The Extremism Roundup

Islamist Extremism

Allison Fluke-Ekren - Alexandria’s Sheriff's Office via Washington Post screenshot

American Woman Sentenced to 20 Years for Leading All-Female ISIS Battalion

• Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, from Kansas, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for organizing and leading an all-female military battalion on behalf of ISIS.
• Fluke-Ekren was the leader of the Khatiba Nusaybah, a military battalion composed solely of female ISIS members who were married to male ISIS fighters.
• Fluke-Ekren, who has multiple aliases, traveled to Syria and has been involved with a number of terrorism-related activities on behalf of ISIS from at least 2014, including planning and recruiting operatives for a potential future attack on a college campus inside the U.S.
• Family members say they suffered years of horrific abuse at her hands well before she ever became a terrorist. Read More

Pittsburgh Man Sentenced for Attempting To Assist ISIS

• Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 24, of Pittsburgh pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

• Alowemer was sentenced to 208 months, more than 17 years, in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

• Alowemer admitted to planning a deadly bombing of a Pittsburgh church to support the cause of ISIS and to inspire other ISIS supporters in the United States.  Read Now

Alt-Right & Alt-Left Extremism

Boogaloo group member Timothy Teagan stands with a rifle at a protest outside of the Michigan state capitol building on January 17, 2021 - Scott Olson/Getty Images

Two Boogaloo Bois Arrested

• The FBI has arrested two alleged members of the anti-government Boogaloo Boi Militia Movement.
• Aron McKillips, of Sandusky, Ohio, was charged with illegal possession of a machine gun and the interstate communication of threats.
• Timothy Teagan, of Plymouth, Mich., was charged with being a drug user in possession of firearms and ammunition, and giving a false statement in connection with the acquisition of a firearm.
• The criminal complaint claims McKillips is a member of the Boogaloo Bois movement and part of a militia group called the Sons of Liberty.  Read More

Eco-Terrorist Sentenced

• Joseph Dibee, 54, plead guilty to committing acts of eco-terrorism during the 1990s and was sentenced to time served of 29 months.

• Dibee committed two arsons in Oregon and California in connection with the domestic eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front (ELF).  Read More

Antifa Protester Among Twitter Layoffs

• According to a report, Eric Shamow, a site reliability engineering (SRE) manager who was recently part of the mass layoffs at Twitter, is an alleged Antifa protester.
• Shamow admitted to being one of the militants who took over downtown Portland and clashed with police during violent riots following the death of George Floyd.
• Shamow used Twitter to spread a fake conspiracy theory that police were the ones behind rioting. Read More

Illinois Proud Boy Pleads Guilty to January 6 Charges

• James Robert Elliott, 25, of Aurora, Ill., pleaded guilty to assaulting a law enforcement officer during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
• Elliot, a member of the Proud Boys, faces a statutory maximum of eight years in prison and potential financial penalties. Read More

School Shootings

Urbana High School, Illinois - Syndey Laput via The Daily Illini screenshot

FBI Investigating Threats Against Urbana Schools

• Urbana Middle and High Schools in Illinois have been closed after receiving threats of a potential school shooting.

• Both the middle and high school received calls from an unknown individual who said they were going to kill students by shooting them. The caller also mentioned using pipe bombs. Read More

Hostile Foreign Influence Operations

Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin - Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Russian Oligarch Admits to US Election Interference

• Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue doing so in the future. In July, the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on Prigozhin in connection with "engagement in U.S. election interference." Read More

Twitter Shuts Down Thousands of Foreign Influence Accounts

• Twitter has deleted around 2,000 accounts that were supposedly a part of three China-based operations seeking to influence the U.S. midterm elections.

• Twitter also took down three networks that were based in Iran but often claimed to be based in the U.S. or Israel. At least one of the accounts involved in the Iranian efforts endorsed candidates in elections. Read More

Research & Trends in Extremism

An error message is seen on Ministry of Defence of Ukraine official webpage, which suffered cyberattacks - Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Cyber-Enabled Economic Warfare - The Concerted Attack on America's Future

• The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) published an update on a series of monographs analyzing cyber-enabled economic warfare (CEEW) as practiced by Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. The monographs analyze what these adversaries may do next and how the U.S. government and private sector might disrupt those plans. Read More

QUOTABLE
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”

-Hannah Arendt

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.