Eye on Extremism December 2, 2016

Eye on Extremism December 2, 2016 Counter Extremism Project Politico: Preet Sticks -- Goldman Sachs Returns To Power -- Josh Dawsey To Politico “Ray Kelly's new role: The former New York city police commissiner is joining the advisory board of the Counter Extremism Project, a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization formed to combat the growing threat from exremist ideology, a spokesman told POLITICO New York. "In order to stop extremism, all stateholders, including law enforcement, elected leaders, the private sector and NGO's, must work together to develop effective solutions," Kelly said in a statement. "The Counter Extremsism Projet has been at the forefront of this significant effort and I am proud to lend my support to the organization.” The Huffington Post: Taking The Fight To ISIS From The Homeland “Online Jihadi activity is not the sole purview of Anwar al-Awlaki...whether it be ISIS or Al Qaeda, or any other goofy-sounding ‘martyrs brigade’ with the word ‘Jihad’ or ‘Islamic’ in it, every internet platform has been polluted for recruitment and incitement, martyrdom and glorification of attacks, and the exposition of violent attacks to create terror fear and admiration for terrorism.The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) - headed by former Amb. Mark Wallace - has supported the development of ‘eGlyph’ technology, software developed by Dr. Harry Farid of Dartmouth College - which uses “robust hashing” across all social media platforms to analyze images, videos and audio, to flag - very quickly and accurately - radical Islamic extremist content.” Fox News: Long Way To Go: One-Fifth Of Mosul Freed From ISIS Control, US Military Says “Describing the battle to defeat ISIS in Mosul as ‘very dangerous fighting,’ Col. John Dorrian, U.S. spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, told Fox News he estimates 20 percent of Mosul has been freed of the militants so far, after more than six weeks of tough fighting by Iraqi forces backed by U.S. airstrikes and support on the ground. ‘The Iraqi forces are working very hard to get this done,’ Dorrian told Fox News via Skype from Baghdad, ‘but they are up against a fanatical enemy.’ Making things more complicated: the million-plus residents of Mosul said to have stayed in the city when the fighting began. Officials this week said some 650,000 residents no longer had access to clean drinking water.” CNN: ISIS' Toxic Legacy: Iraqis Battle The Blazing Oil Wells Suffocating Residents “Menacing black smoke hangs over the town of al-Qayyara. The air here is poison. Children with blackened hands and soot-stained faces play beneath the toxic plumes. The early afternoon sun is so eclipsed by the haze that day seems like endless twilight. The dark filth coating the landscape and choking residents' lungs comes from oil wells sabotaged and set alight by ISIS in August. Engineers and firefighters have been battling the flames for 100 days now. When CNN first visited al-Qayyara back in early October, they had tackled six fires with nine to go. But the real extent of the damage had yet to be determined.” Reuters: Iraq's Shi'ite Militias Could Prove Bigger Test Than Mosul “In early June, two Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias under the nominal control of the Iraqi government stormed into an Iraqi military airbase north of Baghdad. Driving armored vehicles and wielding rocket launchers, they took over a building on the base. The Iraqi commander at the base, near the town of Balad, asked the militiamen to leave. But the men ignored him as well as orders from the central government in Baghdad, according to two army officers in the Salahuddin Operation Command, the regional military headquarters. The June standoff grounded four Iraqi F-16 fighter jets and pushed more than a dozen U.S. contractors – there to help local pilots bomb Islamic State militants – to flee, according to the army officers and an Iraqi military intelligence source.” CNN: Aleppo Rebels Band Together As Syrian Regime Tears Through City “Rebel groups in Syria's war-ravaged Aleppo put up a united front on Thursday in a final effort to prevent regime forces from seizing the whole city. Rebels in eastern Aleppo have held ground in the Sheikh Saeed neighborhood as they continue to clash with regime troops, in an attempt to protect the southern parts of the enclave south after Syrian forces made sweeping territorial gains in the north. Syrian troops backed by militia gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad entered eastern Aleppo on Saturday and have seized the entire northeast. They are now in control of more than 20% of eastern Aleppo.” Reuters: Islamic State Tells Supporters To Quit Messaging Apps For Fear Of U.S. Bombs “Islamic state has told its members to stop using internet-based communication apps like WhatsApp and Telegram on smartphones, suspecting they are being used by the U.S.-led coalition to track and kill its commanders. Until recently, the hardline group used such apps to chat with members and supporters outside its main areas of control in Syria, Iraq and Libya -- including, say French officials, the assailants who staged attacks across Paris a year ago, killing at least 130 people. A U.S.