Eye on Extremism October 28, 2016

Eye on Extremism October 28, 2016 Counter Extremism Project Yahoo News On SiriusXM: CEP Spokesperson Tara Maller Discusses ISIS's Social Media Strategy, Other National Security Issues With Host Olivier Knox. CBS News: U.N.: ISIS Using "Tens Of Thousands" As Human Shields In Mosul “As Iraqi government troops advanced on Mosul, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) abducted “tens of thousands” of men, women and children to use as human shields, the United Nations human rights office said Friday. The U.S. military said Friday that it carried out airstrikes near Mosul earlier in the week to try to prevent thousands of civilians being forced north into the city to be used as shields by ISIS.” Wall Street Journal: ISIS Hotbed Looms As Risk In Mosul Fight “Iraqi forces closing in on Islamic State-held Mosul are bypassing pockets controlled by militants such as the strategic town of Hawija, leaving the extremists free to launch counterattacks elsewhere in Iraq. In planning the Mosul offensive, Iraqi leaders chose to make retaking Hawija a lower priority even though it sits between Baghdad, the capital, and Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.” NBC News: U.S. Officials: Iran Supplying Weapons To Yemen's Houthi Rebels “U.S. officials tell NBC News that they believe Iran has supplied weapons to the Houthis in Yemen — including coastal defense cruise missiles like the ones that were fired at US Navy ships earlier this month. ‘We believe that Iran is connected to this,’ Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan said. The head of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, who is tasked with securing the waters off of Yemen, disclosed today that the U.S. and partner nations have intercepted five weapons shipments from Iran that were headed to the Houthis in Yemen. Donegan said the first intercept occurred in April 2015 when seven ships guarded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy attempted to move weapons to Yemen.” Associated Press: Saudi Arabia Says Yemen Rebels Fire Missile Toward Mecca “Shiite rebels in Yemen fired a ballistic missile toward the holy Muslim city of Mecca overnight, Saudi Arabia said Friday, the insurgents' deepest strike yet into the kingdom amid the country's stalemate civil war. Rebel media in Yemen said the missile targeted an international airport in Jiddah, though Saudi Arabia said it was ‘intercepted and destroyed’ 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Mecca, which is home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that the world's Muslims pray toward five times a day. The missile launch shows the capability of Yemen's Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, and their allies to continue to strike Saudi Arabia. It also drew the immediate anger of Saudi citizens, as the protection of Mecca is a key pillar of the Saudi royal family's prestige and the country's national identity.” The New Yorker: The Secret Eye Inside Mosul “Shortly after the Islamic State swept into Iraq, in June, 2014, a clandestine blog called Mosul Eye appeared on the Internet. It provided details about life under the caliphate—initially offering hourly reports regarding roads around Mosul that were safe to travel, and then, in the following weeks, reporting on the dawning anxiety about the heavily armed isis fighters, the power blackouts, the rising prices, the chaos in local markets, the panic over food shortages, and the occupiers’ utter brutality. Over the next year, Mosul Eye expanded into a Facebook page and a Twitter account. The posts were determinedly stoic—melancholic and inspiring at once.” CBS News: ISIS Faction Raises Black Flag Over Somali Port Town “While the international community has focused on combating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq, the terror group has steadily been gaining ground in Somalia. On Wednesday, ISIS captured the ancient port town of Qandala, signaling a new front emerging in the war against the terror group on the strategic Gulf of Aden. “This is a symbolic victory because this is the first major town that ISIS has captured in Somalia,” said Mo Fatah, a Somalia expert.” The Times Of Israel:  Jerusalem Man Charged With Plotting Shooting, Backing Hamas “An East Jerusalem resident was arrested for planning shooting attacks on Israeli security forces and civilians, Israeli officials said Thursday as charges were filed against the man. Muhammad Mussa Abbasi, 25, from the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood in the capital, was arrested three weeks ago, the Shin Bet security service said in a statement, clearing the case for publication. Over the past several months Abbasi made plans to carry out shooting attacks in East Jerusalem and unsuccessfully tried to obtain a weapon for that purpose. The suspect also tried to get information on making pipe bombs, although he did not put that idea into practice, according to the Shin Bet.” ABC News: Convicted College Grad Says Trying To Join ISIS Was 'More About Helping Others' “In his first interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer today, Muhammad Dakhlalla, the 24-year-old former honor student now in prison for trying to join ISIS, said the terrorist