On Thursday, the Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/warrant-and-complaint-seek-seizure-all-iranian-gasoil-aboard-four-tankers-headed">announced</a> it had discovered a scheme involving multiple parties affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization, in which Iranian oil was covertly shipped to Venezuela, enabling the IRGC to reap profits from petroleum sales that “support the IRGC’s full range of nefarious activities, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, support for terrorism, and a variety of human rights abuses, at home and abroad.”
The DOJ named “all petroleum-product cargo aboard the Bella with international maritime organization (IMO) number 9208124, the Bering with IMO number 9149225, the Pandi with IMO number 9105073, and the Luna with IMO number 9208100,” saying it was subject to forfeiture based on the terrorism forfeiture statute.
The DOJ continued, “There are approximately 302,502 barrels of Iranian gasoline currently on board the Bella, approximately 302,522 barrels of Iranian gasoline currently on board the Bering, approximately 259,700 barrels of Iranian gasoline currently on board the Luna, and approximately 298,484 barrels of Iranian gasoline currently on board the Pandi. United States District Judge James E. Boasberg issued a warrant to seize all Iranian gasoline on these four vessels, based on a probable cause showing of forfeitability. The warrant commands the property to be brought to the sole jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.”
The DOJ noted, “A warrant for arrest and civil forfeiture complaint are merely allegations. The burden to prove forfeitability in a civil forfeiture proceeding is upon the government. Funds successfully forfeited based on terrorism authorities are in part directed to the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.”
In January, after the U.S. killed IRGC commander Qassim Suleimani, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps&#8217; Aerospace Force, <a href="https://www.memri.org/tv/irgc-aerospace-force-commander-gen-hajizadeh-killing-trump-esper-attack-american-bases-not-enough-avenge-soleimani/transcript">said</a>, as translated by MEMRI, &#8220;Even if we attack every U.S. base, kill Trump, and kill his Secretary of Defense [Mark Esper], this would not be enough to avenge the blood of Hajj Qasem (Soleimani.) The blood vengeance for Hajj Qasem should take the form of expelling America&#8217;s evil from the region. We should cleanse the region of their accursed presence,” as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/irgc-commander-killing-trump-secretary-esper-attacking-all-u-s-bases-not-enough-for-revenge?%3Futm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=dwtwitter">The Daily Wire</a> reported.
Hajizadeh said that it will &#8220;absolutely&#8221; happen, adding, &#8220;[Trump] cannot threaten the Iranian people, who sacrificed 300,000 martyrs. Who the hell is he to threaten us? He must order many coffins for his soldiers before making any threats.&#8221;
MEMRI reported that General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, IRGC Deputy Commander for Coordination, <a href="https://www.memri.org/tv/irgc-dep-com-gen-naqdi-muslim-youth-pull-american-ebmassies-bases-hang-blindfold-trees/transcript">said</a>, &#8220;As a result of this event, the U.S. is not safe anywhere in the world – not only in Iran and Iraq, but in the other Islamic countries as well. America has no security anymore. Many young people now have the motivation to attack it. Until now, they would live their lives, and pass right next to America&#8217;s nest of spies [embassy] in their country. Starting tomorrow, or even today, they will view this nest of spies differently. They will view the people who come and go there in a different way. The Americans will bring the situation to a point&#8230; The pressure America exerts on the Islamic nation will lead the peoples of the Islamic countries to pull them out of their nests of spies and their military bases&#8230; I can see that day&#8230; They will pull them out and hang them blindfolded from the trees in their cities.&#8221;
The State Department released a <a href="https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/286410.pdf">comprehensive report</a> titled, “Outlaw Regime: A Chronicle of Iran’s Destructive Activities.” In it, the State Department asserted:
<blockquote>The policy President Trump has laid out comes to terms fully with the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not a normal state. Normal states do not attack embassies and military installations in peacetime; fuel terrorist proxies and militias; serve as a sanctuary for terrorists; call for the destruction of Israel and threaten other countries; aid brutal dictators such as Syria’s Bashar al-Assad; proliferate missile technology to dangerous proxies; conduct covert assassinations in other countries; and hold hostage citizens of foreign nations. Normal states do not support terrorism within their armed forces, as Iran has done with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Qods Force.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers with the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> member</a>.