-led military coalition has been bombing Islamic State positions since 2014, when the group proclaimed a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Twenty commanders of the group were killed this year, including spokesman Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani.” The New York Times: From Somalia To U.S.: Ohio State Attacker’s Path To Violence “Mr. Artan, who had been in the United States for just two years, seemed to be a success story in this city’s large network of Somali refugees, excelling in his classes at Columbus State Community College and getting accepted as a transfer student to nearby Ohio State University. But the image of a jubilant graduate in a cap and gown conflicted sharply with Mr. Artan’s actions on Monday, when the police say he rammed a car into pedestrians on a sidewalk at Ohio State before jumping out and stabbing people with a butcher knife.” The Times Of Israel: 2 Iranians Charged With Plan To Attack Israeli Embassy In Kenya “A Kenyan prosecutor has charged two Iranian men with collecting information to carry out a terrorist attack after they were allegedly found with video footage of the Israeli embassy. State Prosecutor Duncan Ondimu said in court on Thursday that Sayed Nasrollah Ebrahim and Abdolhosein Gholi Safaee were arrested Tuesday in an Iranian diplomatic car while taking the pictures of the Israeli mission using a mobile phone, including when they were intercepted. They were detained in the capital, Nairobi after they had come from visiting Kamiti Prison where they saw two other Iranians who have been jailed for 15 years on terrorism charges.” The Wall Street Journal: Islamic State Shifts Focus To Softer Targets In Europe, Europol Says “Europol, the European Union police agency, said Friday that Islamic State attackers have shifted focus to softer, more-random targets in Europe instead of the police or military in an effort to intimidate the public. The militant group retains the will and capability to stage attacks in Europe in the near future, according to a report by Europol’s European Counter Terrorism Centre. While attackers will continue to use guns, bombs, knives and vehicles, terrorism techniques used in Syria and Iraq, such as car bombs, could also be imported to Europe, the report said. The EU faces threats from both networked groups and lone-wolf attackers, and is prone to attacks that are carefully planned as well as those that appear spontaneous, according to the report.” The Daily Telegraph: Donald Trump Must Keep Sunni Allies Onside And Shun Iran To Show He Is Serious About ISIL “President-elect Donald Trump's priorities are clearly in domestic policy.  His slogan of "America First" was not meant to harken back to the Thirties and reflect a neo-isolationism, but instead to signal his focus on rebuilding the United States.  His one priority internationally is to “destroy Isil.” That is understandable. But to do this, he needs the Sunni Arab states and tribes to help defeat it, replace it on the ground, and discredit it. Without them, defeating Isil in Mosul and removing it from Raqqa, its capital in Syria, may prove to be pyrrhic victories. Unless Sunnis are part of the reconstruction and governance in the aftermath of military victories, we may recreate the very circumstances of Sunni exclusion (and oppression) in Iraq and Syria that produced Isil in the first place.” Washington Post: A Horrifying Look Into The Mind Of 9/11's Mastermind, In His Own Words “What is it like to stare into the face of evil? James E. Mitchell knows. In his gripping new memoir, “Enhanced Interrogation: Inside the Minds and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists Trying To Destroy America,” Mitchell describes the day he was questioning Khalid Sheik Mohammed, when the 9/11 mastermind announced he had something important to say. “KSM then launched into a gory and detailed description of how he beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl,” Mitchell writes. Up to that moment, the CIA did not know KSM had personally carried out the murder. When asked whether it was “hard to do” (meaning emotionally difficult), KSM misunderstood the question. “Oh, no, no problem,” KSM said, “I had very sharp knives. Just like slaughtering sheep.” ABC News: Major Famine Imminent In Nigeria As Boko Haram Attacks Cripple Economy “The United Nations believes as many as 75,000 people could die in north-eastern Nigeria in the next 12 months unless there is a renewed contribution from the international community. Already close to five million people need food assistance. There are predictions of a major famine, mainly due to the insecurity brought about by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram. The jihadist group claims to have established a caliphate in West Africa. It regularly carries out suicide bombings, kidnappings and merciless assaults on entire villages.” United States The Wall Street Journal: Ohio State Attack Prompts Colleges To Review Emergency-Response Plans “Colleges nationwide are revisiting their emergency-response plans in the wake of the attack on the Ohio State University campus Monday that left 11 injured and the attacker dead. Many universities, including Ohio State’s Columbus campus, are located in urban areas that can’t be completely cordoned off from vehicular traffic or unauthorized people. And while