videos he'd watched with girlfriend Jaelyn Young seemed to promise a life of service and certainty. ‘These propaganda videos that we were watching, that's how they showed themselves, as helping out other people, you know,’ Dakhlalla said. Before their 2015 arrest and subsequent guilty pleas, Dakhlalla and Young were honor students at Mississippi State University. He'd been accepted into a graduate program after graduating cum laude with a degree in psychology. He also played soccer. Young, a college sophomore, had been a cheerleader in high school. They both were raised in good families. Dakhlalla's father is a math tutor. Young's father is a police officer and a military veteran. Now, Dakhlalla and Young are imprisoned, having pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of providing material support to ISIS. Dakhlalla is serving eight years in federal prison. Young is serving 12 years.” Washington Post: Ex-National Guardsman Admits Plotting Attack To Support Islamic State “In the spring of this year, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh said he often thought about carrying out an attack to support the Islamic State. The Northern Virginia man drew inspiration from Nidal Hasan, the Army major who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in 2009. But Jalloh, a former member of the Virginia National Guard, also questioned whether he could “ensure his heart would be strong and not fail him” during an attack, court records show. If he could not take part in an operation, he suggested, he could help by providing money or weapons.” CBS News: '60 Minutes Interviews Minnesota Man Linked To ISIS “A Minnesota terrorist, who recruited friends to fight for ISIS, says online videos made him feel special. Abdirizak Warsame, 21, recently sat down to speak with CBS Evening News anchor and “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley. In the exclusive interview — set to air this Sunday — the young Eagan man opened up about his motivations, and what he still thinks about every day.” It’s very rare for someone in federal custody, much less a convicted terrorist, to do an on-camera interview. Warsame told Scott Pelley he became radicalized by watching YouTube videos of the infamous American-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki.” The Wall Street Journal: Germany Charges Syrian Immigrant With Supporting ISIS “A 19-year-old Syrian immigrant was charged with supporting Islamic State, Germany’s top prosecutor said Thursday, a sign that the country’s authorities are uncovering a growing body of evidence that the terrorist group used last year’s migrant influx to send fighters to Europe. The federal prosecutor-general accused the Syrian national identified as Shaas Al-M. of joining the terror militia in his Syrian hometown by mid-2013 and having participated in fighting for the group there. After leaving in summer 2015, the prosecutor’s office said, the suspect scouted possible targets in Berlin, recruited at least one person to fight for Islamic State in Syria, and signaled he was prepared to carry out an attack himself.” United States Fox News: US Airstrikes Target Top Al Qaeda Leaders In Afghanistan “U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan targeted two Al Qaeda leaders, including one described as the group's top leader in the country, in what the Pentagon called Thursday a significant blow’ to the terror group. U.S. officials told Fox News Al Qaeda was plotting attacks on the United States at the time. Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the strikes last Sunday were ‘likely successful.’ Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook identified the two men as Faruq al-Qatani and Bilal al-Utabi. Cook said al-Qatani was a senior planner for attacks against the U.S. and had a hand in deadly attacks on U.S. forces. Al-Qatani had ties to Usama Bin Laden and was seeking to reestablish Al Qaeda's control over Afghanistan, a U.S. official told Fox News.” Fox News: Plan To Battle ISIS Creates Uneasy Alliance That Has US Working With Iran “The Americans don’t trust the Iranians, the Iranians covet Iraq, the Sunnis and Shia have been at each other’s throats for 1,000 years and the Kurds prefer to be left alone. As coalitions go, the one pieced together to dislodge ISIS from its Iraqi stronghold in Mosul is an odd one. For now, its members are working together, but uneasy alliances and divergent motives could be tested as fighting intensifies, experts told FoxNews.com. ‘The Mosul offensive is being led by the government of Iraq and we, the coalition, are providing support by training police and military,’ Pentagon spokesman and U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway told FoxNews.com, repeating the official line of all parties.” CNN: General: Up To 900 ISIS Fighters Killed In Battle For Mosul “The US and its allies have killed between 800 and 900 ISIS fighters in the operation to retake Mosul, US Army Gen. Joseph Votel said Thursday. US military officials estimate that there are 3,000 to 5,000 ISIS fighters defending the last major stronghold of the terror group in Iraq, and an additional 1,500 to 2,000 ISIS soldiers in a zone outside the city. Votel is the head of US Central Command and is assisting the Iraqis in