“The lone surviving member of a group that carried out a 2015 rampage across
Paris was found guilty Wednesday of all charges, including murder and ter











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Eye on Extremism


June 30, 2022



***NOTE: CEP’s Eye On Extremism will be suspended on Friday, July 1 and Monday
July 4 in observance of the July 4 holiday. It will resume Tuesday, July 5.**



The Washington Post: Sole Surviving Attacker In 2015 Paris Terrorism Rampage
Is Convicted
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“The lone surviving member of a group that carried out a 2015 rampage across
Paris was found guilty Wednesday of all charges, including murder and
terrorism, and sentenced to life in prison, bringing the biggest criminal trial
in modern French history to an end. The court found that Salah Abdeslam played
a key role among the men who deployed explosives and assault rifles as they
targeted the Bataclan concert venue, a national stadium, and several
restaurants and cafes on the night of Nov. 13, 2015, killing 130 people and
injuring hundreds. The Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the
bloodshed, France’s worst terrorist attacks since World War II. While public
attention during the 10-month trial focused on Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French
citizen, 19 other suspected perpetrators and accomplices also were charged.
Five are presumed dead, and one is imprisoned in Turkey. Nineteen of the 20
defendants were found guilty of all charges on Wednesday, with punishments
ranging from suspended sentences to life in prison. The court sentenced the
32-year-old Abdeslam to the harshest form of a life-in-prison sentence under
French law, an extremely rare punishment that will make parole almost
impossible. It was not immediately clear whether he would appeal. Lawyers
representing the victims welcomed the severity of the court’s ruling. “Salah
Abdeslam’s sentence is symbolic and extremely rare, because it sanctions
extremely serious events,” lawyer Gérard Chemla told reporters.”



Bloomberg: New Zealand Designates The Proud Boys As A Terrorist Group
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“New Zealand has officially named the Proud Boys as a terrorist entity. The
designation for the right-wing group came quietly through a June 27 notice on
the country’s government news service, The New Zealand Gazette. The notice said
the reasoning behind the designation would be posted online, but the police
have yet to do so. Any person who “deals with the property of, or makes
property or financial or related services available to” the Proud Boys will be
liable to prosecution, the notice said. The move marks the first time a
US-based group has been added to New Zealand’s terrorist entity list. It comes
as the Jan. 6 committee hearings reveal more details about the group’s
involvement in the violent storming of the US Capitol. “The Base” was also
named a terrorist group in the notice. The designations come months after
police in New Zealand stormed the grounds of the country’s parliament following
a three-week occupation that began as a protest against Covid-19 vaccine
mandates. The event was reminiscent of the storming of the US Capitol, with
violent clashes in nearby streets and fires that scorched lawns and a childrens
playground. Last year Canada became the first country to name the Proud Boys a
terrorist group.”



United States



The Washington Post: Violence Against Antiabortion Groups Is Rising. Here’s
What We Know.
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“With the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, protests,
marches and demonstrations for abortion rights have erupted across the country.
While most have been nonviolent, since the decision first leaked, attacks have
increased on pregnancy crisis centers, churches, and other antiabortion
organizations, with dozens targeted by graffiti, property damage, arson and
explosives. These actions mirror many of the same tactics used by antiabortion
activists to target abortion rights organizations and abortion clinics over the
past several decades. Since 1977, 11 abortion providers have been killed, 26
have survived murder attempts, and their clinics and homes have endured more
than 40 bombings and nearly 200 arson attacks. In 2021, incidents of assault on
providers increased more than 120 percent. With issues as morally fraught as
abortion, are violent actions ever justified? In the eyes of mainstream
Americans, when do actions cross the line from legitimate activism to political
violence, or even terrorism? My new research finds that our political leanings
complicate our answers to these seemingly objective questions. Using a
U.S.-based survey experiment, I found that respondents’ political ideology
(either liberal or conservative) influenced both how they perceived the
morality of violence and whether they saw an act as terrorism — even when the
severity of violence and the type of action were identical.”



