Our picksWhen Does a ‘Cyber Attack’ Demand Retaliation? | How Hamas Is Making Rockets | FISA Process: Tweak or Overhaul?, and more
· Terrorism Spreading ‘Unabated’ Across Africa, Warns US Commander
· DHS Intel Bulletin Warns of Risks as Attack Anniversaries Near
· How Militants in Airtight Sealed Gaza Keep Making Rockets
· Priti Patel Says U.K. Faces Heightened Terrorist Threat after Lockdown
· Reforming the FISA Process: Tweak or Overhaul?
· Assessing Parler’s Letter Documenting Warnings It Gave FBI of Jan. 6 Attack
· Why Didn’t the FBI Review Social Media Posts Announcing Plans for the Capitol Riot?
· When Does a ‘Cyber Attack’ Demand Retaliation? NATO Broadens Its View
Terrorism Spreading ‘Unabated’ Across Africa, Warns US Commander (Jeff Seldin, VOA News)
The United States and its Western allies are being forced to confront a grim reality in Africa where years of work to blunt the spread of terrorism, whether inspired by al-Qaida, the Islamic State or local groups, has fallen short, and could soon be eclipsed by the need to focus on adversaries like China and Russia. “Despite all of our best efforts this terrorism continues to spread,” the commander of U.S. forces in Africa, General Stephen Townsend, told a virtual defense forum Tuesday. “The spread of terrorism has continued relatively unabated,” Townsend added, noting the fate of future efforts could depend on the U.S. Defense Department’s ongoing force posture review, which will determine whether his command will get more troops or resources or be asked to find ways to do more with less. This is not the first time Townsend has called attention to Washington’s struggles to prevent the expansion of terrorist groups and ideologies across Africa. The U.S. general sounded the alarm last year, telling lawmakers, “Western and international and African efforts there are not getting the job done … ISIS and al-Qaida are on the march.
DHS Intel Bulletin Warns of Risks as Attack Anniversaries Near (Betsy Woodruff Swan, Politico)
The Department of Homeland Security has warned its law enforcement partners about concerns about violent attacks in the lead-up to the anniversaries of two domestic terror attacks, according to a recent intelligence bulletin reviewed by POLITICO. The department sent out the bulletin Monday. “While violent extremists typically have not conducted attacks on dates they perceive as significant, DHS continues to review publicly available social media for explicit threats of violence in the lead-up to anniversaries of DVE [domestic violent extremist] attacks, including the 2019 El Paso shooting on 3 August and the 2017 Charlottesville car attack on 12 August,” the bulletin says. On August 3, 2019, a gunman opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, leaving 22 people dead. (Cont.)
