 attacks in the United States, which were planned from Afghanistan,
the incoming Taliban authorities in Kabul are expected to take a new approach
this time. “If the Taliban of 2021 are different from those of 2001, it's not
because they have moderated their religious obscurantism, but because they
don't want to make the same strategic error, which was their blind support for
Al-Qaeda which cost them power,” said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a jihadism specialist
at Sciences Po university in Paris. Filiu told AFP that he expected the Taliban
to again offer safety to bin Laden's successor Ayman al-Zawahiri and others,
citing personal links between the two organisations. The fathers of Sirajuddin
Haqqani and Mullah Yaqoob, both senior leaders in the modern-day Taliban, had
past links to bin Laden, for instance.”

 

Metro: Afghanistan Falling ‘Leaves UK And US Facing Same Terror Threat As
Before 9/11'
<[link removed]>

 

“…Sir Ivor Roberts, a former UK counter-terrorism chief and senior adviser to
the Counter Extremism Project, a Washington-based think tank, said: ‘This is a
moment of extreme danger for the West. ‘Quite apart from disaster being visited
on Afghan people, the West faces a renewal of the same terrorist threat which
led to 9/11 and the rise of ISIS. ‘Some reports have spoken of up to 20
terrorist groups providing foreign fighters to support the Taliban sweep
through Afghanistan. ‘Alongside the power the Taliban has demonstrated over the
last few days and the potential extremism potentially brewing beneath the
surface, the UK and the West will bear the consequences. ‘This international
catastrophe is coming straight to our door, in the form of an international
terrorist threat.”

 

Express: Troops Sent To Evacuate Britons As Taliban Advances On Kabul
<[link removed]>

 

“…Britain and the US have opted for the worst of both worlds in Afghanistan.
We are neither in nor out, and we are now seeing the grim consequences of this
nonstrategy play out. Simply providing air cover and strategic advice as well
as calling on the Afghan military to fight harder is not enough to stem the
advance of the Taliban as it sweeps across the country. Yet however appalling
it might be to watch progress made over decades wiped out in a matter of days,
this is only the start. For whatever words come out of their mouths, the
Taliban have not changed. They retain deep ties to Islamist extremism groups
and share their hatred of our free, Western way of life. If the Taliban weren't
emboldened by their battlefield gains, they certainly will be by the words
coming out of our leaders' mouths and the apparent acceptance of defeat. The
desire to bring our troops home and "No More Forever Wars" after such a
long-term commitment in Afghanistan is hugely appealing. But we must understand
the consequences.”

 

Nigeria

 

Sahara Reporters: Nigerian Army Pardons New Batch Of Over 200 Boko Haram
Fighters, Families
<[link removed]>

 

“The Nigerian Army has stated that it received a fresh batch of over 200
repentant Boko Haram fighters and their family members in clearance operations
in Saturday and Sunday in Borno State. The army high command noted that a total
of 186 Boko Haram terrorists surrendered on Saturday led by their Amir, Manye
Aga, to troops of Operation Hadin Kai at the Forward Operational Base (FOB) in
Ajiri. File photo used to illustrate story. Meanwhile, on Sunday, the military
received 33 additional Boko Haram fighters from Landanli, Azah, Ngaridua and
Kondilla villages, who surrendered to own troops of 151 Task Force Battalion,
Banki Junction in Bama. The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig Gen Onyema
Nwachukwu, stated these in a release on Monday, obtained by SaharaReporters,
despite the outcries and widespread condemnation that had greeted the exercise.
Many Nigerians have called for the due prosecution of the former fighters
instead of a blanket pardon and rehabilitation with tax payers’ money.”

 

Somalia

 

Voice Of America: Security Experts Warn Al-Shabab May Try To Emulate Taliban
In Somalia
<[link removed]>

 

“The Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan has raised concerns that it could
encourage other Islamist militant groups around the world, such as al-Shabab in
Somalia. Experts warn that when and if international forces there try to hand
over security to the Somali government, the world could see a repeat of what
happened in Afghanistan. Former Somali intelligence official Abdulsalam Gulaid
says Somalia could see a similar development unless the Somali government ends
its overdependence on international troops. He spoke Monday, one day after
pro-al-Shabab media outlets in Somalia celebrated the fall of Afghanistan’s
government to the Taliban. Gulaid said that although al-Shabab does not possess
the military power of the Taliban, he has no doubt nothing will stop them if
they choose that path. In April, Somali armed forces assumed a lead role in
their operations, as laid out in a Somalia Transition Plan approved by the
government and the African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM. The plan is a
strategy in which AMISOM peacekeepers will gradually transfer security
responsibilities to Somali security agencies before a pullout. The plan signed
in 2018 includes a troop reduction. Last month, the military said more than 250
al-Shabab militants had been killed during Somali military operations unaided
by AMISOM.”