Iranâs fuel shipments to Venezuela

DOJ Announces Discovery Of Plot Funding Iranian Terrorist Organization

Department of Justice

Iran

Terrorism

Venezuela

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) boosted supporters of a man that Israeli police say targeted law enforcement and injured one border guard enough to warrant a trip to a hospital.
Tlaib retweeted four statements from accounts accusing Israeli law enforcement of unjustly killing Ahmad Erekat, 27, on June 23 after he drove his car into a border checkpoint injuring one guard. Erekat was the nephew of Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Here&#39;s Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib retweeting solidarity for the driver. <a href="https://t.co/bs6QCQ893j">pic.twitter.com/bs6QCQ893j</a>
&mdash; Alex VanNess (@thealexvanness) <a href="https://twitter.com/thealexvanness/status/1275813952413450250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Tlaib also retweeted an interview of Rutgers assistant professor Noura Erakat with Democracy Now. The academic, who also claims to be Ahmad’s cousin, said that Ahmad was on his way to pick up his sister before her wedding. Nobody else was in the car with him at the time.
“What we understand is that Ahmed lost control of his car or was confused while he was in his car. That was all it took to have a knee-jerk reaction for the car to jerk a little bit and immediately cause the soldiers to open fire on him multiple times,” Noura said.
Israeli police released video of the incident a day after it happened. The security footage shows Ahmad’s vehicle proceeding slowly through the checkpoint before he accelerates, swerves, and strikes a female boarder guard, knocking her flying several feet. Ahmad then jumps out of his car and runs several steps before falling as other border guards shoot him. It is unclear when the border guards began firing their weapons or how many shots were fired.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CCTV footage of vehicle attack at the Abu dis security crossing yesterday. Border policewoman was struck &amp; injured, treated in hospital. <a href="https://t.co/KSxfORF3Yr">pic.twitter.com/KSxfORF3Yr</a>
&mdash; Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) <a href="https://twitter.com/MickyRosenfeld/status/1275765494201622530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Israel Police international spokesman Micky Rosenfeld called Ahmad a terrorist and said the 27-year-old had targeted the Israeli border guard in a vehicle attack. The Israeli guard injured in the attack was treated at a hospital for minor injuries, according to Rosenfeld.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Scene of Security crossing where terrorist vehicle attack took place. Female border guard injured lightly Terrorist, 27, Abu dis, shot dead. <a href="https://t.co/oX1KOclmM8">pic.twitter.com/oX1KOclmM8</a>
&mdash; Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) <a href="https://twitter.com/MickyRosenfeld/status/1275473082786947074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Tlaib is vocal critic of Israel and has a documented history of backing anti-Semitic movements and people, and boosting unverified information that places Israel or Israelis in a bad light, making anti-Semitic gestures as well as defending openly anti-Semitic individuals. In January, the U.S. lawmaker retweeted a tweet from Hanan Ashrawi, a top Palestinian official, that falsely blamed Israeli citizens of throwing an 8-year-old child down a well. The child is thought to have drowned in a reservoir.
Tlaib later removed the tweet from her timeline and Ashrawi posted an apology for endorsing unverified information. Tlaib did not retweet the apology, according to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/tlaib-deletes-retweet-claiming-settlers-killed-boy-found-dead-in-rain-filled-pit/">The Times of Israel</a>.
In August, Tlaib along with her colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tlaib-omar-promote-anti-semitic-cartoonists-work-ryan-saavedra">shared</a> the work of an anti-Semitic cartoonist. The image showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump silencing the two congresswomen with the caption: “The more they try to silence us, our voices rise. The more they try to weaken us, the stronger we become. The more they try to discredit us, the truth prevails.&#8221;
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Rashida Tlaib

Rashida Tlaib Expresses Support For Palestinian Terrorist Who Tried To Kill Israeli Soldiers

Anti-Semitism

A U.S. Army private who read Islamic State and neo-Nazi propaganda shared his own unit’s details to an extremist group to orchestrate an attack.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York indicted Ethan Phelan Melzer, who went by Etil Reggad, after he worked with the extremist group Order of the Nine Angles (O9A) to carry out an attack on his Army unit. The <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1287726/download">14-page indictment</a> details how Melzer read O9A and ISIS propaganda before reaching out to the neo-Nazi group to orchestrate the attack.
“For example, in connection with the investigation, the FBI seized from an iCloud account maintained by MELZER an ISIS-issued document with a title that included the phrase ‘HARVEST OF THE SOLDIERS’ and described attacks and murders of U.S. personnel in or about April 2020,” the indictment reads.
The indictment accuses Melzer of reaching out to O9A “and a related group known as the ‘RapeWaffen Division’” after he and his unit were informed they would be deployed to a another foreign country. The unit was currently assigned to a U.S. military facility in Europe.
“After MELZER was notified of the assignment, he used an encrypted messaging application to send messages to members and associates of O9A and a related group known as the ‘RapeWaffen Division,’ including communications regarding MELZER’s commitment to O9A and sensitive information related to his unit’s anticipated deployment such as the unit’s locations, movements, and security, for the purpose of facilitating an attack on the unit,” the indictment says.
The indictment describes members and associates of O9A as having “espoused violent, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and Satanic beliefs, and have expressed admiration for, among others, Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler, and Islamic jihadists, such as Usama Bin Laden, the now-deceased former leader of al Qaeda, which the U.S. Department of State designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on or about October 8, 1999.”
Melzer allegedly worked on the attack with the group since 2019. The indictment alleges he worked with at least one person outside the United States, as well as other people.
On May 17, Melzer allegedly exchanged communications with a purported member of al Qaeda regarding his Army unit and its deployment. Around May 23, the indictment says, Melzer sent messages to an O9A-related group chat that explain he was “risking [his] literal free life” by disclosing information about his unit and was “expecting results.” He added that his “life would be absolutely meaningless in the amount of s**t it [i.e., the attack] would cause.” He also used the word “mascal,” which apparently means “mass casualty.”
Melzer told another participant on May 24 that he didn’t care if another 10-year war started or if he died in the attack. Melzer was charged with one count of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, one count of attempted murder of U.S. nationals, one count of conspiracy to murder U.S. service members, one count of attempted murder of U.S. service members, among other charges.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Midsection Of Man Wearing Military Uniform

