• Feds Send Millions of Taxpayer Dollars to the Taliban

    By Casey Harper, The Center Square

    After two decades at war with the Taliban, the U.S. government is now sending millions of taxpayer dollars to the terrorist group. A recently released federal watchdog report shows that the U.S. government has sent at least $11 million to the Taliban since the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops. But experts and even the federal watchdog estimate the number is much higher.

  • Rising Threats to Public Officials: A Review of 10 Years of Federal Data

    By Pete Simi, Gina Ligon, Seamus Hughes, Natalie Standridge

    A review of federal charges for the past decade highlights that the number of threats to public officials is growing. While 2013-2016 had an average of 38 federal charges per year, that number sharply increased to an average of 62 charges per year between 2017-2022. Across the time series, ideologically motivated threats, on average, accounted for almost half of the cases, and the portion steadily increased year over year. A preliminary review of cases from 2023 and 2024 shows that the number of federal prosecutions is on pace to hit new record highs. The rising threat level may produce significant consequences for the U.S. democratic system of governance.

  • Removing Cuba from List of Countries ‘Not Fully Cooperating’ Over Terrorism May Presage Wider Rapprochement – If Politics Allows

    By Jason M. Blazakis

    The U.S. State Department removed Cuba from its list of countries “not fully cooperating” with anti-terrorism efforts in mid-May 2024, but you would be forgiven for not noticing. Despite the low-key nature of the announcement, taking Cuba off the list is a big deal. The move is a potential step toward a rapprochement between Washington and Havana.

  • The Islamic State and Russia

    By Jason Wahlang

    vThe March 2024 terrorist attack by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) in Moscow Oblast brings to attention the Islamic State’s long-standing animosity towards the Russian state. The group also seeks to destabilize the relationship between Russia and Central Asia. Russia can be expected to deal with the ISKP threat more aggressively, including tighter border controls. The Islamic State Vilayat Caucasus, founded in 2015, also exists which operates in the historically conflict-prone Northern Caucasus region.

  • Video Games Might Matter for Terrorist Financing

    Every day, billions of dollars flow across international borders among millions of people on a public online market, with functionally no government oversight or regulation. The market? Virtual currency and digital assets in video games. Moshe Klein writes that “as terrorists seek new methods of conducting financial activity, governments must remain one step ahead and consider how they can proactively investigate and close extant avenues for terrorist financing.”

  • Venezuela Travel Advisory

    With the security situation in Venezuela continuing to deteriorate, the U.S. Department of State has issued a travel advisory which urges would be travelers to note Venezuela’s “to crime, civil unrest, kidnapping, and the arbitrary enforcement of local laws.” The advisory further urges people to “Reconsider travel due to wrongful detentions, terrorism, and poor health infrastructure” in Venezuela.

  • Militia Extremists, Kicked Off Facebook Again, Are Regaining Comfort in Public View

    By Amy Cooter

    When journalists sounded alarm bells in early May 2024 that more than 100 extremist militia groups had been organizing and communicating on Facebook, it wasn’t the first time militias had garnered attention for their online activities. As a scholar of militias, I’ve seen extremists get kicked off Facebook before.

  • Student Anger Over the Vietnam War Erupted into Violence in the ’60s − a Terrorism Expert Explores Whether the Same Could Happen Today

    By Javed Ali

    I am a former senior U.S. government counterterrorism official and scholar of national security and terrorism. The wave of recent pro-Palestinian, student-led protests reminds me of another tense era in the U.S. that was also prompted by U.S. engagement in a foreign war – the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

  • Extremist Communities Continue to Rely on YouTube for Hosting, but Most Videos Are Viewed Off-Site, Research Finds

    By Cyrus Moulton

    After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, YouTube was so criticized for radicalizing users by recommending increasingly extremist and fringe content that it changed its recommendation algorithm. Research four years later found that while extremist content remained on YouTube, subscriptions and external referrals drove disaffected users to extremist content rather than the recommendation algorithm.

  • Lack of Operational Control at Northern Border Poses National Security Threats

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    The northern border largely has been unmanned and understaffed for decades as federal reports issue conflicting conclusions about how much, or how little, operational control exists. All this while a greatest number of terrorist watch list individuals being apprehended at northern border.

  • Israel’s Invasion of Rafah Will Not Eliminate Hamas or End the War. So, What Is Benjamin Netanyahu’s Plan?

    By Ian Parmeter

    The longer the war has dragged on, the more it has highlighted that Israel, which has been under Netanyahu’s almost continuous rule since 2009, has no long-term strategy for living side-by-side with its Palestinian neighbors. Even if a ceasefire could be agreed to, Netanyahu’s government hasn’t articulated a plan for the “day after”. Already, this lack of a plan is creating a dangerous power vacuum in northern Gaza that has been filled by gangs, clans and criminals.

  • Terrorist Watch List Apprehensions at Northern Border Continue to Break Records

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    The number of known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) apprehended at the northern border in the first six months of fiscal 2024 continue to outpace those apprehended at the southwest border.

  • The Manufactured Crisis of Migrant Terrorists at the Border

    By Alex Nowrasteh

    Politicians and pundits have given rise to a flood of rhetoric about terrorists exploiting border chaos to harm Americans. But exaggerated threats of terrorists crossing the southern border lead to costly, disproportionate policy decisions.

  • On the Horizon: The Future of the Jihadi Movement

    By Barak Mendelsohn

    Factors of continuity, such as anti-regime grievances, the appeal of religious ideology, and the ability to hurt, are likely to maintain jihadism as a viable resistance ideology. Jihadism is still a powerful force and is making inroads in various regions, and a more modest jihadi strategy with a regional focus is offering jihadis a new path forward, but also suggests that a sustainable jihadi success would require moderation that is simply antithetical to the nature of the ideology.

  • Vitriolic Reactions to Arouri's Killing Highlight His Importance to the Iranian Regime’s “Axis of Resistance”

    The death on 2 January 2024 of Saleh Al-Arouri, a leading Hamas financier and military leader, resulted in threats of retribution against Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah and other regional proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran.