Islamist Extremism |  | Marshalls patrol outside the federal courthouse where Ahmed Abu Khatalla, a ringleader of the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi that killed four Americans, is in custody - Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images | US Appeals Court Rules Benghazi Attacker’s 22-Year Sentence Unreasonably Low A U.S. appeals court decided that Ahmed Abu Khatallah’s 22-year sentence for his role in the 2012 Benghazi attack wasn’t enough. - Khatallah, 51, was originally convicted in 2018 on several counts for his involvement in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya. He appealed his sentence, but the government cross-appealed, arguing the original sentence was “unreasonably low.”
Khatallah’s sentencing guidelines would have ranged between 30 years and life in prison. Read More US Drone Strike Kills Al-Qaeda Leader ISIS Media Personality Sentenced to Life Imprisonment A Saudi-born Canadian citizen, Mohammed Khalifa, 39, was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). In addition to fighting for ISIS, Khalifa served as a lead translator in the group’s propaganda production and the English-speaking narrator on multiple violent ISIS videos. Khalifa was captured in 2019, following a firefight between ISIS fighters and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) . Read More Man With AK-47 Arrested Outside Iranian Dissident’s Home - Khalid Mehdiyev, 23, was arrested outside the home of Iranian dissident journalist Masih Alinejad.
Mehdiyev was found with an assault rifle, a high-capacity magazine and more than $1,000 worth of cash when he was arrested. Law enforcement observed Mehdiyev stalking Alinejad for several days. Read More | | | | | Alt-Right & Alt-Left Extremism |  | Matthew Belanger - Twitter via Israel HaYom | Neo-Nazi Arrested for Plotting Attack on Synagogue - Matthew Belanger, an ex-Marine from Long Island, N.Y., has been arrested on charges stemming from a federal investigation into his plot to commit mass murder.
- Belanger procured weapons and plotted to attack an unnamed Long Island synagogue with firearms and homemade explosives.
- Belanger is a member of neo-Nazi group Rapekrieg, a group that calls for the rape of women in order “to increase the production of white children.” Read More
Communist Group Leader Arrested - Gazi Kodzo, 36, leader of a far-left communist group called the Black Hammer Organization, was arrested after police discovered a dead body at his home in an Atlanta suburb.
- Police responded to an anonymous caller who whispered he had been kidnapped. After police removed Kodzo and other group members from the home, a bomb robot found the dead body.
- Kodzo faces criminal charges, including aggravated sodomy, two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony, two counts of false imprisonment, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of criminal street gang activity. Read More
More News From the Alt-Right - Francis P. Harker, 22, of Norfolk, Va., pled guilty to a weapons charge that he sought out violent extremists and discussed a potential attack on Virginia Beach police. Read More
More News From the Alt-Left - Antifa activist Colleen Newton, 24, from Los Angeles, Calif. pled guilty to vandalizing a federal courthouse with anti-police graffiti. Read More
| | | | | Hate Crime |  | Flima Zlatsin following his assault on the NYC subway - Fima Zlatsin/via Dov Hikind via The Jerusalem Post | Jewish Man Violently Assaulted on NYC Subway - A Jewish man was attacked on the NYC subway for being identifiably Jewish. The perpetrator said he would have killed the victim if he'd had a gun. Read More
Utah Teenager Arrested for Assaulting Gay Teenager - A teenager in Sandy, Utah was arrested after allegedly assaulting a 17-year-old boy. The suspect is alleged to have shouted homophobic slurs before assaulting the victim. Read More
| | | | | Hostile Foreign Influence Operations |  | Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell - Joshua Roberts/Getty Images | China Targeting the Federal Reserve - According to a report released by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, the Chinese government has targeted the Federal Reserve for nearly 10 years, working to recruit and influence employees in an effort to obtain information and monetary benefit and to influence U.S. monetary policy. Read More
Senators Call on Social Media to Moderate Russian Disinformation in Spanish - Members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee are calling on the CEOs of Meta, Twitter, and Telegram to increase their efforts to moderate Spanish language content by Russian state media services. Read More
| | | | | Research & Trends in Extremism |  | Ukrainian soldiers and foreign fighters board a vehicle on the frontline in June in Mykolaiv, Ukraine - Pierre Crom/Getty Images | Possible Threat of Neo-Nazi Fighters Returning to West After Fighting in Ukraine - A report from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) warns of the threat posed by neo-Nazi foreign fighters returning to the West from fighting in Ukraine.
- Some 20,000 foreign fighters went to serve in Ukraine at the beginning of the conflict from across the U.S. and Europe.
- MEMRI’s Domestic Terror Threat Monitor (DTTM) has identified members from over 35 neo-Nazi, anti-government and white supremacist extremist groups who are foreign fighters in Ukraine. Read More
Accelerationist Guide Advocates Attacks on Trains - A 261-page accelerationist guide, claiming to be the product of 100 authors, circulated among extremist channels on Telegram, calls for mass shooting of migrants and attacking rail infrastructure.
- “Accelerationism” has been associated with a variety of white supremacist violence. It is based on the idea that Western governments are irreparably corrupt, and the best thing white supremacists can do is accelerate their demise by sowing chaos and creating political tension. Read More
| | | QUOTABLE
“Men fight for freedom; then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves.”
--Thomas Jefferson
| | | NOTE TO OUR READERS: We have pulled out the salient points of the articles in this newsletter to keep you informed and focused on the most relevant, important and timely news in national security and extremism. While our national security experts stand behind the summary bullets and deem them trustworthy, Clarion Project does not endorse all the views expressed in the articles linked. | | | | |
