Eye on Extremism - October 28, 2020

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Eye on Extremism - October 28, 2020
By: Counter Extremism Project
Re: info@counterextremism.com

As of: October 28, 2020

France 24: France Tightens Security, Facing 'Very High' Terror Risk After Teacher Beheading

“France is increasing security at religious sites as the interior minister said Tuesday that the country faces a “very high” risk of terrorist threats, amid growing geopolitical tensions following the beheading of a teacher who showed his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. French diplomats are trying to quell anger in Turkey and Arab nations amid anti-France protests and calls for boycotts of French goods in response to President Emmanuel Macron’s firm stance against Islamism in the wake of the Oct. 16 beheading. European allies have supported Macron, while Muslim-majority countries are angered by his defense of prophet cartoons they consider sacrilegious. France’s national police have called for increased security at religious sites around the All Saint’s holiday this coming weekend, particularly noting online threats from extremists against Christians and moderate French Muslims. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on France-Inter radio that the terrorist threat remains “very high, because we have a lot of enemies from within and outside the country.” He reiterated plans to try to disband Muslim groups seen as peddling dangerous radical views or with too much foreign financing. He accused Turkey and Pakistan in particular of “meddling in France's internal business.”

Reuters: U.S. Special Envoy Calls For Urgent Reduction Of Violence In Afghanistan

“The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan said on Tuesday that violence there was too high and the Kabul government and Taliban insurgents must work harder toward forging a ceasefire at their peace talks. “I return to the region disappointed that despite commitments to lower violence, it has not happened. The window to achieve a political settlement will not stay open forever,” he wrote in a tweet. The talks between a government delegation and the Taliban have been going on in Doha since mid-September, but progress has been slow and diplomats and officials have warned that rising violence back home is sapping trust. The sides are often at odds on even the most basic issues. “The sides must move past procedure and into substantive negotiations,” Khalilzad’s office said in a statement on Tuesday. There needed to be “an agreement on a reduction of violence leading to a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire,” he said. Last week, Khalilzad said he had struck an agreement with the Taliban to “re-set” their commitments under a troop withdrawal deal and reduce the number of casualties in the conflict.”

United States

Reuters: Former New York City Accountant Who Admitted Aiding Al Qaeda To Be Released From Prison Early

“A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday ordered that a former New York City accountant who admitted to scoping out the New York Stock Exchange for al Qaeda be released early from his 18-year prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood said Sabirhan Hasanoff, 44, of Brooklyn, had shown “extraordinary and compelling” reasons for being resentenced to time served under a law allowing the early “compassionate release” of some prison inmates. Wood, who sentenced Hasanoff in 2013, cited evidence he was the only available caregiver for his mother, who is in poor health, and his “striking and unique efforts” to rehabilitate himself since his April 2010 arrest. She said these included working in a chapel at the Otisville, New York, federal prison, teaching classes focused on tolerance and moderation in Islam, and teaching accounting and finance classes. While Hasanoff’s crimes were “extremely serious,” Wood wrote that “this is a rare case in which a defendant exceeds the bounds of what we consider rehabilitation.” The office of Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan, which opposed Hasanoff’s release, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.”

Syria

The New York Times: Al Qaeda Feels Losses In Syria And Afghanistan But Stays Resilient

“Last week was a bad week for Al Qaeda around the world. At least seven top Qaeda operatives were killed in the latest of a recent spate of U.S. Special Operations drone strikes in northwest Syria. Afghan commandos killed a senior Qaeda propagandist in a raid in a Taliban-controlled district. And the United States continues to pressure the Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, the Shabab, which may be undergoing a leadership shake-up. Yet nearly two decades after the 9/11 attacks and with many of its top leaders dead, Al Qaeda remains resilient and has “ingrained itself in local communities and conflicts” spanning the globe, from West Africa to Yemen to Afghanistan, a U.N. counterterrorism report issued in July concluded. Both Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, as well as their global affiliates and supporters, “continue to generate violence around the world, whether through insurgency tactics, the direction and facilitation of terrorism or providing the inspiration for attacks,” the U.N. report said. Over the weekend, Afghanistan’s intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, tweeted that the country’s special forces had killed a senior Qaeda leader in the eastern province of Ghazni. The tweet showed a grisly picture of the dead Qaeda leader, Hossam Abdul al-Raouf, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhsin al-Masri, and said he had been living in Ghazni under the protection of the Taliban.”