Army Private Who Consumed ISIS Propaganda Indicted After Giving Satanic Neo-Nazi Group Details About Own Unit To Orchestrate Attack

U.S. Army

A top al-Qaeda terrorist was killed on Sunday in Syria in an airstrike that reportedly used a secretive U.S. missile that does not feature an explosive warhead, but instead uses knives to shred the target.
&#8220;Khalid al-Aruri, a Jordanian also known by his nom de guerre Abu al-Qassam al-Urduni, was struck in his car, almost certainly by a new breed of lethal, highly accurate missile,&#8221; The Sunday Times <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/khalid-al-aruri-hellfire-missile-kills-al-qaeda-leader-in-syria-kl7mkxj2j">reported</a>. &#8220;The Hellfire R9X has been nicknamed the &#8216;flying ninja&#8217; or &#8216;flying ginsu&#8217; for its fast-swivelling, detachable blades.&#8221;
Al-Aruri reportedly led an al-Qaeda faction in Syria where he was the &#8220;personal representative&#8221; of Ayman al-Zawahiri and was tasked with planning future Islamic terrorist attacks on the West.
The Sunday Times added that al-Aruri was killed along with another top Islamic terrorist leader, Bilal al-Sanaani. The U.S. Military said that the strike was not the result of an operation by Operation Inherent Resolve.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 on the Hellfire R9X missile that was developed by the U.S. military to avoid civilian casualties in populated areas.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/secret-u-s-missile-aims-to-kill-only-terrorists-not-nearby-civilians-11557403411">reported</a>:
<blockquote>Both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have used the weapon while closely guarding its existence. A modified version of the well-known Hellfire missile, the weapon carries an inert warhead. Instead of exploding, it is designed to plunge more than 100 pounds of metal through the tops of cars and buildings to kill its target without harming individuals and property close by.
To the targeted person, it is as if a speeding anvil fell from the sky, the officials said. But this variant of the Hellfire missile, designated as the R9X, also comes equipped with a different kind of payload: a halo of six long blades that are stowed inside and then deploy through the skin of the missile seconds before impact to ensure that it shreds anything in its tracks.</blockquote>
Numerous videos and images of the vehicle that was struck that reportedly was carrying al-Aruri surfaced online. The images show that the weapon struck the top of the vehicle, completely gutting the inside of the vehicle.
[Warning: Graphic content]
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A US strike kills a notable al-Qaeda leader in Syria. A video of the car he was in. <a href="https://t.co/5qtVukN5O1">pic.twitter.com/5qtVukN5O1</a> modern weapons!
&mdash; Hassan Hassan (@hxhassan) <a href="https://twitter.com/hxhassan/status/1272317597418229762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Syrie?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Syrie</a> les deux passagers tués étaient Qassam al-Urduni [le <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jordanie?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Jordanie</a>-n] &amp; Bilal al-Sanaani [<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sanaa?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sanaa</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Y%C3%A9men?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Yémen</a>], le 1er était commandant militaire de Huras Eddine <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AlQaeda?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AlQaeda</a> // on remarque une lame au sol <a href="https://t.co/8xye99KhX4">pic.twitter.com/8xye99KhX4</a>
&mdash; Wassim Nasr (@SimNasr) <a href="https://twitter.com/SimNasr/status/1272202171342340096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Wall Street Journal was able to confirm that the weapon had been used at least twice before, including once by the CIA and once by the Department of Defense:
<blockquote>In January 2019, Jamal al-Badawi, accused of being behind the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in a Yemeni port, killing 17 American sailors, was killed by an R9X fired by the Pentagon. The Pentagon has acknowledged the strike, which occurred in Yemen, though not the specific munition involved.
In February 2017, Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri, an Egyptian national who served as al Qaeda’s No. 2, was killed in Syria’s Idlib Province by an R9X fired by a U.S. aircraft operated by the CIA. The CIA doesn’t acknowledge airstrikes it carries out.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Afghanistan &#8211; US Air Force Predator Aircraft

WATCH: Top Al-Qaeda Terrorist Killed With ‘Secret U.S. Missile’ That Uses ‘Knives To Shred Target,’ Report Suggests

