“The U.N. Security Council warned Thursday that the threat of terrorism has
increased and become more diffuse in various regions of the world aided by new
technologies. It strongly condemned the flow of weapons, military equipment,
drones and explosive devices to Islamic State and al-Qaida extremists and their
affiliates. The presidential statement, approved by all 15 council members, was
adopted at the end of an open meeting on counterterrorism chaired by External
Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar of India, who called terrorism “an
existential threat to international peace and security.” In the presidential
statement, which is a step below a resolution, the Security Council expressed
grave concern that terrorists are raising and transferring funds in a variety
of ways, including abusing legitimate businesses and non-profit groups,
kidnapping for ransom and trafficking in people, cultural items, drugs and
weapons. The council urged the 193 U.N. member states to prioritize countering
terrorist financing. It also esaid terrorist groups “craft distorted narratives
that are based on the misinterpretation and misrepresentation of religion to
justify violence” and use names, religion, or religious symbols for propaganda,
recruitment and manipulation of followers. To tackle this, the council called
for counter-narratives “promoting tolerance and coexistence.”











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Eye on Extremism


December 16, 2022



Associated Press: UN Warns Terrorist Threat Has Increased And Is More Diffuse
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“The U.N. Security Council warned Thursday that the threat of terrorism has
increased and become more diffuse in various regions of the world aided by new
technologies. It strongly condemned the flow of weapons, military equipment,
drones and explosive devices to Islamic State and al-Qaida extremists and their
affiliates. The presidential statement, approved by all 15 council members, was
adopted at the end of an open meeting on counterterrorism chaired by External
Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar of India, who called terrorism “an
existential threat to international peace and security.” In the presidential
statement, which is a step below a resolution, the Security Council expressed
grave concern that terrorists are raising and transferring funds in a variety
of ways, including abusing legitimate businesses and non-profit groups,
kidnapping for ransom and trafficking in people, cultural items, drugs and
weapons. The council urged the 193 U.N. member states to prioritize countering
terrorist financing. It also esaid terrorist groups “craft distorted narratives
that are based on the misinterpretation and misrepresentation of religion to
justify violence” and use names, religion, or religious symbols for propaganda,
recruitment and manipulation of followers. To tackle this, the council called
for counter-narratives “promoting tolerance and coexistence.”



Reuters: One Dead As Fresh Clashes Erupt Between Afghan, Pakistani Border
Forces
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“Clashes erupted once again between the border forces of Afghanistan and
Pakistan near the key Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing on Thursday, resulting
in one death and over a dozen injuries, Pakistani officials said. Previously,
cross-border shelling and gunfire killed eight Pakistani civilians and one
Afghan soldier on Sunday near the same crossing, which connects Pakistan's
southwestern province of Balochistan with the southern Afghan province of
Kandahar. Thursday's fighting started when Pakistani forces repairing a portion
of the border fence damaged during Sunday's clashes came under attack from the
Afghan side of the frontier, a provincial official Balochistan, Zahid Saleem,
told Reuters. Both sides blamed each other for instigating Sunday's clashes.
Afghanistan's ministry of defence, run by the Taliban administration, said in a
post on Twitter that Pakistani forces had opened fire first, and called for a
resolution of the issue through negotiations. "Negative actions and creating
excuses for war will benefit no one," the ministry said. Saleem, who is
additional chief secretary of the province, said Afghan mortar shells had
landed in civilian settlements on the Pakistani side. "One civilian has been
killed and 12 others, including women and children, were injured," a local
official of the Pakistani border area of Chaman said, adding that clashes were
still ongoing.”