Afghanistan



Bloomberg: Taliban, US Plan To Meet In Qatar To Discuss Freeing Frozen
Afghanistan Funds
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“A top Taliban delegation led by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi headed to
Qatar Wednesday to hold the latest round of talks with US officials to release
about $9 billion of frozen Afghan funds as the nation reels from crises of
poverty and hunger. The discussion will center around “creating a mechanism for
releasing the frozen Afghan reserves,” said Ahmad Wali Haqmal, a spokesman for
Afghanistan’s finance ministry. “We’re expecting this would be a serious round
of talks.” The delegation includes central bank Governor Mohammad Idris and
Deputy Finance Minister Nazir Kabiri. They will meet with the US Special Envoy
for Afghanistan Thomas West and officials from the treasury department, Haqmal
said. The meeting is the first since May 21 when West urged Muttaqi to remove
restrictions on girl education. Girls are barred from education beyond the
sixth grade under the Taliban regime. The meeting is taking place soon after
the Washington Post reported that the administration of President Joe Biden is
working with Taliban leadership on a mechanism to allow Afghanistan’s
government to use its central bank reserves, while curtailing the Taliban’s
access. It also comes as the Taliban are holding their first grand gathering of
3,000 people, mostly Islamic scholars, in the capital Kabul on Thursday to
discuss pressing issues including the ban on girls’ education and how to engage
with the world in the absence of international legitimacy.”



Yemen



Reuters: Car Bomb Kills At Least Six In Yemen's Aden -Officials
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“A car bomb attack on the convoy of a Yemeni military official in the
southern port city of Aden killed at least six people and wounded several
others on Wednesday, military officials said. The head of security forces of
Lahaj province Saleh al-Sayed survived the assassination attempt, three
military officials said. Two of them said at least five civilians and one
military officer were killed and six others were seriously wounded in the
attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but al
Qaeda militants have stepped up their operations in south Yemen recently. At
least 10 Yemeni soldiers were killed there in two separate attacks last week.
read more Instability in the south, where the Saudi-backed government is based,
complicates international efforts to end the seven-year-old conflict. Several
attacks have been recorded despite a ceasefire agreement between the Saudi-led
coalition and the Iran-aligned Houthis in the north. Sayed is Lahaj's commander
of the military units of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), a
force built and trained by the United Arab Emirates. The STC is nominally part
of the Saudi-led coalition which intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthi
movement ousted the internationally recognised government from the capital,
Sanaa.”



Lebanon



Reuters: Israel Accuses Hezbollah Of Trying To Hack U.N. Lebanon Peacekeepers
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“Israel accused the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah on Wednesday of
conducting a cyber operation designed to disrupt a U.N. peacekeeping mission on
the border between the countries, and threatened harsh Israeli retaliation
against enemy hackers. The allegation - to which there was no immediate
response from Hezbollah or Tehran - came as Israeli-Iranian tensions soar. In
what he termed a first public disclosure of the incident, Israeli Defence
Minister Benny Gantz said “Iranian security institutions in cooperation with
Hezbollah (recently) launched a cyber operation with the aim of stealing
materials about UNIFIL activities and deployment in the area, for Hezbollah's
use”. “This is yet another direct attack by Iran and Hezbollah on Lebanese
citizens and on Lebanon's stability,” he told a cyber conference at Tel Aviv
University, without elaborating. UNIFIL said it was the first it had heard of
the attacks. “UNIFIL and the UN take cybersecurity very seriously and have
robust measures in place to protect our data. We are aware of media reports of
comments by the Israeli defence minister today but we have not received any
direct information on the alleged incident,” its media office told Reuters.”



Middle East



Asharq Al-Awsat: Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian Gunman In West Bank Clash
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“Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank
city of Jenin on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said, in the latest in a
series of clashes. The Palestinian “Islamic Jihad” militant group said that one
of its men was killed “confronting the occupation forces” in Jenin, where
military raids have increased after men from the area carried out several
deadly street attacks on Israelis. The Israeli military said its forces, who
had been conducting “counter-terrorism activities”, responded with live fire
towards a number of Palestinian suspects who had thrown explosives at them.
US-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in East
Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza collapsed in 2014 and have shown no sign of
revival. Israeli and Palestinian leaders are expected to meet separately next
month with US President Joe Biden during his visit to the region.”