access to residence halls is often restricted to students, authorities remain concerned about what happens if a student is the assailant. The attacker at the Ohio State campus, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was a logistics-management student at the business school and officials say he may have been inspired by the Islamic State terror group.” Los Angeles Times: Californian Killed In Syria Is Remembered As Humble, Dedicated To Kurdish Cause “Israel, 27, an American volunteer with the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, was killed last week in a Turkish airstrike, a Kurdish faction and its commanders said Thursday. Israel, who had taken the Kurdish nom de guerre Robin Agiri, joined the YPG in June, its officials said. The group is the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, a loose alliance of Syrian Arab and Kurdish factions that has emerged as the U.S.’s main proxy force to battle Islamic State in Syria.” Reuters: U.S. On Watch For Islamic State Dispersing In Libya: Official “The United States is ‘watching very carefully’ for Islamic State militants operating outside Sirte as the jihadist group faces defeat in its former North African stronghold, a senior U.S. Department of State official told Reuters. Libyan forces have been battling Islamic State in Sirte for more than six months and have reduced the amount of ground held by its fighters to a small cluster of buildings near the city's Mediterranean sea front. Since Aug. 1 the forces, led by brigades from the western Libyan city of Misrata, have been backed by U.S. air strikes.” The Hill: US: 173 Civilians Killed In Coalition Airstrikes Against ISIS “The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is raising its count of civilian deaths from the air campaign. The coalition determined seven additional reports of civilian casualties caused by coalition strikes to be credible. Those strikes likely killed 54 civilians, raising the death toll of civilians killed since the start of the 2014 campaign to 173, according to a statement from Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve on Thursday. ‘Although the coalition makes extraordinary efforts to strike military targets in a manner that minimizes the risk of civilian casualties, in some cases casualties are unavoidable,’ the statement said.” CNN: Lawmakers Warn That ISIS Is Evolving “ISIS and other terrorist groups are evolving in ways that will force the US and Europe to adapt new counterterrorism strategies, according to US lawmakers, analysts and European security officials. A report issued Thursday by the European security agency Europol projects that as ISIS comes under increasing pressure in the Mideast, it will stage terrorist attacks on the continent in the ‘near future,’ using techniques and tactics honed in Syria and Iraq, such as car bombs and kidnappings. That grim forecast came as US lawmakers examined ISIS' dangerous adaptability Thursday and discussed how US counterterrorism approaches should change in response. Technology and social media have allowed ISIS to continue recruiting, training and executing sophisticated external attacks, even as it has lost more than 55% of its Mideast territory since 2014.” Syria BBC: Syria Conflict: Russia Proposes Safe Corridors For Aleppo “Russia has indicated it is ready to discuss opening four safe corridors to the besieged, rebel-held east of the Syrian city of Aleppo, the UN says. Humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said they might be used to supply food and medicine to the 250,000 people there. Conditions were now so dire that medical operations were being conducted without anaesthetics, he warned. Russian-backed Syrian government forces have retaken more than a third of eastern Aleppo since the weekend. On Thursday, state media reported that the Syrian army had captured the Sakan Shababi and Masaken al-Buthuth al-Ilmiya areas.” Iraq Reuters: Battle For Iraq's Mosul Could Take Months: ICRC “The Iraqi government's assault to retake the city of Mosul could take months, prompting more and more civilians to try to flee to avoid being trapped between frontlines, a senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters. A growing number of wounded, more than 100 on some days, are emerging from rural areas surrounding the city of one million that is held by Islamic State forces, said Dominik Stillhart, director of ICRC operations worldwide. ‘What we see now on the ground is indeed that the fight in Mosul is not just going to stop anytime soon because the resistance is very strong,’ Stillhart, back from visiting Iraq, said in an interview on Thursday at ICRC headquarters in Geneva.” BBC: IS Conflict: 1,950 Iraq Security Forces Killed In November “At least 1,959 members of the Iraqi security forces were killed across the country in November, the UN says. It is almost three times the figure for October, when the government launched a major offensive to retake the city of Mosul from so-called Islamic State. The number of civilians killed in November was 926, while 930 others were injured. The UN special representative for Iraq, Jan Kubis, said the casualty figures were ‘staggering’. Mr Kubis noted that the Iraqi security forces had declared that they were making utmost efforts during the six-week-old Mosul offensive to