Eye on Extremism - April 26, 2019

[Boats]

Eye on Extremism
April 26, 2019
RE: info@counterextremism.com

April 26, 2019


The New York Times: Sri Lanka Attack Signals ISIS’ Widening Reach

“A bearded man wearing a heavy backpack and sandals walks deliberately across the courtyard of St. Sebastian’s Church in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Moments later, he slips past the pews where women are sitting with their hair covered in veils of white lace, then detonates a bomb. The explosion that followed — one of numerous blasts unleashed by eight suicide bombers at six sites in three cities — was strong enough to blow the tiles off the church roof. At least 250 people died in the coordinated attacks, which were believed to have been carried out by a local cell that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. That would make it one of the deadliest attacks carried out by the group, nearly twice as lethal as the 2015 Paris attacks. Just four weeks after the ISIS caliphate was erased in Iraq and Syria — and four months after President Trump first claimed the group was defeated — the terrorist group has reminded the world in dramatic fashion that it does not need to control territory to be a major threat. “ISIS is not in disarray; it’s not ‘defeated,’” Laith Alkhouri, a senior director at Flashpoint, which assesses the global terrorist threat, said in a Twitter post on Wednesday. “It’s not a membership-based organization.”

Reuters: Sri Lankan Police Looking For 140 With Islamic State Links: President

“Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said on Friday police are looking for 140 people believed to have links with the Islamic State group over the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels that killed at least 253 people. Sirisena told reporters some Sri Lankan youths had been involved with the extremist group since 2013, and that top defense and police chiefs had not shared information with him about the impending attacks. He also blamed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government for weakening the intelligence system by focusing on the prosecution of military officers over alleged war crimes during a decade-long civil war with Tamil separatists.”

The Washington Post: Release Approved For Coast Guard Officer Accused Of Terror

“A Coast Guard lieutenant accused of being a domestic terrorist is entitled to be released from custody before his trial on firearms and drug charges, a federal magistrate said Thursday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day noted that 50-year-old Christopher Hasson hasn’t been charged with any terrorism related offenses. Hasson was arrested Feb. 15 and is awaiting trial on firearms and drug charges. Prosecutors have said he created a hit list of prominent Democrats, two Supreme Court justices, network TV journalists and social media company executives. Day said he still has “grave concerns” about Hasson based on information prosecutors have presented. The magistrate said Hasson is “going to have to have a whole lot of supervision” before his release, a process that could take several days. Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Robert Hur’s office, said prosecutors would oppose any conditions of release for Hasson. Day didn’t order Hasson to be immediately released. The magistrate gave Hasson’s defense attorney, Liz Oyer, a few days to arrange conditions of release that would be acceptable to the court. Prosecutors have vowed to appeal if Day does order his release. Oyer said her client hadn’t made any direct or specific threats to harm anyone.”

Voice Of America: UN Confirms 3rd Hezbollah Tunnel At Lebanon-Israel Border

“U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon have confirmed the existence of a third cross-border tunnel, out of six the Israeli military said it discovered in the area last year. The force known as UNIFIL says the tunnels violate a cease-fire resolution that ended a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. It said Thursday peacekeepers completed a technical inspection and confirmed the third tunnel. Earlier, UNIFIL had confirmed two other tunnels. Israel says the frontier tunnels are a tactic used by Hezbollah in previous wars and has called on the international community to impose new sanctions on the Lebanese militant group. UNIFL says it informed Lebanese authorities about the violation and requested follow-up actions. Israel in January wrapped up its operation to destroy the part of the tunnels stretching into Israel.”

Maclean's: Why The ISIS Threat Lives On

“Regardless of how weak ISIS becomes territorially, or how much it has been damaged physically on the battlefield, the true threat of ISIS lies in the proliferation and staying power of its ideology and ability to indoctrinate youth all over the world. According to Scientific American, a study conducted by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) found that ISIS is leveraging YouTube for massive propaganda outreach. ISIS members and supporters uploaded 1,348 YouTube videos, garnering 163,391 views between March and June of 2018. The videos that were tracked by CEP were posted by 278 different accounts, all of which were allowed to continually post videos, even after having previous videos deleted for violating YouTube’s terms of use. So while the U.S. and the western coalition are defeating ISIS on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq, ISIS has turned the war on its head, and carried out a full blown information war that the U.S. has simply not been able to keep pace with.”

