Eye on Extremism - April 12, 2021

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Eye on Extremism - April 12, 2021
By: Counter Extremism 04-12-21
Re: nfo@counterextremism.com

As of April 12, 2021:

Chicago Sun Times: Zion Man Gets More Than 13 Years In Prison For Conspiracy To Support Islamic State, Telling Informant ‘I Want To See Blood Flowing’

“A federal judge on Friday sentenced a Zion man to 13 and a half years in prison for taking part in a conspiracy to support the Islamic State, in part by collecting cellphones he thought could be used as detonators overseas. Edward Schimenti, 39, was originally charged with Joseph D. Jones in 2017. In handing down the sentence Friday, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood called Schimenti the “more culpable” of the two, having had a “better idea of what he was getting himself into.” However, Wood also described the crime as “on the less serious end of a scale that starts at a very serious level.” A federal jury found Schimenti and Jones guilty in 2019. Prosecutors asked for a 20-year sentence for Schimenti, noting that he had also been convicted of lying to the FBI. They sought a 17-year sentence for Jones, but the judge last month gave Jones 12 years instead. Authorities said the FBI opened an investigation into Jones and Schimenti based on “troubling” comments they made online. For example, they said Schimenti wrote, “Islamic State will control your country, matter of fact, Islam will dominate the world!!”

Voice Of America: Taliban Kill 9 Afghan Security Force Members, Capture Others

“Officials in Afghanistan said Friday that Taliban insurgents killed at least nine security force members and captured more than 13 others in an attack in western Herat province, next to the border with Iran. Provincial Governor Sayed Wahid Qatali told VOA that late Thursday insurgents targeted two security bases in Koshan and Ghorian districts close to the Iranian border. Qatali confirmed government forces suffered casualties, saying the assailants also blew up the bases and took at least 13 Afghan personnel hostage. The Taliban claimed in a statement it killed 13 government forces in the attack and captured 22 others, though insurgent claims are often inflated. Separately, at least five Afghan forces were reportedly killed in a pre-dawn gun battle with the Taliban in eastern Nangarhar province. Unrelenting warfare continues in the conflict-torn country as preparations are underway for arranging a U.S.-proposed conference in Istanbul, Turkey, later this month to accelerate the peace process between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Russia said Friday it is also considering organizing another meeting in support of the peace process like the one Moscow hosted last month, where Afghan rivals were in attendance along with senior diplomats from the United States, China and Pakistan.”

United States

Reuters: Biden Administration Pressed By Lawmaker To Label White Supremacists Overseas As Terrorists

“President Joe Biden’s administration is being pressed by a key Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, to consider designating white supremacist groups overseas as foreign terrorists subject to U.S. government actions. If Biden’s administration were to take the unprecedented step of listing such groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), or even a less-stringent designation, it would help curb dangerous white supremacist organizations, Slotkin argued in the letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which was reviewed by Reuters. “It would also give the United States Government more tools to engage and flag the Americans who contact, support, train, and join these (white supremacist extremist) groups,” said Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who chairs a U.S. House subcommittee focusing on intelligence and counterterrorism. The State Department declined comment. Slotkin’s request has not been previously reported. Slotkin asked the State Department to consider listing over a dozen organizations including the neo-Nazi National Action Group, founded in Britain and banned there in 2016. It was described in a 2018 U.S. counter-terrorism report as a terrorist group promoting violence against politicians and minorities.”

The Hill: Biden Budget Adds $111 Million To Battle Domestic Terrorism

“President Biden’s first budget proposal boosts funding to fight domestic terrorism in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The budget calls for an additional $111 million to address the issue between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice. The bulk of the new funding, $101 million, lies within Justice Department, funneling $45 million to the FBI for domestic terrorism investigations and another $40 million to U.S. attorneys offices to manage increasing domestic terrorism caseloads. The two offices have been responsible for the lion's share of the investigations and cases brought against the more than 300 people arrested in the weeks following the insurrection, which left five dead. Just $10 million of the new funding is slated for DHS, part of an overall $131 million that will be used for “research on the root causes of radicalization.” Another $20 million goes toward grants to “build local capacity to prevent targeted violence and all forms of terrorism.” The uptick in funding comes as the intelligence community in March warned domestic terrorists, and in particular militia groups and white nationalists, pose an elevated terror threat.”