avoid putting civilians in harm's way, often taking additional casualties as a result.” Turkey Reuters: Three Turkish Soldiers Killed After Clashes With Militants: Military Sources “Three Turkish soldiers were killed on Friday after clashing with Kurdish militants in the southeastern province of Hakkari, military sources said. The military launched an operation in the region, which borders Iraq, following the clashes, the sources said. The private Dogan news agency reported that several Kurdish militants had been ‘neutralized’. Turkey's southeast has been rocked by violence following the collapse of a 2-1/2-year ceasefire between the state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in July last year. The PKK has repeatedly targeted security forces since.” Reuters: Erdogan Says Turkish Incursion In Syria Only Targets Terrorist Organizations “President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkey's military operation in support of rebels in northern Syria did not target any one country or individual, but was aimed at terrorist organizations. His comment, in a speech at the presidential palace, came after he said earlier this week that Turkey was in Syria to ‘end the rule of the cruel (President Bashar al-) Assad’.” The Wall Street Journal: EU Chill With Turkey Nears A Freeze “European leaders are facing a dilemma: How to deal with what they see as growing signs of authoritarianism in Turkey while keeping in place a prized agreement that has helped keep thousands of migrants out of Europe. After Ankara’s mass crackdown on alleged plotters of a July coup attempt, pressure is growing from parliaments to take a stand. Leaders are considering adopting a symbolic measure at a summit in two weeks. Doing so would delay the confrontation with the Turkish leadership until next year—when several European Union countries hold elections in which populist, anti-EU and anti-immigrant parties are already influencing the discourse.” Reuters: Turkey Says 'A Good Part' Of Syrian Kurdish Fighters Have Withdrawn From Manbij “‘A good part’ of Syrian Kurdish fighters have withdrawn from the Syrian city of Manbij, a Turkish deputy prime minister said on Thursday. Turkey has repeatedly insisted that the Syrian Kurdish YPG and PYD should quit Manbij, something that both they and the United States have said has already happened. Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus made the comments during an interview on the state-run broadcaster TRT Haber, and added that Turkey's ongoing operations in Syria's al-Bab and Manbij were matters of national security unrelated to the situation in Aleppo.” Saudi Arabia CNN: Hackers Destroy Computers At Saudi Aviation Agency “Hackers destroyed computers at six important Saudi organizations two weeks ago, marking a reappearance of the most damaging cyberweapon the world has ever seen. Last time, it was used to destroy 35,000 computers at the oil company Saudi Aramco. U.S. intelligence quietly blamed Iran for that attack. This time around, the cyberweapon has attacked at least one Saudi government agency, as well as organizations in the energy, manufacturing and transportation sectors, according to two researchers with direct knowledge of the investigations into the attack. Security researchers are now headed to Saudi Arabia to investigate how hackers wiped clean computers en masse, according to several experts involved.” Middle East The Times Of Israel: 3 Israeli Arabs Jailed For Trying To Start IS Cell “Three Israeli Arabs were sentenced to jail terms of 30 to 60 months on Thursday for planning attacks on Israelis and supporting the Islamic State. Muhammad Sharif, 23, and Muhammad Gazalla, 24, both from the village of Yafa an-Naseriyye, near Nazareth, were given 60 months behind bars and 18-month suspended terms for a list of offenses including membership in an illegal association, weapons possession, firing in a residential area and conspiracy to commit a crime. Gazalla had already been handed a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for other offenses, including attempted arson.” Libya Associated Press: EU: Libya's Cities Making $346M A Year From People Smuggling “Libya's coastal cities are making millions each year from people smuggling, a European Union military task force commander in the Mediterranean Sea says in a confidential report. The report, issued to the EU's 28 member states Wednesday and obtained by The Associated Press, illustrates just how much the flow of migrants toward Europe is a central part of the economy in war-torn Libya. In the report, Rear Adm. Enrico Credendino warned that ‘migrant smuggling, originating far beyond Libyan borders, remains a major source of income among locals in Libyan coastal cities generating estimated annual revenue of up to 275 to 325 million euros ($292 million to $346 million).” Nigeria Voice Of America: UN: Helicopter Aid Reaches 45,000 In Boko Haram-Hit Northeast Nigeria “Flying in aid workers by helicopter to remote, hard-to-reach areas previously cut off from help by Boko Haram violence across northeast Nigeria has provided more than 45,000 people with aid over the past week, the United Nations said Thursday. Many of those receiving aid have received little or no assistance so far, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said. A military