Eye on Extremism - September 13, 2016

Eye on Extremism Counter Extremism Project International Business Times: Who Is Abu Mohammad Al-Adnani? Pentagon Contradicts Russia’s Claim Of Killing ISIS Spokesman In Syria Airstrike “The Pentagon confirmed Monday that a U.S. airstrike in Syria last month killed the Islamic State group's spokesman and chief strategist Abu Mohammad al-Adnani. The Pentagon statement contradicts Russia's claims late last month that one of its planes had killed Adnani. Last week, the ISIS-run Amaq news agency said Adnani was ‘martyred while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns in Aleppo,’ and vowed to avenge his death. The group also said that Adnani was killed in al-Bab in Syria's devastated Aleppo province on Aug. 30. Adnani, who was one of ISIS' most high-profile figures after leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had a $5 million bounty on him. Adnani is listed as the leader of ISIS' Emni group, a unit that orchestrates attacks outside of the Middle East, by the Counter Extremism Project.”  Reuters: Close Encounters With Iran Show Need For Rules Of Behaviour -U.S. Navy “A series of close encounters between the U.S. navy and Iranian combat vessels in the Gulf show the need for Iran and the United States to agree rules of behaviour to avoid risky miscalculations, the head of the U.S. Navy said on Monday. Admiral John Richardson, the U.S. chief of naval operations, said agreements of this type between the United States and Russia and China had helped reduce such risks. Years of mutual animosity between Tehran and Washington eased when Washington lifted sanctions on Iran in January after a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions. But serious differences still remain over Iran's ballistic missile programme, and over conflicts in Syria and Iraq and these are reflected in the tense encounters at sea.” Associated Press: Confusion Over Cease-Fire As US Walks Back Kerry Comments “Confusion reigned Monday over Syria's new cease-fire as Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States and Russia could permit President Bashar Assad's government to launch new airstrikes against al-Qaida-linked militants. The State Department quickly reversed itself. Spokesman John Kirby said later there were no provisions under the nationwide truce for U.S.-Russian authorization of bombing missions by Assad's forces. "This is not something we could ever envision doing," he said. Kerry's comments at a news conference were the closest any American official had come to suggesting indirect U.S. cooperation with Assad since the civil war started in 2011. President Barack Obama called on Assad to leave power more than five years ago; the U.S. blames the Syrian leader for a war that has killed perhaps a half-million people.” Reuters: Islamic State-Linked Cases In U.S. Number 110 Since 2013: Justice Department “U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said on Monday that more than 110 people have been publicly charged in federal court since late 2013 on counts related to the Islamic State militant group that has overrun much of Syria and Iraq. Carlin said the U.S. Justice Department needs the American public to be more proactive about alerting federal authorities when they witness someone showing support for foreign terrorist organizations, such as Islamic State, in remarks to reporters at the U.S. Justice Department. In more than 80 percent of the Islamic State cases that have been prosecuted since 2013, someone in the community of the accused person believed they had witnessed the activity for which the person was ultimately charged, according to Carlin. In more than half of those cases, the witnesses did not report anything to law enforcement authorities until after the charges were made.” Reuters: Syria Ceasefire Takes Effect With Assad Emboldened, Opposition Wary “A nationwide ceasefire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russia went into effect on Monday evening, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year-old civil war. The Syrian army announced the truce at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT), the moment it took effect, saying the seven-day ‘regime of calm’ would be applied across Syria. It reserved the right to respond with all forms of firepower to any violation by ‘armed groups’. Rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad issued a joint statement listing deep reservations with the agreement they described as unjust, echoing concerns outlined in a letter to the United States on Sunday. While the statement did not explicitly back the ceasefire, rebel sources said the groups were abiding by it.” The Times Of Israel: Germany Arrests 3 Syrians Believed Sent By Islamic State “Three Syrian men believed to have been sent to Germany last year by the Islamic State group were arrested in raids on Tuesday, part of efforts to root out extremists sent to Europe amid the migrant influx, authorities said. The three are accused of coming to Germany in mid-November at the behest of IS “in order either to carry out an assignment they had already received or