NBC News: California Police Officer Fired Over Ties To Proud Boys Extremist Group

“A California police officer associated with the far-right extremist group Proud Boys has been fired, officials announced Friday. Rick Fitzgerald, then an officer with the Fresno Police Department, allegedly participated in a Proud Boys counter-demonstration on March 14 outside a theater being sold to a church that protesters said was hostile to the LGBTQ community and marriage equality. Fitzgerald was placed on leave the following day, and his firing was made public Friday by Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer and police Chief Paco Balderrama, following an investigation. “It is clear to me there were egregious violations of department policy,” Dyer said in a statement. “I am pleased that Officer Fitzgerald will no longer be serving as a police officer with the City of Fresno.” Balderrama, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center, called the Proud Boys a “hate group” and said in a statement, “I stand by and reassert my prior comments in strongly disapproving of any police officer affiliating with hate groups.” Neither Fitzgerald nor the Fresno Police Officers Association could immediately be reached for comment. The day after the demonstration, the police union called the allegation of Fitzgerald's Proud Boys participation “very troubling” and said it supported an investigation by the police department.”

Houston Chronicle: Prosecutors Seek Five-Year Sentence For Houston-Area Man Charged In Extremist Plot, Records Say

“Federal prosecutors are asking for a five-year prison sentence for a Houston-area man arrested last year as part of a group violent extremists accused of plotting “a nationwide scare” targeting journalists of color, activists, Jews, a government official, a black congregation and a Virginia university. John Cameron Denton, of Montgomery, is slated to appear 10 a.m. Tuesday for sentencing in federal court in Virginia. He previously pleaded guilty to “conspiring to transmit in interstate and foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the person of another,” records show. Court filings say Denton was part of a far-reaching plot in which conspirators made at least 134 threats to individuals and institutions. Many of the most influential conspirators, including Denton, targeted the victims for racist reasons, records say. According to earlier reports, investigators said he and Kaleb Cole, a close friend and former roommate, held leadership roles in Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group linked to several violent acts including murder. Denton, who was known as “Rape” online and worked at a mortuary, is charged along with others in Virginia with tricking emergency dispatchers into sending police to a series of non-existent violent situations at unwitting third-party addresses — a harassment tactic known as “swatting.”

Syria

Al Monitor: Islamic State Maintains Foothold In Syrian Desert

“The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on March 31 that six Russian fighter jets launched 15 airstrikes against Islamic State positions in the Syrian desert near the Aleppo-Hama-Raqqa triangle. The UK-based war monitor said that the Syrian government sent military reinforcements to the eastern desert in al-Mayadeen city to comb the region for IS cells. On March 23, IS militants attacked the positions of Syrian government forces and allied militias near al-Shula, west of Deir ez-Zor and near the Deir ez-Zor-Damascus road. The attack killed seven militants loyal to the government and injured several others before Syrian warplanes targeted the area, pushing IS operatives into the desert. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted sources from the Tishreen Military Hospital in northeastern Damascus as saying that around 100 Syrian army soldiers and their allied fighters were admitted to the hospital on March 27, 28 and 29. They had sustained various injuries in ambushes and from land mines planted by IS while searching the desert from the area of al-Sukhnah to Palmyra in the eastern countryside of Homs. Many of the injured had first-degree burns and others lost limbs.”

Iraq

The Washington Post: Iraq’s Anti-American Militias Aren’t Just Iranian Proxies. That Helps Explain Their Troubles.

“When the call came to fight the Islamic State, the lines of volunteers here stretched for blocks. Friends pooled money to pay for transportation to local militia recruitment offices. Young men were already scrambling onto buses bound for the front lines. As the Iraqi army melted away, it fell often to the mostly Shiite Muslim militias to turn back and rout the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State. For many in the city of Nasiriyah, it felt like a battle for Iraq’s soul. “Back then, it was just about one thing,” said former militiaman Thamer al-Safi, recalling the battles of 2014 in which two of his brothers died. “This was about our future. This was about Iraq.” That mass mobilization would have far-reaching consequences, embedding the victorious militias in the upper echelons of power in Iraq and setting them on a course to confront the United States. Backed in many cases by Iran, they have escalated their rocket attacks on U.S. military positions in recent years, threatening to ignite a wider war between the United States and Iran, even now as top officials in Washington and Tehran talk about restoring diplomatic contacts.”

