Islamist Extremism |  | A biker who narrowly escaped the attack looks at the crosses marking where terrorist Sayfullo Saipov drove onto a Manhattan bike path and killed eight people - Spencer Platt/Getty Images | Bike Path Terror Suspect Convicted and Could Face Death Penalty - Sayfullo Saipov, 34, was convicted on 28 counts of crimes that include murder in aid of racketeering and supporting a foreign terrorist organization.
- Saipov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, killed eight people with a speeding truck in a 2017 rampage on a popular New York City bike path.
- Prosecutors said the rampage was inspired by Saipov’s reverence for the Islamic State militant group.
- Saipov could face the death penalty. Read More
New York Shaikh Convicted of Supporting ISIS Trevor William Forrest a.k.a Shaikh Abdullah Faisal, 59, has been convicted for using his public profile and personal network to recruit and provide support for the Islamic State. Faisal helped facilitate marriages for couples seeking to move to ISIS-controlled territory. Faisal attempted to help an undercover NYPD officer, pretending to be an aspiring jihadist with medical training, join ISIS. Read More American Taliban Met With Convicted ISIS Supporter The “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh, 41, was observed by the FBI meeting with ISIS extremist Ali Shukri Amin on three different occasions in August and October of 2021. Lindh, a U.S. citizen, was captured as an enemy combatant during the initial U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001 and admitted to fighting for the Taliban in pleading guilty to two felony counts. He was imprisoned in the U.S. for 16 years and released in 2019. Lindh has not been charged with violating the terms of his release, even though the meetings occurred while he was on supervised release. Read More New Jersey Woman Sentenced for Supporting Syrian Terrorist Organization Maria Bell, 55, of Hopatcong, N.J., was sentenced today to 34 months in prison for concealing her attempts to provide material support to Syrian foreign terrorist organizations. Bell admitted that from February 2018 to November 2018 she knowingly concealed the attempted provision of material support to members of Jabhat Fath al-sham (JFS) and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). In addition to the prison term, Bell was sentenced to five years of supervised release. Read More | | | | | Alt-Right & Alt-Left Extremism |  | Organized white supremacists in Texas prisons include both the Aryan Nation and the Aryan Circle - Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images | Aryan Circle Members Sentenced for Attempted Murder - William Glenn Chunn, 40, of Humble, Texas, and Aaron Matthew Rentfrow, 42, of Fort Wayne, Ind., were each sentenced to 10 years in prison for their role in the attempted murder of an inmate that occurred while they were incarcerated in Mississippi.
- Both men are members of the Aryan Circle, a violent race-based prison gang with members operating throughout the country, both inside and outside of prisons.
- Rentfrow beat and stabbed the victim to earn membership into the gang. Chunn, one of the five highest-ranking Aryan Circle leaders in the nation, ordered the attack and targeted the victim because he believed the victim was homosexual. Read More
Five Neo-Nazis Sentenced to Life in Prison - Five members and associates of a white supremacist gang were sentenced in Alaska to life in prison without the possibility of parole for racketeering, including murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping and other offenses.
- Timothy Lobdell, 46, who legally changed his name to “Filthy Fuhrer,” Roy Naughton, 46, Glen Baldwin, 41, Colter O’Dell, 30, and Craig King, 57, were leaders and associates of the 1488s, a violent, prison-based Neo-Nazi gang that operated inside and outside of state prisons throughout Alaska. Read More
Four Washington State White Supremacists Sentenced for Assault - Jason DeSimas, 45, Jason Stanley, 46, Randy Smith, 42, and Daniel Dorson, 27, were sentenced after pleading guilty to one count of committing a hate crime.
- The four men admitted that they entered a bar in Lynnwood, Wash. with a large group that included fellow members of the Hammerskins, a white supremacist organization, and assaulted a Black man because of his skin color.
- DeSimas was sentenced to 48 months, Stanley was sentenced to 47 months and nine days, Smith was sentenced to 42 months, and Dorson was sentenced to 28 months. Read More
Pro-Abortion Extremists Indicted - Florida residents Caleb Freestone, 27, and Amber Smith-Stewart, 23, were indicted by a federal grand jury for threatening several reproductive health services facilities in the state.
- If convicted of the offenses, Freestone and Smith-Stewart each face up to a maximum of 12 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $350,000.
- These are the first federal indictments filed in connection with the dozens of attacks on pro-life facilities over the last year. Read More
BLM Fire Bomber/Ivy League Lawyer Sentenced - A federal judge sentenced Colinford Mattis, 35, to 12 months in prison, one year of probation, and a fine of $30,000.
