Eye on Extremism January 27, 2017

Eye on Extremism January 27, 2017 Counter Extremism Project CBS News: CEP President Fran Townsend Discusses Enhanced Interrogation, Black Sites And Building A Wall On The Border With Mexico New York Times: Trump Will Call For A Pentagon Plan To Hit ISIS Harder, Officials Say “The White House is drafting a presidential directive that calls on Defense Secretary James N. Mattis to devise plans to more aggressively strike the Islamic State, which could include American artillery on the ground in Syria and Army attack helicopters to support an assault on the group’s capital, Raqqa, officials said. President Trump, who is to make his first visit to the Pentagon as commander in chief on Friday, will demand that the new options be presented to him within 30 days, the officials said. During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly said that he had a secret plan to defeat the Islamic State, but he also said that he would give his commanders a month to come up with new options.” The Wall Street Journal: Syria Safe-Zone Idea Carries Risks For U.S. “President Donald Trump ’s pledge to create safe zones in Syria for displaced civilians carries with it the possibility of greater U.S. military involvement in the country’s conflict, including a more substantial use of air power and of American or allied ground forces—moves the Pentagon has previously rejected. Mr. Trump said in an interview this week with ABC News that he would ban entry to the U.S. for refugees coming from ‘countries that have tremendous terror.’ He pledged to create safe zones for people fleeing the conflict within Syria but has given no details on where those zones would be located or how the U.S. would establish them. He has said such safe zones could serve as an alternative to admitting refugees to the U.S.” Guardian: Al-Shabaab Claims To Have Killed Dozens Of Kenyan Troops In Somalia “Witnesses have confirmed claims that Islamic militants have killed dozens of Kenyan troops in an attack on a remote military base in Somalia. A spokesman for al-Shabaab, which has been fighting an insurgency in Somalia for more than a decade, said on Friday morning that its fighters had killed at least 57 Kenyans deployed with a regional peacekeeping mission at the base in Kulbiyow, near the Kenyan border. Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told the Reuters news agency that the group was still pursuing “the Kenyan soldiers who ran away into the woods” after the attack. He described how two fighters had driven suicide car bombs into the Kulbiyow base before others stormed it, killing the soldiers and seizing vehicles and weapons. “We have taken over the base,” he said.” Radio Free Europe: Russia, Turkey Launch Joint Strikes On IS In Syria “Russia's military says Russian and Turkish planes have carried out joint air strikes that targeted positions of the Islamic State (IS) militant group in the Aleppo region of Syria. The Russian Defense Ministry said the joint strikes were carried out on January 26 with the approval of the Syrian government. ‘The Russian aircraft eliminated three control centers and communication posts as well as several strongpoints of insurgents,’ the ministry said. According to Moscow, the strikes were carried out by Russian Su-24M bombers and Su-35S fighter planes along with Turkish F-16 and F-4 fighters.” Reuters: Exchanging Fire Across The Tigris As Battle For West Mosul Looms “An Iraqi soldier stared patiently through a high-powered scope until he spotted a bulldozer across the Tigris River. He alerted his elite unit, which fired a missile with a boom so loud it blew a metal door behind the soldiers off its hinges. The target, which was being used to dig earth berms to fortify Islamic State positions, exploded into a blaze that sent white smoke into the sky. Militants could be seen gathering at the bulldozer as it burned. Some arrived on foot, others in a pickup truck or on a motorcycle, seemingly unfazed by the prospect of another rocket landing. ‘The terrorist driving that bulldozer is burning. He is cooked,’ said Mostafa Majeed, the soldier manning the scope.” Business Insider: In The Vicious Fight For Mosul, ISIS Turned One Of The City's Gems Into A Strategic Target “Iraqi forces have recently liberated the eastern of half Mosul, retaking half of what is the terrorist group's last urban stronghold in Iraq. Fighting in the eastern half of the city culminated in mid-January, when Iraqi forces advanced on Mosul University, which is not only internationally known for its academics but is also strategically located in Mosul, with many of its buildings overlooking neighborhoods along the Tigris River, which bisects the city. "The university is completely liberated and forces are sweeping the complex for any hiding militants," CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan told Reuters at the time. "We're not stopping.” NPR: The Shaky State Of The Islamic State “President Trump says he wants a swift and complete victory over the Islamic State, and he inherits the battle at a moment when the extremist group is losing ground in Iraq and Syria. The group's self-declared caliphate is looking increasingly fragile. Could 2017 