United States



CBS News: Americans Accused Of Supporting And Raising Money For ISIS
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“Three Americans and a Canadian were charged with providing material support
to the Islamic State (ISIS), the Justice Department announced Thursday,
accusing them of fundraising for the terrorist organization and using
misleading and covert communications and posts to avoid scrutiny. Federal
prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York allege Mohammad David Hashimi
of Virginia, Abdullah At Taqi of New York, Seema Rahman of New Jersey and
Khalilullah Yousuf of Ontario, Canada, worked with an unnamed “facilitator”
apparently connected to ISIS' central media organization to garner financial
support for the terrorist group using Bitcoin and fundraising sites like
GoFundMe. According to the criminal complaint unsealed this week, the
defendants allegedly worked in various ways to raise more than $35,000 worth of
cryptocurrency and other monetary donations. In many cases, investigators say,
the ISIS facilitator instructed the defendants and their associates to post
fake campaigns and create false causes for their initiatives “in order to
deceive” and avoid scrutiny. The fundraising site accounts they used appear to
have been purposely misleading and did not indicate what the funds would be
actually used for, one campaign even reading, “Help raise funds for some needy
families for Eid,” court documents say. Other pages read, “Widow in Need of
Assistance” and “Ramadan Appeal for Gaza,” apparently to keep investigators
from discovering their purpose.”



Syria



Kurdistan 24: Suspect Arrested Involved In Smuggling ISIS Members From Al-Hol:
SDF
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“The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday in a statement said that the
SDF’s Counter-Terrorism Units (YAT) arrested a ISIS suspect involved in
smuggling ISIS families from al-Hol camp. “Our Counter-Terrorism Units (YAT),
in coordination with the forces of the International Coalition, conducted last
Tuesday, December 13, a security operation in the eastern countryside of the
al-Hasaka,” the SDF said in a statement. “The operation resulted in arresting a
terrorist involved in smuggling ISIS families from the al-Hol camp in addition
to supplying the terrorists with weapons.” The majority of al-Hol's residents
are Iraqi and Syrian families with links to ISIS. However, the camp also houses
many foreign ISIS families. In November, the SDF said they halted operations
against ISIS due to Turkish threats to invade and continued aerial and
artillery attacks. However, on Dec. 13, the SDF said they had resumed their
operations and that they had conducted three operations, which resulted in the
death of one ISIS “emir,” along with two other individuals. Also Pentagon Press
Secretary, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, earlier confirmed that the US has “resumed in
full on December 9.”



Afghanistan



Reuters: Afghan Taliban Administration, Myanmar Junta Not Allowed Into United
Nations For Now
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“A decision on whether the Afghan Taliban administration and the Myanmar
junta can send a United Nations ambassador to New York has been postponed for a
second time, but could be reconsidered in the next nine months, according to a
U.N. credentials committee report. The 193-member U.N. General Assembly is on
Friday due to approve the report, which also deferred a decision on rival
claims to Libya's U.N. seat. The nine-member U.N. credentials committee
includes Russia, China and the United States. The deferment of the decisions
leaves the current envoys in the seats for their countries, diplomats said.
Competing claims were again made for the seats of Myanmar and Afghanistan with
the Taliban administration and Myanmar's junta pitted against envoys of the
governments they ousted last year. U.N. acceptance of the Taliban
administration or Myanmar's junta would be a step toward the international
recognition sought by both.”



Voice Of America: IS Recruits Multiethnic Fighters In Afghanistan, Threatening
Regional Security, US Says
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“Following this week's Islamic State attack on a guesthouse in Kabul, U.S.
officials say the terrorist group is recruiting a multiethnic force that
threatens security in neighboring countries and that the Taliban need to do
more to eliminate the threat. While the Taliban claim they have restored peace
in Afghanistan, a local offshoot of IS, the Islamic State-Khorasan Province
(ISKP), has carried out a string of high-profile terrorist attacks in several
Afghan cities over the past year. On Monday, IS fighters stormed a hotel in
Kabul, killing several people and wounding others, including five Chinese
citizens. Previously, U.S. officials had said that most IS fighters in
Afghanistan were ethnic Pashtuns from the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border
regions and that many had links to the Taliban. However, after the Taliban
seized power last year, there were concerns that some former Afghan army and
intelligence forces were joining IS ranks to defy Taliban persecution. Some of
the recent ISKP attacks in Afghanistan, including Monday's attack and an attack
in June on a Sikh temple in Kabul, appeared to involve fighters who were from
neighboring Central Asian countries. “IS in Afghanistan remains a multiethnic
terrorist network and draws most of its recruits from within Afghanistan,” a
spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told VOA this week. ISKP first
appeared in eastern Afghanistan in January 2015. In late 2019, the U.S. and the
former Afghan government announced the terror group was nearly decimated as
hundreds of its fighters were killed in joint counterterror operations.”