The New York Times: Regulators Around The World Are Circling Facebook

“Regulators on four continents are preparing for a long-awaited showdown with Facebook, after years of disinterest and half-steps. They largely have the same goal: changing the social media company’s behavior. Figuring out how is the hard part. Members of the Federal Trade Commission in the United States are weighing what sorts of constraints they would put on Facebook’s business practices. But there is not agreement on those terms within the F.T.C., according to two people familiar with the internal talks who were not allowed to discuss them publicly. Facebook said this week that it expected that the agency would impose a fine of $3 billion to $5 billion for violations of a privacy settlement from 2011. It would be the highest penalty in the United States against a tech company. The company and F.T.C. officials have discussed additional mandates that would constrain how Facebook’s handles data, strengthens security and monitors its privacy practices, according to the two people familiar with the discussions.”

Syria

Al Monitor: Syria Drawdown Raises Security Risks For US Troops

“Nearly everywhere US troops go in Syria, the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) provide protection, escorting small units and acting as America’s intelligence collectors on the ground. “They’re like the eyes and ears for US forces,” providing information on which buildings to target with airstrikes, said Amy Austin Holmes, a fellow with the Wilson Center’s Middle East program who traveled to the country in February. But as the Donald Trump administration looks to draw down US forces, experts worry about disrupting a fragile balance where US troops trade military power in the form of airstrikes, advisers and ground firepower for protection from Kurdish-dominated local units. “There’s just not a lot of US forces in northeast Syria. They’ll become even thinner,” said Aaron Stein, director of the Middle East program at Foreign Policy Research Institute. “The US can’t be out everywhere reaching out touching everything, so they rely on the SDF.” The security concerns are resurfacing as the Trump administration struggles to reach a deal with European nations and other allies to set up a safe zone to protect the Kurdish forces in northeast Syria.”

Foreign Policy: How The U.S. Miscounted The Dead In Syria

“The United States dramatically underestimated the number of civilians killed in the U.S.-led coalition’s assault on the self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State two years ago, according to the research of two leading human rights groups. During the four-month campaign to oust the Islamic State from the Syrian city of Raqqa in 2017, some 1,600 civilians died as a result of coalition airstrikes and bombing, Amnesty International and Airwars wrote in a new report. The United States put the civilian death toll in Raqqa at 318, according to a spokesman for the U.S. campaign to defeat the Islamic State. The report, drawing on nearly two years of research, also concluded that the U.S.-led coalition was responsible for a significantly higher number of civilian casualties throughout its four-year campaign to destroy the Islamic State caliphate in Syria and Iraq than it had reported. The U.S. military estimated in February that it unintentionally killed 1,257 civilians in the fighting, which began in 2014. But Donatella Rovera, the Amnesty researcher who led the investigation, estimated that the real number was about 10 times higher. She described the level of destruction in Raqqa as “unparalleled in modern times.”

Newsweek: Russia Says Time Is Running Out For Syria's Last Rebel Region As It Joins Iran And Turkey For Talks

“Russia warned this week that it is growing impatient with the persistent presence of jihadis in the last Syrian province to be held by insurgents as it sat down with Turkey and Iran for talks. Vladimir Safronkov, Moscow's permanent Russian representative to the United Nations, warned a Security Council session Wednesday that militant groups such as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham—formerly Al-Qaeda's Nusra Front—remained active in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib despite Turkish assurances that they would be removed. The promises came as part of a ceasefire deal reached last year in an effort to halt an offensive by the Syrian military, but attacks have continued from both sides. "The situation in Idlib remains volatile. Militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham do not cease to attack the governmental forces. They strike indiscriminately, including against civil infrastructure. Peaceful people die," Safronkov said, blaming the West-backed Syrian civil rescue group—known as the White Helmets—for plotting "new provocations" via chemical attacks to draw international action against the Syrian government.”