Turkey

Bloomberg: Turkey Convicts U.S. Consulate Employee On Terrorism Charges

“A Turkish court sentenced an employee of the U.S. consulate in Istanbul to prison on charges of aiding a terrorist organization, a ruling that might prompt a protest from Washington. Nazmi Mete Canturk, a security guard, was convicted for providing assistance to the outlawed movement of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric accused by Turkish authorities of masterminding a failed coup in 2016, state news agency Anadolu said on Tuesday. He becomes the second staff worker at the American mission in Istanbul to be convicted this year. In June, Metin Topuz was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on similar charges, drawing criticism from American officials who said there was no credible evidence to support the ruling. Ties between Turkey and the U.S. came to the brink of collapse in 2018 when an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, faced charges of espionage in Turkish courts. He was eventually convicted but released after accounting for penalty reductions and time served.”

Afghanistan

The Washington Post: A Kabul Student Survived An Attack On His Classroom. Two Years Later, His Brother Died In A Suicide Bombing At The Same Place.

“In the spring of 2018, Mohammad Reza Bahadur was studying for his college entrance exams when a man wearing a suicide vest entered the classroom. Failing to set off his explosives, he detonated a grenade, wounding six students and killing himself. Unnerved but determined, Bahadur was accepted to Kabul University. He urged his younger brother, who hoped to attend medical school, to take the same prep course at the Kawsar-e-Danish center in west Kabul. On Saturday his brother, Ghulam Abbas Ramanzani, was just leaving class when a suicide bomber tried to enter the facility, then blew himself up in the alley outside. The powerful blast killed 24 people, mostly students, and wounded 70 others. Ramanzani, 18, died almost instantly, his family said. “I feel lonely without him,” Bahadur said Sunday, sitting morosely in the family’s home and trying to console their mother, who was weeping in a corner. “He understood me better than anyone in our family. His only crime was that he was a Hazara and a Shiite who wanted to get an education.” The bombing, like dozens that have targeted Kabul’s minority community of ethnic Hazara Shiites, was claimed by the Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group that views Shiites as apostates.”

The Washington Free Beacon: American Airstrikes Take Down 12 Al-Qaeda And Taliban Operators

“American airstrikes have killed a dozen al-Qaeda and Taliban members in Syria and Afghanistan since Thursday. On Monday, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett confirmed that American troops had conducted a strike in defense of Afghan troops. The operation killed five Taliban fighters and had no civilian casualties. The same day, U.S. Central Command spokeswoman Maj. Beth Riordan confirmed an airstrike that killed seven al-Qaeda in Syria (AQ-S) operators. “The removal of these AQ-S leaders will disrupt the terrorist organization's ability to further plot and carry out global attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians,” Riordan said. Reports of these strikes come soon after another major blow to al-Qaeda. On Sunday, Afghan forces confirmed the death of group propaganda chief Husam Abd al-Rauf, a top aide to leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. While al-Qaeda and the Taliban claim not to be working together, especially in light of February's U.S.-Taliban peace agreement, reports of al-Rauf's death may expose cooperation between the groups. Al-Rauf appeared to have been hiding in a Taliban-controlled area, which the group did not deny in a statement.”

