Eye on Extremism - April 15, 2016

Eye on Extremism April 15, 2016 USA Today: Report: Brussels Attack Targeted Travelers To U.S., Russia, Israel “A suspect in the Brussels bombings that killed 32 people said the attackers planned to target travelers flying to the U.S., Israel and Russia, according to a news report Thursday. Mohamed Abrini, who was captured Friday, confessed to being the ‘man in the hat’ seen on surveillance footage at Brussels Airport on March 22, Belgian prosecutors said. French news channel BFMTV reported Thursday that during questioning by a judge, Abrini said one of the suicide bombers, Ibrahim Bakraoui, chose the target to be the departure halls for flights to the U.S., Russia and Tel Aviv. The State Department had already issued a worldwide advisory for U.S. citizens to maintain a high level of vigilance, as the potential remains for terrorist attacks on public transportation, such as rail systems, aviation and ships.” Reuters: New Aleppo Assault Casts Fresh Cloud Over Syria Peace Talks “Syria's army backed by Russian warplanes launched an assault north of Aleppo on Thursday, threatening to block a vital rebel route into the city in fighting that has cast new clouds over Geneva peace talks. Syria's recent upsurge in fighting, particularly around the northern city of Aleppo, has proven the most acute challenge yet to a cessation of hostilities deal agreed in February and soured an already bleak mood as opposing sides gather in Geneva. Outlining its bargaining position, the opposition High Negotiating Council (HNC) told Reuters it would be willing to share equally in a transitional council with the government, but repeated its rejection of a role for President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government, buoyed by Russian and Iranian military support, has ruled out any discussion of the presidency. Moscow and Tehran have also rejected what they see as Western efforts to predetermine Assad's future.” CNN: U.S. Sends Weapon To Hit ISIS Communications “The United States has deployed tactical aircraft capable of attacking ISIS's ability to communicate closer to the front lines of the battle against the terrorist group. The U.S. European Command announced a squadron of Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft has been sent to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to support operations against ISIS. In addition to being able to intercept communications by ISIS, the Prowler can protect allied forces on the ground and strike aircraft by jamming any radar and communication devices ISIS has. While the Pentagon won't spell out their mission specifically, the Prowlers could be used to jam cell phone signals and other devices used to trigger roadside bombs, or to interrupt radio broadcasts used to distribute ISIS propaganda.” Deutsche Welle: European Parliament Passes Anti-Terrorism Data Sharing Law “The Strasbourg-based parliament overwhelmingly adopted the Passenger Name Record (PNR) system Thursday after resolving privacy concerns raised since the European Commission first proposed the bill in 2011. ‘The EU PNR Directive will improve the safety and security of our citizens,’ the commission's first vice president, Frans Timmermans, and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said in a joint statement. EU member countries now have two years to turn it into national law. The vote came after interior ministers from the 28 EU nations in December finally settled privacy concerns that had stalled negotiations with the legislature since 2011. ‘The European Parliament has today united beyond its political differences to bring a very large majority behind these pieces of legislation,’ the president of the parliament, Martin Schulz, said in a statement. The law - which was passed with 416 votes for, 179 votes against and nine abstentions - had been stalled for years because of opposition within the parliament to a blanket collection of such data.” Detroit Free Press: FBI: ISIS Threatens Muslim Leader In Michigan, Others “ISIS is threatening to kill a moderate Muslim leader in a Flint suburb who's been outspoken for decades against extremism. In the latest issue of its online magazine, ISIS lists Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, 71, of Fenton, as one of five Muslim-American religious leaders and scholars who should be killed because, it says, they are ‘apostates’ and ‘crusaders’ who have deviated from Islam. In addition to the five Muslim religious leaders, ISIS says five Muslim-American politicians or government officials also should be killed, including two who are former Michigan residents: U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Huma Abedin, a close aide to Hillary Clinton.” International Business Times: Obama To Discuss Fight Against ISIS And Defense In Saudi Arabia, Germany, UK Trip “President Barack Obama could be in for awkward meetings next week when he travels to Saudi Arabia to discuss the fight against the Islamic State group and other defense issues. The meetings announced Thursday come after the publication of an Atlantic magazine article in which Obama described the American relationship with Saudi Arabia as ‘complicated’ and conveyed his displeasure with some decisions made in Riyadh. The relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia has faltered in recent years as differences over Israel, Iran and human rights issues become more pronounced.” International Business Times: ISIS Captures Villages In Syria's Aleppo Near Turkish Border “The Islamic State group, also referred to as ISIS, have captured several villages which were under the control of Syrian rebels in Aleppo province near the Turkish border, Agence France-Presse reported on Thursday. Clashes between Syrian rebels and ISIS