The Washington Post: U.S. And Turkey Negotiate Plan For Their Troops To Jointly Patrol Safe Zone In Syria

“The United States and Turkey are negotiating a plan for their troops to jointly patrol a safe zone about 20 miles wide along Syria’s northeastern border with Turkey, according to officials from both countries. The proposed arrangement, including withdrawal from the zone of Syrian Kurds, who have been crucial U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State, marks a step back from initial Trump administration hopes that coalition allies or local security would secure the area. The patrols would be an additional task for U.S. forces in Syria, whose numbers are due to be cut by more than half, to about 1,000, in the coming months. Britain and France, whose forces continue to participate in the U.S.-led counterterrorism mission against Islamic State remnants, have rejected an American request to contribute to what will be a buffer between the Kurds and Turkey. Ankara considers the Kurds to be terrorists.”

Iran

Forbes: $360 Million U.S. Lawsuit Against Iran And Syria For Funding Hamas Killers In Israel

“When I shot the woman,” Yahya Haj Hamed told investigators, “I saw there were three or four children in the car, but I didn’t fire in their direction. We got back into our car and drove off.” Yahya, a member of a Hamas terror cell, had already “fired in the direction” of the woman's husband, the children's father, “who was killed on the spot.” The killings in October 2015 of Eitam and Na'ama Henkin, to avenge an arson attack on the home of a Palestinian family, made headlines around the world. The family was driving in the West Bank when their vehicle was 'sprayed' with gunfire and forced to stop. The parents were killed. The children were spared. “Islam forbids murdering children,” Yahya said in his statement. “My character doesn’t let me kill or hurt a baby.” The gunmen, all of whom admitted to being members of a Hamas terrorist cell, were arrested several days later. Yahya along with the rest of his cell was sentenced to life imprisonment. The four children, then aged nine, seven, four and ten-months, are now suing Iran and Syria for their sponsorship of Hamas. It is the first such lawsuit since the designation of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, and that carries extra weight. “The number one sponsor of terrorism worldwide is Iran,” Jonathan Missner tells me.”

The Wall Street Journal: Mideast-U.S. Bloc Spoiling For Conflict With Iran, Top Diplomat Says

“Iran’s foreign minister said a small group of Middle Eastern and U.S. officials is trying to steer President Trump into a conflict with Tehran in the hope of undermining Iran’s influence in the region. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif insisted Thursday that Iran wasn’t seeking a military confrontation with Washington. He said he didn’t think President Trump was eager for a conflict either. Mr. Trump, the foreign minister said, appears to be calculating that he can get a deal to roll back Iran’s nuclear program and its military support for regional allies by ratcheting up the economic pressure on Tehran. But Mr. Zarif asserted that leaders from Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Trump administration were seeking to push the U.S. president into another Middle East war. “Their approach is not to engage in brinkmanship, but to prepare for conflict,” Mr. Zarif told The Wall Street Journal in an interview at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York.”

Iraq

Iraqi News: Iraqi Security Kill Six Islamic State Members In Kirkuk

“Iraqi security forces killed on Thursday six Islamic State members in a raid in Kirkuk province, north of the country, the Joint Operations Command said in a statement. Alsumaria News quoted the statement saying that a raid in Wadi al-Shai, Daqouq, south of the province, backed by international coalition aviation, left six “terrorists” killed, and destroyed hideouts and tunnels belonging to Islamic State extremists. Iraq declared late 2017 the recapture of all territories occupied by Islamic State extremists three years earlier, but security authorities continues to hunt for remnant cells and struggle against occasional attacks by those vestiges."

Turkey

The New York Times: 6 Employees Of Turkish Newspaper Return To Jail In Terrorism Case

“Six people who worked for Turkey’s oldest independent newspaper were returned to prison on Thursday on terrorism-related charges, in a court case widely considered to have grave implications for press freedom in the country. The six were among 13 employees of the newspaper Cumhuriyet, convicted last year and given sentences of two to seven years. All were detained for nine months before the trial, but then released during an appeals process. The 13 were accused of serving the interests and aims of three terrorist organizations by altering the newspaper’s editorial line. The bulk of the evidence consisted of news reports, opinion columns and headlines from Cumhuriyet. The journalists, their lawyers and media freedom organizations denounced the trial as politically motivated. “It is a scandal, a huge injustice,” said Tora Pekin, one of the lawyers for the journalists. In February, an interim appeals court upheld the convictions of eight of the 13, sending six of them back to jail, including an accountant at the newspaper, one of its board members, a lawyer and its cartoonist. They have up to 18 months left to serve.”

