Eye on Extremism - February 27, 2020

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Eye on Extremism
February 27, 2020
Re: info@counterextremism.com

News as of: February 27, 2020

Reuters: U.S. Targets Iranian-Backed Militia Active In Iraq - State Department

“The United States on Wednesday blacklisted a senior member of Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia, punishing it for its attacks targeting U.S. forces, most recently for killing an American contractor in an Iraqi military base near the northern city of Kirkuk. The U.S. State Department said it has designated Ahmad al-Hamidawi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), Secretary General of Kataib Hezbollah (KH), an Iran-backed terrorist group active in Iraq and Syria, which Washington designated as terrorist organization in 2009. “The Kataib Hezbollah group continues to present a threat to U.S. forces in Iraq,” Nathan Sales, the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, said at a news briefing. “We’re adding to the pressure that has existed on this group for a decade.” Washington has blamed Iran-backed paramilitary groups for increasingly regular rocketing and shelling of bases hosting U.S. forces in Iraq and of the area around the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. An attack last month hit the U.S. Embassy compound itself, and a rocket attack on a military base in the north in December killed a U.S. civilian contractor.”

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Blacklists Lebanese Companies, Individuals With Alleged Ties To Hezbollah

“The Trump administration’s blacklisting Wednesday of several Lebanese individuals and companies for allegedly helping Iran-backed Hezbollah highlights Washington’s strategy to counter a U.S.-designated terror group. The Treasury Department blacklisted three officials and 11 entities linked to the Lebanon branch of the Martyrs Foundation, a group the U.S. designated in 2007 as supporting terrorism and officials say is used by Iran’s government as an instrument for its broader strategic aims. The move is part of the Trump administration’s effort to pressure Iran and its proxies that are battling the U.S. and its allies across several fronts in the region, including in Syria and Iraq. Washington hopes to choke off the funding needed to finance those conflicts and to show that Hezbollah’s military wing—which is widely viewed internationally as a terror group—is integrated with the rest of Hezbollah’s structure, to deplete the group’s ability to threaten the U.S. and its allies. The choice of targets offers insight into a critical front in the U.S. strategy to erode Hezbollah’s—and therefore Iran’s—influence in the region, as well as the risks that Washington’s pressure campaign represents to Lebanon’s economy.”

Newsroom: Germany Shooting A Christchurch Copycat?

“Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, a senior director with the Counter Extremism Project, says there were likely different reasons for the similarities in attack tactics between Hanau and Christchurch. In the case of the Christchurch accused, “there was a deliberate attempt to basically do an Islamic State tactic: attack one place, let the security forces go, until they arrive at that place, you're already at the next place to do an attack and you have then even longer in the second place to conduct your attack”. Meanwhile, the Hanau shooter moved to his next location only because there was no one left to fire at in the first bar, Schindler said. Schindler agrees there are similarities between the attacks but, like Spoonley, emphasises we don't know of a direct link. “Yes, there are these similarities,” he said. However, “we went through all [the Hanau shooter's] material online. There were lots of links to conspiracy theories, lots of links to just wacky stuff on the net. It didn't seem that there was any provable connection to Christchurch. Obviously no one could have escaped the events in Christchurch because it was just all over the media, so in detail and so intensively, so one could argue that the way he's done it, the way the things unfolded, seems very much inspired by Christchurch.”

United States

Fox News: Trump Administration Launches New Unit To Strip US Citizenship From Foreign-Born Terrorists, Criminals

“The Trump administration is establishing a new section within the Justice Department to deal with the process of removing citizenship from foreign-born individuals who fraudulently obtained citizenship by failing to disclose past convictions for serious crimes -- including terrorism and war crimes. The section, which will be within the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, will be dedicated to denaturalizing those who had failed to disclose they had been involved in criminal activity on their N-400 form for naturalization. It requires the government to show that citizenship was obtained illegally or “procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.” That form includes questions asking whether an applicant has been involved in genocide and torture among other serious crimes, if they have ever been part of a terrorist or totalitarian organization, if they had been associated with the Nazi government in Germany, and if they have been charged or convicted with a crime or served prison time. Targets for denaturalization are those who have made material breaches of those questions. “When a terrorist or sex offender becomes a U.S. citizen under false pretenses, it is an affront to our system -- and it is especially offensive to those who fall victim to these criminals,” Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said.”

