Eye on Extremism - July 18, 2016

Eye on Extremism July 18, 2016 Counter Extremism Project CBS This Morning: What's "Most Terrifying" About Deadly Nice Attack “A day of celebration for Bastille Day - France's equivalent of the Fourth of July - turned into horror when a truck plowed into a crowd gathered to watch fireworks along the boardwalk at Promenade des Anglais in Nice, killing 84 people and injuring dozens of others. The massacre is the third major terror attack to rock the country in recent months, following the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting and the Paris attacks just eight months ago.” CNBC: France Declares Three Days National Mourning “Fran Townsend, MacAndrews and Forbes, provides insight to the deadly terror attack in Nice, France.” CNBC: Social Media Reacts to Terror “CNBC's Julia Boorstin reports on the world's social media response to terror attacks, including the Counter Extremism Project praising Twitter for quick action.” Daily Mail: Twitter Removes String Of Posts From Islamic Extremists Glorifying Nice Truck Massacre “Twitter reacted rapidly to remove posts by Islamic militants glorifying the terrorist truck attack in Nice, after previously facing criticism for its handling of extremist propaganda. In a rare round of praise for the company watchdog groups said it acted swiftly to delete Tweets praising the massacre within minutes. Instead pro-attack supporters were forced to flood other sites such as secure messaging app Telegram to post sickening posters revelling in the deaths. Violence in recent months has posed challenges to social media groups, yet Twitter 'moved with swiftness we have not seen before to erase pro-attack tweets within minutes,' according to a statement by Counter Extremism Project.” Reuters: Twitter, Facebook Move Quickly To Stem Celebrations Of Nice Attack “Twitter Inc moved swiftly to remove posts from Islamic extremists glorifying a truck attack in Nice, France, watchdog groups said on Friday, in a rare round of praise for a platform that has often struggled to contain violent propaganda. A spate of violence over the past several months has posed numerous challenges to social media companies. Friday's unsuccessful military coup in Turkey was marked first by restrictions on social media, internet monitoring groups said, but the crackdown appeared to ease as the events unfolded and numerous citizens broadcast live video on Facebook and sent tweets. U.S. and French authorities on Friday were still trying to determine whether the Tunisian man who drove a truck into Bastille Day crowds on Thursday, killing 84 people, had ties to Islamic militants.” Independent.Co.Uk: Removed Extremist Content Glorifying Nice Attack Within Minutes “Twitter moved swiftly to remove posts from Islamic extremists glorifying a truck attack in Nice, France, watchdog groups said Friday, in a rare round of praise for a platform that has often struggled to contain violent propaganda. At least 50 Twitter accounts praising the attacks used the hashtag Nice in Arabic, according to the Counter Extremism Project, a private group that monitors and reports extremist content online. Many accounts appeared almost immediately after the attack and shared images praising the carnage, the group said. The pattern was similar to what was seen on Twitter after attacks last year and earlier this year in Paris and Brussels. But Twitter, which once took a purist approach to free speech but has since revised its rules, took action much more quickly this week.” Washington Times: Twitter Praised For Acting Quickly On Accounts Endorsing Nice “Watchdog groups applauded Twitter on Friday for quickly taking action against accounts that celebrated the Nice, France terrorist attack on social media. The Counter Extremism Project and the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate Project both praised Twitter for removing posts in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s attack, Reuters reported.” Sydney Morning Herald: Nice Attack: French Attacker Sends Final Text Calling For More Weapons “Nice: French authorities on Sunday arrested two more suspects potentially linked to the man who rammed a truck into crowds, killing 84 people in the French Riviera city, as investigators sought to determine his path to radicalisation and whether he acted alone. Authorities also said the attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, had sent a text message seeking more weapons and had visited the scene of the attack days before the carnage.” News.com.au: Why France Has Become The 'Epicenter' Of Terror Attacks In Europe “Neil Fergus, chief executive of Intelligent Risks (IR), is an Australian-based expert on international terrorism, who works with French authorities in relation to safety and security in Paris. Mr Fergus told news.com.au that France was a prime target for IS-related terror attacks because it was “a beacon of