U.S. military

President Trump on Sunday said Antifa, the anti-fascist group that has been involved in street protests for years and whom federal officials say is behind the violent clashes occurring in cities over the last several days, will be designated as a &#8220;terrorist organization.&#8221;
&#8220;The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,&#8221; Trump wrote on Twitter. He offered no other details.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1267129644228247552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The move followed several Trump administration officials asserting that ANTIFA has been behind the mayhem that has followed the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police.
&#8220;This is being driven by Antifa,&#8221; national security adviser Robert O&#8217;Brien told CNN&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-says-he-will-designate-antifa-terrorist-organization-gop-points-n1220321">State of the Union</a>&#8221; on Sunday. &#8220;And they did it in Seattle. They have done it in Portland. They have done it in Berkeley. This is a destructive force of radical — I don&#8217;t even know if we want to call them leftists. Whatever they are, they&#8217;re — they&#8217;re militants who are coming in and burning our cities, and we&#8217;re going to get to the bottom of it.&#8221;
O&#8217;Brien repeated the assertion several times, including on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;This Week.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s the violent ANTIFA radical militants that are coming out, under cover of night, traveling across state lines, using military-style tactics to burn down our cities. And they&#8217;re especially targeting the most venerable parts of our cities, George. The minority section, the African-American sections, and Hispanic areas and burning down businesses of people that are trying to get a leg up. And &#8212; and the president&#8217;s outraged by that. And we all are. And &#8212; and that has to stop.
&#8220;And we&#8217;re calling on the FBI to investigate ANTIFA and &#8212; and get to the bottom of these &#8212; these violent rioters. And I don&#8217;t want them confused with peaceful protesters that have every right to go out to the streets. That&#8217;s &#8212; that&#8217;s what makes America different from &#8212; from any other countries around the world,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think the actual perpetrators of the violence, the ones that are on the street, that are burning down minority-owned businesses and restaurants, who have already suffered through this terrible COVID situation and &#8212; and are at risk of losing their business and now they&#8217;re seeing them burn to the ground, those are ANTIFA radical militants. And we&#8217;ve seen them before in other protests and we need to get to the bottom of it.&#8221;
After his Sunday show appearances, O&#8217;Brien told reporters: &#8220;I think the attorney general has already been in touch with (FBI) Director Wray, and I think the President wants to know what the FBI has been doing, and what their plan is going forward, and if they haven&#8217;t been doing anything about Antifa.&#8221;
Trump has also declared the group as the main culprits behind protests that have raged in dozens of cities since Floyd&#8217;s death &#8220;It&#8217;s ANTIFA and the Radical Left. Don&#8217;t lay the blame on others!&#8221; Trump said in a tweet on Saturday.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">member</a>.

Protests in California over the death of George Floyd

TRUMP: Antifa Will Be Declared ‘Terrorist Organization’

Antifa

Donald Trump

Riots

On Monday, Attorney General Bill Barr and FBI Director Chris Wray slammed Apple for refusing to help them unlock the iPhones of the terrorist who launched a deadly terror attack at a Florida naval base last December. The two men announced that after they finally unlocked the phones, cellphone evidence showed the terrorist who launched the attack had been in contact with al Qaeda operatives for years.
The assailant, a Saudi military trainee who opened fire on the Naval Air Base Station in Pensacola and murdered three U.S. sailors while injuring eight other people, possessed iPhones, but in January, when the Department of Justice asked Apple to help unlock the phones, Apple refused.
Barr <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-announces-updates-findings-investigation-december-2019">stated</a>:
<blockquote>Four months ago, I announced that this shooting was an act of terrorism.  I also publicly asked Apple to help us access the locked contents of the two iPhones belonging to the deceased terrorist (assailant’s name). It was clear at that time that the phones were likely to contain valuable information.  Indeed, (assailant) attempted to destroy both phones, even going so far as to disengage from the gunfight long enough to fire a bullet into one.
Within one day of the shootings, the FBI sought and obtained court orders, supported by probable cause, authorizing the FBI to search the contents of both phones as part of its investigation.  The problem was that the phones were locked and the FBI did not have the passwords, so they needed help to get in.  We asked Apple for assistance and so did the President.  Unfortunately, Apple would not help us unlock the phones.  Apple had deliberately designed them so that only the user — in this case, the terrorist — could gain access to their contents.
Today, I am pleased to announce that, thanks to the relentless efforts and ingenuity of FBI technicians, the FBI finally succeeded in unlocking (assailant’s) phones.  The phones contained information previously unknown to us that definitively establishes (assailant’s) significant ties to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), not only before the attack, but before he even arrived in the United States.  We now have a clearer understanding of (assailant’s) associations and activities in the years, months, and days leading up to the attack.</blockquote>
Barr continued:
<blockquote>While the FBI’s hard work has led to an important breakthrough in this case that should be celebrated, I must also express my great disappointment that it took over four months and large sums of taxpayer dollars to obtain evidence that should be easily and quickly accessible with a court order.
Apple made a business and marketing decision to design its phones in such a way that only the user can unlock the contents no matter the circumstances.  In cases like this, where the user is a terrorist, or in other cases, where the user is a violent criminal, human trafficker, or child predator, Apple’s decision has dangerous consequences for public safety and national security and is, in my judgment, unacceptable.
Apple’s desire to provide privacy for its customers is understandable, but not at all costs.  Under our nation’s long-established constitutional principles, where a court authorizes a search for evidence of a crime, an individual’s privacy interests must yield to the broader needs of public safety.  There is no reason why companies like Apple cannot design their consumer products and apps to allow for court-authorized access by law enforcement while maintaining very high standards of data security.  Striking this balance should not be left to corporate boardrooms.  It is a decision to be made by the American people through their representatives.</blockquote>
Wray added, “The evidence we&#8217;ve been able to develop in from the killer&#8217;s devices shows the Pensacola attack was the brutal culmination of years of planning and preparation my a longtime AQAP associate.” AQAP refers to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and has “long been considered the global network&#8217;s most dangerous branch and has attempted to carry out attacks on the US mainland,” the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8331475/FBI-finds-evidence-al-Qaeda-tie-2019-Florida-naval-base-shooting-NYT.html">Daily Mail</a> reported.
Wray added that the difficulty FBI technicians had in unlocking the phones was “hard to overstate.” He said, “We received effectively no help from Apple. We canvassed every partner and company out there that may have had a solution, but none did, so we did it ourselves. Unfortunately, the technique that we developed is not a fix for our broader Apple problem &#8211; but it has made a huge difference in this investigation. While we&#8217;re thanking FBI technicians, we should also be thinking about the cost of all that work. Public servants already swamped with important things to do to protect the American people had to spend all that time just to access evidence that we had court-authorized search warrants for months ago.&#8221;
Wray continued by noting the delay in unlocking the phones “seriously hampered this investigation. Finally getting our hands on the evidence (the assailant) tried to keep from us is great &#8211; but we really needed it months ago, back in December.” He theorized that contacts of the assailant now had months to “concoct and compare stories with co-conspirators, destroy evidence, and disappear. As a result, there&#8217;s a lot we can&#8217;t do at this point that we could have done months ago.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Attorney General William Barr And FBI Director Christopher Wray Announce Crime Reduction Initiative In Detroit

