• Islamic State Calls for Followers to Spread Coronavirus, Exploit Pandemic and Protests

    An Islamic State group online publication in India has called for its supporters to spread the coronavirus, saying “every brother and sister, even children, can contribute to Allah’s cause by becoming the carriers of this disease and striking the colonies of the disbelievers.” The group claims that devout Muslims will not be sickened, because “no disease can harm even a hair of a believer.” It is the latest in an effort by the Islamic State group and its followers to take advantage of the pandemic and general civic instability in the West. Brian Glyn Williams writes in The Conversation that Islamic State followers are excited at the prospect of a massive Western death toll from the coronavirus, which they defined as “God’s smallest soldier.” They also see the virus at work in U.S. military pullbacks related to the coronavirus – such as the March announcement from the Pentagon that it would stop sending troops to Iraq for at least two months. In addition, the U.S. pulled some troops out of Iraq, withdrew many more from six frontline operating bases and ordered the troops remaining in the country to stay on their bases – moves that ended most joint missions with local Iraqi and Kurdish troops.

  • Nuclear Alarmism: Proliferation and Terrorism

    Alarmism about nuclear weapons is common coin in the foreign policy establishment, John Mueller writes. He notes that during the course of the Cold War, for example, the chief concern was that the weapons would somehow go off, by accident or by intention, devastating the planet in the process. More recently, the worry has been that terrorists would get their hands on nuclear weapons. Concerns about the dangers inherent in nuclear proliferation and in nuclear terrorism certainly seem overwrought, Mueller writes, concluding: “There may be reason for concern, or at least for interest and watchfulness. But alarm and hysteria (not to mention sleeplessness) are hardly called for.”

  • Growing Terrorism Threats: Iran-backed groups, IS in Africa, and White Supremacists: State Dept. Report

    The Trump administration, noting significant victories against global terrorism, says Iran continues to increase its support for extremists, while IS is increasing its presence in Africa and Southeast Asia. Attacks by white supremacists are on the rise, and the terrorism threat posed by white nationalists is of particular concern.

  • Viruses and Violence: How COVID-19 Has Impacted Extremism

    In April 2020, the Tony Blair Institute acknowledged that “extremist groups are beginning to recognize the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic, seeing opportunities to exploit fears, exacerbate tensions and mobilize supporters while government are occupied with trying to address COVID-19.” Extremists across the ideological spectrum have incorporated the pandemic into their messaging and their operations, though groups have differed on just what COVID-19 means and how to best exploit the pandemic and its resultant unrest.

  • Terrorism in Europe is Geographically Widespread and Multifaceted

    Europol’s just-published report shows that in 2019, there were 119 foiled, failed, and completed terrorist attacks in 13 EU member states, and that 1,004 individuals were arrested on suspicion of terrorism-related offenses in 19 EU member states. Nearly all of deaths and 26 injuries were the result of jihadist attacks.

  • U.S. Army Soldier Charged with Plotting “Mass Casualty” Attack on His Own Unit

    A U.S. Army soldier, 22, has been charged with plotting a mass attack on his unit by sending sensitive military information to the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), a U.K.-based occult-obsessed, neo-Nazi, white supremacist group, the Justice Department announced Monday. O9Ahas affiliates around the world, including the United States, where they are associated with the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division.

  • DHS Warns Boogaloo Bois May Be Targeting Washington, D.C.

    On Monday, DHS has circulated intelligence memos to law enforcement agencies around the country, warning public safety officials that Boogaloo Bois, an extremist anti-government movement, may be targeting Washington, D.C. for violent attacks. The intelligence assessment stated that “the District is likely an attractive target for violent adherents of the boogaloo ideology due to the significant presence of U.S. law enforcement entities, and the wide range of First Amendment-Protected events hosted here.”

