Eye on Extremism - April 14, 2016

Eye on Extremism April 14, 2016 The New York Times: ISIS Expands Reach Despite Military And Financial Setbacks “American airstrikes have killed 25,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria and incinerated millions of dollars plundered by the militants, according to Pentagon officials. Iraqi and Kurdish forces have taken back 40 percent of the militant group’s land in Iraq, the officials say, and forces backed by the West have seized a sizable amount of territory in Syria that had been controlled by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. But the battlefield successes enjoyed by Western-backed forces in the Islamic State’s heartland have done little to stop the expansion of the militants to Europe, North Africa and Afghanistan. The attacks this year in Brussels, Istanbul and other cities only reinforced the sense of a terrorist group on the march, and among American officials and military experts, there is renewed caution in predicting progress in a fight that they say is likely to go on for years.” TIME: ISIS Is Making Inroads In The Southern Philippines And The Implications For Asia Are Alarming “Islamist extremism is growing in Mindanao, with serious security implications for the region and beyond. Musa Muhammad stands at the site where four hundred Islamist militants launched an invasion of the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga little over two years ago, sparking 20 days of heavy fighting with security forces. The ruins of his old house can be found there, amid several hundred other razed homes. Since then his family has lived in a sports stadium, refusing to move to a newly built house in another part of town.” The New York Times: In Photos, ISIS Shows How Brussels Terror Originated In Syria “Somewhere, there is a digital archive containing the portraits of the Islamic State’s network of fighters in Europe. The image of each fighter was stored in this database months before last year’s attacks in Paris, and after each new terror strike, the group has reached into it and released the photographs. So it was on Wednesday. The latest issue of Dabiq, the Islamic State’s slick online magazine, includes an image of Najim Laachraoui, the 24-year-old former Catholic school pupil who was last seen wheeling a suitcase bomb into the Brussels airport. He is wearing military fatigues and sadistically winking at the camera. Next to him is a man with a bloody knife, suggesting they had just beheaded a captive. Before returning to Europe, both the Brussels bomber and the Paris plotters posed for carefully choreographed scenes, showing the atrocities they committed in Syria and Iraq. The purpose is clear: to show the West that the attackers really were sent from the heart of the group’s terror machinery.” The Guardian: Obama Warns US Effort In Syria And Iraq Has Caused Isis Recruits To Head To Libya “Efforts to stem the flow of Islamic State recruits into Syria and Iraq have been met by an increase in foreign extremists heading to Libya instead, Barack Obama has warned. Just days after describing the failure to prevent extremists filling a power vacuum in Libya as the ‘worst mistake of his presidency, Obama’s remarks underline growing White House anxiety about the foothold gained by Isis in the country. ‘As we, and our foreign allies and partners, have made it harder for foreign terrorists to reach Syria and Iraq, we have seen an uptick in the number of Isis fighters heading to Libya,’ Obama told reporters at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, after a meeting with intelligence chiefs intended to review US strategy against the terror group.” Associated Press: Saudi-Led Coalition Targets Al-Qaida Stronghold South Yemen “Witnesses say attack helicopters from a Saudi-led coalition struck al-Qaida militants in southern Yemen, where the group has exploited the conflict between Shiite Houthi rebels and government forces to expand. The Apache strikes in the town of Koud in Abyan province on Wednesday killed at least 10 militants and wounded others, witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. It is one of the few times the coalition has been directly involved in battling al-Qaida. Warring parties in Yemen have agreed on an open-ended ceasefire that began Sunday. Peace talks scheduled to take place next week. Both sides reported violations to the truce, particularly in the city of Taiz, which the rebels have besieged for nearly a year, and in the outskirts of Sanaa.” BBC: Nigeria Chibok Girls 'Shown Alive' In Boko Haram Video “A video released by the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram appears to prove that some of the schoolgirls kidnapped two years ago from the town of Chibok are still alive. The video, sent to the Nigerian government, shows 15 girls in black robes identifying themselves as pupils abducted from the secondary school. Some of those filmed have been identified by their parents. It is the first footage of the girls to be seen since May 2014. The kidnapping of the 276 girls triggered the global social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls, involving US first lady Michelle Obama and a host of celebrities.” CNN: Russia Defends Close Encounter With U.S. Navy Missile Destroyer “Russia acted "in accordance with international rules" when its unarmed fighter jets had two close encounters with the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea, Russia's Defense Ministry said Thursday. Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov spoke to Russian state news agency Tass. Initial reports indicate two encounters with the U.S. Navy-guided missile destroyer occurred Tuesday night in international waters. One of the Russian jets flew within 75 feet of the U.S. ship's superstructure. The Cook ‘encountered multiple, aggressive flight maneuvers by Russian aircraft that were performed within close proximity of the ship,’ the U.S. European Command said in a statement.” The Washington Post: FBI Paid Professional Hackers One-Time Fee To Crack San Bernardino iPhone “The FBI cracked a San Bernardino terrorist’s phone with the help of professional hackers who discovered and brought to the bureau at least one previously unknown software flaw, according to people familiar with the matter. The new information was then used to create a piece of hardware that helped the FBI to crack the iPhone’s four-digit personal identification number without triggering a security feature that would have erased all the data, the individuals said. The researchers, who typically keep a low profile, specialize in hunting for vulnerabilities in software and then in some cases selling them to the U.S. government. They were paid a one-time flat fee for the solution.” New York Times: F.B.I. Tried To Defeat Encryption 10 Years Ago, Files Show “In early 2003, F.B.I. agents hit a roadblock in a secret investigation, called Operation Trail Mix. For months, agents had been intercepting phone calls and emails belonging to members of an animal welfare group that was believed to be sabotaging operations of a company that was using animals to test drugs. But encryption software had made the emails unreadable. So investigators tried something new. They persuaded a judge to let them remotely, and secretly, install software on the group’s computers to help get around the encryption.” United States New York Times: Obama Reports Gains, And ‘Momentum,’ Against ISIS “President Obama said on Wednesday that while the Islamic State could still “inflict horrific violence on the innocent,” the United States had made substantial gains in combating the group, reducing its forces to the lowest level in two years and squeezing its cash flow. ‘We have momentum, and we intend to keep that momentum,’ Mr. Obama said after meeting with a broad group of national security officials at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va. ‘The ISIL core in Syria and Iraq continues to shrink. The meeting was one in a series of high-level gatherings Mr. Obama has convened outside the White House to take stock of the United States-led effort against the Sunni extremist group, also known as ISIS and ISIL, and to plot strategy for the months ahead.” Syria Reuters: Assad Holds Parliamentary Election As Syrian Peace Talks Resume “Syrians voted in a parliamentary election in government-held areas of the country on Wednesday in what they called a show of support for President Bashar al-Assad, while his opponents and Western powers denounced the poll as illegitimate. The election went ahead independently of a U.N.-led peace process aimed at ending the five-year-long war. A second round of talks began in Geneva on Wednesday but an upsurge in fighting has darkened the already bleak outlook for diplomacy. The government said the vote was held to comply with the constitution, a view echoed by its Russian allies. The opposition, which wants the new peace talks to focus on a political transition, said the election was meaningless, while Britain and France called it a ‘flimsy façade’ and a ‘sham’.” The Wall Street Journal: Syria Peace Talks Resume “Talks aimed at ending Syria’s five-year war resumed in Geneva, as the government in Damascus held parliamentary elections that the opposition and Western governments said were illegitimate and undermined the negotiations. There remains no plan for direct talks, the United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said after meeting with opposition delegates in Geneva. President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has said its delegation would arrive there Friday for the indirect talks, which Mr. de Mistura is mediating. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone Wednesday to Mr. de Mistura to express concern about fighting in Syria and about regime efforts to hinder humanitarian access, the State Department said.” USA Today: Syria Listed As Worst Country On Human Rights, State Department Report Says “Russia, China and Egypt engaged in greater political repression last year, but Syria was the worst country by far when it comes to human rights, according to a State Department report released Wednesday. ‘The most widespread violations of human rights were in the Middle East, where terrorism and the Syrian Civil War have caused enormous suffering,’ Secretary of State John Kerry said as he presented the State Department’s 2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Kerry said he is instructing U.S. personnel to document abuses so violators can be brought to justice. ‘The United States wants those responsible for committing Human Rights abuses in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere to be held accountable,’ he said.” Turkey Reuters: Media Watchdog Calls On Turkey To Catch IS Killers Of Syrian Journalist “A prominent media advocacy group on Wednesday called on Turkish authorities