Eye on Extremism July 8, 2016

Eye on Extremism July 8, 2016 Counter Extremism Project Huffington Post: How The War On Child Porn Is Helping Us Fight ISIS Propaganda “How can the U.S. fight the spread of Islamic State propaganda? The militant group’s infamous videos of beheadings, violence and torture have a dangerous allure for would-be radicals, and they proliferate over social media in a way that can make containment seem hopeless. But fighting extremist content online need not be very complicated, according to Dr. Hany Farid, a computer scientist at Dartmouth College. ‘We don’t need to develop software that determines whether a video is jihadist,’ Farid recently told The Huffington Post. ‘Most of the ISIS videos in circulation are reposts of content someone has already flagged as problematic.’ Now, Farid is adapting his software to fight the threat of ISIS propaganda. He has partnered with the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit think tank, which is maintaining a database of extremist media. When a photo or video is flagged as extremist propaganda on a platform like Facebook, its hash is entered in the CEP database.” The Washington Post: Prosecutors Reveal Efforts By ISIS Recruiter In Syria To Encourage Attacks In U.S. “Federal prosecutors on Thursday said a top Islamic State recruiter in Syria was involved in directing an American college student to kill a member of the U.S. military and then attack a police station in southern Ohio. Munir Abdulkader, 21, of West Chester, Ohio, communicated with Junaid Hussein, a well-known Islamic State operative who was killed in Raqqa, Syria, in an August 2015 drone strike, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. Abdulkader was charged secretly in May 2015 with providing material support to the Islamic State, attempting to kill police officers and employees of the United States, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.” CNN: Death Toll From Devastating ISIS Truck Bomb In Baghdad Rises To Nearly 300 “The death toll from a devastating ISIS truck bomb in Baghdad has risen to 292 after dozens more of the wounded succumbed to their injuries, Iraqi officials said Thursday. A further 200 people were injured in the attack, according to Ahmed Al-Redaini, spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Health. Among the injured are dozens of burn victims who are being transferred outside the country for treatment, said Mohammad al-Rubaee, deputy head of the security committee for Baghdad province. The immense blast in Baghdad's bustling Karrada neighborhood, a predominantly Shia district, in the early hours of Sunday was the worst attack to strike the Iraqi capital in years.” Associated Press: US Moves To Leave 8,400 Troops In Afghanistan Aids Allies “President Barack Obama's decision to slow the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan will be welcomed at the NATO summit this weekend, providing aid for allied forces in the country and bolstering U.S. efforts to get more pledges of support for the war from U.S. allies. Obama's move quells lingering questions within NATO about America's commitment to the ongoing conflict. And it will allow the U.S. military to expand its work with Afghan forces as they face a resurgent Taliban and a troubling presence of Islamic State fighters in the country. The president announced Wednesday that he will leave 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan into 2017, rather than cut the force to 5,500 at the end of the year as initially planned.” BBC: Syria Conflict: Army Fire 'Cuts Key Aleppo Road' “Syrian government forces have effectively cut the only road into rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo, military sources and rebels say. After heavy fighting and air strikes overnight, troops advanced to within 1km (0.6 miles) of the Castello Road, within range of small arms fire. Rebels said that meant no-one could now get into or out of the east of the city, home to up to 300,000 people. The assault came hours after the government declared a 72-hour truce. Aleppo, once Syria's commercial and industrial hub, has been divided in roughly two since 2012, with the government controlling the western half and rebel factions holding the east.” Radio Free Europe: Saudi Arabia Arrests 19 Pakistani, Saudi Suspects In July 4 Attacks “Saudi Arabia said a suicide bomber who attacked Prophet Muhammad's Mosque in the city of Medina was a young Saudi citizen with a history of drug abuse. Twelve Pakistanis and seven Saudis have been detained in relation to the attack on Islam's second holiest site and two others on July 4, the Saudi Interior Ministry said on July 7. Na'ir al-Nujiaidi al-Balawi, 26, crossed a parking lot next to the prophet's mosque in Medina and detonated an explosive belt when security guards intercepted him, killing four soldiers, the ministry said. It said three suicide bombers took part in a botched attack outside a Shi'ite mosque in Qatif, in which no civilians or police were wounded. They were identified as Abdulrahman Saleh Mohammed, Ibrahim Saleh Mohammed and Abdelkarim al-Hesni, all anti-goverment activists in their early 20s.” Fox News: German Intel Report Charges Iran Seeking Illegal Nuke, Missile Tech “With the ink barely dry on the deal between the U.S. and Iran to prevent the Islamic Republic from securing nuclear weapons, a new German intelligence document charges that Iran continues to flout the agreement. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said in its annual report that Iran has a ‘clandestine’ effort to seek illicit nuclear technology and equipment from German companies ‘at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level.’ The findings by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s equivalent of the FBI, were issued in a 317-page report last week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel underscored the findings in a statement to parliament, saying Iran violated the United Nations Security Council’s anti-missile development regulations.” Telegraph: Italian Police Bust Fake Passport Racket Amid Terror Fears “Italian police have uncovered an international criminal ring selling false passports and allegedly smuggling them into Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The 11-member gang, including three civil servants, were allegedly involved in selling Italian passports on the black market including to the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek which has known links to jihadist terror attacks in France and Belgium, police said on Thursday. The disused Italian passports, which were housed in government warehouses, were supposed to have been destroyed but instead were sold through an elaborate network involving the civil servants who worked at the ministry of finance and the state mint.” The Wall Street Journal: Bangladesh Is Losing The Battle Against Terror “Last week’s carnage in Dhaka, where jihadists butchered 22 people in an upscale cafe, has triggered a sweeping reassessment of Bangladesh’s vulnerability to terrorism and the spread of Islamism in South Asia more broadly. For Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation long synonymous with a relaxed form of Islam inflected with Bengali culture, the attack claimed by Islamic State ends the myth that the country is resistant to global jihadism. It also punctured, yet again, the notion that Islamist terrorism springs from poverty. Most of the six attackers came from privileged backgrounds. On social media, they flaunted allegiance to English Premier League soccer teams, not to the Islamic State’s Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. The attack also highlights how the three largest South Asian countries—India, Pakistan and Bangladesh—lag in their efforts to tackle an enemy both vicious and protean.” Huffington Post: Nigerian Man Who Fled Boko Haram Beaten To Death In Italy Defending His Wife “A Nigerian man who had recently fled to Europe to escape Boko Haram militants was beaten to death on the streets of Italy this week as he tried to defend his wife against racist abuse. Emmanuel Chidi Namdi, 36, and his wife Chimiary, 24, were walking through the northern Italian town of Fermo on Tuesday when a man called Chimiary a ‘monkey’ and tried to grab her, according to local priest Vinicio Albanesi, a friend of the couple. Namdi intervened, and the resulting fight left him in a coma. He was pronounced dead on Wednesday. Amedeo Mancini, a 38-year-old Italian man who is part of an ‘ultras’ gang of extremist soccer fans, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of killing Namdi.” United States Voice Of America: Details of US Troop Cuts in Afghanistan Not Yet Set “U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan are set to decrease by 1,400 at year’s end, but the Defense Department has not yet come up with a specific plan for trimming its force structure. ‘We haven’t decided yet,’ Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told reporters Thursday aboard a military plane en route from Washington to Warsaw. President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that only 8,400 U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan by January 2017 — more than the force of 5,500 men and women the president had originally determined would stay in Afghanistan, but a 15 percent cut in current troop levels.” CNN: U.S. Jets Diverted To Iraq, Abandoning Syrian Rebels “Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday that the Pentagon is looking into an incident in which U.S. support jets assisting Syrian rebels diverted to Iraq to strike suspected ISIS militants last week, leaving the rebels without badly needed air cover. Speaking to reporters on a flight to Warsaw, Poland, for a NATO meeting, Carter said the review will ‘see if there are any lessons learned.’ One aircraft flying air support missions over Al-Bukamal during the recent fighting there was called off and diverted to strike at a massive convoy of suspected ISIS militants that had been observed to be trying to leave the southern outskirts of Fallujah, according to a senior U.S. official. Several aircraft were diverted from various patrols in different parts of Iraq, but only one was taken away from the Al-Bukamal battle.” Syria Associated Press: Fighting Reported Across Syria Despite Declared 3-Day Truce “In a multi-pronged offensive, Syrian government forces and their allies pushed into an area north of the city of Aleppo on Thursday, threatening a key supply line for the city's opposition-held quarters and setting off intense clashes with rebels, activists said. The advance came despite of and in violation of the government's own cease-fire, which the authorities announced the day before to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan. Also Thursday, the international relief organization Mercy Corps warned its food stocks in the opposition-held half of the contested city of Aleppo could run out in a month. It said it provides food aid to 75,000 people there, among an estimated population of 300,000-400,000 in the rebel-held sections. The entire city, which is also the capital of Aleppo province, has about 2 million people.” Fox News: Russia Sends Its Only Aircraft Carrier To Syria In Response To US “Russia’s accident-prone aircraft carrier is set to be put to the test — if it gets there. Its history of embarrassing breakdowns may see an anticipated mission to Syria backfire. The aircraft carrier is the largest leftover of the Soviet era’s Cold War still active in the Russian navy. Now Russian government news agency Tass has declared the warship will be sent into the Mediterranean to conduct air strikes against insurgents and Islamic State in Syria between October and January. It would be the first time a Russian aircraft carrier has ever engaged in combat.” Iraq Associated Press: As Baghdad Protests Mount, Attack On Shiite Shrine Kills 26 “Protests and anger over the security situation in Iraq mounted Thursday at the site of a massive truck bombing by the Islamic State group earlier this week in Baghdad that killed scores as the death toll continued to rise and a separate attack north of Baghdad killed dozens more. The Baghdad attack last Sunday — the deadliest attack in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion — has stoked public unrest and spurred Iraqi officials to announce a number of new security measures. However, smaller scale bombings and attacks have persisted in the days that followed. Late on Thursday night an attack carried out by multiple suicide bombers and gunmen on a Shiite shrine in Balad north of Baghdad killed 26 and wounded 52, according to Iraqi police and hospital officials.” BBC: Iraq Violence: Suicide Bombers Target Shia Shrine “Suicide bombers and gunmen have killed at least 30 people at a Shia shrine in Iraq, in an attack claimed by so-called Islamic State. The attack began when a man detonated an explosives belt at the entrance to the mausoleum of Sayid Mohammed bin Ali al-Hadi, in the town of Balad. Reports say gunmen then stormed the site, shooting at worshippers. Meanwhile the death toll from Sunday's suicide bombing in Baghdad has again been raised, from 250 to 292. The Baghdad attack targeted a shopping complex in the mainly Shia Muslim Karrada district of the city. So-called Islamic State said it was behind the bombing, the deadliest in the country since the 2003 US-led invasion.” Turkey Reuters: Turkish Jets Hit Kurdish Militant Targets In Southeast Turkey: Sources “Turkish fighter jets pounded Kurdish militant targets in rural areas of the southeastern province of Sirnak on Thursday, security sources said. Seven targets, including shelters and caves belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), were destroyed in the Cudi mountains and the Guclukonak district in the air strikes, which followed reconnaissance flights by drones, the sources said. There was no immediate information on casualties. Military sources said reconnaissance flights in the area continued while gendarmerie and special forces carried out searches. Conflict between the autonomy-seeking PKK and the Turkish military flared up last July after the collapse of a ceasefire. Thousands of militants, security force members and civilians have been killed in fighting across the mainly Kurdish southeast since.” Reuters: RPT-Turkey Appears To Be In Vanguard Of 'Throttling' Social Media After Attacks “After suicide bombers killed 45 people at Istanbul's main airport last week, the Turkish government appeared to take a step that has become increasingly common around the world in moments of political uncertainty: restricting access to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.Turkey denies that it blocks the internet, blaming outages last week and