Pakistan

The New York Times: Blast At Pakistani Religious School Kills At Least 8

“At least eight people were killed and more than 100 wounded when a powerful explosion ripped through an Islamic religious school in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said. Classes were underway early Tuesday at the school, the Jamia Zuberia madrasa, located in a crowded suburban neighborhood outside Peshawar, when the explosion shook the compound. Officials said an improvised-explosive device, or I.E.D., was most likely used in the blast. No group has claimed immediate responsibility. The majority of those injured were taken to the nearby Lady Reading Hospital. A state of emergency was declared for the city’s other hospitals, which prepared for the crush of wounded victims. Television footage showed a scene of devastation at the site of the blast. The religious school was cordoned off as officials combed for forensic evidence. Police officials said they were investigating from all angles and some students told authorities that an unidentified man brought a bag inside the compound early Tuesday morning and left soon after. The officials suspected the bag contained an I.E.D. The madrasa is in a neighborhood where a large number of Afghans also live. Most of its students are in their early to mid-20s.”

Yemen

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Increased Strikes And Raids In Yemen, Watchdog Finds

“The United States has conducted at least 190 armed actions, mostly airstrikes, in Yemen since President Trump took office in 2017, resulting in a minimum of 86 likely civilian deaths, a new study by a watchdog group has found. The analysis by Airwars, a Britain-based organization which uses local news, social media and civil society reports to corroborate claims of civilian harm, provides new insight into a war that has been largely shrouded in secrecy. The U.S. attacks, which Airwars said were carried out primarily by the U.S. military and included a handful of ground raids, appeared to represent the most intensive period of American counterinsurgent activity in Yemen since 2001, the study said. Airwars urged U.S. military authorities to investigate allegations of noncombatant deaths and disclose more information about the actions it mounts against militants in Yemen, the same way it has in the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The failure of U.S. Central Command (Centcom), which oversees military operations in the Middle East, “adequately to identify, review and where necessary acknowledge civilian harm claims from its actions in Yemen appears to be markedly at odds with current Pentagon policies, and should be addressed as a matter of urgency,” Airwars said.”

Saudi Arabia

Al Jazeera: Saudi Arabia Condemns Attempts To ‘Link Islam With Terrorism’

“Saudi Arabia has said it “rejects any attempt to link Islam with terrorism, and condemns the offensive cartoons of the Prophet” amid an escalating row between France and some Muslim-majority nations over Paris’s support for the right to caricature the Prophet. Its government also called for “intellectual and cultural freedom to be a beacon of respect, tolerance and peace that rejects practices and acts which generate hatred, violence and extremism and are contrary to the values of coexistence,” a Saudi foreign ministry official told state media on Tuesday. The official added that Riyadh condemned all acts of terrorism regardless of the perpetrators, in an apparent reference to the beheading of a teacher in Paris this month by a Muslim man angered by the use of caricatures of the Prophet in a class on free speech. The images have sparked anger in the Muslim world. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a boycott of French goods, and Pakistan’s parliament passed a resolution urging the government to recall its envoy from Paris. Several Arab trade associations also announced a boycott. Protests have been held in Iraq, Turkey and the Gaza Strip, with demonstrators in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, burning the French flag and stepping on images of French President Emmanuel Macron.”

Nigeria

The Punch Nigeria: Boko Haram Kills Pregnant Woman, Five Others In Borno Attack

“A pregnant woman and five others have been killed in Damboa, Borno State, following an attack by suspected Boko Haram insurgents. In the attack, which reportedly took place on Sunday, seven other persons were also injured. However, troops of the Nigerian Army equally killed a number of the insurgents. According to community members, the insurgents stormed the town in seven gun trucks and 12 motorbikes and headed straight to the army base. “It was our market day, villagers went to the market. As we were preparing to return to our homes, we heard cars passing; then shortly, we heard gunshots from the army base. “The army engaged the insurgents for hours after which the Boko Haram fighters ran away. The people that were killed were people coming back from the market, they ran into the attack. Six civilians were killed, one pregnant woman, one Almajiri and four other men,” a resident said. According to the resident, the insurgents regrouped and returned to the army base in the early hours of Tuesday but the army repelled them.”