the fight for Mosul. A coalition of about 100,000 forces began the operation 10 days ago, and have been slowly gaining ground toward the city, liberating villages from ISIS rule along the way.” NBC News: Mosul Is Just The Beginning, And It Will Only Get Tougher: U.S. Commanders “A senior U.S. military official warns that ISIS fighters in Mosul are likely to resort to even more extreme and harsh actions as they face more and more military pressure on the city. ‘Unfortunately, ISIS will likely grow more oppressive to the population in areas they control,’ the official said, adding, ‘they will either leave or they will be more oppressive and force folks to fight that shouldn't fight. I imagine we will see some of that as we get closer to Mosul,’ the official said, ‘ISIS comes down and comes down hard.’ In an exclusive interview with NBC News, the head of U.S. Central Command, General Joseph Votel, warned that ending an ISIS reign over the city of Mosul will not end their presence in the country.” CNN: Man Shot Dead Outside US Embassy In Kenya After Knife Attack “A police officer shot and killed a man who stabbed him as he stood guard outside the US Embassy in Nairobi Thursday, authorities said. ‘The officer fired back in self-defense and managed to kill (the attacker). My officer is in hospital in a stable condition. The victim died on the spot,’ Vitalis Otieno, the Gigiri division commanding officer of the Nairobi Police, told CNN. The man killed was a Kenyan national, police said, but they are not releasing his name while the case is under investigation. His motive was not immediately clear. The officer was stabbed in the head, Otieno said. Further details about the officer's injury weren't immediately available.” Syria The New York Times: Bitter Rift Deepens As Russia Rejects Findings On Syria’s Use Of Chlorine Bombs “Russia on Thursday rejected the findings of a chemical weapons investigation led by the United Nations that found Syrian forces had used chlorine bombs at least three times in the past two years. During a Security Council meeting, Russia called the investigators’ findings inconclusive and no basis for punitive action. The response intensified the bitter rift between Western nations and Russia over the Syria war. It came three years after Syria renounced the use of chemical weapons, signed an international treaty banning them and agreed to destroy its stockpile under a Security Council resolution supported by Russia and the United States.” Reuters: Putin Says Russia Has No Option But To Clear Aleppo Of Militants “Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had no other option but to clear out what he called ‘a nest of terrorists’ from Syria's Aleppo despite the fact that civilians were also present in the city. Putin said civilian casualties in conflicts should be mourned everywhere, not just in Aleppo, pointing to what he said were civilians killed around Mosul in Iraq. ‘Bells should toll for all innocent victims. Not just in Aleppo,’ said Putin.” Reuters: Syrian Army Says It Takes Town Near Hama “Syria's army regained the town of Soran, north of Hama, from rebels on Thursday, a Syrian military source and a war monitor said, part of a push back against insurgent gains in the area over recent weeks. ‘Units from our armed forces in cooperation with the people's defense forces regained control over the municipality of Soran and the farms surrounding it,’ the source said. Militia forces from both Syria and other countries in the region have fought alongside the Syrian army in its fight against rebels seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad, a war that is in its sixth year. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, said the army's advance into the town was aided by a heavy bombardment since dawn on Thursday, including with rockets, mortars and barrel bombs dropped by helicopter.” BBC: Syria Conflict: UN Urges Inquiry Into Deadly Air Strike On School “The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has demanded an immediate investigation into an air strike in Syria on Wednesday that reportedly struck a school, killing more than 20 children. Activists say a village school was targeted in rebel-held Idlib. The UN also warned that the coming winter could be the worst yet in Syria's five-year-long civil war. Its humanitarian chief for Syria, Jan Egeland, said the brutal conflict had become more ruthless. He said it was affecting increasing numbers of civilians. Five Syrian schools, including the one in Idlib, have been targeted since 11 October, the UN's children's fund Unicef said.” CNN: US, Russia Spar Amid Charges Of War Crimes In Syria “The US and Russia are exchanging ever harsher rhetorical barbs amid growing charges of war crimes in Syria following a brutal attack on a Syrian school. More than 20 children were among the dead in the attack on the school compound in the rebel-held village of Hass in Idlib province Wednesday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was ‘appalled’ at repeated bombings of the school compound. ‘If deliberate, this attack may amount to a war crime,’ he said in a statement. Idlib, a main opposition stronghold is regularly hit by both Syrian and Russian airstrikes, as well as the US-led collation hitting ISIS targets. The US, France and international monitors have said either the Syrian regime or its Russian backers carried out Wednesday's attacks, but Moscow has denied flying in the area.” Iraq Reuters: Iraqi Army Aims To Reach Site Of Islamic State Executions South Of Mosul “The Iraqi army was trying on Thursday to reach a town south of Mosul where Islamic State has reportedly executed dozens to deter the population against any attempt to support the U.S.