 

Africa

 

Reuters: Around 11,000 Cameroonians Flee To Chad After Violence
<[link removed]>

 

“Around 11,000 people fleeing clashes between herders and fishermen in
northern Cameroon arrived in neighbouring Chad at the weekend, a provincial
governor in Chad said on Monday. About 20 people have been killed in what
officials say is Cameroon's worst ethnic violence in recent memory. Clashes
broke out last week between fishermen and herders from different ethnic groups
over a dispute about holes the fishermen dug in the ground. “Yesterday, our
social services received nearly 11,000 refugees who came with almost nothing.
They don't have bedding, a change of clothes or food,” Gayang Souare, the
governor of Chari Baguirmi province in northwestern Chad, told Reuters. “There
are wounded among them who require immediate medical care and children who are
without their parents,” he said, adding that local capacity to provide for the
refugees was quickly being overwhelmed. The violence in Cameroon's Far North
region is taking place in a zone where the army has for years been battling
Boko Haram and, more recently, militants linked to Islamic State. Local
officials say it is the worst ethnic violence they have seen, with one of the
reasons being that residents have acquired weapons in recent years in response
to insecurity caused by Boko Haram and local bandits.”

 

Reuters: Congo Says U.S. To Deploy Counter-Terrorism Advisors To Restive East
<[link removed]>

 

“Special forces from the United States will soon deploy to Democratic Republic
of Congo's restive east to gauge the potential for a local anti-terrorism unit
to combat Islamist violence, President Felix Tshisekedi said on Sunday. The
Special Operations Forces arrived in Congo's capital Kinshasa on Friday to
“conduct an assessment of a future Congolese counter-terrorism team,” U.S.
ambassador Mike Hammer said. Tshisekedi said in a statement on Sunday that the
troops would “provide support to the (army) in the fight against terrorism and
to the guardians of the Virunga and Garamba national parks, which have become a
sanctuary for terrorist forces.” He said the troops would be present for
several weeks in eastern Congo, where martial law was established in May to try
to end decades of bloodshed. Data collected by the Kivu Security Tracker, which
maps unrest in the region, attributes much of the recent violence to the Allied
Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist-inspired insurgency which U.S. officials
have linked to Islamic State. The ADF, initially from Uganda, has been blamed
for dozens of massacres in the last three years, mostly in remote villages with
hatchets and firearms. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for some of the
killings, but United Nations experts have doubted the militant group's
influence over ADF operations.”

 

United Kingdom

 

Sky News: Plymouth Shootings: Attack Could Be Reclassified As Terrorism Over
Jake Davison's 'Incel' Links
<[link removed]>

 

“The Plymouth shootings may be reclassified as a terror attack, according to
Devon and Cornwall Police. In a statement, the force said the initial decision
not to state Jake Davison's spree as terrorism was made by the National Counter
Terrorism Policing Network. But following investigations into Davison's links
to the “incel” movement - which stands for involuntarily celibate - this status
may be changed. In a 12-minute attack on Thursday evening, Davison, 22, killed
five people with a shotgun before taking his own life. He started by shooting
his mother, Maxine Davison, 51, in Keyham before going on to kill Sophie
Martyn, three, and her father, Lee Martyn, 43. Davison then fatally shot
Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, before turning the weapon on
himself. After the attack, Devon and Cornwall Police chief constable Shaun
Sawyer said: “We are not considering terrorism or a relationship with any
far-right group.” In a statement on Monday, a force spokeswoman said: “The
decision that this incident is not a terrorist incident was made by the
National Counter Terrorism Network following a referral from Devon and Cornwall
Police. “The status of this will be kept under continual review and a further
referral made should new information come to light.”



Click here to unsubscribe.
<[link removed]>