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CEP WEEKLY ROUNDUP
News and Updates from the Counter Extremism Project
CEP Policy and Program
Updates
Enduring
Links: ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood
The historical and contemporary connections between the
Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, and al-Qaeda are analyzed and explored in depth
in the CEP report released January 26. Before assuming the highest
positions of ISIS and al-Qaeda, Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi, Osama bin Laden, and Ayman
al-Zawahiri belonged to the Muslim
Brotherhood, which served as a bridge, as it does today, between
young Islamists and more violent jihadist groups. As the progenitor
of the modern Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood underpins the
belief system that fuels al-Qaeda and ISIS. The groups share ideological
roots in the writings of the late Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid
Qutb, and while they can disagree, their similarities far outweigh
their differences.
Senior Advisor Hany Farid, CEP Technology, Featured in Major
Media
The launch of CEP’s eGLYPH technology in June 2016, developed with
Dartmouth College Computer Science Professor Dr. Hany Farid, continues to
generate great interest from international media and policymakers. The
technology is capable of detecting and removing extremist images, video,
and audio content from Internet and social media platforms. CEP’s
technology was noted in a speech by European Union Counterterrorism
Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove during an EU Parliament Hearing
‘Preventing and countering radicalisation and violent extremism’ and in a
New
York Times opinion piece written by two women suing Twitter for
its alleged complicity in the death of their family members in terror
attacks.
On January 27, Dr. Farid was interviewed on public radio’s Science
Friday about the technology, as well as the reluctance of tech
companies thus far to adopt it. Dr. Farid said, “My view is we can no
longer pretend the Internet is not a place where terrorists are
recruiting, radicalizing and glorifying with real consequences. Social
media companies are nervous that if they go down this road, that
eventually they will have to go down another road. I don't buy into
that slippery slope argument. I genuinely believe we have a real and
immediate need, a real and immediate danger and a real and immediate
problem we have to address. We have the technology to address
it and I think we can do it in a way that is thoughtful to all
aspects of this problem. If you talk to the families of the victims
of San Bernardino, of Orlando, of Brussels and of Paris, they are tired
of their families being murdered, tired of people being radicalized
online and getting a free pass because people are saying the problem
is too complex.”
HBO’s
VICE News Tonight in December described CEP’s hashing technology and
efforts to catalogue the types of content that already violate the terms
of service of major Internet and social media companies. Dr. Farid was
also recently interviewed by National
Public Radio (NPR), the Guardian,
and Defense
One.
Former
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly Joins the Counter Extremism Project
Ray Kelly, the former Commissioner of the New York City Police
Department, became a member of the CEP Advisory Board in December. Commissioner
Kelly spent nearly 50 years in public service, including 14 as the police
commissioner for the City of New York. As the longest-serving police
commissioner in the city’s history, Commissioner Kelly created the first
counterterrorism bureau of any municipal police department in the country
and a new global intelligence program, stationing New York City
detectives in 11 foreign cities.
CEP Research and Analysis
Report
on Iranian-Backed Houthis Released Following Attacks on Saudi Ship,
U.N. Facility
Following Houthi
attacks on a Saudi ship and a U.N. facility in southern Saudi Arabia on
January 30, CEP released an updated analysis report on the Iranian-backed
extremist group that included new details on their operations and
history. A Saudi ship patrolling in the Red Sea was reportedly attacked
by three Houthi “suicide gunboats,” killing two crew members and injuring
three, while on the same day, a U.N. building was hit by Katyusha
rockets. The Houthis have fought the Yemeni government for more than a
decade and rejected a 2011 peace agreement that ended the Yemen civil
war. In 2014, they captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa and drove out the
internationally recognized government.
CEP
Releases Updated Database of Terrorists and Extremists
On January 18, CEP released the Terrorists
and Extremists Database (TED), an updated, searchable list and
interactive map containing detailed biographical information on more than
400 of the world’s most dangerous extremist leaders, propagandists,
operatives, and financiers. Users can search the database in a number of
different ways: by name, organization, type of leader, type of operative,
and country of origin. Among the TED profiles are extremist leaders
such as:
Mali, Burkina Faso Country Reports Released Following Deadly
Truck Bombing
Following a suicide truck bombing at a military camp in the northern
Mali city of Gao that killed at least 47 people and wounded more than
100, CEP released analysis reports on the countries of Mali
and Burkina
Faso, and on Islamist extremist group al-Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The attack—claimed by AQIM’s
Malian branch al-Mourabitoun—targeted
Malian soldiers and members of pro-government forces who were set to
begin mixed patrols, a key step in the implementation of a peace
agreement between the government and Tuareg rebels that ended a 2012-2013
separatist movement in Gao and surrounding areas.
CounterPoint
Blog: Terror
Stays Closer to Home
ISIS announced itself to the world in 2014 by conquering
Mosul, an Iraqi city of 1.8 million people, with only about 1,500 lightly
armed men, assisted by coordinated social media promotion and online
marketing. By late in the year, however, awakened to ISIS’s brutality,
the U.S. and other nations struck back. When ISIS began to lose territory
in Iraq and Syria, it changed its strategy, telling followers that rather
than travel to the caliphate, they should strike against non-believers in
their home countries. In this blog, CEP Research analyst Marielle Harris
explains how ISIS followers responded.
Iraqi Shiite Militias Fight for Assad in Aleppo, Accused by
U.N. of Human Rights Abuses
Iraqi Shiite militias fighting with Hezbollah
for the Assad regime in Syria were accused of human rights abuses. CEP
released updated analysis reports on the most powerful militias, Kata’ib
Hezbollah (KH) and Asaib
Ahl al-Haq (AAH). In December, the United Nations implicated
AAH’s Syrian wing, known as Harakat al-Nujaba, in the slaughter of dozens
of civilians in Aleppo. Although supposedly operating independently of
AAH in Iraq, Harakat al-Nujaba is comprised primarily of AAH fighters and
those from fellow Iranian-backed militia KH. Iraq’s Shiite
militias are referred to as Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). In a July
report, Human Rights Watch documented killings, disappearances, torture,
and the destruction of homes by PMF groups during the fight to retake
Fallujah and other Sunni-dominated areas in Iraq from ISIS. Nevertheless,
the Shiite militias were formally recognized by the Iraqi Parliament in
November 2016.
Social
Media Post of the Week
CEP extensively monitors social media sites and frequently features
a revealing posting in the Weekly Roundup. This example was found on
Telegram.
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