OUR PICKS THIS WEEKIslamic State’s “Emoji” Tactics | Needed: U.S. Arctic Strategy | Era of Transparent Warfare Beckons, and more
Extremism & Terrorism
· The Islamic State’s Leader Died This Month. What Type of Leader Might Come Next?
· Yazidis Want Big Tech Held to Account Over ISIS Atrocities
· Nelson Far-Right Fanatic Who Had Terror Handbook Jailed
· Canada’s First Convicted Terrorist Deemed Too Dangerous for Parole
· Islamic State Evolves ’Emoji’ Tactics to Peddle Propaganda Online
· Alleged Member of Neo-Nazi Terror Cell Says He Entered Right-Wing Politics as a Donald Trump Supporter
· U.S. Intelligence Report Details :Indirect” Russian Government Support for Western Neofascist Groups
· Activity Shows Terror Groups and Right-Wing Extremists Were Undeterred by COVID-19 Pandemic
· U.S. Judges Faced Over 4,500 Threats in 2021 amid Rising Extremism -Official
· The Far-Right Has Turned East Germans Against Vaccines
· Foreign Money Funding ‘Extremism’ in Canada, Says Hacker
· FBI Believes It Is ‘Beyond Suspicion’ That Lisa Smith Joined Isis, Court Hears
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· Justice Department Announces First Director of National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team
· Companies Have a Lot to Fear from Russia’s Digital Warmongering
· DHS Program Aims to Force-Multiply CBP Presence with Commercial Tech
· By Looking at the Past, New Cyber Board Can Prepare Us for the Future
· US Senators: Need for a Comprehensive State Department Arctic Strategy
· How to Stop Former Western Leaders from Becoming Paid Shills for Autocrats
· Russia-Ukraine Conflict Prompted U.S. to Develop Autonomous Drone Swarms, 1,000-Mile Cannon
· US could see a century’s worth of sea rise in just 30 years
· How the China Initiative Went Wrong
Extremism & Terrorism
The Islamic State’s Leader Died This Month. What Type of Leader Might Come Next? (Tricia L. Bacon and Elizabeth Grimm, Washington Post)
This month, a U.S. Special Forces mission targeted Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of the Islamic State. Al-Qurayshi reportedly detonated explosives during the raid, killing himself and members of his family. His death follows previous U.S. raids that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But what type of leader was al-Qurayshi — and what type of leader might succeed him? Our research explains why these questions are critical when trying to gauge the impact on a terrorist group after its leader has died. Our forthcoming book studying terrorist leadership types, “Terror in Transition: Leadership and Succession in Terrorist Organizations,” suggests that al-Qurayshi meets the criteria of a “figurehead,” a silent type of leader who did not actively lead the Islamic State. Al-Qurayshi became leader of the Islamic State in 2019 as a relative unknown. He operated in hiding, apparently out of fear of the kind of counterterrorism action that killed al-Baghdadi, his predecessor. The open-source information to date suggests al-Qurayshi did not drive his organization’s tactics, its ways of gathering resources or its mission. He was largely an absentee leader who relied on others to steer the group.
Yazidis Want Big Tech Held to Account Over ISIS Atrocities (Simon Rushton, The National)
Yazidi activists are demanding social media companies are held accountable for their alleged role in the genocide of the mid-2010s. ISIS, as it was sweeping through Iraq and Syria, persecuted the Yazidi population and trafficked its women and girls as part of a campaign against the religious group. WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were all used to help sell girls and women into slavery and death, the Yazidi campaigners say. A 120-page document alleges the tech giants did not act robustly enough to stop ISIS members using their platforms to trade women and girls kidnapped when it controlled the Yazidi heartland of Sinjar, Iraq, eight years ago. (Cont.)