Pakistan



CNN: Pakistan’s Taliban Problem Is America’s Too
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“When the United States withdrew its forces from Afghanistan after 20 years
in the country, it did so on a promise that the Taliban once back in government
would provide no haven for terrorist groups. The Taliban pledge covered not
only al Qaeda – the terror group whose presence in the country led to the US
invasion in 2001 – but also the Taliban’s ideological twin next door, the
Pakistani Taliban or TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan). But the recent break down
of an already shaky year-long ceasefire in neighboring Pakistan between the TTP
and Islamabad raises some troubling questions over whether that promise will
hold. The end of the ceasefire in Pakistan threatens not only escalating
violence in that country but potentially an increase in cross-border tensions
between the Afghan and Pakistani governments. And it is already putting links
between the Afghan Taliban and its Pakistani counterpart under the spotlight.
As recently as spring last year Pakistani Taliban leader Noor Wali Mehsud told
CNN that in return for helping to push the US out of Kabul his group would
expect support from the Afghan Taliban in its own fight. Like their erstwhile
brothers in arms in Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban want to overthrow their
country’s government and impose their own strict Islamic code.”



Associated Press: India, Pakistan Envoys Trade Heated Accusations Of Terrorism
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“After the U.N. Security Council adopted a statement Thursday warning of
increasing dangers of terrorism, envoys from India and Pakistan heatedly traded
accusations blaming each other for terror attacks. India’s external affairs
minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, never named Pakistan in his speech to the
Security Council. But answering questions afterward from reporters he recalled
former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying during a visit to
Pakistan a decade ago “that if you keep snakes in your backyard, you can’t
expect them to bite only your neighbors, eventually they will bite the people
who keep them in the backyard.” “Pakistan is not good at taking good advice,”
Jaishankar said. “The world today sees them as the epicenter of terrorism.”
Earlier, he told the council that “India faced the horrors of cross-border
terrorism long before the world took serious not of it” and has “fought
terrorism resolutely, bravely and with a zero-tolerance approach.” He said that
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States that killed nearly
3,000 people and the Nov. 26, 2008, terror attack that killed 166 people in
Mumbai, India, must never happen again. The 10 Mumbai attackers were members of
Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group, and Indian investigators
later said their actions were directed by phone by handlers in Pakistan.”



Somalia



Voice Of America: Somali Government Says Al-Shabab Is Deliberately Displacing
Civilians
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“The Somali military accused al-Shabab militants of deliberately displacing
civilians from villages and towns they had captured before they could be
reclaimed by government forces. Military officials said al-Shabab's strategy is
to prevent people from collaborating with the government. Al-Shabab also is
“kidnapping” relatives of self-mobilized local forces supporting the government
as a punishment, officials said. The Somali government says troops seized
nearly 70 localities from al-Shabab. The last major town seized, Adan Yabaal in
the Middle Shabelle region, was almost empty when troops entered on December 5.
Military officials said some of the residents fled when the fighting got
closer, but others were ordered to leave prior to that by al-Shabab. “They took
many families with them because they accused them of letting their sons join
the Ma'awisley, and said that their boys had taken up arms against al-Shabab,”
said Brigadier General Abdullahi Ali Anod, spokesperson for the Somali
military. The Ma'awisley are the local forces fighting alongside the Somali
government. Anod said the group's key reason for removing civilians from towns
is to prevent people from establishing relations with the government. “We are
fighting over territory and over the people.” He said the terror group is
exercising a strategy that instructs their local commanders, “If you lose the
territory, do not lose the people.”