Daily Trust: Nigeria: 20 Killed, 10 Injured In Borno

“At least 20 people have been killed, including 16 Boko Haram members, when the insurgents attempted to attack a military base in the southern part of Borno State Sunday evening, sources confirmed. The attackers, it was gathered, came around 1640hrs into Damboa town, headquarters of Damboa LGA of the state, and opened fire killing four displaced persons. More than 10 others were wounded in the ensuing crossfire. A top security source disclosed that the insurgents launched an attack on the military base but they met swift response and 16 of them were neutralized. The source added that the gun battle lasted for about three hours and the Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole provided support to the ground troops against the insurgents. “I can confidently tell you that there were no casualties on our side. Both the Air Task Force and ground troops did a great job,” the top security source said. A member of the vigilante group in Damboa, Hamisu Bakura, told Daily Trust via phone call that “Boko Haram came with more than 20 gun trucks, and they were just shooting anyhow.” “Everybody was running and three displaced persons were caught in the crossfire and got killed. One other lost his life in hospital so we lost four persons but we are happy that many of them (Boko Haram) were killed.”
Somalia

Shabelle Media Network: Somalia: Three Killed In Latest Attack In Somalia

“Three people were killed and an unknown number injured in the latest attack on the outskirts of Somalia's restive capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, a government official said. Ismael Mukhtar, the government spokesman, said the militants shot dead a government official in Mogadishu's Kahda district after seizing his properties including a vehicle. Omar said a few minutes later, a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device that had been left behind by the attackers detonated, killing two staff of the Kahda district who were carrying out a polio vaccination campaign. Omar said the security forces have not established the exact number of those injured in the latest attack. No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack.”

Africa

Newsmax: ISIS Re-Establishing Network In Africa

“The Islamic State group, essentially pushed out of Iraq and Syria by a U.S.-led coalition in March 2019, has re-established itself in Africa, conducting attacks in 13 countries, capturing territory and establishing de facto governments in portions of two of them in the past year and a half, a report by a West Point-affiliated policy institute says. The militant Islamists, which went by the names of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and later by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have re-established themselves largely in west and central Africa and the Sinai Peninsula, with its strongest presence in northeast Nigeria, the Combatting Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy says. “Contrary to what some claimed in the months since the last vestiges of the territorial caliphate in Syria were liberated in 2019, the Islamic State is far from defeated,” the report says, adding that IS has been operating as separate but affiliated military units which go by names such as Islamic State, Western African Province (ISWAP). “…This dynamic is especially clear in northeast Nigeria and the surrounding region, where ISWAP is engaging in operations that are increasingly audacious, staggeringly brutal, and worryingly akin to what ISIL, as it was known at the time, was doing in Syria in early 2014.”

Mozambique News Agency: Terrorist Boats Destroyed At Matemo

“The Mozambican defence and security forces destroyed four boats used by islamist terrorists who attacked the island of Matemo, off the coast of the northern province of Cabo Delgado last week, according to a report in Tuesday's issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”. After an apparently successful attack on the headquarters of the Mucojo administrative post and surrounding villages, an unknown number of terrorists set off in two motor boats for Matemo, where people fleeing from Mucojo had taken refuge. The terrorists looted goods from the islanders, and took several youths prisoner. But when, on the morning of last Wednesday, they returned to the beach, they found that their boats had been destroyed by helicopters of the Mozambican armed forces. To return to the mainland, the jihadists stole two sailing boats. But oars and sails are slow forms of transport and the defence forces monitored the terrorists as they made their way to another island, Quilhaule. Here the helicopters went into action again, sinking the two boats. All on board, both the terrorists and their captives, died. “Mediafax”'s sources say that over 30 people lost their lives.”
Europe