  • MI5, Prevent Deemed Reading Attack Suspect Not Worth Investigation

    Saturday knife attack in Reading, U.K., in which three people were killed, is being investigated as an act of terrorism, but investigators say that the 25-year old suspect’s long history of serious mental health issues, exacerbated by heavy drug use, is also being considered. In the last two years, the Libyan national, who was granted asylum in Britain in 2018, was investigated twice for possible ties to Jihadi extremists, but counterterrorism specialists at Prevent and MI5 determined that he had no clear ideology, posed no threat to the public, and required additional mental health care.

  • Profiling of Lone-Wolf Terrorists Is Flawed

    Terrorism has typically been considered an organized activity undertaken by networks of individuals who share a collective identity and purpose. However, in recent years, media, law enforcement and scholarly attention has increasingly focused on the construct of the lone terrorist. Researchers say that this approach may be flawed.

  • 1 Percent of Humanity Displaced: UN

    UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said yesterday it was appealing to countries worldwide to do far more to find homes for millions of refugees and others displaced by conflict, persecution or events seriously disturbing public order. This is as a report released today showed that forced displacement is now affecting more than one per cent of humanity – 1 in every 97 people – and with fewer and fewer of those who flee being able to return home.

  • The Appeal of Far-Right Politics

    Why do “ordinary” citizens join far-right organizations? Agnieszka Pasieka explores how far-right groups offer social services, organize festivals, and shape their own narrative to attract new members. In her Austrian Science Fund (FWF)-project, she accompanies activists to investigate their practices and philosophies. Pasieka says that difficult as it might be to empathize with someone who shares fundamentally different values, taking all parties seriously and understanding their motivation is key in a time in which a refusal to engage with other people’s views has become a feature of political as well as academic debates.

  • As Trump Warns of Leftist Violence, a Dangerous Threat Emerges from the Right-Wing Boogaloo Movement

    A far-right extremist movement born on social media and fueled by anti-government rhetoric has emerged as a real-world threat in recent weeks, with federal authorities accusing some of its adherents of working to spark violence at largely peaceful protests roiling the nation. Craig Timberg writes that at a time when President Trump and other top U.S. officials have claimed — with little evidence — that leftist groups were fomenting violence, federal prosecutors have charged various supporters of a right-wing movement called the “boogaloo bois” with using the protests as cover for killing, or plotting to kill, police officers and other government officials. “The numbers are overwhelming: Most of the violence is coming from the extreme right wing,” said Clint Watts, a former FBI agent who studies extremist political activity for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Philadelphia.

  • 25 Years Later, Budyonnovsk Hostage Crisis Seen as Horrific Harbinger of Terror

    Twenty-five years ago this week, on 14 June 1995, Chechen nationalist militant Shamil Basayev led a group of fifty Chechen terrorists in seizing the Budyonnovsk Hospital in Russia’s southern Stavropol region, taking 1,500 people hostage in the process. Five days later, after a botched Russian attempt to liberate the hostages – an operation during which the Chechen terrorists killed 129 of the hostages – Basayev and his people were allowed a free passage in exchange for releasing the remaining hostages. Russian commandos killed him and five of his senior aids in 2006. Twenty-six of the terrorists were captured and are in Russian jail; twenty-three are still being pursued.

  • “Boogaloo” Follower Charged with Killing Police Officer during BLM Protest

    Steven Carrillo, an Air Force sergeant who is a follower of the extreme-right Boogaloo movement, was on Tuesday charged with the murder of an Oakland policeman during 29 May Black Lives Matter protest. Carrillo will also face charges for killing another police officer on 6 June near Santa Cruz.

  • Trial of Two Neo-Nazi Suspects in Killing of German Politician Begins

    A German court on Tuesday began hearing the legal case against two neo-Nazis accused of killing a regional German politician last year – the first political assassination by the far-right in Germany since the Second World War (there were several assassinations of leading businesspeople in the 1970s, carried out by left-wing terrorists). The crime shocked Germany and highlighted the steadily growing threat of far-right violent extremism in the country.