liberty, egalitarian and with social values”. “Paris and France are at the heart of western numinous philosophy,” he said. “It is abhorrent to these people. Europe is abhorrent to these people. France is seen as the epicentre.” He said that France had come under attack from homegrown French terrorists and others who travelled from outside the country to inflict maximum devastation on the nation.” New York Times: ISIS Claims Truck Attacker In France Was Its 'Soldier' “NICE, France — The Islamic State claimed on Saturday that the man who attacked the seaside city of Nice was one of the group’s “soldiers.” France’s defense minister promptly blamed the terrorist network for inspiring the assault, while its top law enforcement official said the attacker, who was not previously known to intelligence agencies, may have “radicalized himself very quickly.” The attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, carried out the assault on Thursday evening using a 19-ton refrigerated truck and an automatic pistol. The death toll remained at 84, but the number of injured rose to 303, of whom 121 were in hospitals, 26 of them in intensive care.” Associated Press: Officials: France Truck Attacker May Have Become Radicalized “There is mounting evidence that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the Tunisian-born truck driver responsible for the deadly carnage in Nice last week, had recently absorbed extremist ideas and had become radicalized, French authorities said Sunday. Many of those who knew him said in the days after Thursday's Bastille Day attack that Bouhlel was a difficult person, describing him variously as aloof and hostile, even violent at times. In March, he received a suspended sentence for a road-rage incident - not enough to put him on the radar of France's security services. But officials said Sunday that the 31-year-old had apparently undergone a rapid conversion to radical Islam and carefully planned the attack that claimed the lives of at least 84 people, including 10 children, raising the question: how did a delivery driver go from petty crime to carrying out an act of mass slaughter in the space of a few months?” CNN: Kerry: ISIS 'Is On The Run' Despite Recent Terror Attacks “Secretary of State John Kerry insisted Sunday that a recent spate of terrorist attacks reflects that ISIS is ‘on the run’ in Iraq and Syria. Kerry downplayed attacks like the shooting at an Orlando nightclub, a driver's rampage through a crowd in Nice and the Istanbul airport attack, saying they don't reflect the strength of the group in its home bases. Those attacks are ‘the desperate actions of an enemy that sees the noose closing around them,’ he told CNN's Jake Tapper on ‘State of the Union.’ Tapper pressed Kerry about the assertion that ISIS ‘is on the run’ given the recent string of attacks reportedly inspired by them.” BBC: Turkey Coup Arrests Hit 6,000 As Erdogan Roots Out 'Virus' Turkey has arrested 6,000 people after a failed coup, with President Erdogan vowing to purge state bodies of the ‘virus’ that caused the revolt. Mr Erdogan's top military aide Col Ali Yazici is among those now in custody. The overall death toll for the weekend violence has risen to 290, the foreign ministry said. More than 100 of those were participating in the coup. Security forces are reported to have met resistance from some coup plotters who were being arrested. Warning shots were fired at Istanbul's second largest airport, and also at a military base in central Konya province, unnamed officials said. Reuters: Iraqi Shi'ite Cleric Tells Followers To Target U.S. Troops Fighting Islamic State “Powerful Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr instructed his followers on Sunday to target U.S. troops deploying to Iraq as part of the military campaign against Islamic State. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Monday the Pentagon would dispatch 560 additional troops to help Iraqi forces retake the northern city of Mosul in an offensive planned for later this year. Sadr, who rose to prominence when his Mahdi Army battled U.S. troops after the 2003 invasion, posted the comments on his official website after a follower asked for his response to the announcement. ‘They are a target for us,’ Sadr said, without offering details. The Mahdi Army was disbanded in 2008, replaced by the Peace Brigades, which helped push back Islamic State from near Baghdad in 2014 under a government-run umbrella, and maintains a presence in the capital and several other cities.” Reuters: Israel Launches Anti-Aircraft Missiles At Syrian Drone: Army “Israel on Sunday fired missiles toward an unmanned drone that entered Israeli-controlled airspace from Syria and it turned back, the military said in a statement. ‘Two Patriot air defense missiles were fired toward a drone which infiltrated Israeli airspace in the central Golan Heights. The drone returned to Syria,’ the Israeli army said. A military spokeswoman said there were no known casualties. Israel has often responded to errant mortar fire from the civil war in neighboring Syria on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights with tank and mortar shells and with air strikes, but the use of Patriot anti-aircraft interceptor missiles is unusual. A Syrian rebel source in the area said the Syrian army had launched a rare air raid on al-Shajara village along the Jordanian border. The village, which is also close to the Israeli frontier, is held by the Shuhada al-Yarmouk group, who are thought to be Islamic State affiliates.” Reuters: Libyan Forces Battling Islamic State In Sirte Suffer Losses In Push To Advance “Forces aligned with Libya's U.N.-backed government suffered losses from snipers and mines on Friday as they battled Islamic State to win control of a strategic conference centre in the coastal city of Sirte. Islamic State is clinging on in the centre of Sirte in the face of a two-month campaign by brigades mainly composed of fighters from the western city of Misrata. Their progress has been slowLosing Sirte would represent a major setback for Islamic State, which established its most important base outside Syria and Iraq in the Libyan city. Sirte had been under the militant group's control since last year, and it had extended its presence along about 250 km (155 miles) of coastline.ed by resistance from militants holed up in a 5 km area in central Sirte.” The New York Times: In The Age Of ISIS, Who’s A Terrorist, And Who’s Simply Deranged? “The age of the Islamic State, in which the tools of terrorism appear increasingly crude and haphazard, has led to a reimagining of the common notion of who is and who is not a terrorist. Governments also see a benefit in linking the Islamic State to what are sometimes random and unconnected acts of violence. It is a way to project order amid chaos, and to try to assure jittery citizens that there is a strategy to end the violence. For example, in the days since the Nice attack, French officials have pledged to increase the resources that the country is devoting to the bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.” United States Associated Press: Commander: Us Support Of Afghans Could Be Game-Changer “President Barack Obama's decision to allow more aggressive U.S. military action in support of Afghan combat operations against the Taliban could have a game-changing effect on the long war, Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said Saturday. After prohibiting U.S. forces from targeting the Taliban except in limited circumstances beginning in 2015, Obama shifted course last month and said Nicholson could use U.S. airpower and other military assets against the Taliban if it supported offensive Afghan action as part of a strategic campaign plan. What that amounts to, Nicholson said in an Associated Press interview at his military headquarters in Kabul, is encouragement for the Afghans to stay on the offense.” The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Bans Commercial And Private Flights To And From Turkey “American aviation regulators have issued a notice barring all U.S. commercial and private aircraft from flying to Turkey or flying from that country into the U.S. The unusually broad prohibition, announced by the Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday, reflects Washington’s serious concerns about airport security in that country following this weekend’s failed coup attempt. The FAA didn’t indicate when the ban would be lifted. The agency also barred all Turkish carriers, along with commercial flights from Turkey operated by aircraft of other countries, from flying to the U.S. The move, in effect, severs all aviation links between the U.S. and Turkey.” Syria CNN: Syrian Army Takes Main Road Into Rebel-Held Areas Of Aleppo “The Syrian army and pro-government forces have taken control of the main road leading into rebel-held areas in Aleppo, effectively cutting off the rebels' main supply route, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sunday. Aleppo has been a major battlefield in Syria since 2010, with fierce fighting between rebel groups and regime forces. Castello Road, the only route into the city's east, is now mostly in government hands, with pro-rebel neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo completely besieged, the observatory said. The road has been under constant bombardment from forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's government, the monitoring group told CNN.” The Wall Street Journal: U.S., Russia Agree On Steps Designed To End War In Syria, But Details Sketchy “U.S. and Russian officials said Friday they have reached an agreement on steps designed to pave the way for an end to the civil war in Syria, but top officials declined to detail the specific measures involved. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, without elaborating, said implementing the steps could address two key problems: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime’s disregard of a February cease-fire agreement, and attempts by some extremists to cloak their attacks by intermingling with opposition groups supported by the U.S. The talks were the latest in two days of meetings in Moscow, aimed at salvaging what little remains of the tattered cease-fire.” Reuters: Syrian Opposition Says U.S. Must Stand Up To Russia “The United States is failing to stand up to Russia, which is committing ‘war crimes’ in Syria, a leading Syrian opposition negotiator said on Sunday, as Russian-backed forces appeared to tighten the siege on the city of Aleppo. ‘What we lack here is a serious reaction to Russian behavior on the ground,’ said Basma Kodmani, a member of the main opposition High Negotiations Committee. ‘Russia is saying one thing and doing another,’ she told reporters on a conference call. The chances of a new round of peace talks were looking increasingly remote as Russia participated in airstrikes after ‘constantly lying’ about what it was willing to do for peace in Syria, she said.” Turkey The Guardian: Turkey's Prime Minister Declares Attempted Coup Is Over “Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, has declared an attempted coup by a military faction to be over, calling it a ‘black stain’ on the country’s democracy and pledging harsh punishment for those involved. After a night of chaos and bloodshed, Yıldırım said the government would consider reintroducing the death penalty, which would allow it to execute those behind the coup, the country’s fifth in 60 years. He said that the authorities had detained nearly 3,000 military personnel including high-ranking officers and praised the role played by civilians, the police and the security services in facing down the military. As dawn broke in Turkey on Saturday, confrontations were continuing in some parts of the country. But Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had been able to re-emerge from a retreat on the coast of the Aegean sea and fly to Istanbul, where he was greeted by crowds of supporters who overran the airport despite troops having tried to seal it off.” The Wall Street Journal: Turkey Coup Attempt: Erdogan Rounds Up Suspected Plotters “Two days after a failed military coup, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed a continued crackdown on those behind it -- and those perceived to have been involved -- as large crowds heeded his call to fill the nation's streets. Thousands of soldiers have been arrested and hundreds of judiciary members removed since Friday's uprising, which left at least 290 people dead and more than 1,400 injured in a chaotic night of violence. Around 6,000 people have been detained and arrests will continue, according to Turkey's foreign ministry. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has vowed that ‘they will pay a heavy price’. Erdogan said that he will remove the ‘viruses’ from all state institutions. The arrests include Gen. Bekir Ercan Van, commander of the Incirlik Air Base, according to the Turkish President's office. The United States uses the airbase to launch airstrikes on ISIS in Syria and Iraq.” Afghanistan The New York Times: In Wartime, Ghani Assumes Role Of Comforting Afghans “In 2015, his first full year in office, Afghan security forces sustained their highest death toll in years, losing an estimated 6,000 soldiers, police officers and other security personnel. And the casualty numbers so far this year are higher than in the same period last year, according to Afghan and American officials. When Mr. Ghani began making condolence calls several months ago, it was a rare display of respect for soldiers and officers long mistreated by the government and now battered by the resurgent Taliban. The president’s outreach also contrasts with the practices of his immediate predecessor, Hamid Karzai, who showed solidarity with civilian victims of the conflict but had a more ambivalent relationship with his own security forces.” Yemen Reuters: Yemen's Al Qaeda Wing Says Targeted Aden Governor With Bomb Attack-SITE “Yemen's al Qaeda wing has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that targeted the governor of the southern city of Aden, according to U.S. monitoring group SITE. Security officials said on Friday that a car packed with explosives blew up when the convoy of governor, Aidaroos al-Zubaidi, passed by in the Inma area of Aden. One soldier was wounded in the attack but Zubaidi was unhurt. SITE cited a brief statement by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on its Telegram channel on Friday saying it had detonated a bomb in a parked vehicle. It said both Zubaidi and Aden police chief, Shallal Shayei, were in the vehicle, but gave no further details. A civil war has raged for more than a year in Yemen and insecurity has gripped the port city, the temporary seat of Yemen's embattled government.” Reuters: U.N.