Military.com: Navy Resumes Flight Training For Saudi Troops After Pensacola Terror Attack

“Service members from Saudi Arabia are back to conducting flight training in the U.S. nearly three months after it was halted following a fatal terror attack on a Florida military base. Saudi international military students resumed flight training Tuesday, Navy officials announced. The move follows a host of new restrictions placed on foreign troops, limiting their access to Navy and Marine Corps bases and banning them from having personal firearms while they're in the U.S. The Navy will continue reviewing its policies for training foreign troops, Lt. Cmdr. Megan Isaac, a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said in a statement Wednesday. “The Navy is making every effort to minimize disruptions to our foreign national partners while implementing the revised security initiatives,” she added. The services were ordered to review their policies on foreign military trainees after a 21-year-old member of the Royal Saudi Air Force brought a weapon that he purchased lawfully in Florida onto Naval Air Station Pensacola. Three sailors were killed and several more wounded when he opened fire on a classroom there. The Pentagon announced it would pause all operational training for 850 Saudi troops on Dec. 10, four days after the attack.”

ABC 15: FBI: Arrests Made In 'Violent Extremist Group' Investigation Involving Arizona

“The FBI announced Wednesday that four arrests have been made amid the investigation of a violent extremist group with a connection to Arizona. During a press conference Wednesday, officials said the arrests were made during the joint investigation involving Washington, Texas, Arizona and Florida. The investigation reportedly involved “racially motivated violent extremists from across the U.S...charged today in U.S District Court in Seattle with a conspiracy to threaten and intimidate journalists and activists,” officials say. The defendants charged in the conspiracy include: Johnny Roman Garza, 20, of Queen Creek, Arizona; Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, of Redmond, Washington; Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, Texas; and Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, of Spring Hill, Florida. The defendants reportedly used an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and others they wanted to intimidate who they thought “threatened their ideology,” officials said Wednesday. “Defendants Cole and Shea created the posters, which included Nazi symbols, masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails, and threatening language,” a press release says. “The posters were delivered to Atomwaffen members electronically and the coconspirators printed and delivered or mailed the posters to journalists or activists the group was targeting.”

Syria

The Washington Post: Inside Embattled Idlib Province: A Syrian Offensive Wreaks Terror On Children

“The market bombing had driven Ahmed and his family from their town in southern Idlib province and onto the road, to join hundreds of thousands of other people searching for safety, the teen recalled. A Russian plane had circled overhead, and then the bombs fell, obliterating a car, its driver and other people who were passing by on motorcycles. The attack a few weeks ago was terrible but hardly the worst he had seen. Five years ago, an airstrike had killed dozens of people in the town square. Now, at 13, Ahmed is living in the clammy basement of a sports stadium in Idlib city, with hundreds of other displaced people who have crowded in over recent weeks. As he spoke, warplanes could be heard circling overhead again. Guards warned people to stay indoors. But Ahmed — the stoic survivor of a war and no longer a child — didn’t flinch. “Safety comes from God,” he said. The last month has been especially brutal in Idlib province, with a Syrian government offensive producing a humanitarian crisis almost unparalleled during nearly a decade of war in Syria. As the government seeks to recapture rebel-held Idlib, where children make up a majority of the population, the fighting has chased about 1 million people from their homes.”

Asharq Al-Awsat: Concerns Among Damascus Residents After Several Blasts

“Damascus witnessed several explosions in the past two weeks that have raised concerns among the capital's residents and its neighboring cities after the regime declared these areas as “safe” two years ago. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) documented six explosions in Damascus between the 7th and 25th of February, which were all caused by detonating IEDs in vehicles, killing five persons and wounding 15 others. On February 7, an IED exploded in Khaled bin al-Walid Street in Damascus killing two regime soldiers. Three days later, a regime intelligence official was killed after his vehicle had been targeted by an IED explosion near al-Jala hall in al-Mazzeh neighborhood. The third explosion on February 18 killed one man after an IED exploded in his vehicle in Bab Moussalla neighborhood, SOHR reported. On February 20, al-Marjeh area was struck by an explosion targeting a military vehicle injuring several. The last two explosions took place on the 25th of February, in separate incidents. One explosion was in the al-Barakemah area, which killed one person and injured others, while the other explosion left several persons injured in the tunnel of al-Omawiyyin Square.”