- Mattis and co-conspirator Urooj Rahman, who are both lawyers, were charged for throwing a Molotov cocktail at a New York City police car during protests over George Floyd's death in May 2020 and faced up to 45 years in prison. After the new administration took office, they were offered a generous plea agreement.
- Mattis went to a prestigious boarding school and Princeton University and received a law degree from New York University. The Judge told Mattis, "You're not one of the oppressed. Youre one of the privileged."
- The two have been been described in the media as "terrorists," "civil-rights heroes," "woke lawyers," and "victims of deeply ingrained injustices," depending on the media outlet. Read More
Antifa Calls for Violence at Tyre Nichols Protests - Antifa agitators have issued a call to violence in response to the death of Tyre Nichols.
Posters have been spotted calling on demonstrators to gather at various locations in New York City and to “burn it all down.” - One demonstrator was seen hurling fireworks at an LAPD cruiser during a huge march in the city.
- Meanwhile, in New York City a man was photographed standing atop a smashed police vehicle windshield. Read More
| | | | | School Threats |  | A mother in Chelsea, Mass., shows a text she received explaining her child's school is under the threat of a school shooting on Dec. 17, 2021 - JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images | Minor Arrested in Connection to School Threats - A juvenile has been arrested and is facing criminal charges in connection with an alleged threat made toward Ripley Middle School, in Jackson County, W.Va.
- Deputies’ investigation confirmed the minor made threats that were “genuine and sincere in nature and somewhat thought out by the suspect.” Read More
Tennessee Police Investigating Multiple School Threats - Knox County Sheriff’s Office is investigating separate threats made online to a pair of local high schools.
- Both threats came via social media, and Powell High School was evacuated by school officials as a precaution. Read More
Middle School Student Arrested After Gun Threat - A student at Mirror Lake Middle School in Chugiak, Alaska was arrested after making a gun threat against the school.
- The school got the Anchorage Police Department involved and determined that despite the threat, there was no danger to the school. Read More
| | |  | Hostile Foreign Influence Operations |  | Charles McGonigal, former head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York office (L), and his attorney leave Manhattan Federal Court - Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images | FBI Counterintelligence Head Arrested for Ties to Russian Oligarch - Charles McGonigal, 54, who was the special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the FBI's New York Field Office, was placed under arrest over his ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
- Deripaska is a Russian billionaire who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and was criminally charged last year with violating those sanctions.
- McGonigal is charged with violating U.S. sanctions by trying to get Deripaska off the sanctions list. McGonigal pleaded not guilty to the four-count indictment. Read More
Chinese National Sentenced for Acting as an Unregistered Agent for China - Ji Chaoqun, 31, a Chinese national residing in Chicago, was sentenced to eight years in prison for acting illegally within the U.S. as an agent of the People’s Republic of China.
- Evidence at trial revealed that Ji sought to obtain his U.S. citizenship and security clearance through the MAVNI program. He also sought a cybersecurity job at the CIA, FBI or NASA, so that he would have access to all their databases, including databases that contained scientific research. Read More
Three Arrested in Murder-for-Hire Plot Directed From Iran - A federal court in New York unsealed murder-for-hire and money laundering charges against three members of an Eastern European criminal organization for plotting the murder of a U.S. citizen who has been targeted by the Government of Iran for speaking out against the regime’s human rights abuses.
- Rafat Amirov, 43, of Iran; Polad Omarov, 38, of the Czech Republic and Slovenia; and Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, of Yonkers, N.Y. are charged with: murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Read More
| | |  | Research and Trends in Extremism |  | An officer puts up police tape at a crime scene after a shooting at the Spanish Town shops in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Jan. 24 - SAMANTHA LAUREY/AFP via Getty Images | New Study Uncovers Patterns in Mass Attacks - A new study from the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center examined 173 public attacks occurring between January 2016 and December 2020 and found repeating patterns.
- Almost all attackers acted alone and were men. Nearly 73 percent of attacks involved firearms.
- The study says that nearly half of attackers had a history of perpetuating misogyny and/or domestic violence, and that those behaviors “deserve increased attention” from law enforcement. Read More
| | | | | QUOTABLE
"...Of all the loose terms in the world, liberty is the most indefinite. It is not solitary, unconnected, individual, selfish liberty, as if every man was to regulate the whole of his conduct by his own will. It is that state of things in which liberty is secured by the equality of restraint. A constitution of things in which the liberty of no one man, and no body of men, and no number of men, can find means to trespass on the liberty of any person, or any description of persons, in the society. This kind of liberty is, indeed, but another name for justice; ascertained by wise laws, and secured by well-constructed institutions."
- Edmund Burke
| | | 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. | | | | |