to keep themselves ready for further instructions,” federal prosecutors said. They are suspected of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.” Reuters: Western Powers Call On Libyan Forces That Seized Ports To Withdraw “The United States and five European powers on Monday urged forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar to withdraw from several key oil ports seized from a rival force over the weekend. Fighters loyal to Haftar took control of the ports of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina and Brega, displacing a force allied to the United Nations-backed government in Tripoli. The seizure threatened to reignite conflict over Libya's oil resources and disrupt efforts by the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord to revive oil production and exports. ‘We call for all military forces that have moved into the oil crescent to withdraw immediately, without preconditions,’ the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain said in a joint statement. The western powers condemned the attacks on the ports and affirmed their intent to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution designed to prevent what they called "illicit" oil exports.” Daily Mail: Shock Rise In Child Extremists: 350 Under Tens Are Feared To Be On The Path To Terror And Violence  “More than 2,300 children were reported to the authorities under counter-terrorism laws last year for showing signs of extremism. The groups included 352 youngsters aged nine or under and almost 1,000 who were between ten and 14. Overall, there were 4,611 people reported last year as being potentially on a path that could lead to violence or a terrorist atrocity – an increase of 75 per cent. Experts said it was another worrying sign of the deadly threat posed by Islamic State, which has been trying to radicalise young Britons online. Last year, a 15-year-old boy from Blackburn was caught plotting a beheading – the youngest person convicted of a terrorism offence in the UK. The figures related to referrals to the Government’s Channel project, which is part of the controversial Prevent strategy. Since last July, teachers and social workers have been under a statutory duty to report any youngster who is showing signs of extremist views.” Associated Press: 48 Injured By PKK Car Bomb In East Turkey “Turkish authorities have accused Kurdish militants of detonating a car bomb that wounded 48 people Monday in the eastern city of Van. The state-run Anadolu news agency quoted a statement by the governor's office alleging that members affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK were responsible for Monday's blast at a police point in front of the ruling party municipal headquarters. The statement added that 46 of the wounded were civilians, and the two others were police officers. The governor's office said security forces were engaged in operations to apprehend the perpetrators. Van Police Chief Suat Ekici earlier told Anadolu two of the wounded were in critical condition but did not say whether they were police officers or civilians. The explosion occurred Monday around 10:50 a.m. local time on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday.” The Wall Street Journal: New Elections Revive Old German Ghosts “A few near certainties: For the first time since the end of World War II, a party sharply to the right of the Christian Democrats and their Bavarian allies, the CSU, is receiving broad public acceptance. The AfD will seize much of the public mood rejecting the chancellor’s open-door refugee policy and exploit it ruthlessly. The party can find more success in anti-Americanism, an aggressive pro-Russian stance, and challenging the Federal Republic’s years of Western alignment by cozying up to neutralism and an exit from NATO. ‘German nationalism is coming back,’ Joschka Fischer, the former foreign minister, told me. ‘And that’s something special. American weakness and rejection of a leadership role is an element in the process.’” Daily Mail: Generation Jihad: Scholar Of Islam Predicts Civil War Across Europe As More Young Muslims Facing Poor Job Prospects Turn To Radical Groups “A scholar of Islam has warned of civil war across Europe as more young Muslims facing poor job prospects turn to radical groups, it has been reported. Professor Gilles Kepel, from the Sciences Po in Paris, France, said a growing 'Jihad Generation' is likely to continue to carry out terror acts in European cities. The aim of their terror activity is to both incite hatred towards Muslims and, in doing so, cause further radicalisation among young people, the professor of political science said. He told the German newspaper Die Welt that this in turn could lead to the point where Europe enters into civil war. Kepel said the recent terror attacks across the continent were part of a war within Islam rather than between Islam and Western civilization. The extremists, he said, also want to crush more moderate Islamic opposition.” United States The New York Times: Obama To Veto Bill Allowing 9/11 Lawsuits Against Saudi Arabia “The White House said on Monday that President Obama would veto legislation approved by Congress that would allow the families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for any role in the plot, escalating a bipartisan dispute with lawmakers over the measure. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Obama ‘does intend to veto this legislation,’ and would work to persuade lawmakers in both parties to change course. If he cannot, the measure could lead to the first veto override of his presidency, as the legislation drew the backing of lopsided majorities in both the House and Senate.” ABC News: Pentagon Confirms Death Of Chief ISIS Spokesman Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani “The Pentagon has confirmed the death of top ISIS spokesman and overseas plotter Abu Muhammad al-Adnani in an airstrike in Syria nearly two weeks ago. U.S. officials announced the airstrike targeting al-Adnani on Aug. 30, but said they were awaiting a final assessment to see if he had been killed. ‘The Department of Defense has confirmed that the U.S. precision airstrike on Aug. 30 targeting senior ISIL leader Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani was successful,’ said Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, in a statement. In the days after the strike on Aug. 30, Pentagon officials had cautioned that they awaited a final assessment that would confirm if he had actually been killed in the airstrike. Those assessments are made by the intelligence community using a combination of intercepted communications and other intelligence to make a final determination on the success of a strike.” The Jerusalem Post: Senator Holding Up Israel Defense Deal, Insisting On Role For Congress “US Sen. Lindsey Graham is holding up the conclusion of a critical, decade-long defense deal between the US and Israel with legislation that would increase US aid to the Jewish state next year by over $300 million more than what the White House has agreed to. Graham’s effort is a finger in the eye to the Obama administration, which has spent over a year negotiating a complex Memorandum of Understanding with Israel that will ultimately increase US defense aid to the state from $3.1 billion to $3.3b. a year beginning in 2018. Congress has played no role in the effort, and Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, sees no reason why the legislature should simply abide by what the administration has negotiated without its consent.” Associated Press: CIA Director John Brennan Warns Of Russian Hacking “CIA Director John Brennan warned on Sunday that Russia has ‘exceptionally capable and sophisticated’ computer capabilities and that the U.S. must be on guard. When asked in a television interview whether Russia is trying to manipulate the American presidential election, Brennan didn't say. But he noted that the FBI is investigating the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, and he cited Moscow's aggressive intelligence collection and its focus on high-tech snooping. On the terrorism threat, Brennan said the U.S. government is much better now at sharing information. He praised Saudi Arabia as ‘a good example of how foreign intelligence services can work against these terrorist organizations.’” Syria NPR: Fighting Slows Down In Syria As Cease-Fire Begins “A cease-fire is supposed to be underway in Syria now. It's part of a new agreement between the U.S. and Russia. Russia has agreed to call on the Syrian regime to stop its attacks on opposition areas. And the U.S. is pressing opposition groups to also stop fighting. A similar cease-fire was agreed to and then broke down back in February. Definitely a reduction in the number of airstrikes. One person in the province of Idlib said there had been fighting during the day and things are actually really quiet now. In areas where there's been a lot of fighting, like the cities of Homs and Aleppo, people are still reporting shelling, some shooting. So it's early to tell. Last time, as you said, a cease-fire was attempted back in February, it took a little while for fighting to taper off, but it did hold for a few days.” ABC News: Images Of Syrian Children Capture Horror Of 5-Year Civil War “A week-long ceasefire is set to take effect in Syria at sundown on Monday. But there have been disturbing reports of new violence that has killed dozens, including children, hours before the fighting temporarily abates. According to one Syrian human rights group, more than 2,000 people have been killed in fighting over the past 40 days in the city of Aleppo, including 700 civilians and 160 children. On Saturday alone, presumed Russian or Syrian regime airstrikes on the rebel-held provinces of Idlib and Aleppo left more than 90 civilians dead, including 13 children in an attack on Idlib's city marketplace, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.” The Wall Street Journal: Syria Cease-Fire Gets A Fitful Start “A cease-fire took formal effect across Syria after sundown on Monday amid continued fighting, as the U.S. and Russia sought seven straight days of relative calm to trigger a broader peace initiative and military cooperation. Under the new