Deutsche Welle: Turkey: 'Terrorist Propaganda' Lands Mother And Baby Behind Bars

“For a long time, Turkey's family friendly Beyaz Show was one of the country's most popular television programs. Each Friday, a whole host of chat show guests would gather, talk and laugh at the host's jokes. But on one particular evening in January 2016, something unexpected happened. As that night's guests were chatting and laughing away, a telephone caller was put on air. Ayse Celik, a young teacher from the predominately Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey, was on the line, and she quickly put a damper on the group's lighthearted mood. She asked them: “Are you even aware of what is going on in eastern Turkey?” She then continued to say: ”We can no longer be silent about this. People must stop dying, children must stop dying, and mothers must be spared from crying.” Celik had called in to raise awareness of the fighting in the eastern part of the country between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), a leftist militant and political organization that Turkey considers a terrorist organization. Armed conflict between both sides broke out in the summer of 2015 and raged for months. The PKK occupied Turkish cities, declaring them autonomous zones.”

Afghanistan

Voice Of America: Taliban-IS Clashes Displace Hundreds Of Afghan Families

“Fighting between the Islamic State terror group and Taliban insurgents has displaced more than 450 families in eastern Nangarhar province in recent days, Afghan officials told VOA. Fighting erupted Monday when IS militants attacked areas under Taliban control in Sherzad and Khogyani districts of Nangarhar province, officials said. The Department of Refugees and Returnees of Nangarhar told VOA that more people are expected to be displaced as intense firefights between the militant groups continue in the province. “Only on Tuesday, 254 families from Sherzad and Khogyani filled the applications to receive humanitarian assistance and 159 families gathered outside of our office on Wednesday,” Najibullah Qayoumi, director of Nangarhar's Department of Refugees and Returnees, told VOA. Displaced families claim that women and children are living in dire conditions and if international humanitarian organizations do not assist the residents of Sherzad and Khogyani districts, the situation would get worse. “IS and Taliban are fighting each other, but it's civilians that are suffering. People are forced to flee. There are women and children. The situation is grim,” Jawid Zaman, a local resident, told VOA. “We call on government to help the people as soon as possible,” Zaman added.”

Qatar

Reuters: Senior U.N. Official Meets Taliban Negotiators In Qatar

“The United Nations’ top official in Afghanistan met the Taiban’s chief negotiator in Qatar on Thursday, the movement’s chief spokesman said, as moves continue to try to start full peace negotiations to end more than 17 years of war. The head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Tadamichi Yamamoto met Mullah Baradar Akhund and other members of the Taliban’s negotiating team in the Qatari capital Doha, the movement’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. Discussions centered on “the ongoing peace process, civilian casualties and humanitarian aid in areas of the Islamic Emirate,” he said in a statement. UNAMA noted that it has frequent meetings with all parties to the conflict as part of efforts to help bring an end to the war and has had regular meetings with the Taliban in Doha. “It has on multiple occasions made public statements that such meetings take place but, in keeping with UNAMA’s good offices mandate, does not comment further,” a spokesman said in an emailed statement.”

Yemen

Arab News: US Voices Concern For Baha’i Facing Death From Houthis

“The United States urged Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia to end the mistreatment of members of the Baha’i faith, as Houthi court sentenced believer to death on “absurd” allegations. The Baha’i community said that Hamed bin Haydara, who has been detained since 2013, will face an appeal hearing on Tuesday in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa. The US State Department said it was “deeply concerned” that the Houthis have targeted dozens of Baha’is and voiced alarm over accounts that Haydara has endured “physical and psychological torture.” “This persistent pattern of vilification, oppression and mistreatment by the Houthis of Baha’is in Yemen must end,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. The Baha’i community on Thursday released what it said was the response to Haydara’s appeal, with the prosecutor accusing the faith of being founded on “satanic thought.”

