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Armed conflict
New research finds that human conflict exhibits remarkable regularity despite substantial geographic and cultural differences.
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Domestic terrorism
The FBI is warning state and local and law enforcement around the country of plans for violent action by right-wing extremists in the day leading up to the inauguration of Joe Biden on 20 January. According to the FBI, various right-wing extremist groups are planning a series of protests in the capitals of all fifty states between 16 and 20 January, and in Washington, D.C. between the 17 and 20 of January.
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Democracy watch
In the wake of the mob incursion that took over the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, it’s clear that many people are concerned about violence from far-right extremists. But they may not understand the real threat. While researching my forthcoming book, It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the U.S., I discovered that there are five key mistakes people make when thinking about far-right extremists. These mistakes obscure the extremists’ true danger.
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Extremism
On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, pro-Trump extremists, including some identified right-wing extremists, stormed the U.S. Capitol building, interrupting the Congressional session affirming the election results and forcing a partial evacuation. In chatrooms and other extremist forums, many people cheered the actions of those at the Capitol, praising the trespassers as patriots who were willing to “stand up” to politicians and the government. many users shared their belief that war is coming, and some encouraged people to be prepared for further action.
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Extremism
Numerous social networks were quick to impose bans President Donald Trump, preventing him from continuing to disseminate lies on their platforms, and, more importantly, blocking him from using his social media accounts to incite violence. For many critics, these restrictions came four years too late. The assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters has led to fresh calls in Germany for more restrictions on extremist speech in Germany, too.
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Democracy watch
What is the cost of propaganda, misinformation and conspiracy theories? Democracy and public safety, to name just two things. The United States has received a stark lesson on how online propaganda and misinformation have an offline impact.
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PERSPECTIVE: Democracy watch
On 6 January, a large number of pro-Trump rioters occupied portions of the U.S. Capitol building to protest and disrupt the counting and certification of electoral votes from the November 2020 election. Herb Lin writes that the significance of this event for American democracy, the rule of law, and the depths of extremism in the U.S. populace will be addressed by others, “but I am compelled to point out this siege has created potentially serious cyber risks for Congress and other affected offices.”
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Parliament security
The president of Germany’s lower legislative house, Wolfgang Schäuble, on Thursday said officials would examine improvements that could be made to parliamentary security in Germany after the storming of the U.S. Capitol building. Schäuble’s office said he would examine “what conclusions should be drawn from this for the protection of the Bundestag,” as the lower house is called, in light of the scenes from Washington.
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Terrorism
Ten suspects will face court in the second half of next year over the 2016 Brussels terror attacks which left 32 people dead. One of the defendants was allegedly also involved in the 2015 Paris attacks.
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Muslins in Europe
Since the start of 2021, Austria has required the registration of all imams in the country. Now Austria is calling for the European Union to adopt the registration of imams, the worship leaders of Mosques in Muslim communities.
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ARGUMENT: Anti-technology terrorism
If fear of 5G technology proves to be the motive for the Christmas-Day bombing in Nashville, Tennessee, no one should be surprised. Audrey Kurth Cronin writes that if [Nashville bomber] Anthony Warner was indeed protesting 5G networks, it shines a light on the long-standing need for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement to meld global and local efforts to get ahead of cyber-driven threats to critical infrastructure. “Authorities need to strengthen their ability to meet anti-technology attacks on our vulnerable critical infrastructure, especially by looking close to home.”
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Terrorism watch-list
Uighur activists and experts alike welcomed the removal of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from the U.S. terrorist list, saying the move by Washington last month helps the religious minority fight more effectively for its rights, while making it harder for China to portray its crackdown in Xinjiang as a counterterrorism measure.
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Terrorism
A new report issued by INTERPOL assesses the impact of COVID-19 on global terrorism, trends and potential risks related to attacks on vulnerable targets and bioterrorism is the focus of. As COVID-19 cases subside in some regions and surge in others, the report underlines the critical need to monitor the reaction and response by terrorist networks, violent extremist groups, and other potentially dangerous non-state actors.