cease-fire deal, once violence has been reduced to levels acceptable to both the U.S. and Russia for one week, the two countries will implement the next phase, establishing military cooperation and moving toward political negotiations. U.S. officials made clear that a pullback in fighting may not start in the first days of the cease-fire, and acknowledged the risk of failure in the latest effort to stem five years of violence.” Fox News: Sniper Takes Out ISIS Executioner From A Mile Away “A sharpshooter killed a top ISIS executioner and three other jihadists with a single bullet from nearly a mile away -- just seconds before the fiend was set to burn 12 hostages alive with a flamethrower, according to a new report. The British Special Air Service marksman turned one of the most hated terrorists in Syria into a fireball by using a Barett .50-caliber rifle to strike a fuel tank affixed to the jihadi’s back, the UK’s Daily Star reported Sunday. The pack exploded, killing the sadistic terrorist and three of his flunkies, who were supposed to film the execution, last month, the paper said.” Iraq Radio Free Europe: Iraq: The Islamic State Group's Forgotten War “Another week, another cease-fire in Syria. Following a U.S and Russia-brokered deal, a ‘cessation of hostilities’ between Bashar al-Assad's forces and opposition groups was set to go into force on September 12. This, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, would allow for cooperation to defeat the extremist group Islamic State (IS) and other jihadist groups.  The cease-fire deal, timed for the start of Eid al-Adha, comes in the wake of an intense round of fighting over the divided city of Aleppo. Optimists hope that it will at least enable aid to be brought into the beleaguered city. No one seems to think it will last for any serious length of time.” Turkey Reuters: Ailed Kurdish Militant Says Conflict With Turkey Could Be Settled In Six Months: Brother “A three-decade conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants could be resolved within six months if talks were to be revived, the jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said, according to remarks by his brother on Monday. They were the first public comments from Ocalan in more than a year, after the government suspended visits to his island prison in April 2015, and they come at a time of violence and political upheaval. ‘He said that if the state is ready for this project, we can finish it in six months and that the previous (peace) process has not been completely wiped out,’ Mehmet Ocalan quoted his brother as saying, at a news conference in Diyarbakir on Monday.” Reuters: Turkey Removes Two Dozen Elected Mayors In Kurdish Militant Crackdown “Turkey appointed new administrators in two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday after removing their elected mayors over suspected links to militants, triggering pockets of protest in its volatile southeastern region bordering Syria and Iraq. Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse demonstrators outside local government buildings in Suruc on the Syrian border as new administrators took over, security sources said. There were smaller protests elsewhere in the town. There were also disturbances in the main regional city of Diyarbarkir and in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, where police entered the municipality building and unfurled a large red Turkish flag, taking down the white local government flags that had previously flown.” Reuters: Car Bomb Targets Government Buildings In Eastern Turkish City “Suspected Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb near local government offices in Turkey's southeastern city of Van on Monday, wounding scores of people, a day after two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities were stripped of their office. The blast hit some 200 meters from the Van provincial governor's office, security sources said, ripping through the city's central district and setting buildings and cars aflame. Governor Ibrahim Tasyapan said 50 people had been wounded, including four police officers and four Iranian citizens thought to have been visiting during the Muslim Eid holiday. Van sits about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Iran.” The New York Times: Turkey’s Suspicious Mind-Set Has Been A Century In The Making “Analysts have used the terms ‘phobia,’ ‘trauma’ and ‘syndrome’ to describe the country’s mind-set, as if Turkey were a patient on a psychologist’s couch. Ever since Sèvres, they have said, Turkey as a nation has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. One way the syndrome is believed to have manifested itself is in Turkey’s denial of the Armenian genocide. More recently, Turks have blamed the United States and Western allies for huge street protests, a corruption scandal and this summer’s failed military coup. The Turkish government has accused followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, of plotting the coup. But rather than talking about how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had allowed Mr. Gulen’s supporters to gain