Saudi Arabia

Arab News: Saudi Arabia Calls For Global Action To Tackle ‘Frightening’ Terror Threats

“Saudi Arabia’s top envoy to the UN has called for a united global response to the “frightening” terror and security threats facing the world. Addressing a special session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi said the need for tolerance and peace among nations had never been more crucial. Al-Mouallimi, the Kingdom’s ambassador to the UN, was speaking at a meeting to mark the first official International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace. The envoy said the UN had originally been set up with the specific purpose of preserving peace and security and protecting future generations from the “scourge of wars which have brought untold sorrow to mankind.” But he added that the scale of the challenges now facing the global community demanded urgent action. “Today, we need peace more than ever, as our world is witnessing frightening crises and security challenges, such as continuing occupation, marginalization and oppression, and denial of peoples’ rights, leading to the spread of extremist ideologies, hate speeches and terrorist threats,” Al-Mouallimi told assembly delegates.”

Lebanon

The Wall Street Journal: Treasury Blacklists Companies And Individuals With Alleged Ties To Hezbollah Financiers

“The U.S. Treasury Department Wednesday blacklisted individuals and companies that are alleged to have helped financiers of Hezbollah evade sanctions. The designations come as the Trump administration continues to probe the financing network of the Iran-backed, Lebanon-based militia and political organization, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. The group didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. The Treasury placed sanctions on Belgium-based petroleum company Voltra Transcor Energy BVBA; management consulting firm Offiscoop NV; and U.K.-based computer services firm Bsqrd Ltd. The companies are owned or controlled by Wael Bazzi, an executive based in Belgium, the Treasury said. Mr. Bazzi also was blacklisted Wednesday, according to the Treasury. Mr. Bazzi allegedly acted on behalf of his father, Mohammad Bazzi, whom the Treasury said is a Hezbollah financier. Mohammad Bazzi was blacklisted in May 2018 and has since relied on his son to register new businesses, bid on Gambian government contracts and facilitate payments for a business contract, the Treasury said. Wael Bazzi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, and attempts to reach representatives for the blacklisted companies weren’t successful. Efforts to reach Mohammad Bazzi also were unsuccessful.”

Egypt

Fox News: Egypt Extends State Of Emergency Ahead Of Coptic Easter

“Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has extended a state of emergency imposed after deadly church bombings by the Islamic State group in 2017. The decision to extend the state of emergency by three months was announced Thursday, ahead of Coptic Easter. Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, but the insurgency gained strength after the 2013 military overthrow of an elected but divisive Islamist president and is now led by a Sinai-based Islamic State affiliate. Suicide bombers targeted Palm Sunday services at two churches in April 2017. Christians make up about 10% of the population in Muslim-majority Egypt.”

Libya

The Libya Observer: Libya's Interior Ministry: Prominent ISIS Militant Arrested

“The Libyan Interior Ministry of the Presidential Council's government said Thursday its central investigation apparatus had arrested an ISIS senior leader by the name Yaser Saleh Al-Majiri, A.K.A. Abu Dujana. The ministry said in a statement that the arrest came after the minister's emergency state announcement which allowed the formation of new security policies in Misrata city, and then investigations into ISIS sleeper cells in west Libya, knowing that the terrorists became active since the launching of Khalifa Haftar's offensive on Tripoli. The statement added that the arrested militant joined ISIS in 2014 and pledged allegiance to Tripoli Emir Abu Amer Al-Jazrawi. He then took up many positions with ISIS like office secretary of education, Emir of economy office, and Emir of Hisba office. “We won't spare efforts in the fight against terrorism and extremist organizations and we will keep working on prevailing stability and security in Libya and the region.” The Interior Ministry explained. On April 15, the ministry said it had arrested ISIS militant Mohammed Al-Hanid in Tajoura as he was trying to obtain explosive material, while on April 13, one of the ministry's apparatuses apprehended ISIS terrorist Anas Al-Zouki (Abu Abdullah Al-Dernawi).”

