“An Indonesian militant has expressed regret for his role in the deadly 2002
Bali bombings, media reported on Monday, as news of his impending release











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Eye on Extremism


August 30, 2022



Reuters: Ahead Of Parole, Indonesian Militant Regrets Role In 2002 Bali
Bombing - Media
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“An Indonesian militant has expressed regret for his role in the deadly 2002
Bali bombings, media reported on Monday, as news of his impending release
sparks outrage in Australia. Umar Patek was sentenced to 20 years in prison in
2012 for his involvement in bombings that ripped through two Bali nightclubs,
killing 202 people, including 88 Australians. He became eligible for parole
this month after a series of remissions for good behaviour. The exact date of
his release, the final signoff for which rests with Indonesia's justice
minister, remains unclear. Citing a rare video shot in the Porong prison where
Bali bomb-maker Patek is being held, Australian broadcaster ABC News reported
he also hopes to warn young Indonesians about the dangers of religious
extremism upon his expected release. Reuters was unable to review the video of
Umar Patek. It has been removed from Porong prison's official YouTube channel
as it had not been authorised by the justice ministry, said the prison head,
Jalu Yuswa Panjang. News of Patek's impending parole has sparked concern in
Australia, with PM Anthony Albanese saying his release would have a
“devastating impact on the families of victims.”



Associated Press: Clashes Leave At Least 15 Dead After Influential Iraqi
Shiite Cleric Announces Plan To Resign From Politics
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“An influential Shiite cleric announced Monday that he would resign from
Iraqi politics, prompting hundreds of his angry followers to storm the
government palace and sparking clashes with security forces. At least 15
protesters were killed. Protesters loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr pulled down
the cement barriers outside the government palace with ropes and breached the
palace gates. Many rushed into the lavish salons and marbled halls of the
palace, a key meeting place for Iraqi heads of state and foreign dignitaries.
Iraq’s military announced a nationwide curfew, and the caretaker premier
suspended Cabinet sessions in response to the violence. Medical officials said
dozens of protesters were wounded by gunfire and tear gas and physical
altercations with riot police. As night fell, Saraya Salam, a militia aligned
with al-Sadr clashed with the Popular Mobilization Forces security group. A
small force from the special forces division and Iraqi Army’s 9th Division also
joined to contain the militants as the clashes continued for hours inside the
Green Zone, the seat of Iraq’s government. At least one soldier from the
special forces division, which is responsible for security in the Green Zone,
was killed. Many others, including a civilian woman, were wounded, two security
officials said.”



Iraq



Associated Press: Iraqi Cleric Tells Loyalists To Leave Streets After Clashes
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“An influential Iraqi cleric called on his supporters to withdraw Tuesday
from the capital’s government quarter, where they have traded heavy fire with
security forces in a serious escalation of a monthslong political crisis
gripping the nation. In a televised speech, Muqtada al-Sadr gave his supporters
an hour to leave — and minutes later some could be seen abandoning their
positions on live television. Iraq’s military announced an end to a curfew,
further raising hopes that there might be a halt to the street violence. The
unrest began Monday, when al-Sadr announced he would resign from politics and
his supporters stormed the Green Zone, once the stronghold of the U.S. military
that’s now home to Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies. At least 30
people have been killed, officials said. “This is not a revolution,” al-Sadr
said in a televised address, which followed pleas for restraint and peace from
several Iraqi officials and the United Nations.”



Kurdistan 24: Suspected ISIS Militants Kill Kurdish Shepherd In Kirkuk
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“A Kurdish shepherd was killed in southeast Kirkuk on Sunday by suspected
ISIS militants, a security source told Kurdistan 24. The attack took place near
Rokhana lake in the southeastern Laylan subdistrict in the province, according
to the police source. At least four Kurdish shepherds were attacked by two
suspected ISIS militants, whose offensive was later repelled by the herders,
the source added. As a result of the clashes, Zirak Zahir, a Kurdish shepherd,
and a militant were killed, he said. The other assailant fled the scene.
Previously, Kurdish shepherds have faced kidnapping by the members of the
terror group in the disputed territories between Erbil and Baghdad. Once they
are abducted, their families are asked to pay a ransom in exchange for the
shepherds’ release. An amount of about $25,000 is usually demanded by the
abductors. In June, an Arab shepherd was similarly kidnapped in Kirkuk. Two
months earlier, four more shepherds were abducted in the same area. Following
the ISIS territorial defeat of the group in 2017, the radical militants have
resumed kidnapping as a form of income-generating business for the group,
according to security experts and officials. Lack of cooperation between
Kurdish and Iraqi forces is usually cited as a factor behind the rise in
attacks.”