to protect journalists after a Syrian reporter was gunned down in broad daylight by Islamic State militants in southeastern Turkey - the fourth such attack in six months. Zaher al-Shurqat, an online broadcaster for Aleppo Today who regularly traveled to Syria to report from the front-line in the fight against Islamic State, was shot in the neck on Sunday by a masked attacker in Gaziantep near the Syria border. He died in hospital two days later, Turkey's Dogan News agency reported. Islamic State's Amaq news agency, in a statement from the group claiming responsibility for Shurqat's killing, said his journalistic work had been ‘antagonistic’ to Islamic State.” Afghanistan CNN: Al Qaeda 'Very Active' In Afghanistan: U.S. Commander “Afghanistan's top defense official has warned that al Qaeda -- the reason the United States first invaded Afghanistan -- is ‘very active’ and a ‘big threat’ in the country. A senior U.S. official said they were concerned about al Qaeda leaders in remote areas of the country and there may be many more core operatives in Afghanistan than previously thought. The warnings of al Qaeda's resurgence come as Afghanistan faces perhaps the most significant summer fighting season in decades, with government security forces facing huge internal challenges, the Taliban both gaining ground and building links to al Qaeda, and ISIS increasing its footprint in the country.” Middle East The New York Times: In West Bank, Israel Carries Out A Crackdown Road By Road “The freshly spray-painted signs in this hamlet outside Nablus are a symbol of the new normal in the West Bank, seven months into a scattershot wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis. With the Israeli military having shut down the main road, local teenagers put up signs to coax Palestinian drivers along circuitous routes to Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian government, and Huwara, a neighboring village. Such pop-up checkpoints and closings lasting several days have disrupted the routines of Palestinian residents, whose ability to move through the occupied territory was already precarious. But the pinpointed strategy targeting mainly individual villages sporadically is a stark departure from the widespread closings and curfews Israel imposed on West Bank cities during the second intifada, making its effect harder for the world — and even people next door — to see and feel.” Associated Press: Amid Violence, Israel Promotes Arab Police Officer “Israel promoted an Arab police officer to deputy commissioner on Wednesday, making him the highest-ranking Muslim ever to serve in the force at a time when authorities are battling a wave of attacks by Palestinians that has frayed relations between Jews and Arabs. In his new position, the 59-year-old Gamal Hakroosh faces an uphill battle overseeing policing in Arab communities, where residents are deeply suspicious of Israeli police. Many Israeli Arabs feel their community is discriminated against and stigmatized, and often view Israeli police with hostility and fear. Israel's Arab minority, which makes up a fifth of the country's population of 8 million, has long had a fraught relationship with the Jewish majority. They hold full citizenship rights, but some Israelis, including top politicians, question their loyalty because they often side with their Palestinian brethren. The Israeli Arabs are generally poorer and less educated than Jews and suffer from discrimination and sub-standard public services.” The Guardian: Isis Ranks Have Been Pared Back To Lowest Level Since 2014 “The Islamic State group’s ranks have been pared back by international and local military action in Iraq and Syria to their lowest level since Washington began monitoring the group, a senior US official said Tuesday. The comments from deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken came one day before Barack Obama was due to convene his national security team at CIA headquarters to take stock of the anti-Isis fight. ‘Working by, with and through local partners, we have taken back 40% of the territory that Daesh controlled a year ago in Iraq and 10% in Syria,’ Blinken told US lawmakers in prepared testimony.” Fox News: How ISIS Terrorizes Its Own Economy “ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels and we now know its supporters had planned for a second Paris attack. As the terror group expands its reach from the Middle East to North Africa, observers fear it has become an entrenched, functioning terrorist state with ample resources to fund continued growth. While we should take these concerns seriously, information coming out of ISIS-controlled territories suggests the group is making the same economic mistakes that have led other authoritarian regimes to collapse: heavy taxes, choking regulation, and destructive price controls.” Libya Reuters: Six Killed In Bombing, Clashes With Militants In Western Libya: Officials “A suicide bomber killed a member of the security forces in Libya at a checkpoint south of Misrata on Wednesday, while five people were killed - including three who were beheaded - at a nearby military camp, officials and a hospital spokesman said. Aziz Issa, head of the media office at Misrata's central hospital, said the suicide car bomb had detonated near the Essdada checkpoint, about 80km (50 miles) south of the western port city. Four members of the security forces were injured, he said. Islamic State militants have