Eye on Extremism October 3, 2016

Eye on Extremism October 3, 2016 Counter Extremism Project San Diego Union Tribune: Former San Diego Cleric A Prolific Terror Recruiter “Perhaps the most influential recruiter of jihad today doesn’t sit behind a computer screen in Syria or proposition disenfranchised Muslims in suburban mosques. He speaks from the grave. The poisonous rhetoric of Anwar al-Awlaki, a smooth-talking American-born imam who taught Muslims in San Diego in the years leading up to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become a constant factor in homegrown terror plots since his death five years ago. It’s a phenomenon that law enforcement has found challenging to battle, as the massive volume of the cleric’s propaganda materials show no sign of being wiped from the internet any time soon.” The Guardian: Russia Warns The U.S. Not To Intervene As Hospital Is Hit In Latest Aleppo Blitz “An unrelenting Russian and Syrian blitz of eastern Aleppo heavily damaged one of the city’s three remaining hospitals on Saturday, as Moscow warned that any American attempts to stop its assault would lead to “frightening tectonic shifts in the Middle East”. The Russian raids struck at least five areas of the opposition-held half of the city, which is bracing for a ground assault by Shia forces allied to the Syrian regime. Syrian helicopters are believed to be responsible for the strike on the M10 hospital, which has left those who remain in the east with next to no access to essential healthcare.” Reuters: Russia Said To Send More Warplanes To Syria, Diplomacy 'On Life Support' “Russia is sending more warplanes to Syria to ramp up its air campaign, a Russian newspaper reported on Friday, as the United States said diplomacy to halt the violence was ‘on life support’ but not dead yet. Fighting continued to intensify a week into a new Russian-backed Syrian government offensive to capture rebel-held eastern Aleppo and crush the last urban stronghold of a revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011. Moscow and Assad spurned a U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire agreed to this month and launched attacks on rebel-held areas in Aleppo in potentially the most decisive battle in the Syrian civil war. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone for a third straight day, with the top Russian diplomat saying Moscow was ready to consider more ways to normalize the situation in Aleppo.” Voice Of America: IS Takes To Ancient Strategy As Battle For Mosul Looms  “Reeling from U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and battlefield defeats by Iraqi and Kurdish forces, the Islamic State (IS) is resorting to an ancient defense strategy as a massive battle looms to eject the militants from Mosul. The tactics are drawn from the ‘Battle of the Trench,’ a story narrated from Islamic history texts in which the Islamic Prophet Muhammad led 3,000 defenders of Medina to prevail over 10,000 Arab and Jewish troops in 627 A.D. IS fighters are using the ancient tale -- a highly significant religious moment for many Muslims around the world -- to rally followers worldwide via internet posts and social media accounts. The size of the force left to defend IS’s last remaining stronghold in Iraq has been cut by as much as two-thirds, U.S. military officials say, leaving only 3,000 to 4,500 fighters left in Mosul, U.S. officials say. A U.S.-aided Iraqi and Kurdish assault on Mosul could begin in October, according to reports.” The New York Times: Women’s Emergence As Terrorists In France Points To Shift In ISIS Gender Role “In France, where terrorist threats have become distressingly commonplace, these three episodes, all in the last month, stood out for one reason in particular: Radicalized women were at the heart of each. It is not yet clear whether the phenomenon is a blip or the beginning of a trend in which women play a more active role in plotting and carrying out attacks on the West. Security officials say they are concerned, and they are seeking to understand whether women are beginning to step up because so many men are under surveillance or in detention, or whether recruiters from terror groups are urging women on, in part, as a way to shame more men into taking action. They also wonder if it is part of a strategy to make Europeans feel that they should fear men and women alike.” CNN: UAE: Aid Ship En Route To Yemen Struck By Rebels “An Emirati aid ship headed for war-torn Yemen was hit by an airstrike launched by Houthi rebels, according to official UAE state news agency, WAM. A Houthi spokesperson told CNN the Iranian-allied group was responsible for Saturday's attack, which occurred as the vessel headed for the port city of Aden. The Saudi-led Arab coalition, which has been fighting in support of the Yemeni government under President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, called the attack a ‘dangerous indication’ and launched a rescue mission for those aboard the stricken ship. The vessel, owned by the UAE's National Marine Dredging Company, was reportedly delivering medical aid and other supplies when it came under fire in the Bab al-Mandab Strait -- which lies between the southern tip of Yemen and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa -- according to the WAM report.” The Jerusalem Post: 'ISIS-Inspired Jerusalem Cell Planned Terror Attacks Against Israelis' “Indictments were filed Sunday against six Israeli Arabs from the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem, who were accused of forming an ISIS cell and plotting to carry out attacks against Israelis. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) along with Israeli police had been investigating the group for more than a month-and-a-half. According to police, the cell had been planning terrorist attacks around the county, particularly in Jerusalem. The investigation started out as an undercover investigation and in the last few days arrests were made in three waves. At the head of the group was a figure who the other members looked up to as a religious leader and had control over the other would-be ISIS members, according to police. He allegedly taught them the Koran and interpretations according to ISIS theology.” BCC: Dutch Journalist Oerlemans Shot Dead By 'IS Sniper' In Libya “A Netherlands photojournalist has been shot dead by a sniper apparently belonging to the group known as Islamic State (IS) while reporting on the fighting in the Libyan city of Sirte. Jeroen Oerlemans, 45, was killed while he was out with a team that clears mines. He was reporting from a part of the city recently freed from IS control. Oerlemans was abducted and wounded in Syria in 2012 with British photographer John Cantlie, but freed a week later. Mr Cantlie was later abducted again, and is believed to remain in IS captivity. Oerlemans had previously covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria and Libya in addition to writing stories about the journey made by migrants to Europe. He was working in Libya for numerous publications including the Belgian weekly Knack magazine, which confirmed his death.” Telegragh: French Schoolboy Faces Terrorism Charges As Concern Grows Youths Are Being Targeted Via Encrypted Messaging “A 15-year-old schoolboy is the latest French teenager to face terrorism charges amid mounting fears that jihadists are systematically targeting minors through encrypted online messaging services. The boy was arrested at his family home in the Paris suburb of Domont after investigators found encrypted messages he exchanged with Rachid Kassim, a notorious French recruiter for the Islamic State group, via the Telegram service. Telegram is a smartphone app favoured by extremists because of its impenetrable encryption. The French intelligence chief, Patrick Calvar, has described it as ‘the main network used by terrorists’. France and Germany want the EU to force messaging services such as Telegram and WhatsApp to provide unencrypted records for national security services.” Deutsche Welle: Taliban Fighters Launch Assault On Afghan City Of Kunduz “Fighters mounted a coordinated attack on Kunduz early on Monday - even entering the city, a senior city police official told Reuters news agency. ‘We are putting all our efforts together to push them back,’ Sheer Ali Kamal said, adding that the attack began around midnight local time (19:30 UTC Sunday) and that fighting within the city was ongoing. The Taliban militants clashed with Afghan government troops in the southern and eastern approaches to the city, reported a correspondent with the news agency AFP. Afghan army helicopters were flying over the city, where streets were empty and shops remained closed. Another Reuters reporter witnessed at least five Taliban fighters armed with AK-47 assault rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the city.” The Jerusalem Post: Iranian Revolutionary Guard Unveils New Attack Drones “Iran's Revolutionary Guards unveiled a home-built drone that they said was capable of carrying bombs, state media reported on Saturday, in what appeared to be another copy of a reconnaissance U.S. drone that Iran captured five years ago. The drone, called Saegheh, or lightning, was unveiled at an expo showcasing the latest achievements by the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace arm. ‘This long-range drone is capable of hitting four targets with smart precision-guided bombs with high accuracy,’ the head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace arm, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.” International Business Times: Nigeria: This Is How Mama Boko Haram Believes The Insurgency Can End “Boko Haram terrorists have allegedly asked a local human rights activist and lawyer to start negotiating with the Nigerian government on their behalf. Barrister Aisha Alkali Wakil told IBTimes UK she is willing to represent the group during negotiations with the government. During an interview with David Otto, CEO of UK-based TGS Intelligence Consultants, Wakil suggested both the Nigerian government and Boko Haram to engage in a constructive dialogue and identify ways to help militants who want to surrender reintegrate