Iraq

Kurdistan 24: 39 ISIS Members Killed In Overnight Iraqi Operations

“Iraq's military communications center said on Wednesday that anti-terror forces, backed by the international anti-ISIS coalition, had killed 39 members of the so-called Islamic State in clashes in northern parts of Salahuddin Province. The operation comes as the terrorist organization continues to carry out insurgency-style attacks, often in and near territories of disputed claim between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal Iraqi government. In recent months, the group has increasingly relied on kidnapping civilians from rural parts of these areas and holding them for ransom, fueling security concerns among local residents. In the third reported case in recent weeks, suspected Islamic State militants released two Kurds from Kirkuk in exchange for $80,000 paid by family members. This week's military operation took place outside of Kirkuk, where counter-terrorism units clashed with Islamic State sleeper cells in the Khanoka Mountains located about 100 kilometers north of the city of Tikrit near the Tigris River, read a statement from Iraq's Security Media Cell. The military press office noted that the operation was launched in “difficult geography” which has made the region a “haven” for Islamic State members since they lost all their Iraqi territory in 2017.”

Afghanistan

CNN: If The Taliban Regain Power, I Could Lose Everything

“It's midnight in Kabul as I write this. Afghans have gone to sleep, many of them in the hopes that a partial truce negotiated between the United States and Taliban will yield a reduction in violence. We -- along with the rest of the world -- learned of this development when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted about it on Friday evening. But for millions of Afghans like me, a reduction in violence is not enough. According to President Ashraf Ghani, 20 terror groups are currently active in Afghanistan. If the Taliban come to control our country once more, it seems little will prevent any one of these groups from gaining strength and acting on their most evil impulses. Now let me be clear, I am not worried that the partial truce, going on now, will be violated. Seven days are not my concern. I am worried about the next seven months and the next seven years. As US troops begin their likely withdrawal from Afghanistan, so many Afghans hope that 2020 will not resemble the early 1990s, when civil war and extremist forces came to dominate our politics and our lives. In 1991, I was in fifth grade in a Kabul public school when the Mujahideen, an insurgent group opposing the communist-backed government, attacked the capital city and raided our school.”

Voice Of America: Kabul Blast, Attacks Elsewhere Challenge Afghan Truce

“A bombing in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Wednesday injured at least nine civilians, the first significant incident of violence during the weeklong reduced fighting period agreed to between U.S.-backed Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said the improvised explosive device was planted in a motorcycle. He said a woman was among the casualties. Rahimi added an investigation was underway to determine who was behind the attack. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. The Taliban swiftly denied its involvement, saying the blast “seems to be the malicious work of intelligence networks trying to create distrust.” The seven-day reduction in violence pact took effect last Saturday and it is to culminate on the signing of a peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban scheduled for Feb. 29 in Doha, Qatar. Afghan officials alleged Wednesday insurgents have carried out attacks in several provinces since the partial agreement took effect, killing around two dozen people, mostly security personnel. There was no immediate reaction from the Taliban to Kabul’s allegations, though the insurgent group insists it had agreed with the U.S. to observe a reduction in violence and not a “cease-fire.”