Reuters: Two Swiss Muslim Leaders Convicted Of Spreading Al Qaeda Propaganda

“A Swiss court handed suspended jail terms on Tuesday to two senior officials from a Swiss Islamic group for spreading propaganda supporting al Qaeda, in a retrial which followed their earlier acquittal. Nicolas Blancho, president of the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS), and media spokesman Abdel Azziz Qaasim Illi were sentenced by the Federal Criminal Court to 15 months and 18 months in prison respectively, both suspended for three years. Prosecutors originally charged the two men and one other ICCS official in 2017 over videos posted online two years earlier that included interviews with leaders of Jabhat al-Nusra, at the time al Qaeda’s Syrian branch. The ICCS did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday’s ruling. It has previously said the footage was intended to shed light on a troubled region, not glorify extremists. Films of the interview were subsequently used online as propaganda for al Qaeda, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said the filmmakers failed to explicitly distance themselves from al Qaeda activities in Syria in the 2015 videos. The charges were made under a Swiss law that bans al Qaeda and Islamic State. Blancho and Illi were found not guilty in the earlier trial because the court held that prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient detail about the allegations.”

Business Insider: MMA Clubs Are A Hotbed For Potential Extremists, European Security Officials Say

“Mixed martial arts clubs are a hotbed for potential extremists, French police and investigators across Europe told Insider, adding that there's increasing evidence that such clubs are being used by the Chechen government and radical Islamist groups for their operations. Their warnings follow the news that the teenager who killed a French schoolteacher earlier this month had belonged to a predominantly-Chechen MMA club in the outskirts of Paris. Abdoulakh Anzorov, a 18-year-old Chechen refugee , beheaded 47-year-old Samuel Paty with a kitchen knife on October 16. Anzorov was shot dead by the French police shortly after. Paty had recently showed his class inflammatory cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as part of a presentation on freedom of speech. Muslims believe the visual depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous. News outlets including The New York Times had previously reported that Anzorov had been part of an MMA sports club. A French police investigator, who is assigned to a counterterrorism task force in the Paris suburbs, confirmed the connection to Insider, adding that officials are now investigating the club to determine what links Anzorov might have had to outside groups that may have played a role in his attack on Paty.”

Al Jazeera: Slovakia Becomes Latest European Country To Hit The Far Right

“A Slovak court has sentenced neo-Nazi MP Marian Kotleba to four years and four months in prison in early October, a sentence viewed as a warning to the country’s hardliners that the state is coming for them. During the trial, the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok, north of the capital Bratislava, heard how the leader of the neo-Nazi People’s Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) had in 2017 handed out novelty-sized cheques featuring Nazi references at a charity event. The cheques, made out for 1,488 euros, were presented to the families of children with disabilities on the anniversary of the founding of Slovakia’s war-time Nazi client state, led by Jozef Tiso. Prosecutors argued to the court that the amount referred to a 14-word racist slogan favoured by neo-Nazi’s: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” … Others call for the authorities to adopt a harder approach. As Slovakia has done, the criminalisation of far-right networks should be approached through the counterterrorism lens, said Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project. “Branding toxic right-wing narratives as terrorism-related would unmask them for what they truly are,” he said, “inhuman, violence-inducing illegitimate ideology, not extremist pipedreams that can – to a certain extend – be ignored.”

Technology

NBC News: Tech Platforms Continue To Let U.S.-Based Hate Groups Use Them To Make Payments

“Technology platforms including PayPal, Stripe, Facebook and Amazon are accepting payments to hate groups in the United States, even though some have explicit policies preventing their use to facilitate hate or violence. According to an analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an anti-extremism think tank, and the Global Disinformation Index, a nonprofit research group, seen exclusively by NBC News, 73 U.S.-based hate groups have had access to at least 54 online funding mechanisms. The access includes crowdfunding, e-commerce, online payment tools and cryptocurrencies through Oct. 3. Thirty-two of the hate groups have nonprofit status, which allows them to raise money through charity fundraising platforms. Twenty-one of the groups used PayPal to raise money. Nineteen were able to raise funds through Facebook's donation tools, and 13 used Stripe's technology on their websites to receive payments. Thirteen groups were selling merchandise or literature, including e-book anthologies of articles by the white nationalist group VDARE through Amazon.com.”