into society. Wakil, originally from southern Nigeria, is known to locals in north-eastern Nigeria – the epicentre of Boko Haram's insurgency – as ‘Mama Boko Haram’ due to her connection with the group. She advocates dialogue, rather than the use of military force, to defeat the insurgents and was appointed by the country's previous president, Goodluck Jonathan, as part of a team to trace nearly 300 girls abducted from the Chibok village, Borno state, by Boko Haram in 2014.” United States Daily Caller: Navy Widow First To Sue Saudi Arabia For 9/11 Attacks “A Navy widow who lost her husband on September 11, 2001 when terrorists flew a commercial airplane into the Pentagon is the first American to sue the Saudi government for the attacks that brought down four planes, the Pentagon, and the World Trade Center towers. Stephanie Ross DeSimone filed suit against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on Friday, alleging that the Saudi kingdom provided material support to the terrorists who carried out the attacks, according to Bloomberg. DeSimone was pregnant when the 9/11 terrorists killed her husband, Navy Commander Patrick Dunn. She has also filed suit on behalf of her daughter.” Voice Of America: House Options Grim As Syria Spirals Downward “Exactly one year after Russia began its air campaign to help Bashar al-Assad’s government crush opposition rebels, Syria continues a hellish descent into chaos, carnage and devastation. The White House still has no effective plan to stop it and there are no good options either, experts said. Moscow marked the anniversary on Friday by signaling it will ramp up its bombardments alongside the Syrian government against Aleppo, the last stronghold of opposition rebels. More than 250,000 people are trapped in the ravaged city, where the bombings have decimated critical sites, including water supplies, refugee camps, hospitals and humanitarian aid supplies. The strikes even targeted an underground playground, according to the White House.” Syria The Guardian: Syrian Children Return To School As Airstrikes On Aleppo Continue “The bombardment of Aleppo by the Syrian government and its ally Russia continued on Sunday as children in the besieged eastern districts began their new school year. There were fresh airstrikes and fierce fighting between the opposition and soldiers loyal to Bashar al-Assad, while the regime’s military command said it was prepared to offer safe passage with guarantees from Moscow to rebels in the east of the besieged city willing to surrender their arms and leave. Hundreds of people have been killed and more than 1,000 injured in more than a week of relentless airstrikes by Syrian and Russian warplanes, which have deployed an array of weaponry including cluster munitions, phosphorus and bunker-buster bombs in an effort to force the opposition’s surrender before a planned ground offensive.” Reuters: Syria Presses Aleppo Advance, Tells Rebels To Leave "Syrian government and allied forces have advanced toward Aleppo, pursuing their week-old offensive to take the rebel-held part of the city after dozens of overnight air strikes.“The Syrian army told the insurgents to leave their positions, offering safe passage and aid supplies. Syrian forces supported by Iranian-backed militias and Russian air power began their push to take the whole of the divided city after a ceasefire collapsed last month. An air campaign by the Syrian government and its allies has been reinforced by a ground offensive against the besieged eastern half of Aleppo, where insurgents have been holding out. Hospitals have been badly hit in the assault, medics say.” CNN: Russia Warns US Not To Attack Syrian Regime “Russia warned the United States about taking direct action against the Syrian regime, saying it would cause negative consequences across the Middle East, Russia's state-run Sputnik news agency reported Saturday. Meanwhile, intense fighting continued in the besieged Syrian city Aleppo on Saturday, with one of the main hospitals bombed by Russian-backed Syrian forces. Sputnik reported that Russian's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, ‘If the US launches a direct aggression against Damascus and the Syrian army, it will lead to terrible, tectonic shifts not only on the territory of this country but also in the region in general.’ She said the United States risked creating a power vacuum in Syria were it to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Such a power vacuum would be filled by ‘terrorists of all sorts,’ Sputnik reported.” BBC: Reporting Syria's War - The Images You Won't See “How do you report something you can't show people because it is judged too ghastly for them to see? This issue hit me with both barrels between the eyes this week when I had to wrestle with a series of images from besieged Aleppo. They had been taken by Syrian doctors in an underground hospital and forwarded to me by Dr David Nott, the pioneering war surgeon who has been using social media to teach his colleagues over the internet how to, for example, rebuild a man's face. I first covered war in 1988 and I've seen more than enough real horror with my own eyes. But the Aleppo hospital pictures were grim beyond the saying of it. Be warned. What I must write and you will now read is a terrible litany of suffering.” Turkey Reuters: Turkish Military Says 15 Rebels Killed In Clashes In Syria “Fifteen Syrian rebels have been killed and 35 wounded in clashes in the last 24 hours in Syria, where Turkey launched a major military incursion in support of the rebels in late August, the Turkish military said on Monday. Separately, 13 Islamic State militants were killed in 11 air strikes in the latest operations, which are designed to push the hardline Islamists back from the Turkish border, the military statement said.” Associated Press: Turkey Renews OK For Military Operations In Syria, Iraq “Turkey's state-run news agency says parliament has extended by another year a motion allowing cross-border military operations into Syria and Iraq against Kurdish militants and the Islamic State group. The resolution, first passed in 2014, was renewed on Saturday, the first and only item on the parliament's agenda on the first day of the new legislative year. The state-run Anadolu Agency says it will remain in force until October 30, 2017. The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party voted against the bill, while the other three parties in parliament approved it. Turkey sent troops and tanks into Syria in August to help Syrian opposition rebels re-take Islamic State group strongholds near the border and curb the advance of Syrian Kurdish militia, which are affiliated with Turkey's outlawed Kurdish rebels.” Voice Of America: Turkey Demands Answer On EU Membership, Visa Deal “Turkey’s president on Saturday warned that his country had reached the endgame in its decadelong bid for European Union membership. Speaking to lawmakers at the opening of the parliamentary session, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it is time for Brussels to decide whether it wants Ankara as a full member. Turkey is ready, he added. Erdogan criticized the stalling of a visa liberalization deal, which was supposed to be finalized this month. ‘This stance is a declaration that the European Union does not wish to keep the promise it made Turkey,’ Erdogan said. The promise is part of the deal with Ankara to stop thousands of migrants from crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece. Erdogan told Brussels it needs to start allowing Turks visa-free travel to the European Union this month.” BBC: Turkey Post-Coup Purges Convulse Society “Fatih is one of 15 universities closed down since 15 July for having links to Fethullah Gulen, the cleric who the government alleges masterminded the coup and who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. His educational movement opened schools and universities across Turkey and in 140 other countries from the 1980s. Now anybody with alleged links to him or the failed takeover is being rounded up in the biggest purge in Turkey's modern history. Some 100,000 people have been dismissed or suspended, 70,000 detained and 32,000 arrested: from teachers to soldiers, police to judges, aircraft pilots to journalists. Even the country's most famous baklava chef was interrogated. The depth of the purge is staggering.” Afghanistan Associated Press: Afghan Military Kill 6 Security Forces In Air Strike Mistake “Five Afghan soldiers and a police officer were killed in an air strike carried out by an Afghan military helicopter in western Farah province, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense said Saturday. The ministry said in a statement that the helicopter had used ‘inaccurate information from ground forces’ when it conducted the air strike late Friday night. It says the forces were being attacked by insurgents in the Bala Buluk district. When they called for air support, the helicopter incorrectly fired a rocket at a checkpoint occupied by Afghan security forces. The incident is being investigated, the statement said. It comes after a U.S. air strike in eastern Nangarhar province early Wednesday killed at least 15 people. Officials and the U.N. mission in Kabul say the dead were civilians. Meanwhile in southern Helmand province, 11 Afghan civilians were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb late Friday night, said Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor in Helmand.” Associated Press: Afghanistan Seeks $3B In Aid As Corruption Concerns Persist “Afghanistan's leaders will head to Brussels this week, seeking billions of dollars in aid as the country confronts an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency and pervasive corruption. President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah hope to secure pledges totaling about $3 billion a year at the conference, which will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday. Afghanistan already receives about $5 billion a year, mostly from the United States, to cover defense costs. The last donor conference, in Tokyo in 2012, secured $4 billion in annual subsidies for development. Afghanistan