Frontline: Why A U.S.-Taliban Peace Deal Could Strengthen ISIS In Afghanistan

“The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan began nearly two decades ago in a post-9/11 bid to kill Osama bin Laden, destroy Al Qaeda and oust its ruling ally, the Taliban. More than 18 years and tens of thousands of deaths later, the Trump administration is negotiating with a resurgent Taliban — and both sides have said that they are prepared to sign a peace deal on Feb. 29. The signing of the deal, which is contingent on the successful completion of a week-long reduction in violence meant to show the U.S. that Taliban leadership has control over its fighters on the ground, is expected to involve an agreement to draw down U.S. troops in the country and to open the door to talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. But according to recent FRONTLINE reporting from inside Afghanistan, a U.S.-Taliban peace deal could have unintended consequences inside the country: an increase in membership for ISIS, as Taliban fighters unhappy with their group’s participation in the peace process defect. “With this peace deal, you will see the caliphate rise,” an ISIS commander in Afghanistan told FRONTLINE correspondent Najibullah Quraishi. “Taliban fighters have promised to join us. We won’t rest until we implement the caliphate across the entire world.”

Yemen

Arab News: US To Stop Aid In Yemen’s Houthi Areas If Militants Don’t Budge

“USAID said late Monday that it will suspend aid to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, where most of the country’s people live, if the militants don’t remove impediments obstructing aid operations. A spokesperson said that the agency said it informed partners including UN agencies about the plan last week. The official said the suspension will start in late March if Houthis take no action. “We continue to do everything we can to avoid a reduction in aid in northern Yemen,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with agency regulations. The US provided about $700 million in aid to Yemen last year. It is among the largest donors to Yemen, where a UN aid program totaling $8.35 billion since 2015 is vital to keeping many Yemenis alive. The UN calls the situation in Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. As the war in Yemen enters its sixth year, 10 million people in the country are on the brink of famine and 80% of the population of 29 million need of aid, according to the UN More than 3 million people have been displaced, cholera epidemics have killed hundreds, and at least 2.2 million children under 5 suffer from severe malnutrition, the agency said.”

Nigeria

New York Post: Islamists In Nigeria Are Destroying Christian Communities

“It was faith that compelled us to travel to Nigeria last week to see for ourselves the simmering crisis threatening parts of Africa’s wealthiest and most populous country. “Do not stand by idly,” the Book of Leviticus commands, “when the blood of your neighbor is being spilled” (19:16). Well, blood is flowing like a river through this sprawling country, and it is being spilled at the hands of the Islamist terrorists of Boko Haram and lawless tribesmen. Dozens of victims shared accounts of almost incomprehensible suffering. A 9-year-old girl told us about watching terrorists murder her parents and siblings with machetes. A pastor whose church had been destroyed twice met with us soon after negotiating the release of two female parishioners kidnapped by Boko Harem while en route to a Christmas celebration. The young women next to him, newly released, still showing signs of shock. They recounted how the terrorists had captured them at their “checkpoint” within earshot of a state police outpost. One of the young women was sharp enough to keep her phone on and concealed. It allowed the local authorities to locate them. Yet government troops who came within visual distance of the girls chose not to rescue them.”

Sahara Reporters: Rehabilitation Of Boko Haram Insurgents Signals Recycling Of Terrorism In Nigeria —Okei-Odumakin

“Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, Convener of Nigerians Unite Against Terror, has described a bill seeking to create an agency that would see to the rehabilitation, deradicalisation and integration of repentant Boko Haram terrorists in the country as a means of recycling terrorism. Okei-Odumakin stated that one of the major roles of elected politicians was to keep the country safe. She said, “We strongly feel that the bill offers further concessions to Boko Haram militants still terrorising the country which would further embolden them. “There is an insinuation that terrorism in the entire North-East was raised and promoted by some politicians. “What started as recruitment and indoctrination of young minds against the value system of Western world, has now snowballed into killing innocent civilians and uniformed men irrespective of creed and religion. “We rise in unison as a people of conscience and condemn such cruelty and assault on our collective value for life.”

Africa

The New York Times: Terrorism Threat In West Africa Soars As U.S. Weighs Troop Cuts

“The Trump administration is split over how to combat terrorists, support allies and thwart global competitors in West Africa. And the mixed messages out of Washington are confusing allies in Europe, who are deeply committed to security in Africa, as well as to military partners on the continent. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just wrapped up a major trip to Africa, including a stop in Senegal, pledging more security support and warning against growing Chinese influence. But back in Washington, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper is weighing deep U.S. troop cuts on the continent, closing a new $110 million drone base and ending aid to French forces battling militants who are surging in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. The muddled administration policy comes at a time when skyrocketing waves of terrorism and violence have seized Africa’s Sahel region, a vast sub-Saharan scrubland that stretches from Senegal to Sudan, and is threatening to spread. Cutting American aid could not only weaken French-led counterterrorism efforts, analysts say. It could also open the door to China and Russia, which are ready to seize any foothold the United States cedes on the continent, dangling deals for new ports and railroads as well as arms and mercenaries, and overall influence.”