a foothold in the nation’s military, the Turkish public has been consumed with blaming the United States.” Afghanistan Reuters: Gunmen Attack Hospital In Southern Afghanistan “Two gunmen entered a hospital in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday, setting off a gunbattle with security forces before both were killed, officials said. Samim Khpalwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar, said the apparent target for the attack was the deputy governor who was intending to visit the hospital, a large regional facility that provides health services to war victims, including members of the army and police. One member of the security forces was killed along with the two attackers in the exchange of fire. Afghanistan has seen a string of militant attacks in recent months, denting confidence in the ability of the U.S.-backed government to ensure security 15 years after the hardline Taliban were ousted.” Reuters: Afghan President Expresses Hope For Peace Deal With Notorious Warlord “Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Monday a peace agreement with one of the country's most notorious Islamist warlords is close to being concluded, offering hope of progress toward ending decades of conflict. Negotiations with Hizb-i-Islami, a militant group of several hundred fighters led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a veteran of almost 40 years of fighting in Afghanistan, have been going on since May, when a draft accord was signed. But a final agreement has been held up with many on the government side suspicious of bringing the prominent Pashtun warlord into the political fold and civil rights activists concerned about longstanding accusations of human rights abuses against him.” Yemen Reuters: In Yemen's Remote Mountains, War - And Progress - Remain Distant “In villages perched high on a mountain in western Yemen, residents are a safe distance from a conflict raging through most of the country, but they endure a hardscrabble existence little changed from hundreds of years ago. Long used to a livelihood without electricity or running water, they have felt little impact from the 18 months of civil war which have cut those essential services to many of Yemen's 28 million people. Dinner is still cooked as usual on an open fire, and dawn light heralds the start of work in the fields. But far from a country idyll, the sunny days in the crisp green hills are a medieval struggle for survival. People in the Jafariya district of the western Raymah province haul basic goods uphill by foot, donkeyback and even a pulley-powered cable car soaring between peaks.” Middle East Reuters: Israel Attacks Syrian Post After Stray Shell Crosses Border “Israeli aircraft attacked a Syrian artillery post on Saturday after a stray shell from fighting in Syria's civil war landed inside the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, Israel's military said. The shell landed just across the border, causing no injuries, and in retaliation the air force targeted ‘\artillery positions of the Syrian regime’, the military said. The Israeli military has responded similarly in the past when mortar fire from Syria's war has landed in the Golan, territory that Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war. Syrian state television quoted a Syrian military source as saying the Israeli strike was aimed at helping an offensive by hardline Islamist rebels who had launched an offensive against Syrian troops. Israel has largely stayed on the sidelines of Syria's civil war, keeping watch over the Golan Heights frontier and occasionally carrying out air strikes or returning mortar fire if there is a specific threat.” BBC: Israeli Teenagers Held Over Web Attacks “Two Israeli teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of running a service that allowed paying customers to attack websites. The vDos service the pair are suspected to have run bombarded target sites with data, seeking to knock them offline. The vDos website went offline shortly before the men were taken into custody. The arrests came soon after cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs posted a lengthy article claiming to expose the controllers of the vDos service. But an Israeli police spokesman told Israeli newspaper Haaretz the arrests had come after a tip-off from the FBI. Haaretz and The Marker reported that Itay Huri and Yarden Bidani, both 18, had been put under house arrest for 10 days. Both had posted a bail payment of about $10,000 (£7,500).” United Kingdom RT: ‘Extremist’ Children Under 10 Referred To UK De-Radicalization Programs daily “Efforts to stem Islamic and far-right extremism in the UK have led to children under the age of 10 being referred to government de-radicalization programs on an almost daily basis, new figures show. A total of 4,611 people, around half of them children and teens, have been flagged up for possible intervention in the past year to stop them falling under the influence of extremist ideologies. The figures have jumped 75 percent since last year, when local authorities - including schools and councils - were given a statutory