OUR PICKSJustice for ISIS Victims | Resurgent Terrorist Threat | Sinking Waterfront Homeowners, and more
· Countering a Resurgent Terrorist Threat in Afghanistan
· Kidnapper’s U.S. Conviction a Rare Case of Justice for ISIS Victims
· UK’s Counter-Terror Strategy in Need of an Overhaul, Says Official
· Terror at Our Border: Agents Caught 23 People on US Terror Watchlist Crossing Southern Border in 2021, Including Suspects from Saudi Arabia and Yemen
· Heathrow and Other UK Airports to Relax Counter-Terrorism Security Checks on Staff
· Priti Patel Vows to Overhaul Prevent in Wake of David Amess Murder Amid Concern Anti-Terror Strategy Focuses Too Much on Right-Wing Extremism and Not Enough on Islamist Threat
· FEMA’s New Flood Insurance System Is Sinking Waterfront Homeowners. That Might Be the Point.
· How to Make Smart COVID Risk-Benefit Decisions
Countering a Resurgent Terrorist Threat in Afghanistan (Seth Jones, CFR)
With al-Qaeda and the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Khorasan growing in strength since the U.S. withdrawal, Seth Jones lays out a strategy for the United States to prevent a renewed terrorist threat from emerging in Afghanistan.
Kidnapper’s U.S. Conviction a Rare Case of Justice for ISIS Victims (Washington Post)
For French journalist Nicholas Henin, confronting the Islamic State militant who was among the men who held him hostage in a makeshift prison in Syria for nearly 10 months was a long time coming. Sitting in the witness box in a federal courtroom in Virginia, Henin detailed the torture and pain he endured at the hands of a terrorist cell nicknamed “the Beatles,” all while staring at El Shafee Elsheikh. Their eye contact was fleeting but important for Henin — occurring during a trial that was years in the making. When Elsheikh and co-conspirator Alexanda Kotey were captured by Kurdish forces in early 2018 and identified as part of a group of militants that kidnapped, tortured and killed hostages for the Islamic State, it was unclear whether an American trial would happen at all. A federal prosecution was met with opposition at the highest levels of government on two continents. Britain did not want to prosecute Elsheikh or Kotey, both from London, and had stripped them of citizenship. But evidence in British hands that could be used against them in an American court was held up over disagreement on whether they should face the death penalty. And leaders at the Justice Department feared that a loss at trial could leave U.S. officials with the thorny legal and political question of what to do with noncitizens whose home country wanted them banished.
UK’s Counter-Terror Strategy in Need of an Overhaul, Says Official (Arab News)
The UK’s Prevent strategy, which aims to foil terrorism, should have violence-prevention as a primary focus, according to Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation Jonathan Hall. Hall said that he agreed with concerns that Prevent was failing in its goal of finding and deradicalizing potential terrorist attackers because it was referring a disproportionate number of non-Islamist extremists. (Cont.)