Afghanistan

The Washington Post: A Ramped-Up Push For Peace Is Splintering Afghanistan’s Already Fragile Government

“The scramble for peace in Afghanistan is fracturing Kabul’s political leadership and undermining the U.S.-backed government there ahead of critical negotiations with the Taliban over how much control it will have in the country’s future. More than half a dozen peace plans are circulating in the Afghan capital, including one from the United States and rival proposals from such warlords as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Abdurrashid Dostum. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has his own multiphase plan. The visions are wildly different in substance and depth. But they all show support is building for some form of a transitional government in Kabul, with many of Ghani’s political foes eyeing how to secure more power for themselves amid such a move. Leaders in Kabul remain optimistic they can present a united front despite widening divisions. But the lack of consensus just weeks away from a May 1 deadline set by the United States could place the Taliban at a further advantage in negotiations over who controls post-settlement Afghanistan. “It’s had a bipolar impact,” Abdullah Abdullah said of the new U.S. approach to the Afghan peace process in an interview. Abdullah is the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and leading negotiations with the Taliban.”

The Telegraph: Taliban Attack On US Secret Base Raises Fear Of Pullout Deadline Violence

“A series of attacks on American bases in Afghanistan, including a secret spy base, have raised fears that the Taliban will step up assaults on US forces ahead of the May 1 deadline to pull out. Rockets twice struck a base used by military personnel working for the CIA in eastern Afghanistan last month, CNN reported, in apparent breach of the US-Taliban withdrawal deal signed last year.Kandahar airfield which is used by US and coalition troops supporting the Afghan forces was then hit earlier this week. The attacks came as Joe Biden is reviewing whether to stick with the Doha deal signed by Donald Trump, under which all US troops should leave the country by the end of this month. The Taliban have stopped attacking US forces since the Doha deal and are believed to have privately agreed not to attack the departing troops. Mr Biden has said pulling out with only weeks to go will be tough and American officials have asked the Taliban to accept an extension as they try to revive talks to get a political settlement. The president has also suggested a US counter-terrorism force could remain in the country. The Taliban have publicly said America must stick to the Doha deal and have threatened an escalation in their attacks, if they do not leave.”

Nigeria

The Associated Press: Aid Group Facilities Targeted In Northeast Nigeria

“Suspected Islamic extremists attacked the offices of several international aid groups, setting them ablaze and renewing concerns Sunday about the safety of humanitarian workers in Nigeria’s embattled northeast. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in Damasak town late Saturday, but suspicion immediately fell on a faction of extremists aligned with the Islamic State group. Last year the militants warned Nigerians they would become targets along with foreigners if they assisted international aid groups or the military. Edward Kallon, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, expressed concern for civilians and aid workers Sunday in the wake of the overnight attack. “Humanitarian operations in Damasak will be reduced due to the violent attack, which will affect the support to 8,800 internally displaced people and 76,000 people in the host community receiving humanitarian assistance and protection there,” Kallon said in a statement. The Norwegian Refugee Council said the attack “jeopardized our work and threatened the lives of many aid workers.”

Voice Of America: African Troops Free Dozens Of Boko Haram Victims

“About 60 former fighters and civilians rescued from Boko Haram by Nigerian, Chadian and Cameroonian troops have been rushed to a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration center in northern Cameroon. Most of the civilians are women and children, some with fresh scars and amputated body parts, an indication of torture by the terror group. Thirty-five children, 12 men and 11 women, most of them looking exhausted, rushed for food and water at the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration center in Meri, a Cameroonian town on the border with Nigeria and Chad. Among them is 29-year-old Momieni Sudarma. Surdarma said she was abducted from the Cameroon border village of Amchide in July 2014 and taken to Nigeria's Borno state. The United Nations says Borno state is an epicenter of the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram. Sudarma said she does not know the fathers of the two children she delivered in the bush in the Nigerian town of Banki. Boko Haram fighters sexually abuse girls and women and refuse to provide water and food for the women and their children, she told VOA. She is grateful to God for saving her life and the lives of her two children, Sadarma said, from the heartless armed men who abducted her and took her to Nigeria.”

Premium Times: Four Killed, UN Facilities Burnt, Vehicles Stolen As Boko Haram Attacks Borno Community

“At least fours people including soldiers were killed on Saturday evening as suspected members of ISWAP, a faction of the Boko Haram, attacked Damasak, a border community in Borno State, security sources and witnesses said. Information trickled in late Saturday night that the border community was under attack. No clearer details were received until the early hours of Sunday. Security sources told PREMIUM TIMES that the attack was mostly targeted at the UN and NGO facilities in Damasak. A police station and a hospital were also attacked. “It was a bad situation we had on Saturday when the Boko Haram gunmen stormed Damasak later Saturday afternoon,” said a source, a local security personnel who pleaded not to be named. “The attackers came in large numbers riding on motorcycles and many gun trucks. They attacked an area around the UN hub, setting it on fire. “They also slaughtered two persons and we later discovered that two special forces soldiers also died.” Another source informed our reporter that while most of the UN and other NGO workers were able to move into the bunker at the UN hub, the insurgents set fire on virtually all the NGO offices and warehouses. “Yes, they set fire on the UN hub, the GISCOR office as well as INTERSOS, NRC offices before carting away their vehicles.”

