Portland Shooter Declared Allegiance to Antifa | Extremists Seizing on Restrictions Fatigue | Flag, Faith and Fear for the Planet, and more

Police had been preparing for possible violence, yet a few hundred protesters were still able to break through a barricade and storm the steps of Germany’s Reichstag parliament building. Some of them carried black-white-and-red flags which became the national flag of monarchist Germany in 1892, was used by right-wingers during the democratic Weimar years, and then was reintroduced as the secondary national flag under Hitler. It has been a symbol commonly employed by extremists for decades.

Flag, Faith and Fear for the Planet—How the Far Right Is Exploiting Climate Change for Its Own Ends (Daniel Trilling, Propsect)
There are profound shifts underway on the far right, as climate change becomes more difficult to ignore. A series of movements ranging from folksy populism to violent extremism are adapting their thinking, drawing from a wellspring of nationalist ideas about the connections between land and people to catch up with changing environmental realities.
For now, skepticism and denial remain the instinctive—and dangerous—positions for many right-wing populists. They are nationalists first and foremost, hostile to co-operation via international institutions, and economically protectionist.
But a 2019 report by Adelphi, an independent environmental think tank based in Germany, found a more varied picture across the continent’s right-wing populists, with a range of apparently contradictory climate positions.
From the outside, all of these inconsistencies may look like expediency. But there are also deep connections in far-right thought between concepts of nation, race and land, available for today’s movements to draw on. From the earliest days of environmentalism, there was always a strain of green politics that combined nature conservation with the idea of preserving a national territory and ethnic purity.

Fake N95 Face Masks Were Being Sold on This ISIS-Linked Website — and It Shows How Terror Groups Are Using COVID-19 as a Propaganda Tool (David Choi, Business Insider)
The US Justice Department shut down an ISIS-affiliated scam that attempted sell fake personal protective equipment (PPE) through a website and Facebook accounts, which researchers say is another novel way terrorists are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic. FaceMaskCenter.com, a now-defunct website that claimed to sell FDA-approved N95 respirator masks and other sought-after PPE, contained all the hallmarks of a legitimate online store — including accepting credit cards. The website claimed it was “the original online personal protective equipment supplier and was the first of its kind” since its inception in 1996, when in fact the site was created February 26, 2020. The website was seized by the Justice Department and visitors are now greeted with an official disclaimer and a phone number to call if they were victims of the scam. It was not immediately clear if anyone purchased PPE from the website; however, when a US-based customer contacted the website to purchase masks for first-responders, a Syrian national living in Turkey responded by saying he could “easily provide up to 100,000 N95 masks, which he claimed to have in his possession,” according to the Justice Department’s complaint.

“More Organized, Sophisticated and Security Conscious Than Before”: Right-Wing Extremist Threat Growing (Anthony Galloway, Sydney Morning Herald)
Australian security agencies are on alert for extremists who could have been inspired by the Christchurch mosque killer and other massacres overseas, as small far-right cells across the country are becoming more organised and sophisticated than ever before. The concern is being heightened by extreme right-wing groups increasingly attracting people from a military background who know how to use weapons, as well as a younger membership who aren’t displaying obvious signs of their extremism - making them harder to detect. Brenton Tarrant, 29, was sentenced last week to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to slaughtering 51 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques. The Morrison government has opened the door to the Australian-born white supremacist serving out his sentence in Australia. The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation has been increasingly focused on right-wing extremism for a number of years, including the possibility of extremists being inspired by killers such as the Christchurch gunman. The problem is being fuelled by online forums allowing people on the far-right to make quick and easy connections with like-minded individuals around the world, which ASIO believes has created a toxic peer environment in which acts of violence based on extreme right-wing ideologies are “encouraged, glorified and promoted.

U.K. man Charged with Terrorism Offenses Had IED Ingredients (BBC)
A former Army employee charged with terrorism and explosive offences had the ingredients to make an improvised explosive device (IED), a court heard. Dean Morrice, 33, of Paulton, Somerset, was arrested under the Terrorism Act on 20 August and his property searched. Police found the components for the pyrotechnic composition thermite, ball bearings and metal pipes, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard on Thursday. He was remanded into custody and is due to appear at the Old Bailey in October. Mr Morrice is charged with possessing the explosive substance black powder, possessing a document containing information useful to terrorism and two counts of transmitting content of a terrorist publication electronically. The allegations against him relate to the period 15 March 2019 to 20 August 2020. Sajad Chaudhury, for the defence, said Mr Morrice was in the military for less than a year and had a desk job. He said his client denied the offences and would plead not guilty in due course. He is next due to appear in court at The Old Bailey on 2 October. The charges follow an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South East and Counter Terrorism Policing South West.

Terrorism from Syria, Iraq Still Poses Threat to Security in Europe, Analysts Say (Daily Sabah)
The terrorist threat against Europe has mutated in the last half-decade as terrorist groups have seen their Middle East sanctuaries eroded, but analysts say the West must remain braced for more attacks. Both al-Qaida and the Daesh terrorist group – together responsible for the highest-profile and most horrific terror attacks of the past two decades – have lost potency as global organizations. Despite splintering into branches and franchises, their murderous ideology is still able to inspire individuals to carry out random attacks in their name. Next week in Paris, 14 people face trial over the massacres in January 2015 at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman and hostages in a Jewish supermarket – violence claimed for both Daesh and al-Qaida. The murderous shooting spree heralded an unprecedented wave of attacks in France. The deadliest was the coordinated attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 that year at the Bataclan music venue and other venues, when gunmen killed 130 in a plan stemming from the Daesh group’s core leadership in Syria. Experts believe the same style of assault would be unlikely to recur now, not least because Daesh has seen a dramatic loss of its territory and membership in Iraq and Syria.

U.K. to Make Anti-Hate Laws More Stringent (Asif Ullah Khan, Brussel’s Times)
The surge in the hateful extremist activity during the COVID-19 has alarmed the British government and forced it to review the efficacy of the existing laws and plug the gaps, which have been exploited by the extremist and terror groups.