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Terrorism
It has been 26 years since the bloody attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires which left 85 people dead. So far, nobody has been convicted of the truck bombing — but that could soon change.
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Terrorism
DOJ on Monday announced criminal charges against a new suspect in the 1988 terrorist bombing of a Pan Am airliner that blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland. The charges against Abu Agela Masud, a Libyan bombing expert, came on the 32nd anniversary of the deadly bombing and two days before Barr steps down as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
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Domestic terrorism
Six men were charged Thursday with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in an alleged plot by right-wing extremists who were angry over her coronavirus containment policies. The suspects were arrested in October after an FBI probe into alleged plans to kidnap Whitmer at her vacation home in northern Michigan.
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Polarization
The rise of populist movements is changing political systems around the world. As support for these “anti-elite” movements intensifies, many are scrambling to understand whether economic decline and intensifying inter-group conflict are playing a role.
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Terrorism
An al-Shabab terror group operative accused of conspiring to carry out a 9/11-style attack in the United States has been brought to New York to face terrorism charges, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday. Kenyan national Cholo Abdi Abdullah is accused of conspiring to hijack a commercial airliner and crash it into a building in the United States. As part of the plot directed by senior al-Shabab leaders, Abdullah obtained pilot training in the Philippines.
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Terrorism
Since the April 2019 fall of Sudanese dictator Omar Al-Bashir, the expectation was that the United States would remove Sudan from the Terrorism-Supporting States list. On Monday, 14 December, the United States has formally done so.
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No-fly lawsuit
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that three Muslim men who were put on the U.S. government’s no-fly list for allegedly refusing to serve as FBI informants could sue FBI agents for monetary damages.
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More headlines
The long view
Extremist-Related Shootouts with Police Soar in 2020
During the 6 January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, violent Trump supporters—reinforced by a broad coalition of right-wing extremists—attacked police, who appeared to be caught unprepared for a violent encounter with a crowd which has been loudly and consistently supportive of law enforcement. In 2020, there were 16 incidents in which police and extremists exchanged gunfire, an increase from the 11-year average of nine per year.
Not Your Father’s Extremists
Two studies of the demographic characteristics of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on 6 January found a surprising, and disturbing, fact: The majority of those arrested for storming the Capitol were middle class, middle-aged, employed, earning more than the average household income, mostly college-educated, and had no ties with the extremist groups. One study says that the finding suggests that there is “a new kind of violent mass movement in which more ‘normal’ Trump supporters—middle-class and, in many cases, middle-aged people without obvious ties to the far right—joined with extremists in an attempt to overturn a presidential election.” The second study says its findings suggest the emergence of “a new breed of extremist, one foundationally animated by devotion to President Trump, placing him over party or country.”
The Last Time the Justice Department Prosecuted a Seditious Conspiracy Case
Lenawee County, Michigan, had an apocalyptic Christian nationalist militia problem about a decade ago. The group called itself the Hutaree, a name that members said meant “Christian Warriors,” though the FBI said it didn’t mean anything at all. The FBI had an informer inside the group, and nine of its members were charged with conspiracy, sedition, and various weapon charges. Judge Victoria Roberts acquitted the Hutaree members of the serious charges of conspiracy and sedition. Why should anyone care about the Hutaree now? Jacob Schulz writes that we should, “because one of those serious charges was seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C.§ 2384. It was the last time the Justice Department would use the statute until the present day.” It’s looking more and more like prosecutors might dust off the statute in response to the insurrection of Jan. 6. “The trial judge’s decision in the Hutaree case isn’t binding precedent. But the Hutaree are worth a second look.”
How Trump’s Focus on Antifa Distracted Attention from the Far-Right Threat
In response to Donald Trump’s election-related insistence that the radical left endangered the country, federal law enforcement shifted resources last year from what experts agreed was a more ominous threat: the growing far-right extremism around the country. Trump’s efforts to focus his administration on the antifa movement and leftist groups did not stop the DOJ and the FBI from pursuing cases of right-wing extremism, but the effect of his direction was nonetheless substantial. The scale and intensity of the threat developing on the right became clear on 6 January.