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Eye on Extremism
February 8, 2022
Associated Press: UN Experts: ‘Terrorist Groups’ Enjoy Freedom In Afghanistan
“Al-Qaida’s past ties to the recently empowered Taliban have the potential of making Afghanistan a safe haven for extremists, and “terrorist groups enjoy greater freedom there than at any time in recent history,” U.N. experts said in a report circulated Monday. In the wide-ranging report, the experts also said extremists linked to both al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are successfully advancing in Africa, especially in the turbulent Sahel. And they said the Islamic State continues to operate “as an entrenched rural insurgency” in Iraq and Syria, where its so-called caliphate ruled a significant swathe of the two countries from 2014-2017 when it was defeated by Iraqi forces and a U.S.-led coalition. In what it called “a bright spot” in Southeast Asia, the panel of experts said both Indonesia and the Philippines reported “significant gains” in disrupting Islamic State and al-Qaida-affiliated “terrorism” and “some optimism” that their operational capability “may be significantly degraded.” The report to the U.N. Security Council by the panel of experts monitoring sanctions against al-Qaida and the Islamic State, also known as IS and ISIL, called the Taliban’s return to power on Aug. 15 amid the chaotic final withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops after 20 years the most significant event of the last six months of 2021.”
Reuters: U.S. Warns Of Extremism After Texas Synagogue Attack, Bomb Threats In Colleges
“The United States faces heightened threats from extremist groups domestic and foreign, underscored by last month’s hostage standoff crisis in a Texas synagogue and bomb threats at many historically Black colleges and universities, a U.S. government agency said on Monday. The warning comes after some schools across the United States cancelled classes and issued shelter-in-place orders last week. Investigators ultimately failed to turn up any explosives. “Threats directed at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other colleges and universities, Jewish facilities, and churches cause concern and may inspire extremist threat actors to mobilize to violence,” the Homeland Security Department said in a bulletin. Last month, British-born gunman Malik Faisal Akram took four people hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, including its rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker. He brandished a gun and held them hostage for 10 hours here. The standoff ended in gunfire, with all four hostages released unharmed and the suspect dead. “Supporters of foreign terrorist organizations have encouraged copycat attacks following the January 15, 2022 attack on a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas,” the federal agency added.”
United States
Associated Press: US Warns Midterms Could Spark Calls For Extremist Violence
“The upcoming midterm elections are emerging as a rallying point for domestic extremists and foreign adversaries seeking to disrupt the U.S. and incite violence, the Department of Homeland Security warned Monday. Unsubstantiated fraud claims, which have haunted the country since the 2020 presidential election, may be used to fuel unrest and doubts about the elections to decide control of Congress, DHS officials said as the agency issued a new national terrorism advisory. A senior DHS official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the terrorism advisory before its release, told reporters that part of their objective may be to sow discord and undermine credibility in democratic institutions by promoting misinformation about upcoming races. Concerns about the election is just one element in a terrorism alert that broadly warns of potential violence in what the government calls a “heightened threat environment” that includes foreign and domestic misinformation campaigns, conspiracy theories and lone actors with grievances rooted in racial and ethnic hatred. The National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin, which is periodically updated by DHS in a replacement of the color-coded warnings of the past, warns that the primary threat to the U.S. remains lone offenders or small cells of individuals.”
Syria
The Wall Street Journal: Islamic State Militants Pursued After Syria Prison Break
“Days after the death of Islamic State’s leader, U.S.-backed Kurdish-led militias are hunting down fugitives involved in a northeast Syria prison break that the terrorist group launched last month to replenish its dwindling ranks. Islamic State gunmen have appeared in the city of Hasakah more than two weeks after the prison break, showing how the Jan. 20 attack could have a lasting impact on the group’s ability to regenerate and terrorize the surrounding community. The assault on the prison was Islamic State’s worst attack in Syria in at least three years, resulting in a weeklong siege and gunbattles that left nearly 500 people dead. The prison break was among the last acts directed by Islamic State’s leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who detonated explosives that killed him and his family during a U.S. Special Forces raid in northwestern Syria last Thursday. Qurayshi was concerned about a lack of fighting manpower in recent months, said intelligence officials with the U.S., Iraq and a European country. The United Nations estimates ISIS retains at least 6,000 fighters across Iraq and Syria, where it is forming cells and training operatives to launch attacks. An SDF member shows a hideout in Umm Hussein’s kitchen where Islamic State members hid in Hasakah.”