militants have intensified along the Turkish border recently even as the peace talks aimed at ending the five-year-long civil war are underway in Geneva, Switzerland. One of the villages that ISIS seized was Hiwar Kallis, which is located about one km south of the Turkish border, Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said. ‘Fierce clashes are raging between rebels and IS after the jihadists secured an advance and seized control of six villages near the Turkish border,’ the  (SOHR) said.” Daily Beast: Everything We Knew About This ISIS Mastermind Was Wrong “The Pentagon calls him Haji Imam. His other nicknames include Abu Ali al-Anbari, Abu Alaa al-Afri, Hajji Iman, or simply the Hajji, the Arabic word for “pilgrim” but one that is colloquially used to refer to a revered person or gray eminence. Iraqi and American security officials were so confused by his multiple noms de guerre that they identified him as two distinct high-level leaders of the so-called Islamic State; Wikipedia even has two biographies, and two photographs for the one jihadist whose obscurity was in direct proportion to his significance. For Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Shakhilar al-Qaduli—that’s his legal name—is known as a man of many talents.” The Guardian: Counter-Terror Drive For Public To Report Online Isis Propaganda “British counter-terrorism officials are launching a campaign to try to drive back Islamic State’s efforts to use the internet to foster extremism. Isis has turned the internet into a frontline of jihad, using it to spread propaganda to gain recruits and embolden its supporters. However, 300 items a day are being taken down by a special police unit. British terrorists convicted of murder plots and attempts are known to have been inspired and even radicalised by material they have seen online. New figures released on Friday by police indicate a big rise in extremist material online since the rise of Isis, with cyber recruiters even trying to use popular hashtags to help spread their ideology.” Reuters: Apple, FBI To Clash Again In Congress Over Encryption “Apple Inc and the FBI will return to Congress next week to testify before lawmakers about their heated disagreement over law enforcement access to encrypted devices, a congressional committee announced on Thursday. Apple's general counsel, Bruce Sewell, and Amy Hess, executive assistant director for science and technology at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will testify on separate panels before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday, in addition to other law enforcement officials and technology experts. FBI Director James Comey appeared before a separate congressional committee last month to defend his agency's pursuit of a court order to compel Apple's assistance in unlocking an iPhone linked to one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. Sewell also testified at that hearing. The FBI has since abandoned the San Bernardino case, a surprising development that came after a still-secret third party helped the government hack into the iPhone. But the U.S. Justice Department redoubled its efforts last week to use the courts to force Apple's cooperation in cracking encrypted iPhones by announcing plans to continue with an appeal in an unrelated New York drug case.” Reuters: Iraq's Kurds Declare Independence In Cyberspace With .Krd Domain Name “Denied their own state in reality, Iraq's Kurds have declared independence in cyberspace with a new domain name that has provoked the ire of a neighbor hostile to their aspirations. The new top-level domain ‘.krd’ gives Kurds a separate space in the virtual world at a time when they are gaining legitimacy on the ground through their alliance with the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State. Often described as the world's largest ethnic group without their own state, the Kurds consider themselves victims of a pact that partitioned their homeland between Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq after World War One. ‘Those who imprisoned us within these geographical boundaries do not have the same leverage in cyberspace. In the internet we choose our own borders,’ said Hiwa Afandi, who got international recognition for the domain that opened this week for private companies, organizations and individuals to use.” United States BBC: Obama Warns Of IS Focus On Libya After Iraq And Syria Setbacks “Islamic State (IS) recruits are increasingly heading to Libya following the setbacks the militant group has suffered in Iraq and Syria, US President Barack Obama has said. The US will continue efforts to beat it back in Libya, he added. Last week, Mr Obama said the ‘worst mistake’ of his presidency was his failure to plan for the aftermath of the ousting of Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Libya has been in chaos since then. A new UN-backed government arrived in Libya's capital, Tripoli, earlier this month in the hope of restoring order in a country controlled by rival militias, governments and parliaments. IS has exploited the chaos to gain a foothold in the North African state. Last year, the group appealed to its sympathisers in Africa to go to Libya, which it sees as a gateway for attacks on Europe. Refugees and migrants are also increasingly using Libya to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.” The Washington Post: The U.S. Has Launched More Than 70 Airstrikes This Year Against ISIS In Afghanistan “The U.S. military has carried out dozens of airstrikes against the Islamic State militant group in Afghanistan this year, a senior U.S. Army officer said Thursday, but it is still Taliban fighters who hold sway over much more of the country. Brig. Gen. Charles H. Cleveland told reporters at the Pentagon in a briefing held from Kabul that in the first three months of 2016, U.S. forces carried out 100 counterterrorism strikes across the country. He estimated that between 70 and 80 percent of them were against the Islamic State and that most of those were in Nangahar, the mountainous province in eastern Afghanistan where the Islamic State wants to settle and take over the capital city of Jalalabad. Counterterrorism efforts against the Islamic State have been carried out with unilateral U.S. strikes and in operations in which Afghan commandos sweep through regions with advising from U.S. Special Operations troops, Cleveland said.” Fox News: Obama Touts Air Campaign Against ISIS Amid Continued Turmoil In Middle East “President Obama touted the U.S.