earlier this year on spikes in usage after major events. But technical experts at watchdog groups say the blackouts on social media are intentional, aimed in part at stopping the spread of militant images and propaganda. Countries such as China and Iran have long kept tight control over online media, but human rights and internet activists say that many more democratic governments are now using internet cutoffs to stifle free speech under the guise of fighting terrorism.” The Wall Street Journal: Turkey Changes Tack On Foreign Policy To Win Back Friends “Turkey’s bid for regional greatness began with a vitriolic squabble with Israel in 2009 and, after a series of disasters, ended with a breakdown of relations with Russia last fall. So it is only fitting that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is banking on resuming friendly relations with these two countries as he attempts to steer the country back to a more pragmatic foreign policy. The shift, which Mr. Erdogan described last week as a ‘win-win’ comes at a trying time for Turkey, once seen across the region as a model of Muslim democracy. Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood that Mr. Erdogan backed across the region have either collapsed or morphed into radical violence.” Reuters: Two Syrians Killed In Blast While Making Bombs In Turkey's South: Media “Two Syrians accidentally blew themselves up while handling explosives in a house in the southern Turkish border town of Reyhanli, the privately owned Dogan news agency said on Thursday. A woman who was at the scene at the time of the blast late on Wednesday was later detained by police, Dogan said, without giving her nationality. Police were investigating whether the two Syrians had any links to militant groups or Syrian rebels, the agency said. A car believed to have been owned by the two had been seized for investigation.” Saudi Arabia Associated Press: Saudi Arabia Identifies Bombers In 2 Attacks This Week “Saudi Arabia identified on Thursday suspects in two of the three attacks that struck the kingdom on the same day this week, including one outside the sprawling mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in the western city of Medina that killed four Saudi security troops. In a statement released by the Interior Ministry late Thursday, authorities said the Medina bomber in Monday's apparently coordinated attacks was 26-year-old Saudi national Na'ir al-Nujiaidi al-Balawi. Three suicide bombers behind a botched attack, also Monday, outside a Shiite mosque in the eastern region of Qatif in which no civilians or police were wounded, were identified as Abdulrahman Saleh Mohammed, Ibrahim Saleh Mohammed and Abdelkarim al-Hesni, all in their early 20s. The ministry said investigations following the attacks led to the arrests of 19 suspects, seven Saudi and 12 Pakistani nationals. No other details were immediately available.” Middle East Reuters: Israel Tightens Security Near Hebron, Angering Palestinians “Israel has ramped up security in the occupied West Bank since a Palestinian killed a 13-year-old Jewish girl in a settlement last week, deploying more troops and setting up checkpoints near the city of Hebron. Attention is on Bani Na'im, a town to the east where the girl's killer, a 19-year-old who stabbed her as she slept, came from. He was shot dead. But a day after her death, a Jewish father driving nearby with his daughters was shot and killed. His attacker, who remains at large, is also suspected of coming from Bani Na'im. Security clampdowns are common in the West Bank, yet they illustrate a delicate problem for the Israeli army: how to impose strict measures that reassure settlers while not being so harsh that they fuel further Palestinian anger and violence.” Newsweek: Israel Plans 'Facebook Bill' To Force Deletion Of Posts That Incite Violence “Israel is drafting a new law that would allow its courts to order social media giant Facebook to remove posts from its platform that incite violence against Israelis, as the government’s anger grows over posts by Palestinians that precede deadly attacks. Israel’s Justice Ministry estimates that the draft of the new law will be completed in several days, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The new law was drawn up two weeks ago after a meeting between Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and right-wing Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked with Facebook representatives about posts that incite violence. Such posts include cartoons by Palestinians that show stabbers heroically attacking Israeli soldiers, glorifying violent actions against the forces in the West Bank that oversee the military occupation imposed upon Palestinians. Other posts also advocate violence against Israelis in Jerusalem and other Israeli cities.” CNN: Egyptair 804 Debris Likely Found On Israeli Beach “Plane debris found on a beach in northern Israel is very likely from crashed EgyptAir Flight 804, the Israeli Prime Minister's office said Thursday. The debris was collected Thursday morning from the beach of Netanya, the statement said. The statement did not specify what, exactly, was found. Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed relevant authorities to make contact with Egypt and to transfer the debris soon, ‘maybe even tomorrow,’ the statement said. France also notified, because the plane took off from its territory.” Libya Reuters: Gaddafi's Son Saif Still In Prison In Western Libya, Military Source Says “Saif al-Islam, a son of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, remains in the prison in western Libya where he has been held since the 2011 uprising that toppled his father, a military source said on Thursday, contradicting media reports that Saif had been released. Since his father's downfall, Saif has been held in Zintan, a mountainous western region, by one of the factions that began contending for power after Gaddafi was killed in 2011 and have now split the country into warring fiefdoms. ‘We deny that Saif Islam has been released,’ the Zintan military source told Reuters. Last July, a Libyan court sentenced Saif to death in absentia for war crimes, including killing protesters during the 2011 revolt.” United Kingdom Express.Co.Uk: Officer Who Helped Tube Passengers During 7/7 Warns Londoners To 'Be Alert' To Terrorism “A Policewoman who provided life-saving first aid to fellow Tube passengers during the 7/7 bombings has warned Londoners to ‘be alert’ to terrorism as she retired 11 years on. Pc Liz Kenworthy was off-duty on her way to a conference when a suicide bomber detonated his device on the Circle line train she was travelling on at Aldgate station in 2005. She was in the fourth carriage, a short distance from the blast, and escaped unhurt but rushed towards the scene and administered rudimentary first aid - using her corduroy Marks & Spencer jacket and a belt as makeshift tourniquets to help save two passengers' lives. The coroner at the inquests into the 52 people who died in the blasts paid tribute to Pc Kenworthy's courage and determination.” Germany The Wall Street Journal: Germany Accuses Asylum Seeker Of Aiding Paris Attacks Leader “German prosecutors Thursday accused an Algerian asylum seeker of helping scout potential routes into Europe for the alleged ringleader of the November Paris attacks. Germany’s federal prosecutor said a 20-year-old identified as Algerian Bilal C., who is already behind bars for theft and fraud, is suspected of having been a member of Islamic State and having kept  Abdelhamid Abaaoud  informed about the situation along the refugee route through Europe. The prosecutor’s office said Bilal C. traveled on Abaaoud’s orders from Syria along the so-called Balkan route that was used by hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees last year to escape the Middle East and Africa, and passed information to Abaaoud along the way.” France The New York Times: Brother Of Gunman In Paris Attacks, Recruited By ISIS, Is Sent To Prison “The brother of one of the gunmen who killed 90 people in November at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris was among seven men sentenced to prison on Wednesday for being part of a criminal conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks. The man, Karim Mohamed-Aggad, 25, was part of a group that traveled to Syria in 2013 to receive training from members of the Islamic State. The recruits included his brother Foued Mohamed-Aggad, 23, who went on to become one of the three men who attacked the concert hall on Nov. 13, 2015, part of a night of violence that left 130 people dead in and around Paris. Foued Mohamed-Aggad died in the attack. The defendants were sentenced to prison terms of six to nine years, with Karim Mohamed-Aggad receiving the longest sentence. They were tried on charges of taking part in an Islamist recruitment network and of receiving training from the Islamic State militant group.” Europe Associated Press: Russia's Putin Signs Controversial Amendments Into Law “Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed into law controversial counter-terrorism amendments that have sparked alarm among rights activists. The amendments, rammed through the parliament on its last session before the summer break, include introducing prison sentences for failure to report a grave crime and doubling the number of crimes for which Russians as young as 14 can be prosecuted. Another forces telecommunications companies to store logs and data for months, a measure that threatens to eat all of the companies' profits. In an apparent concession to the disgruntled businesses, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Putin also signed a decree instructing the government to oversee and if necessary modify the implementation of the amendments in the light of possible ‘financial risks.’”