• U.K. stepping up effort to prevent radicalization of vulnerable Muslim youths

    The British government has stepped up its efforts to prevent more vulnerable Muslim youths from adopting jihadist views and joining terrorist groups, specifically the Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. The government’s Prevent initiative, which aims to “stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism,” funds community campaigns that mentor young people at risk of jihadist recruitment. Now it also encourages local officials and community leaders to identify and report evidence of radicalization in at risk neighborhoods throughout the United Kingdom.

  • Lone-wolf domestic terrorism on the rise

    As the White House prepares to host a major summit this week examining the threat of violent extremism, a new study of domestic terrorism released last week finds that the vast majority of this violence is coming from “lone wolves” or “leaderless resistance” groups composed of no more than two people. The report examines more than sixty domestic terror incidents. Almost three-quarters of the incidents were carried out, or planned, by a lone wolf, a single person acting without accomplices. Ninety percent of the incidents were the work of no more than two persons.

  • The politics of (not) counting: why war on terror’s civilian toll matters

    Since 2007, a growing body of literature has emerged from inside the U.S. military that stresses the importance of tracking civilian casualties on strategic rather than moral grounds. A key component of the counterinsurgency doctrine (COIN) developed under General David Petraeus’s auspices was that the United States needed to move away from enemy-centric operations and embrace a more population-centric approach. By focusing on winning the hearts and minds of ordinary people, it was argued that the insurgency’s support structure could be removed without having to confront them head-on. The overall aim is not to gain control of territory as you would in a conventional war, but to win the local population’s support by convincing them that you can protect and provide. Within this framework, civilians’ deaths become a strategic consideration rather than a purely legal one. Avoiding civilian casualties was not simply a matter of adhering to international law, but an essential part of winning the war. Lieutenant-General James L. Terry, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, recently admitted, however, that he had no idea how many civilians have died as a result of coalition airstrikes in the region. As well as being questionable on moral grounds, the refusal to count civilian casualties could be seen as a strategic mistake on the military’s own terms — fanning the flames of resentment in a region already in the midst of a violent war.

  • Boko Haram militants launch first attack against targets in Chad

    Boko Haram is continuing to expand its campaign of terror beyond Nigeria: Overnight, Boko haram militants have attacked a Chadian village, killing several people in the first attack by the Nigerian Islamist group against a target in Chad. Boko Haram militants, in control of a vast swath of territory in north-east Nigeria, have already launched a number of cross-border attacks in recent weeks against two other neighbors of Nigeria – Cameroon and Niger. The group’s declared goal is to carve out an Islamist emirate around the Lake Chad area which borders Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger.

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  • Alarm in Israel: Hezbollah, Assad army fight to take areas near Israel border from rebels

    In a move viewed with growing alarm in Israel, Syrian and Hezbollah forces, under the command of senior Iranian officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, have launched a sweeping campaign to take over areas on the Syrian side of the Israel-Syria border on the Golan Heights. These areas have been under the control of moderate anti-Assad rebels since the spring of 2014. Iran, eager to increase the military pressure on Israel, has decided to gain control of areas to the east of Israel’s northern Galilee, now under the control of moderate Syrian rebels. Hezbollah’s control of south and south-east Lebanon already allows Iran presence immediately to the west and north Israel’s northern Galilee region.

  • Illinois mother of four to stay in jail until she goes on trial for supporting terrorism

    A federal judge has refusedto release 34-year old mother of four, Mediha Medy Salkicevic, a Bosnian native residing in Schiller Park, Illinois, accused of conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists and providing material support to terrorists including the Islamic State and al-Qaeda in Iraq. Salkicevic is member of a 6-person ring scheduled to go on trial in St. Louis on charges of providing material support to terrorist organization.

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  • U.K. military examined feasibility, impact of terrorists using weaponized Ebola virus

    At the height of the Ebola crisis in West Africa last year, British military experts were asked to investigate the feasibility and likely impact of a an Ebola virus “weaponized” by terrorists. The report was prepared last October, and the U.K. Ministry of Defense on Friday released a heavily redacted version of it. The report identified three potential scenarios of terrorists exploiting the Ebola virus for bioterrorism. Details of the first scenario are completely blacked out, as are most of details of the second scenario, which is described as “logistically and technically challenging for a non-state group to undertake.” The third scenario, the details of which are also mostly redacted, was described as the “most technically challenging.”