-led offensive on the jihadists' last major city stronghold in Iraq. Eleven days into what is expected to be the biggest ground offensive in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, army and federal police units were fighting off sniper fire and suicide car bombs south of Hammam al-Alil, the site of the reported executions, an Iraqi military spokesman said. The militants shot dead dozens of prisoners there, most of them former members of the Iraqi police and army, taken from villages the group has been forced to abandon as the troops advanced, officials in the region said on Wednesday.” Sputnik News: Toxic Smoke Spread By Daesh In Iraq Causes Anemia, Severe Blood Disorders “Toxic fumes from a sulfur plant torched by Daesh near Mosul several days ago have had drastic consequences for the health of many Iraqi civilians, German magazine Focus Online wrote, referring to NASA. According to NASA reports, the toxic smoke has caused severe respiratory problems in many people in the surrounding area, forcing them to immediately search for medical help. Sulfur dioxide is produced by the reaction of elemental sulfur with oxygen. When its amount exceeds certain limits, it causes headache, nausea and, at higher concentrations, severe damage to blood vessels of the lungs and anemia. Media reports say that the wind is rapidly carrying the toxic smoke to other parts of the country as well as toward Turkey.” The Wall Street Journal: Can Iraq’s Christians Finally Go Home? “Noura Diyha wrestled a phone from her pocket to show me a photo of herself at age 3. She’s wearing a bonnet and riding a tricycle on a grass lawn. Some 14 years later, Noura is one of nearly 1 million internally displaced people in Iraqi Kurdistan. Her family fled from the mostly Christian village of Batnaya in August 2014, when Islamic State militants captured territory throughout northern Iraq. She now lives in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. As coalition forces—Iraqi government forces, allied militias and Kurdish soldiers, backed by U.S. air and on-the-ground support—advance toward Mosul and retake villages like Batnaya, Noura’s family hopes to return home soon. Yet even success on the battlefield won’t guarantee a safe return for exiled Christians and other religious minorities.” Turkey Reuters: Violence Flares In Turkey's Tense Southeast After Mayors' Arrest “Five members of Turkey's security forces and five Kurdish militants were killed on Thursday in clashes in the southeast, where unrest has flared since the arrest this week of two popular mayors. Two soldiers were killed in a clash near Hani, a town outside Diyarbakir, the region's biggest city, security sources said. A third died in a firefight near Cukurca near the Iraqi border, where five militants were also killed, they said. A soldier was killed by a homemade explosive device in Bingol, 140 km (85 miles) north of Diyarbakir, and a member of a state-backed militia was killed in Batman province to the east. Violence has escalated in the 15 months since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) called off a two-year ceasefire, and the arrest of Diyarbakir Mayor Gultan Kisanak and her co-mayor Firat Anli late on Tuesday on terrorism charges has caused further resentment.” Politico: Turkey Ramps Up Pressure On U.S. To Extradite 'Murderer' Gulen “Turkish officials want to make sure Americans know something: They haven't forgotten about Fethullah Gulen. Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told reporters in Washington on Thursday that Turkey expects the U.S. to hand over the Muslim cleric, whom the Turks blame for the mid-July coup attempt in Turkey. Failure to extradite Gulen would be a ‘huge blow’ to the decades-old Turkey-U.S. alliance, Bozdağ said. Bozdag met the day before with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss Gulen, who has lived in the U.S. since 1999 and denies any role in the bloody putsch. The meeting was the latest evidence of Turkey's ramped-up lobbying and PR effort to make its case against Gulen to U.S. officials and the American public.” Reuters: Turkey-Kurdish Rivalry Complicates Push Against Islamic State In Syria's Raqqa “Fighting between Turkey and Kurdish militias in northern Syria is complicating plans to drive their mutual enemy Islamic State from its Syrian capital Raqqa, an operation U.S. officials have said may start within weeks. Turkish jets and armor, in support of Syrian rebels, have struck Kurdish fighters in recent days as both sides compete to capture land from Islamic State that Ankara wants as a buffer zone against militants near its border. Those clashes could foreshadow a wider battle as they also eye control over Manbij, a city northwest of Raqqa. This was taken from Islamic State in August by local fighters backed by Kurdish groups, and