Islamist Extremism |  | Screenshot of a police van burning from firebombing attack - Stephen Yang via New York Post | Lawyer Who Firebombed NYPD Vehicle Blames Islamophobia - New York lawyer Urooj Rahman, 33, who threw a Molotov cocktail into a police vehicle during the George Floyd protests in 2020, is asking for a further reduction in her sentence after a plea agreement was already reached.
- According to the original charges, Rahman, along with fellow lawyer Colinford Mattis, 35, could have faced life imprisonment for the arson attack, but Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a prison sentence of 18 to 24 months in return for the plea.
- Rahman’s lawyer claimed that she was inebriated at the time of the incident and that she was suffering from “early trauma” from being a Muslim in post-9/11 America.
- The linked article includes a video of Rahman from shortly before the attack in which she states, “This has got to stop. And the only way they hear, the only way they hear us is through violence, through the means that they use.” Read More
Congress Probes Professor’s Ties to Iran Two lawmakers from the Committee of Education and Labor called for an inquiry into Oberlin College’s religion studies professor, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, over his reported ties to Iran. The lawmakers accuse the college of whitewashing Mahallati’s “well-documented involvement in human rights abuses” while he served as Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1987 to 1989. Read Now | | | | | Alt-Right & Alt-Left Extremism |  | Boogaloo Boy holds a placard during a 2020 rally at the Capitol Building in Lansing, Mich. - Seth Herald/Getty Images | Wolverine Watchmen Go on Trial Three men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer are headed to court in Jackson County, Mich. Pete Musico, 44, Joseph Morrison, 28, and Paul Bellar, 23, are charged with providing material support for terrorism and additional felony charges of gang membership and illegal use of a firearm. The individuals were members of a Boogaloo Boi-affiliated militia group called The Wolverine Watchmen. Read More California Churches Vandalized Four Northern California churches were vandalized with far-left extremist messaging between Sept. 24 and 26. The Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Bayside, the Eureka Seventh Day Adventist Church, St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Arcata and the First Covenant Church in Eureka were targeted. The vandalism included symbols representing Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and a call to “Kill MAGA/Pigs.” Read More More News From the Alt-Right - Ronald Sandlin, 35, of Millington, Tenn., pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Sandlin is affiliated with the Boogaloo Boi Militia Movement and called for a “civil war” to take place on Jan. 6. Read More
More News From the Alt-Left - Richard Harvey, 74, was charged with felonious assault after he shot a volunteer with Right to Life Michigan following a "verbal altercation while she was passing out pamphlets." Read More
| | | | | Hate Crime |  | “Incel” Johnny Deven Young - Orange County District Attorney’s Office via CBS Los Angeles screenshot | Incel Arrested for Pepper Spraying Young Women in Northern California A self-described "incel" Johnny Deven Young, 25, of Anaheim, was arrested and faces charges of felony assault and hate crimes after he recorded himself pepper spraying and harassing unsuspecting women and posting the videos to YouTube. Read More Iowa Man Arrested in Hate Crime Shooting
- Joshua Thomas Barnhart, 31 of Cedar Rapids, Iowa was arrested and charged with a hate crime after he allegedly fired a gun at a 49-year-old man based on his race. Read More
| | | | | Hostile Foreign Influence Operations |  | A sign for the National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Md. - SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images | NSA Employee Arrested for Espionage - Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, of Colorado Springs was charged with trying to send classified documents to the Russian Foreign Service. Dalke was an employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) where he served as an Information Systems Security Designer. Read More
Meta Disables Russian and Chinese Disinformation Networks - Meta announced that it had taken down two sprawling networks using fake social media accounts engaged in covert influence campaigns being run from China and Russia. The larger of the two was a Russian network of fake accounts impersonating European news outlets to push a pro-Kremlin view of the war in Ukraine. Read More
| | | | | Research & Trends in Extremism |  | Rabbi Jason Rodich stands outside the entrance to Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, one of 15 local Jewish organizations to receive new federal funding to enhance security - Sue Barnett via The Jewish News of Northern California screenshot | California Synagogues Secure Federal Grants to Increase Security - Ten Bay Area synagogues and five other Jewish nonprofits have received more than $2 million in federal government grants to improve their security.
- The grant allocations will fund measures that support physical security enhancements at nonprofit organizations that are at a “high risk of a terrorist attack,” according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Read More
Research Explores Online Hyper-Posters New research explores the posting behavior in online extremist spaces across the ideological spectrum and reveals four distinct classes of posters including “super-” and “hyper-”posters.
The data was collected from eight far-right, seven Salafi-Jihadist, and two incel forums of different sizes and languages. Read More | | | QUOTABLE
“The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.”
--Eric Hoffer
| | | 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. | | | | |