Associated Press: IS Women In Syria Camp Clash With Police, 1 Child Killed
“Women held in a camp housing families of Islamic State group militants in northeast Syria tried to kidnap their Kurdish guards Monday, an opposition war monitor said. The attempt led to a shooting that left one child dead and several other people wounded. A Kurdish official confirmed there was an attempt to kidnap female guards but had no immediate word on casualties. The sprawling al-Hol camp is where tens of thousands of women and children — mostly wives, widows and children of IS members — are held. The attack in the camp came days after IS’s top leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, was killed in a U.S. raid on his safehouse in northwest Syria. The camp has witnessed dozens of crimes over the past year. The incident also comes two weeks after IS fighters attacked a prison in Syria’s northeastern city of Hassakeh, where some 3,000 militants and juveniles are held. The attack on the prison led to 10 days of fighting between U.S.-backed fighters and IS militants that left nearly 500 people dead. U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters brought the situation under control eventually. President Joe Biden said al-Qurayshi had been responsible for the Syria prison assault. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said women in the al-Hol camp tried to kidnap guards leading to a shooting in which a 10-year-old child was killed and six women and children were wounded.”
Afghanistan
Reuters: U.S. Offers Reward For Information On ISIS-K Leader, Kabul Airport Attack
“The United States said on Monday it was offering a reward of up to $10 million each for information leading to the identification or location of ISIS-K leader Sanaullah Ghafari and for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for a deadly August 2021 attack at Kabul airport. The Islamic State-Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, is the regional Islamic State affiliate, which first appeared in 2014 and is named after an old term for the region. It has previously fought both the Western-backed government that fell in August and the Taliban. In June 2020, Ghafari was appointed by the extremist group to lead ISIS-K. Ghafari was responsible for approving all ISIS-K operations throughout Afghanistan and arranging funding to conduct operations, the U.S. State Department said. In November, the State Department designated Ghafari as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”. The U.S. military said on Friday that a single Islamic State bomber killed 13 U.S. troops and at least 170 Afghans at Kabul airport last August. The bombing occurred on Aug. 26 as U.S. troops were trying to help both Americans and Afghans flee in the chaotic aftermath of the Taliban's takeover, and compounded America's sense of defeat after 20 years of war.”
Middle East
AFP: Israel Releases Spaniard Jailed For Funding Militants: Officials
“A Spanish aid worker who pled guilty to inadvertently funding an outlawed Palestinian militant group walked free Monday after 10 months in jail, the Israel Prison Service said. Juana Rashmawi, 63, was sentenced in November to 13 months in prison after a military court convicted her of working with an organisation that it said was funding the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP is a leftist militant group blamed for previous attacks on Israelis. Last week, an Israeli judge agreed to her early release, and on Monday, a prison spokesperson told AFP that Rashmawi had “walked out the door.” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in a statement that he spoke to Rashmawi on the phone, after she had arrived in the West Bank and met with her family. He said he told her of his “satisfaction at her release.” Rashmawi, known in Spain as Juana Ruiz and married to a Palestinian, said she was “very happy” for the support she had received from Spain, Albares added in a statement. Israeli forces arrested Rashmawi in April. She confessed in her November plea deal to unknowingly funding the PFLP via her work for a Palestinian group, the Union of Health Work Committees, which Israel said funnelled European donations to the PFLP.”
Nigeria
Daily Post Nigeria: Suspected Boko Haram Terrorists Kill 44, Kidnap Scores In Niger
“At least 44 persons were said to have been killed by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram in parts of Shiroro and Munya Local Government Areas of Niger State in renewed attacks on the areas. In an attack on Galadinma Kolgo, Erena, Chukuba, and Allawa in Shiroro LGA on Saturday, the gunmen allegedly killed 27 persons, mostly women and children and also kidnapped 31 persons. Aside from that, it was gathered that the gunmen had invaded Guni, Zagzaga and Dazza communities in Munya where they killed 17 people, including a blind man in the early hours of Saturday. DAILY POST further learnt that they abducted three women, scores of children and afterwards, set their homes and farmlands on fire. It would be recalled that some communities in the state had been under attacks by terrorists in the last three weeks, resulting in several casualties and untold hardships on people of the affected areas. When contacted on the incident, the President, Lakpma Youths Association, Jibril Allawa told DAILY POST that the gunmen kidnapped 28 persons in Gyramiya community in Allawa and are presently asking for N60m ransom before the victims can be set free. According to him, “They carried away 28 people made up of three men and 25 women. Now, most of the affected communities in the two local government areas are now ghost towns as the villagers are currently taking refuge at the Internally Displaced Persons camp (IDPs) in Central Primary School, Gwada.”