duty to stop people being drawn into terrorism, known as the Prevent strategy. Islamic extremism is involved in 70 percent of those referred, while 15 percent of cases are related to far-right ideas, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show.” Daily Caller: UK Police Ignored Extremist Muslim Cops, Feared Politically Correct Backlash “London’s Metropolitan Police turned its cheek on complaints of Islamic extremism to avoid looking Islamophobic, one former officer says. Javaria Saeed, a Muslim herself, told her leadership about a fellow officer advocating female genital mutilation and the use of Sharia courts to settle domestic violence disputes. Saeed was an officer at the ‘Scottland Yard,’ the headquarters for London Metropolitan police. She contends that the department ignored her and ‘refused to properly investigate because they were afraid of being called Islamophobic and racist.’ While the agency looked the other way, Saeed faced criticism from other Muslim officers for refusing to cover herself with a veil. She was ‘better off at home looking after her husband,’ said one of her colleagues.” Germany The Times Of Israel: Germany Says Over 500 Potential Attackers Currently In Country “Germany’s interior minister has warned his country is host to hundreds of potential Islamist terrorists who could carry out attacks against the European nation. Thomas de Maiziere told the Bild newspaper there were at least 520 potential attackers currently in the country, according to Reuters. Another 360 people, he said, were also relevant targets for police due to their ties to potential terrorists. ‘The terror threat now stems from foreign hit teams as well as fanatical lone wolves in Germany,’ de Maiziere said. Though counter-terrorism officials are monitoring and investigating all known potential assailants, ‘the authorities are assuming there are undiscovered lone wolf terrorists out there.’” France Newsweek: French PM Valls: France Foils New Attacks Every Day “French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the country’s security forces are foiling attack plots ‘every day’ and warned that new attacks were likely, French broadcaster Europe 1 reports. Valls spoke to national broadcasters on Sunday, addressing a wide variety of topics, revolving largely around the economy and security. France has been on high alert for extremist attacks and in a state of emergency since 130 people were killed last November in Paris; however, despite more arrests and patrols, more deadly attacks have struck other cities. ‘Today the threat is at a maximum, and we are a target,’ Valls said.” Daily Caller: ISIS Increasingly Using Women And Children To Terrorize France “French authorities prosecuted a female ‘terrorist commando’ Saturday, highlighting the growing Islamic State trend of recruiting women and children as potential terrorists in France. Paris counter-terrorism authorities discovered a car September 4, with three bottles of diesel fuel and five canisters of cooking gas rigged to explode near the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral. Paris police now believe that nearly all the terror plotters involved with the rigged car were women who were run by ‘remote control’ by a notorious ISIS terrorist in Syria. The women put up a fierce fight when arrested by French police Thursday.” Europe Politico: New Security Chief Faces EU Test — Just Don’t Mention Brexit “For Julian King, political jabs about the U.K.’s impending exit from the EU may be the easiest part of a confirmation hearing before members of the European Parliament on Monday evening. Far harder for Britain’s commissioner-designate for security may be answering questions about how he intends to improve security and intelligence-gathering on a fractured Continent facing an unprecedented terror threat, and to reassure an anxious, skeptical public. Lawmakers likely to have a prominent role in the hearing before the Civil Liberties Committee said they are not eager to quiz King on political matters, or even on the U.K.’s longstanding EU opt-out on matters of security. Instead, they said they aim to press King on challenges such as improving intelligence-sharing among EU countries and containing the spread of radicalism, particularly in prisons and among disaffected youth.” Daily Caller: ISIS Controlling Low-Level Terrorists From Afar To Potentially Distract From Larger Plot “In a new twist, the Islamic State is reportedly controlling smaller terrorist groups from distant locations in order to distract from bigger, more intricate plots. High-level officials across the globe are concerned that small-scale terror attacks in Europe not only showcase the ability of ISIS to effectively administer terror attacks from afar, but also its capacity to increase its operational complexity and maintain a robust communications system. The fragmented and far-flung attacks could allow the Islamic State to divert law enforcement attention away from its more centralized planning. Investigators believe that the foiled terrorist attack which occurred adjacent to the the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last