Asharq Al-Awsat: Libyan National Army Accuses Sarraj Of Recruiting Terrorists To His Forces

“The Libyan National Army (LNA) revealed that it had detected dozens of terrorist fighters that have joined the forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA) that is headed by Fayez al-Sarraj. An LNA military official told Asharq Al-Awsat that these terrorists were fighting among GNA ranks on several fronts surrounding the capital, Tripoli. He confirmed that several members of the Ansar al-Sharia group were among the fighters, including Qais Abdulkarim al-Abah and his brother Mohammed, who was killed in the Tripoli battles. Blacklisted by the United Nations, the political Islam militia emerged after the Libyan revolt. It was led by Mohammed al-Zahawi, who was killed in Benghazi during battles against the LNA in 2014. The Qaeda affiliate had announced its dissolution in May 2017, but its members soon swore allegiance to the ISIS terror group. An Italian reporter confirmed that Ansar al-Sharia members were fighting in Tripoli alongside forces from Sarraj’s Presidential Council. LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari had previously accused Turkey of transporting al-Nusra Front extremist group members from Syria to Libya to fight against the LNA.”

Nigeria

ahara Reporters: Countering Terror In Nigeria: Elevate Warning And Intelligence

“The terrorists attack in Sri Lanka should serve as a wake-up call to Nigeran government to strengthen citizens awareness, elevate warning and enhance its intelligence capabilities at all levels. Also, other Countries in Africa vulnerable to such an attack should follow the same process and heed this timely warning. Most importantly countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and Mali should intensify intelligence and preparedness. At this moment of uncertainty, policing and intelligence, rather than military force, should form the backbone of Nigeria's efforts against Boko Haram/ISWAP. Although, the Islamic States of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has come forward to claim responsibility for Sri Lanka attacks without evidence to support the claim. We know that ISIS has lost physical territory, but the ideology of the group resonate in the heart and minds of its members and sympathizers around the world. It is vital to recognize the fact that ISIS may not be able to launch direct attacks of Sri Lanka's proportion in America and European soil. The group will most likely target Western interest all over the world including allies nations in Africa. As such, “lone wolf” or group attacks against soft targets such as market place, worship center, hotels, tourism centers or transportation system is possible.”

Somalia

Mareeg Media: US-Backed Forces Clash With Al Shabaab In Somalia

“Heavy fighting broke out between US-backed forces of Somalia and Al Shabaab militants in south of Mogadishu. The clash flared up when heavily armed Al Shabaab fighters launched an attack on army base manned by government forces in Sabid town, some 40km south of Mogadishu. The al Qaeda linked group claims to have overrun and briefly seized the military base after the ambush attack. The group says its fighters killed several soldiers in the assault. Somali military says the army forces had repulsed the surprise attack carried out by al Shabaab. The attack comes two week after the country’s army forces backed by African Union troops captured Sabid town from Al Shabaab. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked group, has been fighting for more than ten years in Somalia. The group wants to overthrow the weak UN-backed government in Somalia and impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law.”

North Korea

The New York Times: North Korea Demanded $2 Million Before Releasing Comatose U.S. Student

“North Korea billed the Trump administration $2 million for the medical care of Otto F. Warmbier, an imprisoned American student who had fallen into a coma, before agreeing to release him in 2017. A senior American diplomat negotiating for Mr. Warmbier’s freedom accepted the bill, and Mr. Warmbier was released. He died six days later in the United States, after his parents decided to end the life support that was sustaining his vegetative state. The bill was passed from the State Department to the Treasury Department, but on Friday morning, President Trump said that no money had been paid. “No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else,” Mr. Trump said in a Twitter post. Any payment would have been widely seen as handing over ransom money, running counter to the administration’s stated policy for hostage negotiations.”

United Kingdom

Fox News: In New Zealand, Prince William Says Extremism Must Be Fought

“Britain's Prince William has told survivors of the mosque attacks in New Zealand that people must unite to fight extremism in all its forms. The Duke of Cambridge on Friday visited one of the two Christchurch mosques where 50 people were killed and 50 others wounded in a March 15 attack by a white supremacist. Prince William spoke to about 100 people including Muslim leaders and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the Al Noor mosque. He said the message after the attacks was clear: That hate would fail to divide people. William is on a two-day trip to New Zealand. Earlier on Friday, he met with some of those recovering from gunshot wounds at Christchurch Hospital. On Thursday, he met with police officers and medics who responded to the attacks.”