Pensacola Terrorist’s Phone Showed Connections To Al Qaeda. DOJ, FBI, Slam Apple For Refusing To Help Unlock It.

Apple

Christopher Wray

William Barr

A Saudi aviation student who opened fire on Naval Air Station Pensacola last December, leaving three airmen dead, had been in contact with the international terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, before the attack, the FBI revealed Monday.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/nas-pensacola-shooting-update">Fox News reports</a> that the shooter, who was one of several Saudi aviation students studying alongside American airmen at the air base in Florida, was known to have expressed anti-American sentiments online, but this is, reportedly, the first concrete link investigators have found to international terror networks.
The FBI found the connection after requesting help from Apple and others to unlock the shooter&#8217;s phone. Investigators, Fox News says, eventually &#8220;broke through the encryption&#8221; and discovered that the shooter had been communicating with members of Al Qaeda.
&#8220;The FBI, following the Dec. 6 shooting, had asked Apple for help in accessing data from a pair of iPhones owned by the gunman, as investigators had been unsuccessful in unlocking the devices,&#8221; Fox News said Monday. &#8220;It is not immediately clear if Apple gave in, or if the FBI was able to find another way to search the phone’s contents.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/18/politics/pensacola-shooting-al-qaeda/index.html">CNN reports</a> that the breakthrough ended a &#8220;standoff&#8221; between Apple and the Justice Department, implying that the technology behemoth&#8217;s cooperation was, ultimately, not required. Apple would only provide the Justice Department with access to the shooter&#8217;s iCloud account and other data stored on Apple&#8217;s servers but would not break the encryption on the shooter&#8217;s phone.
&#8220;Apple has said creating special access to its devices for the government was where it would draw the line, noting in January &#8216;there is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys. Backdoors can also be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers,'&#8221; according to CNN.
Back in January, just after the incident, Attorney General William Barr called the shooting an act of &#8220;terrorism,&#8221; suggesting that the shooter had jihadist objectives. Barr told a press conference that the shooter was &#8220;motivated by jihadist ideology&#8221; and that &#8220;during the course of the investigation, we learned that the shooter posted a message on September 11 stating, ‘the countdown has begun.'&#8221;
The shooter also, just hours before the attack, posted a message on social media referencing Al Qaeda directly. As he was rampaging through the air base, he recorded a video, in which he &#8220;made statements during the attack that were critical of American servicemen overseas&#8221; according to the FBI, per CNN.
An Al Qaeda branch claimed credit for the attack, according local news in Florida, but that is not necessarily dispositive of terror connections given that international jihadists regularly take advantage of tragedies to boost their presence.
If there does prove to be a concrete connection between the Pensacola shooter and international Al Qaeda, it would mark a big milestone: the first time a jihadist has carried out a deadly attack on United States soil since September 11, 2001.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

pensacola

SHOCK: FBI Discovers Pensacola Mass Shooter Had Contact With Al Qaeda Before Attack