staged several attacks on checkpoints on the coastal road south of Misrata, which leads towards the group's Libyan stronghold of Sirte. A security source said militants also attacked a military camp early on Wednesday between the coastal road and the town of Bani Walid, south-east of Misrata, and seized weapons and ammunition.” Reuters: In Libya, Islamic State Struggles To Gain Support “Packed into a battered car, a family of nine joined the steady flow of residents fleeing Islamic State's Libyan stronghold of Sirte. They were heading to a nearby town to pick up essentials: cash, medicine and food. A few kilometers beyond the militant group's zone of control, the family gave an account of life in the city: young men murdered for refusing to pledge allegiance to Islamic State, public beatings for dress violations, property seizures and growing food shortages. ‘They're there to occupy the city,’ said the wife from behind her black veil, as her children glanced nervously from the rear of the vehicle one afternoon in late February. ‘They're killing, kidnapping and torturing.’ Sirte is a city upended. Once given favored treatment by former leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was born there, it now serves as a Mediterranean base for the most important Islamic State branch outside Syria and Iraq. That has left Western intelligence agencies struggling to figure out how far Islamic State can extend its influence across Libya – and how to stop the group.” BBC: Migrant Crisis: EU Says Numbers In Libya Are Alarming “The president of the European Council has warned Italy and Malta of large numbers of would-be migrants in Libya. Donald Tusk told MEPs that it would not be possible to apply the same approach used for the Balkans to unstable Libya. Italy's coastguard says 4,000 people were rescued from the Mediterranean between Libya and Sicily on Monday and Tuesday. Meanwhile, Macedonian police again fired teargas at migrants protesting at the border with Greece. About 11,000 migrants and refugees have been camped out at Idomeni on the Greek side of the border since countries on the route to northern Europe through the Balkans closed their borders.” Germany Reuters: Germany Fears Return Of Turkish-Kurdish Violence On Its Soil “As Germany scrambles to contain a diplomatic row with Turkey over a comedian's mocking of President Tayyip Erdogan, officials are growing worried about another byproduct of their Faustian migrant pact with Ankara: an upsurge in violence between nationalist Turks and militant Kurds on German soil. Germany is home to about 3 million people of Turkish origin. Roughly one in four are ethnic Kurds who came to Germany to work in the 1960s and 70s, or as refugees fleeing violence in the 1980s and 90s. Intelligence officials estimate that about 14,000 of these Kurds are active supporters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the militant group whose armed struggle against the Turkish state has escalated following the collapse of a 2-1/2 year ceasefire last July. Clashes between Turks and Kurds in Germany are not new. At the height of the conflict between Ankara and the PKK in the early 1990s, Kurdish militants overran the Turkish consulate in Munich and launched arson attacks against Turkish facilities across Germany. This led Germany to outlaw the PKK in 1993.” Fox News: German Army IDs 22 Soldiers Fighting With ISIS In Syria, Iraq “An internal German Army report released Monday reveals that 22 soldiers have joined ISIS in Syria or Iraq in recent years, while 65 active soldiers are under investigation on suspicion of having Islamist sympathies, The Local reported.  MAD, the army's military counter-intelligence service, identified the 22 soldiers and has relieved 17 from their duties, the report said. ‘Just like other fighting forces, the Bundeswehr (German Army) can be attractive for Islamists who want to acquire weapons training,’ Hans-Peter Bartels, the Social Democratic Party MP in charge of oversight of the army, told the website. ‘But it represents a real danger that we have to take seriously.’ The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, The Hague (ICCT) published a study this month saying that between 720 and 760 Germans are believed to have traveled out of the country to join ISIS.” Europe ABC News: ISIS Names Brussels Attackers “An issue of an ISIS magazine reveals new details about the terrorists involved in the deadly attack in Brussels, Belgium and separately appears to threaten an aide to Hillary Clinton along with a U.S. Congressman. The ISIS magazine, released online overnight, described Brussels bombers Ibrahim and Khalid El-Bakraoui as key logisticians in the terror cell that carried out both the Brussels attack last month and the Paris attacks in November. ‘All preparations for the raids in Paris and Brussels started with him [Khalid] and his older brother Ibrahim,’ the magazine says.” Newsweek: Bomb Scare Closes Amsterdam Schiphol Airport For Four Hours “Dozens of armed police cordoned off part of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Tuesday night after a bomb scare, leading to a search and the arrest of a ‘suspicious’ man, Euronews reported. Part of the airport was evacuated while the search for an explosive device was underway, following a phone call to police detailing an alleged threat. The search lasted four hours and officials did not find explosives on Schipol’s premises. The alert was lifted