Europe

Xinhua: EU, UN Launch Joint Project To Prevent Nuclear Terrorism Acts

“The European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) launched Thursday a joint project to prevent acts of nuclear terrorism through the promotion of the universal ratification and effective implementation of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT). “The risk of terrorists gaining access to nuclear and radiological materials is a significant threat to humanity and international peace and security. Unfortunately, we know that the possibility of such materials falling into the hands of terrorists is real,” said Vladimir Voronkov, under-secretary-general of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office, at the opening of the launch event. Pedro Serrano, deputy secretary general of the European External Action Service, said that the international community must remain united to prevent the threat of nuclear terrorism. According to the press release, the joint project is “a testament of shared commitment of the UN and the EU to address this challenge.” In 2018, the European Council passed a decision allocating a total of 5 million euros (557 million U.S. dollars) to fund the project. ICSANT was adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly in 2005 and has 115 signatories to date.”

Southeast Asia

The Wall Street Journal: Sri Lanka Identifies 8 Of 9 Easter Bombers

“Authorities are starting to piece together profiles of the Easter bombing perpetrators, a group of well-off Sri Lankans police say includes two sons of a merchant family and a woman who detonated a bomb that killed herself and two of her children along with three police officers closing in on them. Police said they have identified eight plotters who died by blowing themselves up—seven men at or near hotels and churches and the woman at a private home. A ninth bomber hasn’t been identified, they said. Authorities haven’t released their names, but said at least one of them had two foreign university degrees and most belonged to middle- or upper-middle-class Sri Lankan families. “They are financially quite independent and their families are quite stable financially,” said State Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardene in a news conference Wednesday. The information about the bombers came out on another tense day in the capital. Authorities had issued a public advisory that parked cars on the street must display a mobile phone number police could contact. Not long after a curfew lifted at dawn, police demolition experts destroyed two suspicious vehicles in controlled explosions. Neither turned out to have contained explosives, police said."

The New York Times: Sri Lanka Says Easter Attack Leader Died In Hotel Bombing

“The suspected leader of the militant group Sri Lankan authorities said carried out a series of Easter Sunday bombings died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel, one of six hotels and churches targeted in the attacks that killed at least 250 people, officials said Friday. Police said on an official Twitter account that Mohamed Zahran, the leader of local militant group National Towheed Jamaat known for his vitriolic extremist speeches on social media, had been killed in one of the nine suicide bombings. Police also said they had arrested the group's second-in-command. They said investigators had determined that the assailants' military training was provided by someone they called "Army Mohideen," and that weapons training had taken place overseas and at some locations in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province. Police also said that the attackers had worked out at a local gym and by playing soccer using their authentic national identity cards. They added that the vehicles used in the attack were purchased from a car dealership in Kadawatha, a suburb of Colombo, the capital.”

The New York Times: Sri Lankan Accused Of Leading Attacks Preached Slaughter. Many Dismissed Him.

“Zaharan Hashim, a radical Muslim preacher accused of masterminding the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, never hid his hatred. He railed against a local performance in which Muslim girls dared to dance. When a Muslim politician held a 50th birthday party, he raged about how Western infidel traditions were poisoning his hometown, Kattankudy. There were, Mr. Zaharan said in one of his online sermons, three types of people: Muslims, those who had reached an accord with Muslims, and “people who need to be killed.” Idolaters, he added, “need to be slaughtered wherever you see them.” Mr. Zaharan has been described by Sri Lankan officials as having founded an obscure group with inchoate aims: a defacement of a Buddha statue, a diatribe against Sufi mystics. But in his hometown, and later in the online world of radical Islam where his sermons were popular with a segment of Sri Lankan youth, it was clear for years that Mr. Zaharan’s hateful cadences were designed to lure a new generation of militants. “He was influential, very attractive, very smart in his speeches, even though what he was saying about jihad was crazy,” said Marzook Ahamed Lebbe, a former Kattankudy politician and member of a local Islamic federation.”