-Backed Yemen Peace Talks Resume In Kuwait “United Nations-sponsored talks to end nearly 16 months of war in Yemen resumed in Kuwait on Saturday, delegates said, despite threats by representatives of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government not to attend. A shaky ceasefire that began when the talks started in April has helped slow down the fighting but clashes continue in various parts of the country where Islamist militants have taken advantage of a security vacuum to launch a string of bombings. The talks bring together the Iranian-allied Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement and Yemen's internationally-recognised government, but have achieved little concrete progress in over two months. Two delegates said only a ceremonial meeting was scheduled for Saturday night in the presence of the U.N. special envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. Both sides would get down to bargaining on Sunday.” Egypt Associated Press: Egypt Court Rejects Appeal For Writer Jailed For 'Obscenity' “An Egyptian court has rejected an appeal by an Egyptian author against a two-year prison sentence he was given on obscenity charges. Documents obtained Sunday show a decision the previous day by the court in Cairo's Abassia neighborhood rejected Ahmed Naji's request to rescind the sentence he has been serving since February for the sexual content in his novel ‘The Use of Life.’ The literary and human rights organization PEN America and dozens of Egyptian and international figures in the arts, including Woody Allen, Philip Roth and Stephen Sondheim, have called on the Egyptian government to drop charges against Naji. Naji's imprisonment for violating vaguely defined notions of ‘public modesty’ is one of several similar cases this year in Egypt, where legal prosecutions of artists and intellectuals have been increasing.” The Wall Street Journal: Egypt Says ‘Fire’ Clearly Audible On EgyptAir Cockpit Voice Recording “Egyptian officials on Saturday disclosed that the word ‘fire’ is clearly audible on the cockpit voice recording from EgyptAir Flight 804, but safety experts and a person involved in the investigation said there are no clear-cut answers so far about the sequence of events that brought down the jetliner almost two months ago. Data downloaded from the Airbus A320’s black boxes, these people said, at this juncture haven’t provided conclusive information about where the fire started or why it apparently spread so quickly that it may have overwhelmed the crew and knocked out key electronic circuits, possibly affecting the black box recording devices themselves. As a result, they said, barring some sudden breakthrough, investigators are preparing for a long slog to determine why the plane, cruising in the early morning hours over the Mediterranean Sea, crashed without a distress call from the cockpit, killing all 66 people on board.” Middle East Fox News: Israeli Police Foil Bomb Attack In Jerusalem “A  Palestinian man carrying pipe bombs and a knife was arrested Sunday near a light-rail train station in central Jerusalem, according to police in Israel. Police spokeswoman Luba Samri says the man, a resident of Beit Ula near Hebron in the West Bank, was standing at a train stop when he aroused the suspicions of security guards, who searched his bag and found several pipe bombs inside. Police streamed to the area, closed off streets in downtown Jerusalem and shut down the light rail, the Israel National News reported. A guard who searched the man’s bags reportedly found improvised explosive devices (IEDs). ‘A huge miracle just happened. It could have been a mass-casualty event,’ said Natan Epstein, who had just boarded the Jerusalem train when the suspect was arrested.” Nigeria Voice Of America: Multinational Force Fighting Boko Haram Gets Mixed Results “Nigeria and its neighbors pledged last year to come together to defeat Boko Haram, but experts say regional cooperation appears to be happening in fits and starts. Collaboration across borders has long been seen as key to ending the Boko Haram insurgency, which started in Nigeria but has since spread through the country’s porous borders into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Nigerian and Cameroonian military officials say the Multinational Joint Task Force composed of troops from Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Benin is actively fighting Boko Haram and achieving some success. Boko Haram, however, still carries out attacks in Nigeria and its neighbors, leading some experts to question whether regional cooperation is as deep as it should be.” United Kingdom Express.Co.Uk: ISIS Releases Propaganda Film Showing Burning Big Ben As They Warn The West 'We Are Here' “The hated terror group published the horrifying film, calling on European jihadis to ‘fill your cars with gas’, weeks before gunman Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel used a lorry to mow day Bastille Day crowds in France. In the propaganda clip the Islamist fanatics suggest various methods for carrying out terror attacks in Britain, Europe, the US and Australia alongside detailed descriptions of the carnage they could cause. Amongst the sick scenes depicted are a sniper attack in London, a suicide vest bombing in New York, activating a German sleeper cell and a driver using a 4x4 to run over crowds in Australia. ISIS has repeatedly advocated the use of vehicles in terrorist attacks and regularly uses cars and trucks to carry out mass bombings and attacks in the Middle East.”  