Saudi Arabia



Reuters: Saudi Arabia Seeks Extradition From Lebanon Of Man Who Threatened
Embassy
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“Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Lebanon Walid al-Bukhari said the kingdom is
seeking the arrest and extradition from Lebanon of a Saudi man who threatened
the kingdom's embassy in Beirut last week. "We call upon the competent Lebanese
authorities to undertake the necessary legal procedures regarding the terrorist
threats," Bukhari said following a meeting with Lebanon's interior minister.
Lebanese and Saudi authorities say the person behind the recorded threats was a
Saudi man named Ali Hashem. Reuters could not independently confirm the
information and was not able to contact the man. Lebanese Interior Minister
Bassam Mawlawi last week asked security forces to probe the recorded death
threats out of "concern for Lebanon's interest and security and good relations
with brotherly nations, especially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." Some Lebanese
officials have tried to improve ties with Saudi Arabia, once a major donor,
after years of tension over the growing influence in Lebanon of Hezbollah,
which is classified by both Riyadh and the United States as a terrorist group.”



Lebanon



Asharq Al-Awsat: Official Close To Hezbollah Assassinated In Damascus
Countryside
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“Unknown individuals assassinated the commander of the Baath Brigades, a close
figure to the Lebanese Hezbollah party, in the countryside of Damascus, the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Monday. The official was
assassinated in recent Israeli shelling in the Damascus countryside, said the
Observatory.”



Middle East



Associated Press: Palestinian Toll Mounts As Israel Steps Up West Bank Raids
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“At least 85 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank this year as
Israeli forces have carried out nightly raids in cities, towns and villages,
making it the deadliest in the occupied territory since 2016. The military says
the vast majority were militants or stone-throwers who endangered the soldiers.
The tally, from the Palestinian Health Ministry, includes Palestinians who
carried out deadly attacks inside Israel. But it also includes several
civilians, including a veteran journalist and a lawyer who apparently drove
unwittingly into a battle zone, as well as local youths who took to the streets
in response to the invasion of their neighborhoods. The length and frequency of
the raids has pulled into focus Israel’s tactics in the West Bank, where nearly
3 million Palestinians live under a decades-long occupation and Palestinians
view the military’s presence as a humiliation and a threat. Israeli troops have
regularly operated across the West Bank since Israel captured the territory in
1967. Israel says it is dismantling militant networks that threaten its
citizens, and that it makes every effort to avoid harming civilians.
Palestinians say the raids are aimed at maintaining Israel’s 55-year military
rule over territories they want for a future state — a dream that appears as
remote as ever, with no serious peace negotiations held in over a decade.”



The Washington Times: History As It Happens: Ayman Al-Zawahiri And The Future
Of Al Qaeda
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“One year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan ended America’s
nation-building project in the “graveyard of empires,” the Taliban-led country
faces mass starvation and state collapse. Amidst that cauldron of human misery
is what remains of al Qaeda, the terrorist group whose jihadist violence led
the U.S. into Afghanistan way back in October 2001. President Biden announced
Aug. 1 that the U.S. had dealt al Qaeda another blow to its leadership. A drone
strike assassinated Ayman al-Zawahiri, whom the president referred to as a key
planner in several major terrorist attacks going back to the 1990s. In this
episode of History As It Happens, Peter Bergen, an expert on international
terrorism at New America, debunks the notion that al-Zawahiri was an important
figure in al Qaeda’s history even though he helmed the organization after Osama
bin Laden’s death in 2011. “While bin Laden was building up al Qaeda beginning
in ‘96 and going public with his calls for attacks against the United States,
Zawahiri was in a Russian jail languishing and looking to resuscitate his
career. And then he came back to Afghanistan after he got released from jail,
and he was a penniless supplicant at that point. He had almost no followers.
His organization was in tatters.”



Somalia



All Africa: Africa: Somalia, AU Discuss The Fight Against Al-Shabaab
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“The Prime Minister of Somalia, Hamsa Abdi Barre, who is in Tunis, Tunisia,
is holding meetings with the various leaders who participated in the African
Development Conference that was concluded in the country. Prime Minister Hamse
Abdi Barre met in Tunis with the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Mr.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, to discuss the relationship and cooperation between
Somalia and the African Union. The two officials also discussed how to
strengthen cooperation between the government of Somalia and the African Union,
especially in the areas of security and politics and fighting Al-Shabaab. Some
of the African Union countries have a large number of troops in Somalia
operating under the name ATMIS, which are supporting the government forces in
their fight against Al-Shabaab.”