Somalia

Voice Of America: 4 Killed In Baidoa Attack Targeting Somali Governor

“A Somali regional governor has survived an assassination attempt Saturday after a suicide bomber attacked a restaurant in the town of Baidoa in the southwestern Bay region. Witnesses and officials said a man wearing a suicide vest tried to approach the governor of the Bay region, Ali Wardhere Dooyow, but a security guard blocked his way. The bomber detonated the explosive vest, killing three civilians and the bodyguard. A witness at the scene told VOA's Somali Service the governor arrived at the restaurant minutes before the explosion. “The governor came with two people, they sat beside me, we all ordered coffee,” said the witness, Liban Ibrahim. “We were having a conversation when we heard a huge explosion, smoke covered the restaurant.” Ibrahim said he saw six people lying on the ground, some injured and some dead. A security official, who requested not to be named, told VOA Somali that the governor’s bodyguards were on alert because the governor was told recently he was the target of an assassination plot. Meanwhile, two traffic policemen were killed in a roadside explosion in Mogadishu, police said. The attack occurred in the Yaqshid district as the two police officers were heading toward the scene of a traffic accident.”

Africa

Bloomberg: Mozambique Needs To Send An International S.O.S. To Fight ISIS

“Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi has finally softened his stiff-necked resistance to foreign assistance in the fight against an Islamist insurgency in the country’s north. Help has been at hand for many months — from other African nations as well as from the U.S. and Europe — but Nyusi would have none of it. Instead, he put his faith in private security firms from Russia and South Africa. On Thursday, the president finally acknowledged that international assistance would be needed. But the admission comes with a stipulation: Foreign governments must agree their forces will only play a supporting role. Nyusi offered no specifics, saying only: “We know in which areas we need support and which areas are up to us, Mozambicans, to solve.” The caveat is curious. The Mozambican military, sorely lacking in equipment and training, needs much more than just a little boost. “This is not about pride, it’s about sovereignty,” Nyusi said. But this is hardly the moment to invoke either of those things. Some of the president’s critics have suggested that his hesitation to accept international support in the north stems from a fear of what foreign troops might find there. Confirmation of reports of war crimes by Mozambican troops and atrocities by mercenaries would embarrass Nyusi.”

The National: Revealed: ISIS Central Command’s Links To Mozambique And Terror Across Africa

“ISIS attacks in Mozambique are probably being co-ordinated with the terrorist group's core leadership as part of an expanding campaign across Africa, security analysts told The National. Experts believe there is an organised propaganda campaign across the continent to amplify the extremist group’s standing and support. The concerns emerged after the deadly ISIS attack on Palma in which a well-armed detachment of about 150 fighters seized the town for several days, killing scores of civilians including western contractors. Infiltration of ISIS’s communications network showed extremist supporters around the world celebrated the attack before the town’s occupation was announced across the terror group’s global network. The assault led to southern African and western countries taking action to stop the spread of extremism across the continent. The Southern African Development Community countries were continuing discussions on Friday to provide support for Mozambique. The South Africa Navy, Angolan Air Force and Tanzanian land forces could become involved in a co-ordinated defence policy. Six presidents held emergency talks in the Mozambican capital Maputo, two weeks after the Palma attack, which also forced thousands from their homes.”

Business Insider: How A Growing Fight Against A Little-Known ISIS Affiliate Pulled In US Green Berets And Foreign Mercenaries

“Last week, militants stormed the city of Palma in northeastern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province. The fighters attacked civilians with machetes and assault rifles, leaving behind beheaded and bullet-ridden bodies. Thousands of people have fled the besieged city for the coast. The violence lasted several days and culminated at the Amarula Palma Hotel, an oasis for expats and foreign workers, where helicopters evacuated people barricaded inside and searched for others hiding nearby. Reports put the death toll anywhere from scores to hundreds. The bloodshed was a surprise to most but likely not to the US Army Green Berets who have been in Cabo Delgado for weeks training Mozambique's army, according to a March report by The New York Times. According to The Times, “two dozen” of the elite soldiers were in the region as part of an ongoing effort to contain the militant group Ansar al-Sunna, known locally as al-Shabbab (unrelated to the Somali jihadist group), which recently confirmed its affiliation with ISIS. The soldiers were part of what the Special Forces refers to as a Joint Combined Exchange Training, or JCET. Special Operations Command Africa initiated the JCET in Mozambique in March, sending two Special Forces teams, each with 12 soldiers, to Cabo Delgado.”