be the year the U.S. and its allies break the back of ISIS? Progress is being made in the war against the Islamic State, according to analysts. But they caution that the U.S. is likely to face a recurring challenge in the Middle East: how to turn battlefield gains into a comprehensive political solution.” The Jerusalem Post: West Bank Terror: How The Idf Acts To Significantly Decrease Attacks “The IDF has significantly boosted operations to thwart West Bank shooting attacks in recent months, a senior officer said Thursday. In a briefing about IDF activities in 2016 and the attacks that took place in the West Bank over the course of the year, a senior officer stated that, while there have been significantly fewer vehicular attacks as well as stabbings, shooting attacks at soldiers remain a main threat. Security forces believe that most shooting attacks are carried out with weapons locally produced in the West Bank, most commonly knock-offs of the obsolete Karl Gustav submachine gun.” Reuters: Libyan Forces Say They Found 90 Bodies At Site Of U.S. Air Strike “Libyan forces have found some 90 bodies of slain militants at the sites of recent U.S. air strikes near the former Islamic State stronghold of Sirte, they said in a statement on Thursday. The forces posted pictures of desert hideouts covered with sand and grass and said the sites were being used for training. Shells, suicide belts and booby traps had been recovered there, the statement added. They also said they had arrested two suspected militants and killed four who refused to surrender. The forces are led by brigades from the city of Misrata and ousted Islamic State from Sirte in a near seven-month campaign that ended in December.” Reuters: NY Man Linked To Islamic State Gets 20 Years Prison For New Year's Eve Plot “An upstate New York man was sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State, in connection with his alleged role in preparing a New Year's Eve attack in 2015 at a local club or bar. Emanuel Lutchman, 26, of Rochester, was sentenced by Chief Judge Frank Geraci of the federal court in that city, following his August 11 guilty plea, the U.S. Department of Justice said. The prison term was the maximum possible, and Lutchman was also sentenced to 50 years of supervised release. He has been in custody since his Dec. 30, 2015 arrest. A federal public defender representing Lutchman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.” The Wall Street Journal: Teenager In Germany Sentenced To Jail For Islamic State-Inspired Assault “A teenage girl who pledged allegiance to Islamic State was sentenced to six years in juvenile detention for stabbing and severely wounding a German police officer last February, ending the country’s first trial of an attacker accused of drawing inspiration from the militant group. The 16-year-old girl, identified as Safia S., was found guilty of attempted murder, aggravated assault and supporting a foreign terrorist organization, the regional court in Celle that heard the case said. Thursday’s sentence is substantially tougher than those handed down in recent terror-related trials, which have targeted unsuccessful plotters, members of designated terrorist organizations or people who had fought alongside such groups in Syria or Iraq before returning to Germany.” New York Times: How Civilian Prosecution Gave The U.S. A Key Informant “One day in 2011, the top prosecutor in the system of military commissions set up after the Sept. 11 attacks to prosecute terrorists traveled to New York for a special meeting with Justice Department officials. A Somali terrorist, Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, was being held aboard an American warship after being captured in international waters off Yemen, and the official, John F. Murphy, wanted him tried at Guantánamo Bay before a military commission. In an early test of President Barack Obama’s belief that international terrorists could be successfully prosecuted in the criminal courts, Mr. Murphy was overruled. Mr. Warsame was prosecuted in federal court in Manhattan, and after pleading guilty to providing material support to the Shabab and Al Qaeda in Yemen and to other charges, he became one of the nation’s most important terrorism informants.” United States Reuters: Trump Administration Debates Designating Muslim Brotherhood As Terrorist Group “A debate is under way in the Trump administration about whether the United States should declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation and subject it to U.S. sanctions, according to U.S. officials and people close to President Donald Trump's transition team. A faction led by Michael Flynn, Trump's National Security Advisor, wants to add the Brotherhood to the State Department and U.S. Treasury lists of foreign terrorist organizations, the sources said. ‘I know it has been discussed. I'm in favour of it,’ said a Trump transition advisor, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.” CBS News: Is Trump Hoping To Seize Iraq's Oil Reserves? “No one knows how seriously to take President Donald Trump’s threat to seize Iraq’s oil. Doing so would involve extraordinary costs and risk confrontation with America’s best ground partner against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but the president told the CIA this weekend, ‘Maybe you’ll have another chance.’ The recycled campaign comment is raising concerns about Mr. Trump’s understanding of the delicate Middle East politics involved in the U.S.-led effort against extremist groups. Mr. Trump has said he was opposed to the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. But on the campaign trail and again on Saturday, the day after his inauguration, he suggested the costly and deadly occupation of the country might have been offset somewhat if the United States had taken the country’s rich petroleum reserves.” The Times Of Israel: FBI Sees Bomb Threats To Jccs As Hate Crime, Not Terrorism “The FBI is investigating a rash of bomb threats to Jewish community centers as a hate crime and not a terrorist threat. Agents briefed Jewish community leaders across the country through a call Thursday organized by the Anti-Defamation League. The agents said the calls targeted over 30 JCCs in 20 states this month and in no case was a bomb found. The FBI does not view the calls as a terrorist threat, the agents said, and they are being investigated by the bureau and the Justice Department as a hate crime.” Reuters: Trump's Hopes For Syria Safe Zones May Force Decision On Assad “President Donald Trump's push to create safe zones in Syria could force him to make some risky decisions about how far to go to protect refugees, including shooting down Syrian or Russian aircraft or committing thousands of U.S. troops, experts said. Trump said on Wednesday he ‘will absolutely do safe zones in Syria’ for refugees fleeing violence. According to a document seen by Reuters, he is expected in the coming days to order the Pentagon and the State Department to draft a plan to create such zones in Syria and nearby nations. The document did not spell out what would make a safe zone ‘safe’ and whether it would protect refugees only from threats on the ground - such as jihadist fighters - or whether Trump envisions a no-fly zone policed by America and its allies.” Associated Press: Trump Poised To Seek New Military Options For Defeating IS “President Donald Trump is expected to ask the Pentagon for ways to accelerate the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, and officials said the options probably would include steps the Obama administration considered but never acted on, from adding significantly more U.S. troops to boosting military aid to Kurdish fighters. Trump's visit Friday to the Defense Department's headquarters will start the conversation over how to fulfill his inauguration address pledge to eradicate radical Islamic terrorism ‘completely from the face of the Earth.’ Among the possible options are sending in more Apache helicopters and giving the U.S. military broader authority to make routine combat decisions, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the ongoing discussions.” Syria Reuters: Syria Rebels Await Action From Trump On Safe Zones, Damascus Silent “Syrian rebels urged President Donald Trump to fulfill a pledge to create safe zones in their country, but analysts doubted he would proceed with a step that could drag Washington deeper into war, hasten Syria's fragmentation and risk conflict with Russia.  Trump told ABC News on Wednesday he ‘will absolutely do safe zones in Syria’ for refugees fleeing violence and that Europe had made a mistake by admitting millions of refugees from Syria. President Bashar al-Assad's opponents have long demanded safe zones to protect civilians who have fled government air strikes and bombardment of rebel-held areas.” Deutsche Welle: Announces Delay In UN's Syria Peace Talks “The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, did not give a reason on Friday for the delay in UN-backed Syria peace talks scheduled to take place in Geneva on February 8. International leaders had agreed to re-open talks in the UN-headquarter city during the peace talks in Astana that wrapped up on Tuesday with the agreement of ceasefire-maintenance mechanism but without making significant ground in ending the six-year war. Lavrov's meeting with Syrian government opponents did not include a representative of the High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition coalition group that took part in both the recent Astana talks as well as the Geneva peace talks of 2016.” Turkey Deutsche Welle: More Than 5,000 Cases Filed Against Turkey Over Post-Coup Purge, Says ECHR “The president of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday announced that 5,363 cases filed by Turkish nationals have been lodged against Turkey over its crackdown in the wake of a failed coup last year. The ‘massive influx’ of applications against Turkey after July 15 increased by 276 percent compared to the year before, ECHR President Guido Raimondi said. An additional 2,945 cases had been filed by Turkish nationals last year, although not directly linked to the aftermath of the failed coup, bringing the total to more than 8,000 applications to the European court.” Voice Of America: Turkey Expects Better Relationship With US Under Trump “The Turkish government is preparing to reset its relationship with