push against the jihadist group Boko Haram has enabled troops to enter remote parts of northeast Nigeria in the last few months, but insecurity and the fear of violence has restricted access to some areas by road for many aid agencies.” Reuters: Boko Haram Attacks Hinder Aid Delivery In Southeastern Niger - Agencies “A spate of attacks by Boko Haram in southeastern Niger in recent months is hindering the delivery of aid to more than 200,000 people forced from their homes, aid agencies said on Thursday. Niger's Diffa region is hosting around 220,000 displaced people - split almost evenly between uprooted Nigeriens and Nigerian refugees - who have fled violence by the Islamist militants on both sides of the border, the United Nations says. The region has been targeted around 15 times since September in attacks blamed on Boko Haram, causing thousands more to flee and restricting access to those in need of aid, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).” United Kingdom Daily Mail: One In Four British Muslims Does Not Believe In Extremism, Study Finds “British Muslims have a ‘deeply worrying’ belief in conspiracy theories and almost half would not go to the police if they knew someone with links to Islamic State (IS), a major study has found. Attitudes towards many issues, such as the NHS, unemployment and immigration, are broadly in line with the rest of the population, according to the Policy Exchange study. But 31% of Muslims thought the United States government was behind the 9/11 terror attacks and 7% blamed Jews while just 4% believed al Qaida was responsible, the think-tank said. It found that 26% of Muslims did not believe in extremism and 48% would not turn to the police if someone close to them became involved with people linked to Syrian terrorism, the research revealed.” France Sputnik News: Nothing New: France's Reinforced Anti-Terror Plan A 'Technical Measure' “A new level to the French national security alert system has been introduced by the country's government in the run-up to the Christmas and New Year holidays, according to Le Figaro. The Le Figaro newspaper reported that the French government has upgraded the country's national security alert system by introducing a new highest level of warning. Unveiled in 1978, the French alert system originally featured two levels: ‘Vigilance’ and ‘Reinforced Security/Risk of Attack.’ The updated system will feature a third and highest level: ‘Attack Emergency’, due to be used for imminent assaults or immediately after them.” Reuters: Paris Opens New-Style Reception Center To Help Solve Migrants Crisis “Osman, a 19-year-old asylum-seeker from Sudan, had been on the migrant route for almost a year, traveling through Libya, Italy, and France before making it to a brand new center that opened last month in the north of Paris. Had he arrived a few weeks earlier, he might have ended up in a squalid camp, like the dozens that have sprung up in the city in the past. The 400-bed center, located in a vast concrete warehouse on a former industrial zone, offers to Osman and other single men a temporary refuge for up to 10 days, until the government has worked out a more permanent solution for them.” Europe Associated Press: EU Police Report Highlights Ongoing IS Threat To Europe “The Islamic State group is likely to carry out new attacks in the European Union in the near future, probably targeting countries that are members of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the extremist organization in Syria and Iraq, EU police agency Europol said in a report published Friday. ‘Estimates from some intelligence services indicate several dozen people directed by IS may be currently present in Europe with a capability to commit terrorist attacks,’ according to the report, which draws on counterterrorism intelligence from around Europe and also cites media reports and previously publicized calls by IS leaders for attacks.” Nasdaq: With Small Muslim Community, Italy Tries To Stop Extremism Before It Gets Started “Italy is fast-tracking expulsions of dozens of suspected Muslim radicals -- often at the first sign of extremism -- taking a more aggressive approach than other European countries despite its limited experience with Islamist terror. Since January of last year, Italian authorities have run checks on about 170,000 people for national security reasons and expelled 115 suspected extremists, including 12 imams, according to the Interior Ministry. The rapid-expulsion strategy -- combined with broader efforts to integrate Italy's relatively small but fast- growing Muslim population -- lie at the heart of an experiment to prevent extremism before it takes root on Italian soil.” The Times Of Israel: Two Charged With Terrorism Over Belgian Machete Attack “Belgian authorities charged a woman and a man on Thursday with terrorism offenses over an August machete attack on two policewomen that was claimed by the Islamic State group. The prosecutor’s office said 36-year-old Sabrina Z. and 37-year-old Farid L., who were detained in a series of raids on Wednesday, were charged by a Belgian judge who is investigating the attack in the southern city of Charleroi. The assailant was shot dead in the incident. Three other people detained in the raids were released while another is still being held for questioning.”