offers strategic control over a large area. The push against Islamic State is crystallizing such fears, with Syrian Kurdish leaders anticipating a ‘stab in the back’ from Turkey if they join the Raqqa operation. For its part, Ankara says the Kurds' main militia should not be involved at all.” The Washington Post: Erdogan Reasserts Turkey’s Role In Wars In Syria And Iraq “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that he had informed President Obama of Turkey's intent to participate in an offensive in northern Syria. His remarks are a reminder of the strategic conundrum facing the United States, which is working to defeat the extremist Islamic State in Syria and Iraq with both cooperation from Turkey as well as from Syrian Kurdish militias being targeted by the Turks. In a televised speech from the Turkish capital, Ankara, Erdogan said he told Obama that Syrian rebels backed by Turkey in an ongoing operation called ‘Euphrates Shield’ would advance on the Syrian border town of al-Bab, which is held by the Islamic State. They would then march on to Manbij, a northern Syrian city that earlier this year was liberated from the Islamic State by a coalition of Syrian militias led by a Kurdish faction known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG. Yemen Reuters: Yemen's Houthis Launch Missile Toward Saudi Holy City “Yemen's Houthi militia launched a ballistic missile toward Mecca on Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition intervening in Yemen's civil war said on Saudi state news agency SPA. Coalition forces destroyed the missile 65 km (40 miles) from the holy city without damage and retaliated against the launch site inside Yemen, the statement said. Mecca is home to the most sacred sites in Islam, including the Grand Mosque. The Houthis confirmed the launch of a Burkan-1 ballistic missile into Saudi Arabia in a statement to their official news agency on Friday but said it targeted King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, the kingdom's busiest airport. The group controls much of the North of Yemen including the capital Sanaa along with its allies, forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.” Middle East The Jerusalem Post: Israel Special Investigations Unit Busts Organ Trafficking Ring “Police arrested three suspects on Tuesday for allegedly operating a highly profitable organ trafficking network. According to a statement by the Lahav 433 special investigations unit, the suspects allegedly exploited low-income Israelis in need of money and convinced them to sell one of their kidneys. The suspects then located Israelis in need of a kidney and coordinated transplant operations in Turkey, pocketing hundreds of thousands of shekels in profit. ‘According to the suspicions, three suspects conspired and established an organ trafficking network, with a clear division of roles, locating and recruiting organ sellers and buyers to complete the procedure, and all this for the illegal collection of money,’ the police said in a statement.” Libya Newsweek: As ISIS Flees Sirte In Libya, Tunisia Faces Greater Threat From Returning Jihadis “Now, as pro-government Libyan forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes and Western special forces, near victory in the central coastal city of Sirte—ISIS’s only stronghold in North Africa—Tunisian authorities expect a new wave of returning jihadis. With the returning fighters comes a heightened extremist threat. While some ISIS fighters have flocked south in the face of intense military pressure in Sirte—seeking refuge in the vast Sahel desert region, or joining other Libyan groups such as the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar al-Sharia—many Tunisians are trying to return home. Tunisians represent the majority of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, according to official figures. But of more than 4,000 Tunisians to travel to Iraq and Syria to fight for radical Islamist groups, some 700 have come back.” BBC: Migrant Crisis: Almost 100 Missing In Libya Sinking “Almost 100 migrants are missing after their boat sank off the Libyan coast, the country's navy says. The boat, reportedly carrying 126 people mostly from African nations, left Garabulli, east of the capital Tripoli, early on Wednesday morning. The coast guard received a distress call later that day. Twenty nine people were rescued but the rest were unaccounted for, a navy spokesman said. Survivors told rescuers the plastic boat had ripped and taken on water. ‘Because of overcrowding one of the sides of the boat got torn and water leaked in,’ navy spokesman Ayoub Gassim told Reuters news agency.” Nigeria The New York Times: Boko Haram Attacks Signal Resilience Of ISIS And Its Branches “The military convoy was rumbling across a river near the border last month when soldiers suddenly realized they were surrounded. More than 100 Boko Haram fighters, some of them on horseback, had encircled the vehicles, ready to strike. The 300 soldiers from Niger and the handful of American Special Operations forces accompanying them called for help. Soldiers from Chad rushed to the area, and fighter planes from Niger buzzed overhead, bombing the militants, killing some and sending others fleeing. This time, at least, the quick