Voice Of America: Islamic State Stepping Up Attacks In Mozambique

“Militants affiliated with the Islamic State terror group have increased their attacks in recent weeks against security forces and civilians in the restive northern region of Mozambique. This week, IS announced via its Amaq News Agency that its affiliate in Central Africa had killed nine soldiers from the Mozambican army in the province of Cabo Delgado. Local news also reported clashes between Mozambican security forces and Islamist insurgents near a village in the Muslim-majority region. Since 2017, Islamist militants have carried out deadly attacks against the military and local residents in Cabo Delgado, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands others. But U.N. officials say there has been a dramatic increase of such attacks in recent months. “Armed groups have been randomly targeting local villages and terrorizing the local population. … We have reports of beheadings, kidnappings and disappearances of women and children,” said Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), during a recent news briefing. “The attacks have now spread across nine out of the 16 districts in Cabo Delgado.”

U.S. News & World Report: 3 Irish Soldiers Injured In Mali Roadside Bomb Attack

“Three Irish soldiers were injured in a roadside bomb attack on a multinational convoy of United Nations peacekeepers in Mali, the German military said Wednesday. The Bundeswehr said the attack came Tuesday afternoon on the German-led convoy in northern Mali, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the city of Gao. The roadside bomb hit a German vehicle being driven by Irish troops, injuring three lightly. No German soldiers were injured. The Irish soldiers were evacuated by Romanian helicopters to Gao to be treated in a German hospital, the Bundeswehr said. The UN peacekeeping mission in Mali was established in 2013 to help stabilize the northwestern African nation.”

United Kingdom

Sky News: New Terror Laws Come Into Force Two Days Before Extremist Due To Be Freed From Prison

“Emergency legislation to prevent the automatic release of terrorist prisoners has become law - two days before the latest extremist offender was due for release. The government rushed the Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Bill through parliament, after two former terrorist prisoners went on to launch attacks in London within two months of each other. The change will affect around 50 prisoners, due for automatic release halfway through their sentences, making sure they now serve at least two-thirds of their prison term before they are considered eligible for release. Before being freed, they will now also need to pass a review by a panel of specialist judges and psychiatrists at the Parole Board. Sunderland shopkeeper Mohammed Zahir Khan, who was jailed for four-and-a-half years in May 2018, was due for release on 28 February. He was arrested after posting extremist material online calling for a “year of fear” and pledging support for the terror group ISIS. The change in legislation will allow authorities to keep him in prison for another year, before he is considered for parole. The emergency legislation was drawn up in the wake of the Streatham attack in south London, earlier this month.”

The Guardian: UK To Launch Specialist Cyber Force Able To Target Terror Groups

“A specialist cyber force of hackers who can target hostile states and terror groups is due to be launched later in the spring, after many months of delays and turf wars between the Ministry of Defence and GCHQ. The National Cyber Force – containing an estimated 500 specialists – has been in the works for two years but sources said that after months of wrangling over the details, the specialist unit was close to being formally announced. Britain is keen to be seen as a “cyber power” able to disrupt against enemy states, targeting satellite, mobile and computer networks as well as trying to take down communications networks used by terror groups. The National Cyber Force is a joint initiative between the Ministry of Defence and GCHQ, and insiders said it would consolidate some existing capabilities as well as develop new ones. However, officials are coy on details, arguing that much of what the UK’s offensive hackers could do should remain classified. Nor is the identity of its leader expected to be publicly disclosed, although previous speculation that it would be a woman is understood to be inaccurate.”