United Kingdom

BBC News: Essex Teenager Denies 3D-Printed Gun Terror Plot

“A 17-year-old boy has pleaded not guilty to an extreme right-wing terror plot involving 3D printed guns. The teenager, from Essex, was charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts between 31 October and 19 December last year. The boy, who appeared by video link at the Old Bailey and cannot be named because of his age, faced six terrorism charges in total. Judge Mark Lucraft QC remanded him in custody ahead of his trial on 7 June. The court heard the defendant was alleged to have drawn up plans for a storage bunker and provided information for the manufacture by 3D printer of two firearms. It was claimed he transferred funds for the purchase of materials to manufacture those firearms. He also faced four counts of collection of terrorist information relating to training and homemade weapons. A sixth charge alleges the dissemination of terrorist publications via a channel library in the messaging app Telegram.”

France

Reuters: French Government Disgusted By Attack On Muslim Centre

“The French government on Sunday condemned the defacing of an Islamic cultural centre in western France with Islamaphobic slogans, and said an attack on Muslims was an attack on the Republic. The tags, daubed on the side a building used as a prayer room in the city of Rennes, were found shortly before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins in France on Tuesday. Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin said it was a disgusting attack against the fundamental freedom to believe in a religion and that Muslims deserved the same protection as any other religious group in France. “Attacks against Muslims are attacks against the Republic,” Darmanin said after he visited the site. Among the slogans scrawled on the building were “Catholicism - religion of the state” and “No to Islamification”. The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), one of the main groups representing Muslims in France, called the incident an “unbearable aggression”. “As Ramadan approaches and in the face of a surge in anti-Muslim acts, the CFCM calls on Muslims in France to be vigilant,” the association said on Twitter. France follows a strict form of secularism, known as “laicité”, which is designed to separate religion and public life.”

Europe

The National: Son Of ISIS Fighter Given Irish Passport Back Following Legal Challenge

“The eight-year-old son of a suspected ISIS fighter has won his Irish passport back after authorities effectively stripped him of his citizenship. Abdul Malik Bekmirzaev, who was born in Ireland, is currently living in Belarus with his mother after being deported there from Turkey in January 2020. The High Court in Dublin has now ruled his full citizenship rights be restored following a lengthy legal battle, reports The Sunday Times. Abdul had been brought to Syria by his parents as an infant in 2014, but was later held in Kurdish prison camps before being detained in Turkey. Police carry out Covid-19 stop checks outside Dublin Airport with people arriving from certain countries required to enter hotel quarantine. Alamy Mother defends daughter jailed for refusing to enter Irish quarantine on return from Dubai. During this detention, Abdul's Irish passport was confiscated by Turkish authorities, prompting a new passport application for the boy. But last September, the Irish state informed the boy’s lawyers that it would not issue him with new travel documents and did not recognise him as an Irish citizen. Authorities claimed his Abdul's father Alexandr Bekmirzaev had his Irish naturalisation certificate revoked as his previous marriage to a British citizen was a “sham.”

Southeast Asia

Reuters: Ten Myanmar Policemen Killed In Attack By Ethnic Armies Opposed To Junta-Report

“An alliance of ethnic armies in Myanmar that has opposed the junta’s crackdown on anti-coup protests attacked a police station in the east on Saturday and at least 10 policemen were killed, domestic media said. The police station at Naungmon in Shan state was attacked early in the morning by fighters from an alliance that includes the Arakan Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, media reported. Shan News said at least 10 policemen were killed, while the Shwe Phee Myay news outlet put the death toll at 14. A spokesman for the junta did not return calls asking for comment. More than 600 people have been killed by the military in the crackdown on protests against the Feb. 1 coup, according to a monitoring group. As violence has escalated, about a dozen armed groups have condemned the junta as illegitimate and vowed to stand with the protesters. Civilian lawmakers, most of whom are in hiding after their ouster, have announced plans to form a “national unity government” - with key roles for ethnic leaders - and are holding online talks about joint resistance to the military junta.”