Islamist Extremism |  | Muhammad Masood - Sherburne County Sheriff via AP via Fox News | Minnesota Doctor Pleads Guilty to Supporting ISIS Muhammad Masood, 30, a licensed medical doctor from Pakistan living in Rochester, Minn. under an H-1B Visa, pled guilty to attempting to provide material support for ISIS. From January-March 2020, Masood made several statements to paid informants whom he believed were ISIS members, pledging his allegiance to the group and expressing his desire to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS. Read More ISIS ‘Beatle’ Sentenced to Life in Prison Former British citizen El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, was sentenced to life in prison for his participation in a brutal hostage-taking scheme that resulted in the deaths of four American citizens as well as the deaths of British and Japanese nationals. Elsheikh and two other ISIS members supervised the detention facilities where the hostages were held. Read More Texas Man Sentenced in Honor Killing of His Teen Daughters Yaser Abdel Said was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of capital murder in the 2008 killings of his two daughters. Said was a fugitive for 12 years and spent six years on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List before he was arrested in August 2020. Police called the murders “honor killings” because his two teenage daughters were living a secular, American lifestyle. Read More
| | | | | Alt-Right & Alt-Left Extremism |  | Social media posting by The Base white supremacist group - Court records via Bridge Michigan | White Supremacist Leader of "The Base" Sentenced - Justen Watkins, a leader of the white supremacist group The Base has been sentenced to 56 months to 20 years in prison.
- As part of a plea agreement, Watkins pled guilty to one count of gang membership, while two other charges–using a computer to commit a crime and unlawfully posting a message online–were dismissed. Read More
Jane’s Revenge Vandalizes Massachusetts Pregnancy Center - An Easthampton, Mass. pregnancy center, Bethlehem House, was vandalized by pro-abortion group Jane’s Revenge.
- Vandals spray-painted “Jane’s Revenge” on benches, along with the threatening message, “If abortion isn’t safe, neither are you.”
- Jane’s Revenge is a decentralized pro-abortion extremist group that has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks, including firebombings of pro-life pregnancy clinics nationwide. Read More
| | | | | Hate Crime |  | From NYPD Hate Crime Dashboard | - According the NYPD Hate Crimes Dashboard, there were 338 confirmed hate crime incidents in New York City so far in 2022. Fifty-one were anti-Asian, 42 were anti-male homosexual, 35 were anti-Black, and 149 were anti-Jewish. Read More
- Latravion Mccockran, 20, and a 17-year-old accomplice were charged with hate crime enhancements after allegedly targeting Asian women in a series of robberies at shopping centers in the Stockton Blvd. area of Sacramento. Read More
| | | | | Hostile Foreign Influence Operations |  | Jade Gao via Getty Images | Ex-Apple Engineer Tries to Steal Self-Driving Car Tech for China - A former Apple Inc. engineer pleaded guilty to criminal charges that he stole proprietary information on autonomous driving technology for a Chinese startup that makes electric cars.
- Another Apple engineer was charged in 2019 with stealing proprietary information from the company’s self-driving car project while applying to work for a Chinese rival. Read More
Microsoft Disrupts Russian Hackers - The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center has detected and disrupted Russian-linked hackers that target people and key defense organizations in NATO countries.
- The group’s campaigns mainly involve phishing and stealing sensitive emails from entities and people of interest to Moscow. Read More
| | | | | Research & Trends in Extremism |  | Boogaloo Bois member demonstrates with other gun rights groups in Richmond, Va. on January 17, 2022 - Bryan Dozier/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images | DHS Concerned About Boogaloo Bois Members Fighting in Ukraine - Members of the Boogaloo Bois Militia Movement continue to deploy to fight in Ukraine to gain combat experience.
- U.S. government agencies are concerned that the alt-right extremist group members will become greater national security threats upon their return to the U.S. Read More
New Research on What Drives People to Violent Extremism - A recent study from the RAND Corporation examined what drives radicalization and how to prevent it.
- The study defines factors that lead to extremism, including financial instability, mental health issues, and traumatic “reorienting” events that push people to adopt radicalized beliefs.
- The study also provides insights on deradicalization and includes education and outreach efforts to identify early signs of radicalization, as well as exposure to positive contact with groups that were the targets of their hatred. Read More
| | | QUOTABLE
“In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example … of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world, may, with an honest praise, be pronounced the most triumphant epoch of its history, and the most consoling presage of its happiness.”
--James Madison
| | | 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. | | | | |
