The Extremism Roundup

Islamist Extremism

Mugshot of Bader Alzahrani - mconnors (morguefile.com/p/7298) via Daily Voice Essex screenshot

Jihadi Saudi National Steals School Bus

• Bader Alzahrani, 22, a Saudi Arabian who is in the U.S. on a student visa, is charged with one count of receipt of a stolen vehicle and one count of transportation of a stolen vehicle after allegedly stealing a school bus in New Jersey and driving it to Pennsylvania before abandoning it.
• According to federal officials, Alzahrani left behind journals containing writings about jihad and a variety of threats against Jews and police officers.   
• Each count charged in the complaint is punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Read More

Michigan Man Convicted for ISIS Support

• Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 32, of Dearborn, Mich., was convicted on charges of providing, attempting to provide, and conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.

• Musaibli moved to Yemen in April 2015. From Yemen, he traveled to Syria, where he attended an ISIS-run religious training camp before undergoing military training where he learned to shoot, carry and handle a machine gun.

• Musaibli was eventually captured by Syrian Democratic Forces in 2018 and turned over to the FBI. He faces a maximum penalty of 50 years in prison when he is sentenced. Read More

Couple Sentenced for Attempting to Support ISIS

• Arwa Muthana, 30, of Hoover, Ala., and her husband, James Bradley, aka Abdullah, 21, of the Bronx, were sentenced to 11 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release and nine years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release, respectively, for attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

• Bradley and Muthana attempted to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS. While speaking to undercover law enforcement, Bradley expressed his desire to conduct a terrorist attack in the U.S. and discussed potentially attacking the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. Read More

Ohio Man Sentenced for Attempting to Join ISIS-K

• Naser Almadaoji, 23, an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen living in Beavercreek, Ohio, was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release for attempting to support ISIS.

• Almadaoji pleaded guilty in November 2021 after attempting to travel to Astana, Kazahkstan, where he planned to be smuggled into Afghanistan so that he could join and receive military training from ISIS-K in support of both terrorist groups. Read More

New York Woman Charged for Financing Jihad

• Victoria Jacobs, 43, of New York City, has been charged with using cryptocurrency to provide financial support to terrorist groups in Syria.

• An 11-count indictment charged Jacobs, who was known as Bakhrom Talipov, with providing material support to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and providing more than $5,000 to the terrorist training group Malhama Tactical, which fought with and provided special tactical and military training to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. Read More

Gitmo Inmate Released After 16-Year Custody

• Majid Khan, 42, from Pakistan, has been released from Guantanamo Bay after 16 years in CIA custody and resettled in the Central American country of Belize.

• Khan went to high school in Maryland before he left for Pakistan and joined Al Qaeda after 9/11.

• Authorities have maintained Khan was a close personal ally of al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and helped deliver money and transport other senior terrorists. Under Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plans, Khan would have attacked U.S. gas stations and water reservoirs. Read More

Alt-Right & Alt-Left Extremism

FBI surveillance clips of synagogue blanks-shooter - via San Francisco Standard screenshot

San Francisco Man Fires Blanks Into Synagogue

• Dmitri Mishin, 51, is alleged to have been the man arrested for firing blanks from a pistol at the Schneerson Center, a Russian-speaking synagogue in the Richmond District of San Francisco.
• Social media accounts linked to Mishin feature antisemitic propaganda and pictures of Mishin dressed in a World War II-era German military uniform bearing a swastika. Read More

Neo-Nazi Couple Arrested for Plot to Destroy Power Grid

• Brandon Clint Russell, 27, and Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 34, have been arrested and charged in connection with an alleged plot to attack a power grid in Baltimore, Md.
• Russell, a neo-Nazi leader who founded the far-right group Atomwaffen, had been jailed since 2018 for keeping lethal bomb-making materials in his apartment.
• The FBI said it views the suspects as "racially or ethnically motivated extremists” who were “not just talking, but taking steps to fulfill their threats and further their extremist goals." Read More

School Threats

Tucker County High School, Hambleton, W. Va., via WDTV News screenshot

West Virginia Student in Custody After School Shooting Threat

• A student at Tucker County High School in Hambleton, W. Va., has been taken into custody after he made several threats in a group chat.
• The student was taken into custody at his residence. An emergency detention hearing was held for the student, but no other information about the student or actions taken by authorities has been shared at this time. Read More

Tennessee Police Investigating Multiple Threats

• A high school in Wilson County, Tenn., was put on lockdown after a potential bomb threat was made to the school.
• Wilson Central High School teachers and students were told to stay in their respective classrooms while the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office investigated two bomb threats.
  Officials later lifted the lockdown and classes resumed as normal. Read More

Hostile Foreign Influence Operations

Chinese spy balloon flies above Charlotte, N.C. - Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Chinese Spy Balloon Shot Down

• The U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina after it floated for days through U.S. airspace.
• China has claimed the balloon downed over the weekend is a weather balloon that was blown of course into American airspace—a claim the U.S. says is refuted by the recovered aircraft wreckage.
• Several Chinese balloon incidents have happened in the last few years. Read More

Defense Department Probed Over Refusal to Enforce CCP Related Funding Ban

• House Republicans are demanding answers from the Department of Defense (DOD) regarding Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence at American universities.
• A letter from lawmakers was sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin demanding answers on DOD funding to schools with Confucius Institutes or other CCP-linked entities.
• The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) prohibits DOD funding from going to American institutions of higher education that host CCP sponsored programs, like a Confucius Institute. Read More
• Clarion Project produced a groundbreaking documentary, Covert Cash, exposing the billions of dollars that hostile foreign nations like China give to America's top universities.  Watch for Free Here

Justice Department Drops Probe of Retired General for Qatar Lobbying

• The Justice Department has dropped its probe of retired four-star Gen. John Allen for his role in an alleged illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of the nation of Qatar.
• Allen, who was serving as the president of the think tank the Brookings Institute, resigned last summer in the wake of the claims that he participated in undisclosed and illegal lobbying for Qatar and obstructed the federal investigation into his activities.
• The Justice Department did not provide any more details as to why it reached the decision to not file charges. Read More

Iran Sending Ships to Panama

• Iran is making claims they are deploying military ships to Brazil and then to the Panama Canal, where Tehran declared it will establish a military presence.
• A U.S. State Department spokesperson stated, "We are aware of these claims by Iran’s navy. We continue to monitor Iran’s attempts to have a military presence in the Western Hemisphere." Read More

Russian Hackers Attack U.S. Health System Websites

• A Russian hacker group known as Killnet has claimed responsibility for a string of recent cyberattacks that took more than a dozen hospital websites offline across the U.S. Read More

QUOTABLE
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens."

- Adam Smith

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.