The Most Dangerous Extremists | Terrorism & Surveillance, Searches, and Mental Illness | The Next Disaster Coming to the Great Plains, and more

Since Al-Azhari’s arrest in May 2020, his case has moved quietly through federal court, with defense attorneys raising questions about the tactics investigators used to monitor him and search his belongings. Late last month came a new wrinkle: His defense says he might be mentally unfit for trial. Court records detail a complex investigation amid flurries of pretrial litigation. One legal battle at the heart of Al-Azhari’s case concerns what’s been described as a “secret spy plane surveillance program.” In a court document filed in August, Assistant Federal Defender Samuel Landes describes a fleet of small airplanes that the FBI owns and uses to conduct covert surveillance. Each plane bears a tail number that is registered with the Federal Aviation Administration to fictitious front companies, the lawyer wrote.

Covid Lockdowns May Have Increased UK Terrorism Threat, Says Security Minister  (Jamie Grierson, Guardian)
The terrorism threat to the UK may have been made worse by Covid lockdowns, a security minister has suggested. Damian Hinds, the MP for East Hampshire who became security minister in August, told the Daily Telegraph that people spending long periods of time in their bedrooms during the restrictions could have pushed them towards radicalization. His remarks echo similar warnings from the police and the UN’s counter-terrorism committee executive directorate (CTED). “Clearly, logically, when you have more people who are spending more time in their bedrooms at their computer … you are going to get a growth in that tiny proportion of people for whom that is a dark journey,” Hinds told the Telegraph. “And as you know, on the internet, if you start to make those kind of downward spirals, you can quickly accelerate with the material that you come across and the other people that you can come into contact with.” Since Hinds took on the brief, there have been two alleged terrorist attacks, the killing of the MP Sir David Amess and the attack outside Liverpool Women’s hospital. Counter Terrorism Policing said this month they had foiled seven “late-stage” terror attacks since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. It took the total number of foiled terrorism plots in the UK in the past four years to 32.

How Australia’s Far Right Uses Cryptocurrencies to Monetize Hate Online  (Ariel Bogle, Guardian)
There have never been more ways to ask for money on the internet. For rightwing extremists looking to monetize hate, that can be a big opportunity – and the earning potential of these digital assets hasn’t gone unnoticed in Australia. Earlier this year, I traced funding networks associated with a sample of Australian channels that share rightwing extremist content on the chat app Telegram, and found links to at least 22 online funding tools. These included donation requests via wallet addresses for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, monero, ethereum and litecoin. Of course an interest in cryptocurrencies is not on its own indicative of racism or extremism, but a recent analysis by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) found a cohort of white supremacists largely originating from North America has likely generated “a substantial profit” from bitcoin by getting in early, giving them access to funds “that would almost certainly be unavailable to them without cryptocurrency”. Controversial Canadian “alt-right” figure Stefan Molyneux, who denies being a white supremacist but was pushed off YouTube for his commentary about women and “scientific racism”, has received at least 1,250 bitcoin from supporters according to the SPLC (one Bitcoin was worth A$68,647 at the time of writing).

As Western States Pledge to Take Less Water from Colorado River, Tribes Seek a Bigger Role  (Ian James and Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times)
As states agree to leave more water in the Colorado River reservoir, Native tribes get more involved after a history of being left on the water management sidelines.

Trump Adviser Peter Navarro Lays Out How He and Bannon Planned to Overturn Biden’s Electoral Win  (Jose Pagliery, Daily Beast)
“It started out perfectly. At 1 p.m., Gosar and Cruz did exactly what was expected of them…”

Committee Investigating Jan. 6 Attack Plans to Begin a More Public Phase of Its Work in the New Year  (Jacqueline Alemany and Tom Hamburger, Washington Post)
In the weeks and months ahead, investigators will continue to collect new information but parallel efforts will commence to orchestrate public hearings to tell the story of Jan. 6 from start to finish and to craft a final report.

Historic U.S. Weather Events in 2021, By the Numbers  (Jacob Feuerstein, Washington Post)
Record heat, frigid cold snaps, torrential downpours and relentless drought are among the memorable weather events this year.

We Learned the Wrong Lessons from the Tuskegee ‘Experiment’  (Melba Newsome, Scientific American)
It’s understandable that Black Americans are wary of vaccines, but that despicable episode involved the withholding of treatment, whereas vaccines actively prevent disease

The Next Disaster Coming to the Great Plains  (Lucas Bessire, The Atlantic)
Acute scarcity drives the search for water underground. But the West’s major aquifers are in trouble, too.