BBC: Nice Attack: UK Must Redouble Efforts On Terror - May “Theresa May says the UK must redouble its efforts to defeat terrorism, as she condemned the ‘brutal murderers’ behind ‘horrifying’ attacks like that in Nice. The prime minister said Britain stood ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with France after a lorry drove into a crowd killing 84 and injuring 202. Downing Street says a ‘small number’ of Britons were injured in Nice. The Queen and Prince Philip have sent their ‘most sincere condolences’ to the families of those who died. They also said they were ‘deeply shocked and saddened’ by the attack. The London Eye has been lit up in the French colours of blue, white and red, as has the Palace of Westminster.” BBC: How Britain Has Been Kept Safe For A Decade “Mass casualty attacks, as France, Belgium and the UK know only too well, are the perpetual nightmare that governments fear - a nightmare that becomes all too real when intelligence fails to detect them. Since the London bombings of a decade ago, Britain has managed to avoid such a mass attack. But statistics show it has been a close-run thing. Forty terrorist plots have been disrupted since 2005 - including seven in the past 18 months. It's no accident that this country has not yet endured a Paris, Brussels or Nice. Britain's defences against terrorist attack depend not just on the watery buffer of the English Channel and our non-membership of Schengen - Europe's border-free area. Crucially they also rely on the way in which intelligence is now intimately shared between all the agencies: the Security Service (MI5), MI6, GCHQ - and the police. This is the key to keeping Britain safe - although it's by no means guaranteed.” France The Wall Street Journal: Nice Attacker Was Prone To Bizarre Acts Of Rage “In the years after his eldest daughter was born, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ’s marriage began to disintegrate. His neighbors say they saw all the signs of a man quick to lose control, from loud arguments to sudden rages. But one incident stood out, several neighbors said, suggesting the 31-year-old Lahouaiej Bouhlel ’s troubles began long before Thursday, when he killed 84 people by driving a truck into a crowd gathered on the Promenade des Anglais for a Bastille Day fireworks display. In a fit of rage last year, Lahouaiej Bouhlel defecated on his daughter’s bed, according to the neighbors. When Lahouaiej Bouhlel left, his wife, Hajer Khalfallah, raced downstairs in tears to find a neighbor, Christine, who said she accompanied her back upstairs and took photos of the bed before calling the police.” The New York Times: 3 More Reported Held In Bastille Day Truck Attack In Nice “France, still reeling from the attack on Thursday in the southern coastal city of Nice that killed 84 people, observed its second of three days of national mourning on Sunday, as the French police held three more people in connection with the assault, according to news reports. The nation has been left wondering whether the attack, in which a Tunisian man plowed a 19-ton refrigerated truck through crowds gathered for fireworks on Bastille Day, could have been avoided or whether it must adjust to a harsh new reality. On Saturday, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assault, calling the driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, its ‘soldier.’ A man and a woman were arrested Sunday morning, French news media reported, and another man was detained later on Sunday, according to Agence France-Presse. Four other people had been taken in for questioning on Friday and Saturday. ” CBS News: The New France: Terrorism "Part Of Our Daily Lives" “As France continues to clean up after another devastating terror attack killed dozens of civilians in Nice, the country's prime minister warned about the implications of the latest assault. France's prime minister said the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) could very well have been responsible for last week's Bastille Day attack on Nice, as they have claimed. Manuel Valls, in an interview with the Journal du dimanche newspaper published Sunday, said ISIS ‘is encouraging individuals unknown to our services to stage attacks.’ While the investigation is working on details, he said ‘that is without a doubt the case in the Nice attack.’ ISIS claimed responsibility for Thursday's truck attack that killed 84 people, but neither the extremist group nor the French government has provided concrete signs of an ISIS link with the driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel.” Associated Press: France Calls Up Reserves To Boost Security After Nice Attack “Seeking to quell fear and criticism, the French government called up thousands of police reserves Saturday to increase security around the country, after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a beachfront Bastille Day attack that security forces failed to thwart. From the Nice seashore to the seat of French politics in Paris, critics lashed out Saturday at President Francois Hollande's Socialist government, asking how a country still under a state of emergency after previous carnage from Islamic extremist attacks could have let this happen again. Hollande held an emergency security meeting Saturday, and late in the day Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced he would call up 12,000 police reserves in addition to more than 120,000 police and soldiers already deployed around the country ‘because of the terrorist threat.’” Europe The Washington Post: How Terrorism In The West Compares To Terrorism Everywhere Else “The death tolls of attacks in Western countries pale in comparison to daily attacks in other parts of the world. The Middle East and northern Africa account for over two-thirds of terrorism deaths since January 2015, with multiple attacks occurring daily, each claiming on average at least a dozen lives. In northeastern Nigeria, Islamic-State-affiliated Boko Haram has been forced out of much of the territory it once controlled, but it continues to carry out suicide bombings in the region. The group has carried out increasingly deadly campaigns in recent years, with 2015 being the deadliest.” Financing of Terrorism 24: Belgian Report: The Cost Of Most Terrorist Attacks - Less Than $10,000 “A report on the 2015 activities of the Belgian Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CTIF) indicated that the number of new cases related to terrorism or terror financing brought to the Public Prosecutor's office rose from 35 in 2014 to 75 in 2015. Segments of the reports were published on Saturday by several Belgian media outlets. The CTIF report distinguishes between funding a large-scale terrorist organization such as ISIS, in which sums are huge, and the financing of terrorist attacks in Europe, including those in Paris and Brussels, in which microfinancing is required. The report claimed that in more than 75% of the cases the cost of a terror attack comes to less than 10,000.” ISIS Elwatan News: Saudi Arabia Denies Iraqi Claims Regarding Its Involvement In The Financing Of ISIS “Saudi Arabia yesterday denied allegations of its involvement in funding ISIS's terrorist activities in Iraq. The kingdom expressed its dismay over these allegations. Saudi Arabia's mission to the United Nations, in a statement, rejected the allusions made by the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations Mohammed Alhakim during a speech he delivered to the Security Council on this topic. Saudi Arabia stressed that it is taking all possible measures to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorism for terrorist organizations and individuals alike. It emphasized the kingdom's commitment to "peace and security for our brothers and sisters in the neighboring state of Iraq." Alahed News: Iraqi Forces Plan To Cut The Only Lifeline To Financing ISIS In Mosul “Major General Najim al-Jubouri, commander of the Nineveh operations center, emphasized on Sunday that the liberation of al-Qayyarah, south of Mosul, is crucial because it is the only lifeline for the financing of ISIS south of this Iraqi city. Maj. Gen. al-Jubouri noted that al-Qayyarah is a major stronghold of ISIS and represents the only funding source for the terror organization south of Mosul, because it includes oil wells and a large stockpile of sulfur in al-Mishraq area. Al-Jubouri explained that al-Qayyarah constitutes the link between Mosul and Kirkuk, and Salahaddin and Erbil. The Iraqi forces' control of the al-Qayyarah military base and the village of Al-Jehla forced most of ISIS’s non-Iraqi leaders to flee from al-Shirqat District and Hawija into Mosul.” Muslim Brotherhood Gulf Eyes: Deputy Of The Kuwaiti Parliament: Time Has Come To Designate The Muslim Brotherhood As Terrorist Group “Member of the Kuwaiti parliament Abdullah Al-Mayouf expressed the need to add the Muslim Brotherhood to the terror blacklist. He noted that much of the world feels the serious menace of this group and believes it incites towards perpetrating extremist acts. The MP demanded that the group's members be treated as terrorists regardless of their nationality. He