  • Mystery surrounding Argentinian prosecutor’s death deepens

    Iranian intelligence operatives, using Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad agents, plotted and carried out two massive bombings in Buenos Aires twenty years ago: In 1992 a bomb destroyed the Israeli embassy, killing twenty-nine and injuring 242. In 1994, a powerful car-bomb exploded outside a Jewish Federation building, killing eighty-five and injuring 150. Former president Carlos Menem is already facing charges of being bribed by Iran to help hide the involvement of Iranian officials and their local accomplices in the two attacks. Alberto Nisman, a federal prosecutor investigating the involvement of the current president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, in the cover-up, announced that a 320-page report he had prepared, and a large volume of supporting evidence, conclusively proved that Fernandez and her foreign minister,Héctor Timerman, negotiated a secret deal with Iran to keep Iran’s responsibility for the early 1990s’ attacks under wraps in exchange for a lucrative grain-for-oil deal. A day before Nisman was to present his findings to the Argentine parliament, he was found dead in his apartment.

  • Six charged in St. Louis for supporting terrorism

    In a terrorism-related investigation that involved the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations, the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, , and police in St. Louis and St. Louis County, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged three St. Louis County residents, two New York residents, and one person from Illinois – all immigrated to the United States from Bosnia —with conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists and for providing material support to terrorists. The six raised and sent money and supplies to Jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq.

  • Nigeria delays election by six weeks, citing war with Boko Haram

    The government of Nigeria has postponed the election, originally scheduled for the coming weekend, saying the reason for the postponement was the need to allow international forces to take areas in the country’s north-east from the Islamist Boko Haram. Nigeria’s electoral commission said on Saturday that the election, rather than being held on 14 February, will be held on 28 March. Observers both inside and outside Nigeria said the election delay has political undertones, and that the postponement has more to do with a desperate last-ditch effort by President Jonathan to shore-up his declining political fortunes than with security considerations.

  • U.K. counter-radicalization mentoring program proves successful

    In 2006, the U.K. Home Office launched the Channelprogram to engage vulnerable youths with mentors who could steer them away from extremist propaganda, be it anti-immigrant politics or Islamist militancy. Only eighty young adults were referred to the program during its first two years, but last year, 1,281 were referred. To date, a total of 3,934 people have been referred to participate in Channel. About 20 percent of them were considered to require further consultation with mentors.

  • ISIS releases an instructional manual for women in ISIS-controlled areas

    An all-female militia set up by the Islamic State (ISIS) has published a 10,000-word manifesto on how women in Islam should live according to the group’s interpretation of the Quran. Girls are told to marry at the age of nine, women are banned from going to work, and both must remain indoors and leave the house only in exceptional circumstances.The document, “Women of the Islamic State: Manifesto and Case Study,” was released in Arabic last month on a jihadi forum.

  • Why do women in West turn to Islamic State? For the same reasons as men

    What makes someone want to travel to some of the most dangerous places on earth to fight alongside terrorists? It’s a question we’ve been asking about young people for more than a decade. But the rise of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq has seen the onset of a particular phenomenon – more and more young women are now leaving the West to support the group in its controlled territories. Many of the reasons given by female migrants to IS territories are the same as those espoused by their male peers, that is, it appears that religious revivalist tendencies inspire female activists, who ultimately seek to embrace “a new vision for society.” These young men and women have been radicalized by a selective ideology, which draws upon an alarmist worldview (for example that Islam and Muslims are under threat). This promotes a rapid response, as the threat posed is perceived as immediate. Salafi-jihadist groups in the U.K. and elsewhere have been extremely effective at turning this rhetoric into a significant operation. Authorities must target these Islamist groups acting as a recruitment base for both men and women migrating to IS territories.

  • U.S. Muslim leaders uneasy about counter-radicalization pilot program

    Later this month, the White House and the Justice Departmentwill hostthe Countering Violent Extremism summit and meet with leaders of America’s Muslim communities to launch a programaimed at curbing Islamist radicalization in the United States. The Twin Cities, Boston, and Los Angeles have been selected as pilot cities for the program, but some Muslim leaders are concerned that federal law enforcement agencies will use the program to gather intelligence. American Muslim leaders want to be reassured that the program will not be used for blanket surveillance of their communities.

  • NYPD launches counterterrorism unit

    In the coming months, the New York Police Department (NYPD) patrol officers will spend more time visiting community members to learn about their public safety concerns, but the department has also launched a new unit, consisting of officers equipped with high-powered weapons that could be used for both keeping protests from becoming unruly and guarding terrorist targets such as Times Square. The Strategic Response Group (SRG), announced last Thursday, will soon respond to terror threats throughout the city, said Police Commissioner William J. Bratton. Since Bratton’s announcement, the NYPD has clarified that the SRG will only work on counterterror initiatives.