has been mired in war for decades. At the height of the 15-year U.S. and NATO intervention, billions of dollars flowed into the country, creating a false economy with growth in the double-digits. But the drawdown of troops in 2014 led many aid workers and international agencies to depart or scale back their operations, causing the economy to all but collapse.” Reuters: Afghan Taliban Fighters Press Advance On Helmand Capital “Taliban fighters have advanced closer to Lashkar Gah, capital of the strategic southern province of Helmand, pushing into a farming district on the other side of the river from the town, officials said on Saturday. Though the Western-backed government in Kabul pushed the insurgents back with the aid of U.S. airstrikes in August, it is struggling to reverse the tide of the fighting. Capturing the city would give the Taliban their first provincial capital since the northern city of Kunduz fell briefly a year ago and would reinforce the impression that government forces are losing momentum in the war. The insurgents, who control large sections of the opium-growing province, are now in Bolan, an agricultural zone that links Lashkar Gah with Gereshk, a town that straddles the main Highway One, as well as Marjah district center to the west.” Yemen The Jerusalem Post: Yemen's Houthis Ask Former Aden Governor To Form Government “The High Political Council of Yemen's armed Houthi movement and supporters of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh has appointed Abdulaziz bin Habtoor to form a national salvation government, Saba news agency said on Sunday. Habtoor, the former governor of Aden, hails from Shabwa province in southern Yemen. A civil war is raging between the Iran-allied Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa, and Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr's internationally recognized government based in the southern port city of Aden. The Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and pushed the government out of its last stronghold in Aden in March 2015. The advances by the group prompted an intervention by a Saudi-led coalition that has launched thousands of air strikes on the Houthis and their allies in Yemen's army but has failed to push them out of the capital.” Egypt Associated Press: Suspected Militants Kill 6 Police In Egypt's Restless Sinai “Suspected Islamic State militants in Egypt's turbulent Sinai Peninsula ambushed a taxi in which off-duty policemen were traveling back to their units on Saturday, killing five of them before fleeing, according to security and medical officials. They said the incident took place just south of the coastal Sinai city of el-Arish. The soldiers were returning to duty from home leave. Earlier on Saturday, a roadside bomb planted by suspected IS militants hit a police armored personnel carrier in northern Sinai, wounding nine policemen inside, the local police headquarters said in a statement. One of the nine later died of his wounds in hospital.” Associated Press: Egypt Arrests 3 Reporters Conducting Street Interviews “Egyptian police detained three opposition journalists who were conducting street interviews in downtown Cairo about President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's request for small donations of spare change to fund development programs, security officials said Saturday. They said the three — Hamdy Mokhtar, Mohammed Hassan, and Osama al-Bishbishi — were arrested Sept. 26 and face charges of publishing false news and belonging to a banned organization, Egyptian parlance for the Muslim Brotherhood group.” Libya Reuters: Libyan Forces Foil Ambush, Lose Eight Men In Sirte Battle: Officials “Libyan forces repelled an attempted ambush but lost at least eight of their men as their battle with Islamic State militants encircled in their former stronghold of Sirte resumed on Sunday, officials said. A Dutch photojournalist, Jeroen Oerlemans, was also killed in the fighting. A spokesman for the Libyan forces, Rida Issa, said militants who staged an ambush east of central Sirte had apparently arrived from the desert, in the latest sign of an enduring jihadist threat beyond the battle lines. Forces dominated by fighters from Misrata and aligned with Libya's U.N.-backed government have been battling to capture Sirte for more than four months. Supported since Aug. 1 by U.S. air strikes, they have taken control of most of the city and have been besieging militants trapped in a thin residential strip near Sirte's seafront for several weeks.” Nigeria Associated Press: Leader Pledges To Rid Nigeria Of Hunger, Omits Worst Crisis “Nigeria's president promised Saturday to drive hunger out of Africa's most populous nation but made no mention of a conflict-driven famine threatening to kill tens of thousands of children in northeast Nigeria. The United Nations has warned that 75,000 children could die of starvation in a year if speedy action isn't taken in northeast Nigeria, where underfunded aid agencies say 4.4 million people need food and 65,000 are living in famine-like conditions amid an Islamic