France

Reuters: Paris Police Attacker Ran Web Search On Killing 'Infidels' Before Rampage: Source

“A police employee who fatally stabbed four colleagues in the force’s Paris headquarters ran an online search for “how to kill infidels” an hour before he rampaged through the building, a judicial source said on Wednesday. Data on the cell phone of Mickael Harpon, a 45-year-old IT worker who converted to Islam a decade before last October’s attack, supported suspicions his motive was terrorism-related, the judicial source and a police source told Reuters. “His phone contained a lot of data but we have already isolated one internet search carried out an hour before the attack: ‘how to kill infidels’,” the judicial source said, confirming a report in daily Le Parisien. Harpon was shot dead by police at the scene after he killed three officers and one administrative worker with a kitchen knife. The investigation into the attack is being led by anti-terrorism prosecutors, which usually indicates a possible terrorism link is the focus of inquiries. The judicial source said it took several months to break the codes Harpon had used to secure his personal smartphone. Both sources said the data recovered on it appeared to confirm suspicions Harpon had been radicalised. The police source, however, cautioned that no evidence had yet been found that Harpon had links to militant group Islamic State, which claimed the attack, or that he had planned it far in advance. The data analysis was still ongoing.”

Germany

Daily Sabah: Berlin Tightens Security Measures In Mosques After Deadly Terrorist Attack

“Berlin has increased security measures at mosques across the country to shore up the safety of its Muslim residents in the wake of far-right terrorism that recently rocked the country with a number of deadly attacks. Speaking on Tuesday, State Minister of the Interior of Berlin Andreas Geisel of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) announced that mosques, particularly the larger ones, would be guarded by both uniformed and civil police officers, especially during the Friday prayers, while the police presence around mosques would be enhanced, the minister added. Geisel underlined that measures would also be taken regarding the structure of buildings. In a reminder that previously, a protective door at a synagogue in Halle had “prevented a massacre,” the interior minister said that in order for mosques to have similar security measures as well, 10 million euros would be allocated to the 2020-2021 budget. Currently, there are 107 mosques in Berlin. The anti-Semitic attack mentioned by the minister took place on Oct. 9 in the state of Saxony-Anhalt and involved a German man armed with explosives and a gun trying, but ultimately failing, to gain access to a synagogue in the city of Halle.”

Europe

The National: ISIS Still Targeting Swedish City Despite Closure Of Extremist School

“Swedish authorities have warned Islamic extremists are still targeting a vulnerable city despite having closed a school over radicalisation concerns. Sweden’s security service Sapo says ISIS radicalisation is still taking place in areas of Gothenburg. It comes after the authorities shutdown the state-funded Islamic Vetenskapsskolan school in the city after it was accused of hiring ISIS fighters as teachers after their return from Syria. Officials have been focusing on issues in Gothenburg as more than a third of Swedish ISIS fighters are believed to have come from the city. Lisa Pedersen, head of security coordination in the district administration Angered, said extremist groups are still working to undermine the authorities. “There are forces that want to weaken the democratic systems,” she told Swedish Radio. “They say come to us for help and support and do not go to social services or borrow money from us and do not go to banks and this way they regain some kind of power.” Latest figures from Sweden's security service Sapo reveal at least 300 of its citizens travelled to Syria and Iraq between 2012 and 2017 to join extremist groups. It is believed half have returned, 100 are still fighting and 50 were killed.”

Southeast Asia

The Diplomat: What’s In The Philippines’ New Anti-Terrorism Act?

“This week, the Philippine Senate approved a bill proposed last year and designed to ease legal restrictions on law enforcement officials to facilitate the conviction of suspects. While the legal change is not without controversy, its significance bears noting as it moves closer to reality. As I have observed previously in these pages, Southeast Asia in general has been concerned about the latest wave of terrorism stemming from the Islamic State and other linked groups over the past few years. The Philippines has been among the countries most affected by this, and concerns remain about the future trajectory of the threat. As these developments have played out, as with other countries, Manila has had to balance how it responds to immediate crises, such as the one in Marawi that struck in 2017, with the longer-term, comprehensive challenges of crafting an overall approach to manage and countering violent extremism. One of the developments within the Philippines’ counterterrorism approach is a new bill on the issue led by Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former police chief and current chair of the Senate Defense Committee.”