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Eye on Extremism
August 17, 2021
“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.
“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
“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.”
“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
“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'
“…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
“…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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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.”
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