insurgency by Boko Haram extremists. Children with matchstick limbs and protruding ribs already are dying but a regional official for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency, Muhammad Kanar, denied Friday that the region had even one case of malnutrition. He spoke after the U.N. Children's Fund doubled its funding appeal to $115 million, calling it one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.” United Kingdom Daily Mail: Terror Suspect Was Let Out Of The UK By Police After Telling Officers He Was Visiting Women He Had Met On A Dating Website  “A terror suspect accused of trying to fight for IS in Syria was allowed to fly out of Britain after telling police he was visiting women he had met on a dating website. The British Muslim was quizzed by officers for ten minutes under the Terrorism Act as he prepared to board a plane from Gatwick to Turkey in January. But they are said to have let him go after he insisted he simply wanted to meet potential dates in Istanbul after chatting to them on Match.com. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly claimed he had paid for a five-night stay in a hotel there. But the court was told that just three days later he was picked up by Turkish authorities at a Syrian border post and flown back to the UK. The man, who is in his twenties, allegedly stayed only one night at the hotel before boarding a one-way domestic flight to Gaziantep airport, which is the closest to Turkey’s border with Syria.” Daily Mail: Revealed - Five Schools STILL Open Despite Extremist Fears... And 18 Private Islamic Schools Defy Inspectors Branding Them Unsafe  “Dozens of Islamic schools continue to operate despite inspectors finding that pupils are unsafe, exposed to extreme views or unaware of basic British values, a Mail investigation reveals today. The findings suggest that a supposed Government crackdown on extremism in schools – following the Trojan Horse scandal – has failed to materialise. Five Islamic schools have been allowed to stay open after inspections found they were failing to protect children from extremism or radicalisation. Some 18 are still open despite Ofsted warning that pupils are ‘unsafe’ there. These include one where children were given books about stoning to death, and another where 99 pupils were found to have gone missing and to be ‘at risk of exploitation’.” Germany RT: 3 Police Cars Set On Fire In Dresden, As Violence Escalates Ahead Of Germany Unity Day “Three police cars were set ablaze by unknown arsonists in the German city of Dresden in the run-up to German Unity Day, marking 26 years since the reunification of Germany. No one was hurt in the arson attacks, Reuters reports. Police believe they were carried out in retaliation to heightened security measures and police presence. The situation grew tense last week, following two IED blasts – one near a mosque, the other at an international conference center. Around 2,600 police officers have now been dispatched to ensure security around the town. Dresden is a particularly sensitive front, as the city is the birthplace of the right-wing PEGIDA movement, which has been focusing its efforts on grassroots activities and publicly protesting against the influx of Muslim refugees from the war-torn Middle East.” France Telegragh: Majority Of Paris Attackers Used Migration Routes To Enter Europe, Reveals Hungarian Counter-Terror Chief  “The majority of the Isil extremists who carried out the November 13 Paris attacks entered Europe while posing as migrants, Hungarian security officials have disclosed.  Seven of the attackers, who killed 130 people and left more than 360 others injured, slipped through Hungary's borders while posing as migrants.  It is understood that ten extremists in total were closely involved in planning and carrying out the massacre. A handful of them are also understood to have taken part in the Brussels attacks last March, which claimed 32 lives. According to Hungary's centre for counter-terrorism, the group of fanatics set up a ‘logistics hub’ in the country in the summer of 2015 and began using the so-called Balkans route of eastern European countries to move fighters trained in Syria into Europe.  The disclosure comes amid a propaganda blitz in Hungary, which on Sunday began voting in a referendum on whether to accept the EU migrant quotas.” Europe Haaretz: Top Rabbi Warns EU: New Wave Of Anti-Semitism Could Push Jews Out Of Europe “The British vote to leave the European Union has resulted in a destabilized continent vulnerable to the joint threat of Islamic extremism and the radical right, putting the very existence of Jews in Europe at risk, one of Europe's top rabbis warned Saturday, The Independent reported.  Speaking to the European Parliament on Tuesday, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt said that Jews in Europe feel as if they are standing on a train track with two ‘trains coming at each other with ever increasing speed.’ ‘One train is the train of radical Islam and Islamic terrorism... The other train is the anti-Semitism of old Europe, the extreme right,’said the top rabbi, adding that if nothing is done, Jewish communities could disappear from Europe within 30 years.” ISIS Akhbar Alaan: ISIS's Exploitation Of Natural Resources Is Not Limited To Oil And Gas “After its funding sources were dried up, ISIS now seeks to exploit natural resources in occupied areas in Syria and Iraq. It does this in any and all ways that yield high profits to cover its costs and pay the wages of its militants, without taking into account the tenets of the Shariah (Islamic Law) which it claims to apply and protect. This was confirmed by the "Observatory of Takfiri Fatwas and Extremist Ideologies" at Egypt's Dar al-Ifta. It noted that ISIS's exploitation of natural resources is not limited to oil and gas, but also extends to livestock and agricultural resources in the region. The Observatory claimed the terrorist organization took over food infrastructures - such as silos - which represent a strategic asset, which had been kept intact. According to the Observatory, the agricultural sector had not been affected {until now} by the conflict in Iraq and Syria, and thus the terrorist organization's revenues from this sector are substantial. ISIS imposes a tax of 5% on machine irrigated crops and 10% on rain-fed crops.” Muslim Brotherhood The Seventh Day: Muslim Brotherhood Spent Millions On A Conference To Address Violence In Malaysia   “The International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood arranged a conference in Malaysia, attended by youth from all Brotherhood branches worldwide. The event, held under the name of "Youth Facing Extremism," was attended by several prominent leaders of the Brotherhood. According to sources close to the Brotherhood, the conference, which was held in Malaysia, underwent preparations for nearly a month. Invitations were sent to officials of Brotherhood branches around the world, who were asked to dispatch their youth representatives to the conference. The event was coordinated with the Malaysian government to be held in one of the largest halls in the country. The sources claimed that the conference came {as a gesture} to please the West and to send a message that the organization does not commit violence in the Middle East. The sources claimed the Brotherhood spent a great deal of money on the conference including the hall, invitations and travel costs of the group's leaders to Malaysia.” Filkhbr: Sudan Dismantles Muslim Brotherhood Network For Human Trafficking “Private sources familiar with Muslim Brotherhood affairs revealed that a state of confusion has prevailed among its members in the past few days. This comes after the Sudanese National Security Service detained some Egyptian Brotherhood members who had fled to Sudan, on charges of forming a human trafficking network. The sources disclosed that the charges presented to the suspects by the Sudanese National Security Agency include involvement in running a youth-trafficking network, ahead of committing acts of sabotage inside and outside Sudan. The network was led by the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood {leader} Mohammed Alsharif. Sources asserted that the Brotherhood is fully implicated based on recordings and correspondence exchanged between members of the network, which was recently dismantled. In addition, Brotherhood suspects made confessions during the interrogations carried out by the security services in Sudan. According to the sources, the Sudanese National Security Agency continues to investigate the network members as to the fate of numerous young people who were sent to unknown locations.” Houthi Alheyad: Official At The Central Bank Of Yemen: Houthis Looted Half Of The Bank's Cash “An official at the Central Bank of Yemen, which is under the control of the rebels in Sana'a, revealed that at least 50 per cent of the money withdrawn from the Central Bank's cash reserves still remains in the Houthis' coffers. The source claimed that the Houthis had anticipated the Central Bank would {eventually} no longer be in their hands. Shakib Hubaishi, a member of the Yemeni Central Bank's Board of Directors, explained that the Central Bank had financed transactions to import basic commodities for merchants who benefited from the {lucrative} currency exchange rates the rebels set for them. The sources added that these transactions were carried out in regions under the Houthis' influence, while other areas were ignored.” Nabd Hadhramout: Houthi Group Imposes A Levy On Ships In The Port Of Hodeidah “A document reveals that a {new} levy has been imposed by Houthi militia on ships unloading cargo at the port of Hodeida (in western Yemen). The document shows the imposition of the levy by the Houthis and the management of the {Yemeni} Oil Company in Hodeidah Port which is loyal to the Houthis. The 10-riyal ($ 0.04) levy is being imposed on each liter of oil derivatives, with the exception of diesel and petroleum. Private sources stated that the oil company's management in Hodeidah took part in huge corruption operations, not to mention providing facilities for the Houthi leaders to loot public money.”