Australia



Gloucester Advocate: Neo-Nazis, Far-Right Extremism On The Rise
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“Neo-nazism and other far-right extremist ideologies are a growing threat in
Victoria, putting marginalised groups at risk of violence, a new report has
found. Declining mental health, social isolation and economic insecurity
brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic stoked far-right extremism across the
state, according to Victorian Parliament's Legal and Social Issues Committee.
The Greens-led inquiry tabled its final report on Tuesday. Other factors such
as misinformation, conspiracy theories peddled on social media and the
normalisation of anti-immigration rhetoric in mainstream media have put
vulnerable people at risk of radicalisation and made them more susceptible to
racist narratives. Multicultural groups, women and LGBTQI members were
identified as common targets of far-right extremists. The term “far-right
extremism” refers to people or organisations who promote exclusionary
nationalism, oppose democratic principles and processes, and favour
authoritarianism, and includes groups who consider violence as a legitimate way
to achieve ideological goals. It has always existed but re-emerged from about
2015, and then was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, Greens leader
Samantha Ratnam said.”



Europe



AFP: Swiss Woman Shows No Remorse In 'Is' Knife Attack Trial
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“A Swiss woman undergoing psychiatric treatment showed no remorse on Monday
when she went on trial accused of trying to murder two women in the name of the
Islamic State group. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is
accused of committing a “terrorist act” on November 24, 2020 -- a knife attack
in the plush Manor department store in Lugano, in southern Switzerland's
Italian-speaking Ticino region. One of the two victims -- who was attending the
trial -- suffered a serious neck injury. The second sustained wounds on one
hand and managed, with others, to control the assailant until the police
arrived. “If I could go back, I would do it better... with accomplices,” the
29-year-old told Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, also in
Ticino. Having discovered the Islamic State jihadist group on social media, she
said she had planned for “months, years” to “do something” for IS and show that
she was “capable of carrying out a terrorist act”. A photograph of the neck
injury was shown to the court. “It didn't go as deeply as I thought,” the
accused woman observed, before repeating: “It has no effect on me.” Dressed in
black, in accordance with court rules, the accused wore a long tunic, tights, a
black face mask and a hoodie. She wanted to keep her head covered, saying: “I'm
Muslim”, before agreeing to lower the hood to comply with court rules.”



Technology



Bloomberg: YouTube Went To War Against Terrorists, Just Not White Nationalists
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“Unlike many of her colleagues at YouTube, Tala Bardan doesn’t remember the
company retreat in June 2017 as a nice long weekend. YouTube employees stayed
at the Westin hotel in downtown Los Angeles, enjoyed a private Snoop Dogg
performance, and took day trips to a nearby Harry Potter theme park. They drank
free drinks. As the partying began that Friday morning, though, Bardan was one
of about a dozen unlucky workers that Chief Executive Officer Susan Wojcicki
pulled into the hotel’s basement for a sobering meeting about the video site’s
problem with terrorists. Discussions about terrorists were nothing new to
Bardan, who worked in a relatively junior position overseas watching violent
videos in Arabic for the YouTube division that screened footage categorized as
“VE,” company shorthand for violent extremism. (Tala Bardan is a pseudonym used
to protect her identity, given her sensitive work.) In the meeting, a top
engineer explained that YouTube had decided it would try to eliminate from its
site the entire ideology that had given rise to groups such as Islamic State,
the Sunni Muslim militant organization. The company would recode YouTube’s
promotional algorithm to bury “inflammatory religious and supremacist content.”
Policy staff would devise a list of 14 incendiary figures, all Muslim men, who
would be banned no matter what they posted.”



i News: Deepfaked Interviews Of Politicians, As Depicted In BBC Drama, Is
Genuine Threat, Experts Warn
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“… Hany Farid, professor in digital forensics at the University of
California, Berkeley, said of the fake Zelensky video: “The next time the
president goes on television, some people might think, ‘Wait a minute – is this
real?’ I suspect it’s the tip of the iceberg.” “What is really dramatic about
this technology is that we have democratised access to what used to be in the
hands of Hollywood studios and state-sponsored actors, now anybody can generate
this,” Farid told US National Public Radio. “And that’s a very different threat
factor in terms of disinformation campaigns meant to sow civil unrest,
interfere with democratic elections. Every few months, we see more and more
advances.” The second season of The Capture, a hit when it first aired in 2019,
explores the use of facial recognition software, technology currently employed
by the Met and other police forces to target criminals. “Yes it can help solve
crimes but what are the human rights implications?,” Chanan asked. “It could
also be used to identify people from ethnic groups.” The series echoes concerns
raised by former Conservative leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat, who chairs
the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and warned of “Chinese tech giants…
developing ethnic-labelling technology” to support a “brutal assault on the
Uighur population”.”



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