Justice for ISIS Victims | Resurgent Terrorist Threat | Sinking Waterfront Homeowners, and more

He said that the majority of terrorist attacks were carried out by Islamists “so I can completely understand that when people see the number of people who have been referred from the right-wing side or what they call a mixed unclear or uncertain ideology side, they say, ‘Hang on, there’s some sort of imbalance.’” Counter-terrorism experts have previously warned that Prevent was being undermined by too many far-right referrals, distracting from those most likely to turn to terrorism. Hall said it was vital to continue to monitor everyone who expressed forms of extremism because there was a “new trend in terrorism towards mainly Internet-driven terrorism, often involving very young people.” He recommended switching Prevent’s main objective from preventing terrorism to preventing violence so it could encompass Islamic extremists, incels and far-right extremists.

Terror at Our Border: Agents Caught 23 People on US Terror Watchlist Crossing Southern Border in 2021, Including Suspects from Saudi Arabia and Yemen  (Adry Torres, Daily Mail)
US Customs and Border Patrol intercepted 23 people on a federal terror watchlist crossing the southern border during 2021, including men from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Data obtained by Fox News via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request showed that four of the apprehensions took place in the Rio Grande Valley Sector and four others were reported by Del Rio Sector. Border patrol officers assigned to the El Centro Sector and San Diego Sector each reported four arrests. There were three apprehensions made by El Paso Sector agents while Yuma Sector and Tucson Sector each recorded two arrests.  According to the network, the 23 people were taken into custody between January 20, 2021 and December 30, 2021. Their names matched those that appeared on the Terror Screening Database, which has information on the people who are either proven or alleged of having been involved in terror activities. In March, Republican Representatives James Comer and John Katko urged Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas to publicly release the numbers of migrants who were stopped at the southern border and whose names are listed on the Terror Screening Database.

Heathrow and Other UK Airports to Relax Counter-Terrorism Security Checks on Staff  (Tim Kiek, The National)
UK airports are set to relax counter-terrorism security checks on new staff, in an attempt to ease shortages that have contributed to travel chaos over the Easter period. London’s Heathrow Airport has been hit by four-hour queues and flight delays. It blamed the upheaval last week on coronavirus checks, but it has been compounded by high levels of Covid-19 sickness and resurgent passenger numbers following the ending of UK travel restrictions in March. In the rush to secure more staff and mitigate the security-check obstacle, last week British Airways offered £1,000 ($1,300) “welcome bonuses” to cabin crew with safety clearances. Now the UK government is seeking to alleviate the problem by allowing unvetted staff to train on airport premises in the coming weeks. The news was revealed in a letter by UK aviation minister Robert Courts leaked to The Telegraph. In the letter, he also said the training intake would not be allowed access to aircraft and runways. At the moment, the UK Department for Transport can take up to 30 weeks to complete security checks — double the allotted time. Budget UK airline easyJet is currently awaiting DfT clearance for 100 new employees. EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the delay had contributed to the spate of flight cancellations.

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  (David Barrett, Daily Mail)
Ian Acheson, Senior Advisor at the Counter Extremism Project, agreed Prevent needed to change.  He tweeted today: ‘As the Home Secretary says and some of us have been saying for a while, Prevent has morphed into a strategy that awards a (convenient) completely false equivalence between Islamist and XRW threat and is swamped by mission creep. Time for a reset.’ Meanwhile, Lord Carlile of Berriew, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation who previously led the review of Prevent, told the Times that Prevent had an ‘overemphasis on right-wing extremism’ because of an ‘overemphasis on not being anti-Muslim’. The Henry Jackson Society’s Dr Alan Mendoza said: ‘This shake-up could not come soon enough… Priti Patel should be congratulated for cutting through the Home Office bureaucracy to make it happen. ‘Her reforms must be allowed to restore Prevent to its founding purpose – cracking down on terrorism.’ Now Miss Patel has pledged that ‘things need to change’ once she has been handed the findings of a long-awaited independent review of Prevent. ‘The Prevent review is really important to me,’ the Home Secretary said. ‘I can’t pre-judge that review. But it is quite clear to me from my own observations that there are things that need to change.’

FEMA’s New Flood Insurance System Is Sinking Waterfront Homeowners. That Might Be the Point.  (Jake Bittle, Grist)
Premiums are ballooning in states like Florida and Louisiana — and adaptation measures won’t bring costs back down.

How to Make Smart COVID Risk-Benefit Decisions  (Devabhaktuni Srikrishna, Scientific American)
Scientific American asks experts in medicine, risk assessment and other fields how to balance the risks of COVID with the benefits of visiting public indoor spaces