also called on the government and the National Assembly to approve a law to criminalize terrorism and terrorist groups. The law will be applied to anyone meeting the definition of terrorism, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Mayouf explained.” Veto: Muslim Brotherhood "Electronic Committees" Wage An All-Out War Against The Turkish Military Coup Attempt “In a de facto admission of their existence, the Muslim Brotherhood’s "Electronic Committees" on the Internet mounted a comprehensive war against the Turkish military coup attempt against President Erdogan. They used all of their ‘digital might’ in an effort to counter the coup attempt. They also instructed their Arab followers to back Erdogan and denounce the coup against him. Therefore, Brotherhood activists published uniform messages on all of its social media pages.” Masr11: Mauritania Bans Entry Of Grandson Of Muslim Brotherhood Founder “Mauritania on Saturday barred Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss academician and grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder, from entering its territory. He arrived to deliver lectures in the capital city of Nouakchott. Sources indicated that airport authorities blocked him from entering the country and sent him back from where he came. According to an unnamed source in the Mauritanian police, the entry denial was due to "the suspicious activities of the grandson of Hassan al-Banna". Ramadan said in a video posted on his Facebook page that he had traveled to Mauritania at the invitation of associations he did not name "to deliver lectures and lessons as well as to meet with groups of the poor.” Alkhaleej: Expert: Muslim Brotherhood Uses Whatsapp To Disseminate Its Ideas “Dr. Ali Al Noaimi, Director of the United Arab Emirates University and Director General of the Abu Dhabi Education Council, noted that the Muslim Brotherhood has been making desperate attempts to promote its activities abroad by using the latest technology and social media networking to disseminate its "venom." He claimed that one of the ways is to create groups on WhatsApp. Al Noaimi said through his Twitter account: "The women's organization of the Muslim Brotherhood publishes messages under the orders of fugitive traitors via WhatsApp groups." These messages may look good at first glance, but, according to Al Noaimi, they are like "poison in honey," since the messages promote the group's ideology and glorify its members.” Houthi Ababiil.Net: Yemen: Houthis Raise Electricity Prices In Sanaa “Yemen's Houthi group decided to raise the price of electricity for domestic and commercial consumption. This is in line with the Houthis' measures to tackle its financial distress and increase its revenues. An official in the Sanaa-based Public Electricity Corporation (PEC) confirmed that the militia, which controls the Corporation, approved the electricity price hike, but declined to announce it officially. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, revealed that the new prices reflect a rise in electricity fees for "Group A", which constitutes the least consuming citizens, from 17 riyals ($0.068) to 80 riyals ($0.32) per kilowatt. The price of a kilowatt for the commercial sector was raised from 30 riyals ($0.12) to 120 riyals ($0.48).” Almashhad Alyemeni: Houthi-Affiliated Preachers Urge Worshipers To Donate Money “On Friday preachers affiliated with the Houthis called on worshipers in the mosques they control in Sanaa to go on jihad, donate money and support the militia in the battles against the forces of the People's National Army and the "Popular Resistance". According to worshipers attending the mosques, the Houthi preachers delivered almost uniform sermons, prepared earlier by the group's religious leaders, advocating jihad and fundraising under the banner of "defense on the truth and securing victory for the oppressed." The sources said that the preachers exhorted worshipers to pay money, join militiamen in battlefronts and deliver food supplies to the fighters.” Al Nusra Front Dam Press: Syria: Al Nusra Front Confiscates Food Aid Meant For The People Of Aleppo “The Syrian army managed to cut off the alternative supply route used by insurgents through the "Castillo Road" leading to the Leiramon area. Meanwhile, the Al Nusra Front, al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, started to confiscate food aid provided to residents of the eastern neighborhoods in Aleppo. Local sources confirmed, as the army regime's blockade on several Aleppo districts entered its second week, that Al-Nusra was quick to confiscate food aid supplies directed by international relief organizations to the population living in the neighborhoods of al-Shaar, al-Qatarji and Tariq Al Bab. Al Nusra has taken control of this aid to provide food for its fighters amid unprecedented shortages of rations and skyrocketing food prices in areas controlled by insurgents.”