• Extreme vettingU.S. immigrant vetting system is already extreme enough: Study

    In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. has tightened the vetting of immigrants and foreign travelers. The post-9/11 system has worked: From 2002 to 2016, the vetting system failed and permitted the entry of 1 radicalized terrorist for every 29 million visa or status approvals. Only 1 of the 13 post-9/11 vetting failures resulted in a deadly attack in the United States. Thus, the rate for deadly terrorists was 1 for every 379 million visa or status approvals from 2002 through 2016. During this same period, the chance of an American being killed in an attack committed by a terrorist who entered as a result of a vetting failure was 1 in 328 million per year.

  • ETA apologyBasque militant group ETA apologizes to terrorism victims

    The Basque militant group ETA, which had conducted a four-decade campaign of violence and terrorism for the creation of an independent Basque state (the Basque region straddles the Spanish-French border), apologized to the victims of its violence. Over 800 people were killed by ETA during the conflict which officially ended in 2011. Victims of the group’s violence have rejected the apology.

  • TerrorismTesting technology to alert federal agents to potential terrorist threats

    The face of terrorism in the United States has changed dramatically following 9/11. According to a report by the New America Foundation, every jihadist who has conducted a lethal attack inside the United States since 2001 has come from inside the country, already having established citizenship or legal residency. DARPA has launched an ambitious new program called Modeling Adversarial Activity (MAA) which aims to transform the way national security organizations identify emerging threats.

  • Hate groupsBundestag rejects AfD recruit on suspicion of terrorism

    The staff of the German Bundestag have denied an entry card to a German soldier recruited by an opposition far-right parliamentarian. The soldier was suspected of being a member of a right-wing, nationalist network within the German military plotting to kill politicians supporting liberal immigration policies – and then blame Muslim immigrants for the killings.

  • Terror tunnelsFollowing destruction of Hamas terror tunnel, Israel reveals secret of underground defense

    Following the discovery and destruction of the longest and deepest terror tunnel extending into Israeli territory, over the weekend, the IDF revealed a new “laboratory,” where it employs advanced technology to detect tunnels.

  • IranIDF: Iranian drone shot down over Israeli airspace in February was armed with explosives

    The Israeli military said that the Iranian drone that entered into Israeli airspace in February was armed with explosives and demonstrated “an Iranian intent to carry out an attack” inside Israel. According Air Force Chief of Staff Brigadier General Tomer Bar, the drone was an advanced model and had a signature that Israel had not previously encountered.

  • ISISIslamic State schooled children as soldiers – how can their ‘education’ be undone?

    By James S. Morris and Tristan Dunning

    There is a fundamental difference between IS’s use of child soldiers and the practice elsewhere. IS hasn’t just recruited child soldiers. It systematically militarized the education systems of captured Iraqi and Syrian territory to turn the region’s children into ideological timebombs. The regular processes of identifying child combatants, disarming and reintegrating them into their communities through rehabilitation and reconciliation are all necessary. But they are vastly insufficient in this instance.

  • Hate on the leftIsrael’s Labor Party cuts ties with U.K. Labor leader Corbyn over “hostility” toward Jews

    Israel’s Labor Party announced on Tuesday that it had cut all formal ties with the leader of the British Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn, over his “hostility” towards the Jewish community, Reuters reported. Corbyn is facing allegations of turning a blind eye to rampant anti-Semitism and has failed to take adequate actions to combat rising anti-Jewish sentiments in his party.

  • Hate on the leftLabor and anti-Semitism: these are the roots of the problem on the left

    By Philip Spencer

    The current crisis in the Labor party has exposed some profound fault lines on the left, with considerable evidence of mounting anti-Semitism inside the party. The far right was the most radical in its enthusiasm to solve the “Jewish Question” through the Holocaust, but the notion that there is such a question has been shared by some on the left, too. There has always been, on the left, a view of the world which projects all the problems of society (at the national or international level) onto Jews. It’s a view which not only fails to grasp the threat posed by anti-Semitism but condones and colludes with it. It’s a view that others (sadly) on the left need to challenge.

  • Chemical weaponsGerman company defies U.S., continues sending Iran parts used in Syria chemical attacks

    A German company involved in Syrian chemical attacks has defied a warning from the United States and continues trading with Iran. A Syrian photographer had found parts made by German company Krempel in Iranian-produced chemical rockets that were used in chemical warfare against Syrian civilians in January and February.

  • Hate groupsQatar continuing to back extremist preachers and anti-Semitic incitement

    In preparation for the Qatari Emir’s visit this week to Washington, the White House last week thanked the monarch for his country’s “continuing commitment” to countering extremism. However, in the last year Qatar’s government has actually continued to use its prominent platforms to promote strident anti-Semitic preachers.

  • Hate groupsIncreasing number of far-right extremism cases in German military

    An increase in suspected far-right incidents within the German army, the Bundeswehr, has prompted the opposition Left party to demand commanders “dry out the brown sump.” Over 400 cases are currently under investigation. Germany’s Bundeswehr currently has 180,000 active-duty solders, including 61, 000 in its army ranks, 28,000 in its air force, and some 16,000 in its navy.

  • ISISThe ISIS Files: How the caliphate was run

    Through five trips to Iraq, a team of journalists from the New York Times uncovered a trove of Islamic State documents that explain how the group took control of Iraq and Syria. Taken together, the documents show how ISIS, for a short period of time, established its own government, or caliphate.

  • Quick takes // By Ben FrankelIsraeli strike unrelated to Syria’s chemical attack

    Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon launched missiles at a Syrian regime airbase in the desert east of the city of Homs. Israel has attacked an Iranian command-and-control center at the airbase back in February. The attack on T-4, or Tiyas, was not related to the Saturday Syrian army chemical weapons attack against civilian neighborhood in the town of Douma. Rather, it is part of an on-going, intensifying Israeli campaign against the growing Iranian military presence in Syria.

  • Terrorism & the DarknetStealth: Terrorists use encryption, the Darknet, and cryptocurrencies

    Terrorists and extremists are increasingly moving their activities online – and areas of the web have become a safe haven for Islamic State to plot its next attacks, according to a report. The report shows how those planning to commit terrorist atrocities are using extremist networks on the Darknet to indoctrinate sympathizers, create a reservoir of propaganda, evade detection and fundraise. It calls for urgent action by government and the policing and security services to step up intelligence gathering and action to counter online extremist activity.