Germany



NPR: Extremism Experts Say Germany's Far-Right Actors Are Familiar
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“Far-right actors in Germany were arrested for plotting a coup last week —
parts of the story are fantastical but chilling. Extremism experts in the U.S.
say some themes are familiar. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: We're still learning details
about a far-right group's planned coup in Germany. There was stunning news last
week that 25 people had been arrested for allegedly trying to overthrow the
German government. NPR's Sergio Olmos has been looking into the details of what
the group was planning and how the plotters may be connected to other extremist
groups. Hey, Sergio. SERGIO OLMOS, BYLINE: Hey, Ari. SHAPIRO: Start by
reminding us what we know about what happened last week, what the plotters were
trying to do. OLMOS: The raids last week were among the largest in German
post-war history. Three thousand officers searched 130 properties, making 25
arrests and more expected to come. At the heart of all this is this far-right
group called the Reichsburger, or citizens of the Reich. They deny the
legitimacy of the German government. In some ways, they're similar to the
sovereign citizens movement here in the U.S. It sounds far-fetched. Nobody
thinks that this group had a realistic shot of storming Parliament and bringing
down the government. Institutions are quite strong, but they made a
professional attempt at it.”



Australia



Daily Mail: Terrorist Wannabe Who Was Jailed For Planning To Fight For ISIS
And Thrown Behind Bars Again For Gun Possession Is Released Back Into The
Community
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“Jailed after planning a Syria trip to fight for ISIS and thrown back behind
bars for owning a prohibited firearm, a Sydney man will now be watched
carefully after release. On Friday, the NSW Supreme Court made an extended
supervision order requiring Moudasser Taleb be monitored for two years after
walking free from Silverwater prison on December 9. In granting this order,
Justice Dina Yehia noted the 27-year-old had a history of non-compliance with
the court's demands, including obtaining a double-barrelled shotgun in
violation of a firearms prohibition order. She also noted two psychologists'
reports which suggested there remained a risk he would fall back into violent
extremism. 'The imposition of an ESO would facilitate holistic supervision of
the defendant targeted to managing the risk that he will commit a serious
terrorism offence,' she wrote. In June 2019, the Bankstown man was convicted by
a jury after planning a trip from Sydney to Syria to engage in hostile
activities in support of Islamic State. He gave the one-finger Islamic State
salute after he was found guilty. Two years earlier, an undercover police sting
arrested Taleb at Sydney International Airport with a bag containing military
clothing, a sleeping bag, tactical gloves, a solar charger and other gear. He
was also found with well over 200 videos on his phone including some showing
beheadings, people with ISIS flags and battlefields.”



Europe



Associated Press: Albanian Court Jails Iranian Man For 10 Years Over Terrorism
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“An Albanian court has convicted an Iranian man on terrorism-related charges
and sentenced him to ten years’ imprisonment, court officials said Thursday. In
a ruling issued Wednesday but made public a day later, Albania’s Special Court
on Corruption and Organized Crime found Bijan Pooladrag guilty of funding
terrorism and being a member of a terrorist organization. No details on
Pooladrag’s age, home city, or when he had come to Albania were made known.
Pooladrag denied the charges. He has the right to appeal the verdict. Pooladrag
was arrested two years ago on suspicion of spying on members of the Iranian
opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK, some 3,000 of whom live in exile
in Albania. Previously based in Iraq, the group moved to the small Balkan
country in 2014. Pooladrag was originally part of the MEK community, which he
left almost three years ago. Albania’s relations with Iran have been tense
after the country took in the MEK members. In two separate instances in 2020
and 2018, Tirana expelled four Iranian diplomats for “threatening national
security.” In September, Albania cut diplomatic ties with Iran over a July 15
cyberattack that temporarily shut down numerous Albanian government digital
services and websites. Tirana called the disruption an act of “state
aggression.”



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