international teamwork averted what could have been a deadly militant ambush.” United Kingdom BBC: Counter-Terror Training 'Should Be Part Of Venue Licence' “Licensing laws should be changed to force entertainment venues around the UK to undergo counter-terror training, a private security expert has said. Baroness Ruth Henig told the Victoria Derbyshire programme that some venues did not take such training ‘seriously’. The former chair of the Security Industry Authority now plans to table an amendment to the 2003 licensing act, to include counter-terror training. Her comments come nearly a year after 130 people died in attacks in Paris. On 13 November 2015, gunmen opened fire in simultaneous attacks in restaurants, bars and at a concert hall and suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a major stadium. The Bataclan theatre was playing host to the American rock band the Eagles of Death Metal when three gunmen burst in and shot dead 89 people.” BBC: 'Funding Terrorism' Suspect Held At Birmingham Airport “A man has been arrested at Birmingham Airport on suspicion of funding terrorism. The 32-year-old Coventry man was detained by officers from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit after flying into Birmingham. The arrest was part of a continuing intelligence-led investigation into the financing of terrorism. There was no risk to passengers or to the wider public in relation to the arrest, West Midlands Police said.” Germany Deutsche Welle: Germany Charges Syrian Teenager Suspected Of Plotting Terror Attack “Authorities said Thursday the 19-year-old man, known only as Shaas Al-M in accordance with German privacy laws, is suspected of joining IS in 2013 and taking part in military exercises in and around the Syrian city of Deir al-Zour. Prosecutors allege that he was scouting out locations for a terror attack in Berlin on behalf of IS. He has been charged with membership in a foreign terrorist organization and violating laws regulating the transportation of weapons of war. Additionally, he was in Germany to serve as a ‘contact man’ for other members of IS seeking to carry out attacks, authorities said. He also allegedly recruited at least one person to send back to Syria.” France The Wall Street Journal: Razing Of Calais ‘Jungle’ Camp Relocates Migrant Crisis “The evacuation of the ‘Jungle’ migrant camp is complete, but the crisis that spawned it is far from over. French officials trumpeted what they said was a successful operation as the last migrants were cleared out on Thursday, allowing wrecking crews to roll into the notorious tent city on the French side of the English Channel. The demolition marks the beginning of a much tougher slog: persuading thousands of migrants to abandon hope of reaching the U.K. and instead to put down roots in France. For Europe’s political establishment, the Jungle was a squalid sign of how the Continent has failed to control the flow of migrants across its borders. To the migrants, the area remains a symbolic doorstep, tantalizingly close to Britain and its economic opportunities.” BBC: Right-Wing Extremism: Men Arrested In Ballymena And Coleraine Released “Four men arrested by police investigating right-wing extremism have been released. The men, aged 29, 30, 36 and 46, were arrested at houses in Ballymena and Coleraine on Wednesday. Police said they were detained as part of an investigation into people who ‘appear to have extreme right-wing views about tensions in north eastern Europe’. The men have been released pending a report to the PPS.” Europe The Daily Caller: Fake IDs And The Threat Of Truck Attacks “Trucks are a key terrorist tool for mass destruction. In 1995, Timothy McVeigh rented a 20 foot Ryder and packed it with 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate he exploded into a 30 foot crater under the Murrah building in Oklahoma City, taking 168 lives. Terrorists in Britain, Israel, Canada, and North Carolina have since followed suit, running vehicles over sidewalks and through barriers to barrel over the unsuspecting. In 2010, al-Qaeda called the truck, ‘the ultimate mowing machine… not to mow grass but mow down the enemies of Allah.’ Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel took that to heart when, in July 2016, he walked into a rental company in France and said, ‘I want the biggest, most powerful vehicle you have.’ He walked out with the keys to a 20-ton refrigerator truck he plowed through a national celebration in Nice, taking 86 lives, including Americans on vacation.” Sputnik News: Italian Police Arrest Three Accused Of Association With Int'l Terrorism “Italian police arrested three people, two Egyptians and an Algerian, accused of association with international terrorism, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said. Italy has been active in Iraq as part of the US-led coalition against the group, gradually boosting its troop presence in the country. At present, about 500 Italian soldiers are protecting the strategically important dam north of the city of Mosul. ‘With another important operation today … two Egyptian citizens and an Algerian were arrested, accused of association with international terrorism, while a fourth person is still at large,’ Alfano said in a statement on Thursday.”