The Washington Post: How A Legal Blind Spot Could Have Kept Sri Lanka From Arresting Returning ISIS Members

“Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Sky News on Thursday that the Sri Lankan government had known that Sri Lankan nationals who had joined the Islamic State had returned to the country — but that they couldn’t be arrested, as joining a foreign terrorist organization is not against the law. His comments came days after attacks on Easter Sunday that killed at least 250. The Islamic State claimed responsibility Tuesday, though the degree of its involvement is as yet unclear. “We knew they went to Syria. . . . But on our country to go abroad and return or to take part in a foreign armed uprising is not an offense here,” Wickremesinghe said. “We have no laws which enable us to take into custody people who join foreign terrorist groups. We can take those who are, who belong to terrorist groups operating in Sri Lanka.” But how could Sri Lanka — a country where a U.S.-government-designated terrorist organization waged war against the state for decades — not have such legislation? Sri Lanka does have strong anti-terrorism legislation — its Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1978 has in fact been criticized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.”

The Daily Beast: Sri Lanka Terror Attack Death Toll Drops By More Than 100

“Sri Lankan officials on Thursday revised the death toll from the Easter Sunday terror bombings, dropping the number of fatalities from 359 to 253. The reason for the discrepancy is gruesome: “Some of the bodies get severely damaged in these kinds of explosions and it’s possible for some bodies to get completely destroyed or break into parts, making the identification of full bodies difficult,” the country’s ministry of health said in a statement cited by CNN. “Hence, counting an exact death toll is challenging.” The investigation into the coordinated suicide bombings, believed to potentially be the work of an ISIS-inspired terror network, is still ongoing.”

Asia Times: Asia The New Ground Zero For Islamist Terror

“The Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka rank among the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history, and underscore the metastasizing scourge of Islamist violence in Asia. Radical Islamic groups, some affiliated with larger extremist networks, have been quietly gaining influence in an arc of countries extending from the Maldivian to the Philippine archipelagos, and the threat they pose can no longer be ignored. In fact, the grisly Sri Lankan bombings are a reminder that Asia – not the Middle East – is the region most afflicted by terrorist violence. Home to the vast majority of the world’s Muslims, it is also host to multiple “terrorist safe havens,” owing to the rise of grassroots radical movements and years of complacency on the part of policymakers. With hundreds of people dead and wounded, the Sri Lanka bombings were much deadlier than the March 15 massacre by a white supremacist at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The death toll is also greater than that of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which involved 10 Pakistan-based militants in one of the modern world’s longest-ever terrorist sieges. By targeting international hotels and iconic churches, the Islamists behind the Easter blasts clearly intended to strike a blow against Sri Lanka’s fast-growing tourism industry, a mainstay of the country’s debt-ridden economy.”

Technology

TechCrunch: Facebook Hit With Three Privacy Investigations In A Single Day

“Third time lucky — unless you’re Facebook. The social networking giant was hit Thursday by a trio of investigations over its privacy practices following a particularly tumultuous month of security lapses and privacy violations — the latest in a string of embarrassing and damaging breaches at the company, much of its own doing. First came a probe by the Irish data protection authority looking into the breach of “hundreds of millions” of Facebook and Instagram user passwords that were stored in plaintext on its servers. The company will be investigated under the European GDPR data protection law, which could lead to fines of up to four percent of its global annual revenue for the infringing year — already some several billions of dollars. Then, Canadian authorities confirmed that the beleaguered social networking giant broke its strict privacy laws, reports TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada said it plans to take Facebook to federal court to force the company to correct its “serious contraventions” of Canadian privacy law. The findings came in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which vacuumed up more than 600,000 profiles of Canadian citizens.”

The New York Times: Facebook’s Little Fine

“How can I describe the fine of between $3 billion and $5 billion that Facebook is likely to pay to the Federal Trade Commission — which will doubtlessly be touted as its largest ever — to settle the government’s inquiry into what the social networking giant called “our platform and user data practices”? How about: It’s a parking ticket. Not a speeding ticket. Not a DUI — or a DUI(P), data under the influence of Putin. A parking ticket. To be clear, $5 billion is a lot of money. A lot of dough, clams, loot, lettuce, simoleons. But with apologies to that pissed-off shark in “Jaws,” they’re going to need a bigger fine if they actually want to stop Facebook from violating its users’ privacy. Back in 2011, with I’m-sorrys all around, Facebook signed a consent decree with the F.T.C. around a different set of data abuse issues. This new fine presumably will cover all of the fresh I’m-sorrys since then, for the various and sundry violations that the company has committed over the last several years, including the mistakes the company made in not seeing and then not quickly plugging the epic Cambridge Analytica data leak.”