in the early hours of Wednesday morning and airport officials tried to allay any anxiety among passengers, reporting no disruptions to flights. The man arrested remains in custody and Dutch police are establishing why he was at the airport. The identity of the man has not been made public and it is not clear why he was considered suspicious in the first place.” Arabic Language Clips Terrorist Financing Aleqtisadiya: Seizure Of Assets Belonging To 107 People (In Saudi Arabia) To Verify Their Association With Terrorist Activities During the past Islamic year of 1436 AH (2014/2015), the Saudi Ministry of Justice ordered courthouses and notaries-public to seize real estate properties registered under the names of 107 individuals. Most of them are Saudi citizens, including two female citizens, but two are nationals of other Arab countries. The move is designed to substantiate that they are in no way involved in suspicious activities such as money laundering or terrorist acts. By contrast, the seizure of properties owned by 15 individuals, including Saudi citizens, was lifted. This comes following receipt of a cable by the Saudi Interior Minister, in line with the joint international efforts to combat the financing of terrorism, as well as the fears of suspicious activities being conducted through the suspects' properties. The Saudi courthouses and notaries-public have been monitoring and following-up bank accounts, investments and real estate assets in Saudi Arabia owned by 44 individuals holding Lebanese passports and allegedly belonging to Hezbollah. Authorities have gathered all the information on their accounts, investments and properties. ISIS Alqurtas News: ISIS Isolates Mosul From The Outside World ISIS through its so-called Diwan Al-Hisbah (Islamic Police) has implemented a decision to remove satellite receivers and smash satellite dishes in Mosul. This is in an attempt to isolate the city from the outside world and hide the real facts on the terrorists' defeats on the battlefield. ISIS gunmen seized thousands of receivers and smashed satellite dishes after brutally raiding the homes of Mosul families, in addition to surprise inspections and spot checks. The people of Mosul have disclosed that the terrorists have been forcing homeowners to sign a document pledging not to install receiver devices ever again. This is after ISIS announced heavy fines set at three million Iraqi dinars ($2700) and one-year in prison for anyone daring to violate its edicts. Muslim Brotherhood Shorouk: Jordanian Security Cleared Brotherhood Headquarters In Amman And Boarded It Up With Sealing Wax The Jordanian security, on Wednesday, evacuated the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Amman and shut down its operations, according to a lawyer for the group. Tense relations exist between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian authorities, which are attempting to exploit the split within the group and to cripple it. The crisis between the two sides intensified, especially after authorities granted a license in March 2015 to a society bearing the name of the Muslim Brotherhood. The new society was formed by defectors from the original Brotherhood group. Therefore, the Jordanian authorities considered that group to be illegal for not obtaining a new license under the Parties and Societies Act passed in 2014. Innfrad: We Publish The Confessions Of One Of The Men Implicated In A (Brotherhood-Affiliated) 'Improvised Explosive Device Cell' In Kerdasa A terrorist involved in several bombing attacks and planting roadside bombs against Egyptian security forces in Kerdasa and October10th, made a significant confession. He also led Major General Khaled Shalaby, chief of the criminal investigation division in Giza, to locations where explosive devices had been planted in nurseries near Al-Azhar and security sites in Kerdasa. Security forces subsequently uncovered the explosive devices and components for manufacturing them. The suspect divulged, during his interrogation, that he had made contact with the terrorist cell members through Facebook. The alliance intensified when he took part in Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations in Kerdasa. He claimed to have received money for attending the demonstrations. About three months ago, he was offered payment by a Brotherhood leader to transport devices used in the bombing of armored vehicles and security sites in the al-Haram Street area. For detonating them by remote control he was promised 700 pounds ($90). Shorouk: Prosecutors In The Case Of Qualitative Committees Cells: Defendants Provided Brotherhood With Weapons And Money The North Cairo Criminal Court postponed the trial of 21 Muslim Brotherhood members and leaders in the case popularly known as the "Brotherhood's Qualitative Committees Cell." The next session will be held on May 18th. Among the defendants is Abdullah Shehata, advisor to Egypt's finance minister during the rule of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. 12 of the defendants attended yesterday's hearing while the other nine are currently on the run. The lawyer for the prosecution stated that defendants No. 1, 2 and 3 had provided the Brotherhood with arms, ammunition, explosives and funding. He added that defendants No. 2 to No. 21, with the exception of No. 7, are charged with having joined an outlawed organization despite knowing its ends and the means necessary to achieve them.