OUR PICKSNo Plan B for Iran Talks | Israel’s “Cyber-Dome” | Wagner Group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and more

Published 29 June 2022

·  For U.S. Independence Day, January 6th Hearings Reveal Authoritarianism’s Achilles Heel

·  Police Raid Suspected Islamic Extremists Across Germany

·  The Intercept: Facebook Labels Abortion Rights Vandals as Terrorists Following Roe Reversal

·  US Solider Pleads Guilty to Plotting Rampage with Neo-Nazi Occultists

·  Al Qaeda Leader Reappears to Revive Islamist Jihadi Ideology

·  Chad Wolf, the Illegal Secretary 

·  Israel Plans “Cyber-Dome” to Defeat Digital Attacks from Iran and Others

·  Three Arrests after Police Action Against Religious Extremist Propaganda in Germany

·  It’s Time to Designate Wagner Group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization

·  In Iran Nuclear Talks, the US Has No Good Plan ‘B’

For U.S. Independence Day, January 6th Hearings Reveal Authoritarianism’s Achilles Heel  (Maria J. Stephan, Just Security)
The January 6th hearings have exposed a fundamental truth about authoritarianism: that it ultimately depends on the consent and acquiescence of individuals. The failure of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election wasn’t inevitable. There was nothing ironclad about the U.S. Constitution, courts, legislatures (including Congress), or electoral bodies to prevent Trump from remaining in power if enough people had gone along with his scheme. Instead, it took Republican officials, senior Trump advisors, conservative lawmakers, media personalities, and others — combined with significant grassroots pressure — to prevent an orchestrated subversion of the American people’s freedom to choose their leaders.
It’s a powerful lesson to remember on this weekend’s July 4th U.S. Independence Day holiday.

Police Raid Suspected Islamic Extremists Across Germany  (AP)
German police conducted raids across the country Tuesday targeting individuals and premises believed to be linked to a banned Islamic extremist group. Authorities say the group’s goal is to establish an Islamic state in Germany that rejects democracy and uses religious texts as the sole basis for all laws. The DPA news agency reported that officers searched dozens of locations in six German states, arresting three people. Prosecutors say a total of 41 people are accused of membership in the banned group known as the “Caliphate State.

The Intercept: Facebook Labels Abortion Rights Vandals as Terrorists Following Roe Reversal (Sam Biddle, Intercept)
The day after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, internally designated the abortion rights group Jane’s Revenge as a terrorist organization, according to company materials reviewed by The Intercept, subjecting discussion of the group and its actions to the company’s most stringent censorship policies. Experts say the decision, Meta’s first known policy response for the post-Roe era, threatens free expression around abortion rights at a critical moment. The brief internal bulletin from Meta Platforms Inc., which owns Instagram and Facebook, was titled “[EMERGENCY Micro Policy Update] [Terrorism] Jane’s Revenge” and filed to the company’s internal Dangerous Individuals and Organizations rulebook, meaning that the abortion rights group, which has so far committed only acts of vandalism, will be treated with the same speech restrictions against “praise, support, and representation” applied to the Islamic State and Hitler. (Cont.)