Al Qaeda

mass shooting

The FBI accidentally revealed the identity of a Saudi government official who officials had suspected of helping direct support to two of the Al-Qaeda hijackers that carried out the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans.
Yahoo News <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/in-court-filing-fbi-accidentally-reveals-name-of-saudi-official-suspected-of-directing-support-for-911-hijackers-224555851.html">reported</a> late on Tuesday that the revelation was contained in court documents filed late last week, which have since been withdrawn, in response to a lawsuit from families of the 9/11 victims against the Saudi government.
Buried more than 850 words in Yahoo News&#8217; article, reporter Michael Isikoff wrote:
<blockquote>[The filing from Jill Sanborn, the assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division] says in one instance that it involves “any and all records referring to or relating to Jarrah.”
The reference is to Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah, a mid-level Saudi Foreign Ministry official who was assigned to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1999 and 2000. His duties apparently included overseeing the activities of Ministry of Islamic Affairs employees at Saudi-funded mosques and Islamic centers within the United States.
Relatively little is known about Jarrah, but according to former embassy employees, he reported to the Saudi ambassador in the United States (at the time Prince Bandar), and that he was later reassigned to the Saudi mission in Morocco. His current whereabouts are unknown but he is believed to be in Saudi Arabia.</blockquote>
The report noted that the Jarrah&#8217;s name was released in a portion of the declaration where Sanborn referenced a partially declassified report on possible ties between the hijackers and the Saudi government.
Yahoo News added:
<blockquote>That probe, the existence of which has only become public in the past few years, initially focused on two individuals: Fahad al-Thumairy, a Saudi Islamic Affairs official and radical cleric who served as the imam of the King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles and Omar al-Bayoumi, a suspected Saudi government agent who assisted two terrorists, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who participated in the hijacking of the American Airlines plane that flew into the Pentagon, killing 125. &#8230;
Elsewhere in her declaration, Sanborn asserts that the contention that Jarrah “tasked” Thumairy and Bayoumi with assisting the hijackers was more a “theory” of the agents working the case rather than a conclusion based on hard evidence.</blockquote>
Former President Barack Obama blocked a bill in 2016 that would have allowed the families of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudi government. Republican majorities in the House and Senate <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress-thwarts-obama-on-bill-allowing-911-lawsuits-against-saudi-arabia/2016/09/28/a93e31ba-859b-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html">overrode</a> Obama&#8217;s veto with a 97-to-1 vote in the Senate and 348-to-77 vote in the House.
The Yahoo report tried to make it seem like Attorney General William Barr and Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell were involved in a cover up because they did not want the information being made public.
Grenell and Barr said that the disclosure could cause “significant harm to the national security” because publicly disclosing FBI internal documents would reveal sensitive intelligence sources and methods that the U.S. government uses to collect classified information and would damage cooperation from foreign government in future sensitive investigations because they would not want any of their internal documents revealed in public court.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

World Trade Center Attacked

FBI Accidentally Releases Name Of Saudi Official Suspected Of Directing Support For 9/11 Attack