the United States under its new leadership. A Turkish official said the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump ‘will guard Turkey’s sensitive position’ in the Middle East. Turkey’s relationship with the U.S. was strained during Barack Obama’s eight years in office. Semih Idiz writes about politics for the Turkish website Al-Monitor. He says people in Turkey think Trump will get the relationship between Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the U.S. back on track.” Reuters: Turkey Sees Nusra Front As Terrorist Group, Acts Accordingly: Source “Turkey designates both Islamic State and the Nusra Front, now known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, as terrorist groups and acts in line with that policy, a Turkish foreign ministry source said on Thursday. Jabhat Fateh al-Sham launched an attack on a number of Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel groups in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, threatening to deal a critical blow to the more moderate wing of the Syrian rebellion backed by Turkey and to derail Russian-backed peace talks. The attacks may have been motivated by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham's desire to prevent a political solution to the Syrian conflict, the source said.” Reuters: Russia Hopes For Long-Term Cooperation With Turkey, Iran On Syria “Russia hopes that its cooperation with Turkey and Iran on the Syria crisis will be long-term, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, said on Friday. Russia, Turkey and Iran backed a shaky truce between Syria's warring parties this week and agreed to monitor its compliance.” Reuters: Turkey Says Waiting To See Outcome Of Trump's Syria Safe Zones Call “Turkey is waiting to see the outcome of U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge to order safe zones in Syria, and has long advocated such a plan, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said on Thursday. Trump said on Wednesday he ‘will absolutely do safe zones in Syria’ for refugees fleeing violence. According to a document seen by Reuters, he is expected to order the Pentagon and State Department in the coming days to craft such a plan. ‘We have seen the U.S. President's request for conducting a study. What's important is the results of this study and what kind of recommendation will come out,’ Muftuoglu told reporters at a briefing in Ankara.” BBC: Turkish Anger As Greece Rejects Extradition Of Eight Soldiers “Turkey has reacted with anger after a Greek court ruled against extraditing eight Turkish soldiers accused of involvement in an attempted coup. Turkey accused Greece of failing in the ‘fight against terrorism’ and said the decision was ‘politically motivated’. The eight men fled in a helicopter to Greece after last July's coup attempt but say they were not involved. Presiding judge Giorgos Sakkas said the men were unlikely to receive a fair trial in Turkey. Turkey has demanded the three majors, three captains and two sergeant majors return to stand trial. The soldiers have argued their lives would be in danger.” Afghanistan Associated Press: Suicide Bomber Wounds 4 In Afghanistan “An Afghan official says a suicide bomber wounded four people in the eastern city of Ghazni when his explosive device exploded prematurely. Deputy police chief Asadullah Shujaye said the attacker could have caused much greater harm if he had reached a crowded market nearby. The bomb that went off Thursday was concealed in a motorized rickshaw. Shujaye said the bomber was likely from the Taliban, but the insurgents have not taken responsibility. The Taliban have a large presence in Ghazni, which is on transit routes linking the capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar and the eastern border with Pakistan.” Voice Of America: Afghan Schools Used As Military Bases By Government, Taliban “Afghan education authorities are concerned about the use of schools for military purposes by militant groups and Afghan security forces, a practice they say puts children at risk and deprives them of an education. ‘Unfortunately, around 30 schools in various parts of Afghanistan are being used for military purposes by Afghan government forces and militant groups,’ Kabir Haqmal, director of information at the Ministry of Education in Kabul, told Radio Liberty's Afghanistan service on Thursday. Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report last year said that schools in Afghanistan have increasingly been threatened by both insurgent forces and Afghan security forces. HRW called on the Afghan government to stop the use of schools for military operations by its security forces.” Yemen Reuters: Unpaid State Salaries Deepen Economic Pain In Yemen's War “Already suffering grievously under nearly two years of civil war, many thousands of Yemeni state workers now face destitution as their salaries have gone largely unpaid for months. The immediate reason is a decision by the internationally-recognized government to shift Yemen's central bank out of Sanaa, the capital city controlled by the armed Houthi movement with which it is at war. Underlying the bank's move to Aden, the southern port where the government is based, is a struggle for legitimacy between the two sides. The result is to deepen economic hardship when four-fifths of Yemen's 28 million people already need some form of humanitarian aid, according to U.N. estimates.” Middle East Bloomberg: Israeli Envoy Praises Russian Efforts To Reconcile Palestinians “Israel’s ambassador to Russia praised the Kremlin for its efforts to broker reconciliation between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the militant Islamist group Hamas, saying a successful deal could have far-reaching, positive consequences. Fatah and Hamas discussed forming a unity government and holding elections during three days of negotiations in Moscow earlier this month. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said any accord on Palestinian unity would endorse peace agreements that the Palestine Liberation Organization has signed with Israel.” The Jerusalem Post: Hamas Official: Group's New Charter To Address Antisemitic Language “A senior Hamas official on Wednesday said that the Palestinian terror organization is set to release a new charter that addresses the antisemitic language contained in the group's original mission statement.  Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that Hamas will be publishing its new charter ‘very soon,’ and that the language in the new document is careful not to castigate anyone based on ‘religion’ or ‘race.’ ‘We will have a clear political document, which is supposed to be in the near future, clarifying all those points,’ Hamdan told ‘UpFront’ host Mehdi Hasan. ‘You will find in this document clear words that we [are] against the Zionists, against the occupation of our lands and we will resist the occupiers, whoever they were,’ he added.” BBC: Israel 'To Take In 100 Syrian Orphans' “Israel has for the first time approved a plan to give asylum to 100 children orphaned in the Syria conflict. According to Israeli media reports, the children will initially get temporary residency status and allowed to stay indefinitely after four years. Israel has technically been at war with Syria for decades, but has officially taken a position of neutrality in the current conflict. It has however brought in thousands of casualties for medical treatment.” Libya The Guardian: Libya Calls For West To Invest In Oil Industry To Help 'Unify' The Country “The international community has lost moral authority in Libya and can best help the country by acting to end oil smuggling and providing investment to boost production, the chairman of the Libyan National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, has said.  Libya has had a self-imposed moratorium on foreign investment in its oil industry since 2011, which Sanalla has announced is to end. A Foreign- Office-backed Libyan investment conference in London on Thursday is attempting to rally financial support to boost the country’s oil output.” Germany Deutsche Welle: 'Nazi Druid' Burghard B. Detained On Terror Charges “Burghard B.'s dress and facial hair - which recall the traditional representations of Merlin, the mythical pre-Christian wizard he once claimed was his uncle - doesn't immediately suggest he might be plotting terrorist attacks. But the self-styled neo-pagan, who also goes by his druid name Burgos von Buchonia, spent Thursday in a police cell being held on suspicion of coordinating a far-right terror network from his home in Schwetzingen in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg. The 62-year-old is one of six suspects detained in a series of police raids on 12 apartments across Germany on Wednesday morning. The state prosecutor's brief statement said the group was thought to have been planning armed attacks on police officers, asylum seekers, and Jewish people since spring last year.” Europe Newsweek: Austria Arrests 14 Isis-Linked Suspects In Major Raids “Austrian authorities arrested fourteen suspects linked to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) on Thursday in a series of major counter-terror raids, prosecutors said. Some 800 police were involved in the raids in the capital, Vienna, and the southern city of Graz. Eight men were initially detained in the two cities, including three Austrians of foreign descent, two Bosnians, a Syrian, a Bulgarian and a Macedonian, prosecutors said. Their ages ranged from 21 to 49 years old. In Graz, police later arrested a further six people—three men and three women from the Balkans.” Reuters: Poland, Lithuania Say Won't Host Any New Secret CIA Jails “Poland and Lithuania said on Thursday they would not allow the United States to locate new secret prisons on their soil if President Donald Trump chooses to reinstate an old CIA program that detained and interrogated terrorism suspects abroad. Both eastern European countries are close allies of the United States and hosted now-defunct ‘black site’ jails that were used during President George W. Bush's ‘war on terrorism’ after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York. U.S. officials have said Trump may order a review that could lead to the restoration of program. Similar facilities, where interrogation techniques often condemned as torture were used, were located in Romania, Thailand and Afghanistan.”