-led coalition’s air campaign against ISIS Wednesday, even as political turmoil in Iraq and flares of violence in Syria threaten to jeopardize hard-fought gains. Speaking at CIA headquarters in Virginia, Obama said it had been a ‘few bad months’ for ISIS and gave a detailed account of areas where U.S.-backed forced have regained territory from the militant group. Though he acknowledged the fight remains difficult and complex, he said ISIS was on the defensive and that the U.S. intends to ‘keep that momentum.’” Iraq BBC: Iraqi Forces 'Recapture IS-Held Town Of Hit' “Iraqi troops have recaptured the strategically important western town of Hit from Islamic State militants after weeks of fighting, officials say. The military declared that Hit had been ‘completely liberated’ by units of the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS). Since it began in mid-March, the assault on the town has been the focus of the government's wider campaign to regain control of Anbar province. Hit sits on a key supply route linking IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria. Iraqi military officials and the US-led coalition against IS believe that by clearing the town 150km (93 miles) west of Baghdad, they can build on other recent gains in the vast desert of Anbar.” Turkey Reuters: Muslim Nations Agree To Work Closely To Fight Terrorism - Turkey's Erdogan “Muslim countries have agreed to work together more closely to fight terrorism and other crimes and will establish an Istanbul-based centre for greater police cooperation, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday. Leaders from the Muslim world are attending a summit in Istanbul this week of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss issues facing the grouping's 57 member states, including the humanitarian fall-out from Syria's civil war. ‘It would be appropriate to create a structure among OIC countries which would strengthen and institutionalise cooperation against terror and other crimes,’ Erdogan said in his opening address at the summit.” Business Insider: 'Relax, They Are Our Friends': One Quote Shows Why Turkey's ISIS Problem Is Only Going To Get Worse “In a recent interview with The Guardian, a former ISIS fighter described how easy it was for him to cross Turkey's notoriously porous border into Syria to join the Islamic State. Abu Ali, who said he entered ISIS territory in mid-January 2015 from the Akçakale border crossing in Turkey, told the publication's Robert Worth that for 75 Turkish lira, he was pointed in the direction of a hole in a fence separating Turkey from Syria. He squeezed through and began to run, Ali recalled, until a group of ISIS militants stationed on the Syrian side of the border asked him why he was running. Ali gestured back toward the Turkish border guards.” Afghanistan Reuters: Taliban Kill Top Police Official In Afghanistan Ambush “Taliban insurgents ambushed and killed a police commander and seven other people, including three women, in Afghanistan on Thursday, two days after the insurgents announced the beginning of their spring offensive. The Taliban insurgency has gained strength since the withdrawal of international forces from combat at the end of 2014 and the Taliban are stronger than at any point since the were driven from power by U.S.-backed forces in 2001. Qahar Khurm Aabi, highway police commander in the northern provinces of Takhar and Kunduz, was killed in a Taliban ambush along with four of his guards on his way to work, said Khalil Aseer, Takhar police spokesman. The three women killed were passers-by, he said. Three was no immediate comment from the Taliban.” Reuters: Air Strikes Hit Islamic State In Afghanistan Under New Rules: U.S. “The United States has carried out 70 to 80 air strikes against Islamic State in Afghanistan in the three months since U.S. forces were given broader authority to target the militants, a U.S. military spokesman said on Thursday. Before January, the U.S. military could only strike Islamic State in Afghanistan under narrow circumstances, such as for protection of troops. Military spokesman Brigadier General Charles Cleveland said the air strikes had decreased the capacity of the group in Afghanistan, where fighters loyal to Islamic State have emerged to challenge the larger Afghan Taliban in pockets of the country. Cleveland said about 70 to 80 percent of the air strikes between January and the end of March were in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.” The Hill: General: ISIS In Afghanistan Potentially An 'Enormous' Threat “The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has the potential to be an ‘enormous’ threat in Afghanistan, but its presence in the country has lessened over the past few months, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said Thursday. ISIS ‘really does present the potential to just be an enormous threat,’ said Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, chief of communications for the coalition, at a Pentagon briefing. ‘Obviously, we’ve all seen them, how rapidly they are able to spread, in other parts of the world.’ Between January and March, the United States has carried out 70 to 80 airstrikes against ISIS in Afghanistan, Cleveland said. Additionally, the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) carry out operations against ISIS, and the Taliban fights against ISIS, he added.” Saudi Arabia CNN: Saudi Arabia Strips Religious Police Of Arrest Powers “Saudi Arabia has stripped its religious police of the power to arrest when carrying out duties and enforcing Islamic law. Under the new directives approved on Tuesday, members of the force -- formally known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice -- can no longer detain people they identify as breaking the kingdom's strict standards of moral conduct. Now, the so-called Haia force must report individuals' ‘misbehaviors’ to the police or drug police, the official Saudi Press Agency reports. ‘They alone have the authority to follow, chase, stop, question, verify identification, arrest any suspected persons,’ the decree states.” Middle East The Times of Israel: Hamas Bolsters Gaza’s Egypt Border In Bid To Ease Tensions “Hamas began deploying additional forces on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt on Thursday, the interior ministry said, in an apparent effort to ease Cairo’s concerns about security. ‘National security forces started today to increase the number of its troops and double the security bases along all the southern border with Egypt to be able to control the border better,’ spokesman Iyad al-Bazm told AFP.  He said they had established three new bases immediately. ‘This is a message that we are concerned with border security and stability,’ Bazm said, adding nobody would be allowed ‘to touch the security of Egypt.’ Hamas forces were seen setting up about 10 temporary buildings along the border. Bulldozers flattened the land near the frontier in apparent preparation for more temporary structures.” Nigeria The Washington Post: Boko Haram Kidnapped 276 Girls Two Years Ago. What Happened To Them? “Two years ago Thursday, just before midnight on a sweltering night in a town in northeastern Nigeria, men carrying AK-47s stormed into the Chibok Government Secondary School. What happened next would bring global attention to the Islamist group Boko Haram, which had been haunting Nigeria for years. It would unite activists around the world, including first lady Michelle Obama, around the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. It would prompt the United States to dispatch surveillance drones and military trainers to West Africa. The militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls. Several dozen of them were able to escape. But two years later, even as the Nigerian, Cameroonian and Chadian militaries have pushed Boko Haram out of many of its former strongholds, 219 of the girls remain missing. On Wednesday, CNN released an apparent proof of life video of fifteen of the girls, reportedly filmed last December. They wore flowing headscarves and stated their names. ‘We are all well,’ one of them said.” Germany Associated Press: German Governing Parties Agree On Counterterrorism Measures “Germany's governing parties are proposing new measures to fight terrorism including improved information sharing and additional staff and money for police and intelligence agencies. Many details still need to be worked out before the measures are presented to parliament for approval. The proposals presented Thursday come after a review of Germany's security precautions undertaken after November's attacks in Paris. Among other things, they envision allowing greater use of undercover agents, and toughening laws on terrorism financing. They also want better information sharing between German police and intelligence agencies, as well as with friendly foreign intelligence agencies.” France Associated Press: France Following 9,000 Tips On Islamic Extremism “French authorities have received 9,000 tips related to Islamic extremism through a dedicated hotline and a website, President Francois Hollande said Thursday. French officials believe some 600 Muslims have left the country for Syria and Iraq, but the president's comments about thousands of tips offer a hint of the scale of the concern over religious radicalism in France. Hollande was quick to note that not all the tips were linked to genuine dangers, but said it was a sign that France needed a program to fight extremism. ‘We should create de-radicalization centers,’ he said. The period during which the tips were made wasn't made clear, although a hotline has been active in some form since 2014. Hollande was speaking during a televised exchange with Veronique Roy, whose son is believed to have died in Syria after converting to a radical form of Islam.” Europe Bloomberg: EU Backs Air-Traveler Terror Law After Spate of Deadly Attacks “The European Union decided to force airlines to give national governments in Europe information on passengers, overcoming years of deadlock after Islamic terrorist attacks in France and Belgium added urgency to the legislation. The European Parliament voted to require EU and foreign carriers to provide national authorities with data about passengers on flights to and from the bloc. The law, which European nations have the option of extending to intra-EU flights, covers the ‘passenger name record’ including seat number, reservation date, payment method and travel itinerary. The EU’s PNR initiative, in the works since 2011, got political boosts from three terrorist assaults over the past 15 months in Paris and Brussels. The attacks, which killed a total of 179 people, were orchestrated by radical Islamic forces operating in such war-torn countries as Syria.”