Saudi Arabia

The German government has <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-government-bans-hezbollah-interior-ministry/a-53287126">pulled the plug</a> on Hezbollah, labeling it a terrorist organization – its political “wing” as well as its military “wing” – and banning its activity on German soil; associated organizations will also be outlawed. What took so long? Surely there was no benefit to Germany in the relationship, except perhaps, to irritate Israel.
Or was there?
Some German politicians claimed relations with Hezbollah were necessary to maintain relations with Lebanon, where the party leads the government. A Foreign Ministry official had called it a “<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-will-not-list-iran-allied-hezbollah-as-terrorist-minister/a-47832535">relevant factor</a> in Lebanese society and part of the complex political landscape in the country.” But with the Beirut government <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-30/defaulted-lebanon-approves-rescue-plan-to-lay-ground-for-bailout?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=bd&amp;cmpId=google">in default </a>on its debts and facing revolution in the streets, allowing terrorist cells to operate in Germany seems unduly sympathetic.
But Hezbollah is a subsidiary of Iran, and through a different prism, Germany’s decision may be the reordering of its relationship with Tehran under the stresses of U.S.-led sanctions, plus the Russia-Saudi oil price war, the Wuhan virus, and the not-often-mentioned rebellion that has been going on in the Islamic Republic since late 2017. In other words, through the prism of money and a distinct unconcern for the people who suffer under tyrannical rule.
The 2015 “Iran deal” made Germany Iran’s primary European trading partner and primary political defender. In 2016, according to the German government, Germany sold Iran <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-economy-iran/german-exports-to-iran-soared-by-26-percent-in-2016-dihk-says-idUSL5N1H44PC">2.9 billion euros</a> worth of machinery and equipment, cars, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and medical products. Iran sold Germany 300 million euros worth of dried fruits, pistachios, rugs, and industrial raw materials. “Machinery and equipment” for fruit. Sounds safe.
In 2017, trade amounted to <a href="https://financialtribune.com/articles/domestic-economy/79434/german-exports-to-iran-growing">3.6 billion euros</a>. But in December of that year, according to the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/3700-arrested-protests-iran-mp-180109100528230.html">33 percent of Iranians</a> lived below the poverty line, and the gap between the rich and poor was deepening. That month a widespread rebellion began.
Early protests were registered in <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/01/06/iranians-demand-and-deserve-a-less-oppressive-regime">70 towns and cities</a>, with at least <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/3700-arrested-protests-iran-mp-180109100528230.html">22 people killed and 3,700 arrested</a> in the first three weeks. Strikes continued around the country, with demonstrators in Ahvaz chanting, “<a href="https://www.radiofarda.com/a/iran_ahwaz_workers_steel_factory/29636678.html">Palestine and Syria are not our problem</a>” and “Not for Gaza, not for Syria, my life only for Iran.” The women of “White Wednesday” continued their protest even after Shaparak Shajarizadeh, the iconic woman who stood on a utility box and waved her headscarf, was sentenced to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-woman-hijab-protest-arrest-jailed-prison-shapark-shajarizadeh-headscarf-white-wednesdays-a8439816.html">20 years in prison</a>, and Nasrin Sotoudeh, a lawyer who defended women in court, was sentenced to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/she-defended-iranian-women-who-removed-their-hijabs-now-shes-been-given-38-years-in-prison/2019/03/17/b1720fea-45b1-11e9-aaf8-4512a6fe3439_story.html?utm_term=.f0f8f3f313b0">38 years and 148 lashes</a>.
By the end of 2018, Amnesty International – notoriously uninterested in the Middle East except for Israel – said Iran had arrested <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/01/irans-year-of-shame-more-than-7000-arrested-in-chilling-crackdown-on-dissent-during-2018/">more than 7,000 people</a>.
The Trump administration <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-trumps-sanctions-are-crippling-irans-economy/a-49335908">re-imposed sanctions in late 2018</a>, striking the oil, shipping, and financial sectors. A report from the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce in mid-2019, German exports to Iran <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-iranian-trade-dwindles-to-a-trickle/a-49373454">declined by 50 percent</a> in the first quarter compared to the same the same period in 2018, although the products were nearly the same: machinery, mechanical devices, pharmaceuticals and electrical products, the volume amounted to 339 million euros for the first three months, while importing 60 million euros worth of Iranian pistachios, carpets, and what the report called “a limited amount” of steel and fuels. (Germany imports <a href="https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-dependence-imported-fossil-fuels">more than 50 percent of its energy needs</a>, but from Russia, the UK, and The Netherlands, not Iran.) At that time, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-germany-trade/germany-iran-trade-collapses-under-us-sanctions-report-idUSKCN1TT040">more than 60 German companies</a> were still operating in Iran.
In the Spring of 2019, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was concerned enough about his country’s status <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/full-interview-javad-zarif-on-face-the-nation/">to appear on American television</a> to “show the Iranian people that the U.S. is not worthy of being a negotiating partner,” and the Trump administration as “squeezing the Iranian people, not the government.” He added, “When the Iranian people are pressured, they do not respond with submission, they respond with resistance. They want us to represent them.”
However, there was another burst of <a href="https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2019/11/18/has-the-iranian-empire-overreached/">widespread upheaval</a> in Iran in November 2019, along with demonstrations in Lebanon and Iraq against the Islamic Republic.
The Russia-Saudi oil price war and the Wuhan Virus showed up in 2020. The former has added to Iran’s cash-crunch and the latter has exposed its inability to care for its people or tell the truth in public. Iran’s response has been largely to <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-News/Iranian-army-acquires-combat-capable-drones-with-930-mile-range-625030">threaten Israel</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/840955446/trump-instructs-u-s-navy-to-fire-on-iranian-boats-if-harassed">harass the U.S. Navy</a> in the Persian Gulf.
Five years after it assumed the role of Iran’s partner, it may be that without the lure of profits and after many more than five years of watching the Iranian – and Lebanese – people suffer at the hands of terrorist leadership, Germany has decided to change course, first by dumping Hezbollah.
If so, it’s about damned time. And what’s next?