Africa
AFP: South Africa Jails Twins For Terrorism Over US Embassy Plot
“A South African court convicted and jailed twin brothers for terrorism on Monday over plans to attack the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria and join the Islamic State group, local media reported. Tony-Lee Thulsie and Brandon-Lee Thulsie, both 28, were arrested in South Africa in July 2016 and have been held in custody since. The South African brothers pleaded guilty earlier Monday as part of a plea bargain with the prosecution, according to local media. Hours later, the Johannesburg high court gave Tony-Lee an 11-year jail term, while Brandon-Lee was sentenced to eight years. Both pleaded guilty to planning to travel to Syria to join IS, media reports said. Tony-Lee also admitted to planning a terrorist attack in South Africa, they added. Prosecutors said attacks also had been planned against U.S., British, Russian or French diplomats in Pretoria, as well as Jewish institutions. The United States added the pair to its terror blacklist in 2017. The arrests of the brothers in 2016 were the first in South Africa relating to alleged IS membership. South Africa has so far been spared the jihadist attacks that have struck several other countries on the continent, including its eastern neighbor Mozambique.”
United Kingdom
My London: North London Man Charged With Being Member Of Neo-Nazi Terrorist Group
“A man from North London is due in court next week charged with being a member of a banned neo-Nazi terrorist group, as part of an investigation by the Metropolitan Police's counter terrorism unit. David Musins, 35, from North London, was charged on February 4 with one count of being a member of the proscribed organisation, contrary to Section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He will first appear on bail at Westminster Magistrates' Court next week on Valentine's Day (Monday, February 14). He was arrested by counter-terrorism officers on November 10, 2021, when he was released on bail, and later charged by the Metropolitan Police force. The charge relates to alleged membership to the banned extreme right-wing group for a period of nine months between December 2016 and August 2017. National Action was founded in early 2013, after the decline of the British National Party and English Defence League. The group was founded by Benjamin Raymond and Alex Davies, who were university students at the time. Although now banned, an undercover ITV investigation reported in 2017 that members of the banned Neo-Nazi group are still meeting up in secret. Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Secretary may ban an organisation if they believe it is linked to terrorism, and “it is proportionate to do.”
“…Executive director at the Counter Extremism Project, David Ibsen, had said, “Al-Hikam should not be permitted to educate young British citizens in its nursery when there is a track record of espousing objectionable and oppressive beliefs.” While reacting to the article by The Daily Mail, Ofsted informed that they will re-examine the permission granted to Imam Muhammad Asim Hussain. A spokesperson for the education regulator stated, “We have been alerted to these concerns and are looking into them. While we are unable to share information about individual providers, we take safeguarding concerns very seriously and consider all the information we receive.”
Technology
Nextgov: New App Tracks Terrorism-Linked Events In Local U.S. Communities
“The National Counterterrorism Center or NCTC designed and launched a new mobile app and website that provide unclassified intelligence reports, training materials and breaking alert notifications tracking terrorist-associated events. Dubbed “aCTknowledge,” this new digital tool was produced with—and explicitly for—U.S. law enforcement officers, first responders and homeland security professionals. It will be frequently updated based on their feedback going forward. “This is a tremendous evolution of our information-sharing effort,” an NCTC expert who helped build the platform told reporters during a press briefing on Monday. That official was among several who shared details about aCTknowledge on the call. As a component of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, NCTC connects specialists from different government hubs for counterterrorism aims, captures and analyzes intelligence, monitors national and international communications for threats, manages massive lists of incidents and individuals with potential links to terrorism, and more. The center was formed at the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. “After [Sept. 11, 2001], it was obviously determined that we do need to be sharing info and part of the reason the [NCTC] was formed was to have a place where that info could reside and that we can push it out and have the relationship with the community,” another expert explained during the briefing.”
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