week was a prime example of ISIS capabilities.” Technology NPR: Cyber Bombs Reshape U.S. Battle Against Terrorism “Fifteen years after 9/11, the battle against terrorist groups has gone high tech with the leveling of what Defense Secretary Ash Carter called cyber bombs. The actions the DOD has discussed sound more like amped up intelligence functions as opposed to more traditional kinetic functions that we'd call bombing, usually. Amped up intelligence, he says. Think of it as the military doing a spectacular hack as opposed to blowing things up. The internet allows ISIS to have a secure method of communication across the globe. It helps the group recruit and raise money. That's the bad news. The good news is that because terrorist groups rely so heavily on the internet, it offers new avenues for the U.S. and its allies to fight them. American-intelligence officials tell NPR that the U.S. military has used a number of cyber exploits against ISIS, including malware that allows them to have back doors into ISIS's computer systems. That means, potentially, the U.S. military has the ability to stop messages from being delivered or can alter commands without ISIS knowing.” Financing of Terrorism Alwatan: Haj Season Exploited For Terror Financing And Money Laundering “The Ministry of the Interior (in Saudi Arabia) announced a number of preventive measures and controls to combat suspicious financial operations, including money laundering and terrorist financing, which may attempt to take advantage of the Haj season. The Ministry of Interior, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and the banking sector have succeeded in controlling the banking channels and preventing their usage for money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Nevertheless, money launderers and terrorist groups still manage to find alternative channels that rely specifically on the pilgrimage season, such as exploiting the religious passion of the faithful. One of the most important means and methods pursued by money launderers, especially during the pilgrimage season, is transferring funds by changing the form of the money. Although material transfer is not considered laundering, drug traffickers and others involved in dubious activities, for example, employ this method because it leaves no trace behind.” ISIS Buratha News: Mosul: While ISIS Digs A Huge Tunnel Residents Store Food “A source inside the city of Mosul said that ISIS terrorist gangs have begun digging a very large tunnel on the left side of the city. Meanwhile, local residents have started hoarding supplies in preparation for the operation to liberate {the city} which the government vowed to retake by the end of 2016.  The source added: "Members of the Hisbah yesterday arrested 20 people on charges of selling cigarettes. They were publicly tied to a cross-shaped pole for two hours during the night. They did the same to another group on the same charges in Al-Risala district on the right side of the city." The source also revealed there has been "a significant rise in food prices in Mosul with the approaching of Eid. In addition, residents are storing food in anticipation of the upcoming battle of Mosul.” Muslim Brotherhood Elwehda: Expert: The Crisis With Youth Will Not End By Blocking Financing By The Muslim Brotherhood Leadership “Sameh Eid, a dissident Brotherhood leader and researcher of Islamic movements, said that the crisis between the leaders and the youth {inside the Brotherhood} will not be resolved by ceasing money transfers to the latter. The Brotherhood organization in Egypt still finances committees in charge of subsistence to imprisoned members, bankrolls their families, collects donations and pays membership fees on behalf of prisoners and their families. Eid added that most of the Brotherhood's offices and supporters in the provinces have slipped out of the grip of Mahmoud Ezzat, acting Supreme Guide, and are not obeying his orders. This only deepens the gap between him and the youth and may prompt the announcement shortly of {all-out} defiance by Brotherhood youth, both home and abroad. Eid stressed that the Muslim Brotherhood youth will not calm down until the group's current leadership is replaced. They believe that the policies of Ezzat and his comrades have brought them to a deadlock.” Mogaz News: Ex-Brotherhood Leader: For Over 100 Years The Muslim Brotherhood Has Not Seen Corruption Like In The Rule Of Ezzat “Dr. Mohammed Habib, the former Deputy Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, claimed that Mahmoud Ezzat, acting Supreme Guide, has done what no agency or Brotherhood regime could ever do. The group is now splintered, he explained, into sects and factions that are fighting each other. This conflict will not end until one faction defeats the other. In this case, the Brotherhood will just be a dead body without a soul. Habib noted: "The Brotherhood, for 100 years since its inception, has not seen such corrupt leaders, as witnessed during Ezzat's rule. This is pushing the group towards further conflicts, and (will lead) in the future to the termination of the group's history.”