Nigeria



The Washington Times: Nigeria's Islamist Militants, Iran's Leader,
Afghanistan's Taliban Top Persecutors Of Christians
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“Afghanistan’s Taliban, Nigeria’s Islamist militants and Iran’s supreme
leader are among the world’s top persecutors of Christians, according to an
annual report by an international advocacy group. International Christian
Concern (ICC) reported Wednesday that persecution in Afghanistan is at “its
highest levels since the Taliban’s first government, established in 1996,” and
that tens of thousands of Nigerian Christians have died at the hands of the
Islamic fundamentalist Fulani militants since 2000. “This report isn’t a list
of sad, small statistics happening somewhere in the world, far-removed from
us,” ICC President Jeff King said in a statement. “Many of these are mass human
rights violations, with some approaching genocide. “Religious freedom is an
issue that affects people of all faiths and is a key driver in political
freedom. This report is a wake-up call to churches in the West and a challenge
to know the truth and act on it.” According to the group’s Persecutors of the
Year report, the top four countries are China, whose attempts at “sinicization”
of religions has led to persecution; Algeria, which has closed dozens of
Protestant churches; Egypt, where Coptic Christians are under threat; and
Pakistan, where fundamentalists have persecuted Christians and other religious
minorities.”



Mali



Reuters: Spain's Foreign Minister Does Not Rule Out NATO Intervention In Mali
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“Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Thursday he does not
rule out a NATO intervention in Mali if needed, after the alliance's summit in
Madrid mentioned terrorism among the "hybrid threats" that hostile powers can
use to undermine its stability. Asked about a NATO intervention in Mali, he
told local radio station RNE: "No, we don't rule it out." "If it were necessary
and if it posed a threat to our security, we would do it," he added.”



Africa



Voice Of America: UN: Well-Armed M23 Rebels Resurgent In DRC
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“The top U.N. official for the Democratic Republic of the Congo said
Wednesday that the resurgent M23 rebel group in the country’s east is
well-armed and equipped, posing a growing threat to civilians. “During the most
recent hostilities, the M23 has conducted itself increasingly as a conventional
army, rather than an armed group,” said Bintou Keita, head of the U.N.
Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as
MONUSCO. “The M23 possesses firepower and equipment, which is increasingly
sophisticated, specifically in terms of long-range fire capacities — mortars,
machine guns, as well as precision fire against aircraft,” she said in remarks
to the Security Council. The M23 was defeated by Congo’s army (FARDC) and
special MONUSCO forces in 2013. But in November 2021, its forces began to
reemerge. Congolese officials blame neighboring Rwanda, saying it supports the
group, which claims to be protecting the Tutsi minority in eastern DRC.
Rwanda’s government is Tutsi-led but denies any link to the rebel group. At the
Security Council, Congolese Ambassador Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja called for the
M23’s unconditional withdrawal from the DRC. He also urged strong condemnation
of those who support the group “beginning with the state of Rwanda and its
president.”



France



Associated Press: Paris Court Rejects 10 Ex-Militants’ Extradition To Italy
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“A Paris court on Wednesday ruled against extraditing to Italy 10 former
left-wing militants, including some former Red Brigades members, convicted of
domestic terrorist crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. The Italian nationals had
been living in freedom in France for decades after fleeing Italy before they
could be imprisoned to serve their sentences. The crimes in connection with
which they were convicted include the 1980 killing of a Carabinieri
paramilitary general and the kidnapping of a judge in the same year. All 10,
only some of whom were linked with the deadly Red Brigades group, spent the
last 14 months under French judicial supervision as judges deliberated on
Italy’s extradition request following the activists’ arrests and police
questioning a year ago. The Paris Court of Appeal said in a statement it
rejected Italy’s extradition request for each member of the group of 10 men and
women, but didn’t explain its reasoning. Wednesday’s ruling can still be
appealed at France’s highest court. Italy’s justice ministry said in a
statement it respected the French judicial process as they await to hear the
assessments of the ruling by the Paris attorney general, who is the only one
authorized to appeal the court’s decision to deny the extradition of each of
the 10 convicted militants. “I am waiting to know the reasons behind the ruling
that denies all extraditions without distinction,” said Italian Justice
Minister Marta Cartabia.”



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