Berlin Raid

BRYEN: Germany Ends Its Relationship With Hezbollah Proving Money Matters

Germany

Hezbollah

Israel

Declassified documents that were retrieved from inside Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden&#8217;s Pakistani compound in 2011 revealed that he wanted to assassinate then-President Barack Obama to make &#8220;totally unprepared&#8221; Joe Biden the next president of the United States, predicting that Biden would lead the U.S. &#8220;into a crisis.&#8221;
The documents, first reported by The Washington Post in 2012, were unearthed by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/osama-bin-laden-wanted-to-kill-obama-so-biden-would-be-president-declassified-docs-show">Fox News</a> Editor Gregg Re on Wednesday night.
In a letter, bin Laden wrote to a top Al-Qaeda official that he was instructing the Islamic terrorist organization to create two groups to watch for and to target U.S. aircraft visiting the region that could be carrying Obama or then-CIA Director David Petraeus.
Bin Laden specifically instructed the terrorists to &#8220;not to target visits by U.S. Vice President Biden.&#8221; Bin Laden wrote:
<blockquote>The reason for concentrating on them is that Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him will automatically make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there. Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the United States into a crisis.</blockquote>
Fox News noted that at the time U.S. forces were ready to strike bin Laden&#8217;s compound in 2011, Biden was not sure if U.S. forces should have gone forward with the operation.
&#8220;Mr. President, my suggestion is, don’t go,&#8221; Biden <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lgcBejo2Ug">claimed</a> he told Obama. &#8220;We have to do two more things to see if he&#8217;s there.&#8221;
Earlier this year, Biden said during a Democratic presidential debate that he would not have killed Iranian Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, a terrorist that was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers.
“No, and the reason I wouldn’t have ordered the strike, there’s no evidence yet of imminent threat that was going to come from him,” Biden claimed.
Obama Secretary of Defense Robert Gates <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/194651-former-defense-sec-bob-gates-reflects-on-obama-white-house">slammed</a> Biden in a 2014 memoir for being &#8220;wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.&#8221; When later pressed during an interview on CBS News&#8217; &#8220;Face The Nation&#8221; about what he said about Biden, Gates said, &#8220;I stand by that statement.&#8221;
While Biden has hesitated at the chance to kill terrorists, President Donald Trump has aggressively hunted them down, among them the leader of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula.
&#8220;At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, the United States conducted a counterterrorism operation in Yemen that successfully eliminated Qasim al-Rimi, a founder and the leader of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and a deputy to al-Qa’ida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Rimi joined al-Qa’ida in the 1990s, working in Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden,&#8221; The White House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-white-house-confirms-trump-has-killed-two-more-top-terrorists">said</a> in a statement. &#8220;Under Rimi, AQAP committed unconscionable violence against civilians in Yemen and sought to conduct and inspire numerous attacks against the United States and our forces.&#8221;
&#8220;His death further degrades AQAP and the global al-Qa’ida movement, and it brings us closer to eliminating the threats these groups pose to our national security,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;The United States, our interests, and our allies are safer as a result of his death. We will continue to protect the American people by tracking down and eliminating terrorists who seek to do us harm.&#8221;
The Daily Wire <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200304064304/https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-takes-out-another-top-terrorist-in-the-middle-east">highlighted</a> in January several other top Islamic terrorists that Trump has killed since October:
<blockquote>The news comes after a Trump-authorized drone strike killed Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), in early January.
In October, Trump authorized a raid targeting ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria which resulted in al-Baghdadi’s death when he detonated a suicide vest as he was running from U.S. forces.
The day after al-Baghdadi was killed, U.S. forces conducted another attack that resulted in the death of al-Baghdadi’s likely successor, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, when an airstrike took him out as he was being “smuggled across northern Syria in the back of an oil tanker truck,” the Times reported.
Another terrorist that the Trump administration took care of was Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza bin Laden, who had repeatedly threatened to attack the U.S. and who was believed to be in line to taking over Al Qaeda.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">subscriber</a>.

Biden Bin Laden

Declassified Docs: Bin Laden Plotted To Push U.S. Into ‘Crisis’ By Making Biden President

Barack Obama

Joe Biden

The Afghan government released 200 Taliban prisoners over the past two days even though discussions about a prisoner swap with the insurgent group were halted after members of the Taliban walked out.
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/04/09/afghan-government-releases-another-100-taliban-prisoners/">reported</a> that a group of 100 Taliban prisoners considered to be low-risk were released on Wednesday and the Afghan government announced Thursday it would release 100 more. Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-afghanistan-taliban/afghan-government-frees-100-taliban-prisoners-as-part-of-peace-process-idUSKCN21Q2EA">reported</a> that the move to release the prisoners was the “first step in a peace process with the hardline Islamists, despite the group’s suspension of talks on a planned prisoner exchange crucial to moving to formal talks to end years of war.”
The news outlet added that similar prisoner release debates have struggled to end military conflict between the U.S. and Afghanistan that has now been going on for 18 years.
“The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan released 100 Taliban prisoners today based on their health condition, age and length of remaining sentence, as part of our efforts for peace,” said Javid Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan National Security Council.
More from Reuters:
<blockquote>A February pact between the United States and the Taliban, under which U.S.-led international forces will withdraw in phases in exchange for Taliban security guarantees, is the best chance to reduce U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.
But peace hinges on talks between the U.S.-backed Afghan government and the militants. A prisoner exchange is meant to build confidence on both sides for those talks.
Despite this week’s setbacks over the prisoner releases, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday said progress had been made since he visited Kabul on March 23 and also met Taliban officials in Qatar to iron out the differences.</blockquote>
The prisoners getting released Thursday would have similar profiles to the ones mentioned by Faisal, who added the release was part of an effort “for peace and containment of COVID-19.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Agence France-Press that the prisoner release wasn’t good enough.
“Our stance has been very clear on prisoners swap,” Mujahid told the outlet. “Now, hundreds hundreds [sic] prisoners are released on a daily basis. This is not part of our process and it is unacceptable to us.”
Faisal said the Afghan government was releasing the prisoners despite the collapse of the peace talks in order “to push the peace process forward.”
More from the Post:
<blockquote>In February, the US <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/02/29/brooklyn-afghanistan-veteran-calls-us-taliban-deal-a-positive-maneuver/">signed a withdrawal deal</a> with the Taliban that required Kabul — which was not a signatory to the accord — to take part in the prisoner exchange that was supposed to have led to “intra-Afghan” peace talks starting on March 10.
In the agreement, the US and other foreign forces are to withdraw from Afghanistan in 13 months.</blockquote>
The Washington Post reported that the “Afghan government is under immense <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afghan-peace-effort-inches-forward-after-us-threatens-to-cut-1-billion-in-aid/2020/03/26/df9acd5a-6edf-11ea-a156-0048b62cdb51_story.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_4&amp;itid=lk_inline_manual_4">pressure from the United States</a> to move forward with peace talks with the Taliban following the signing of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal in February.” The outlet added that talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have been stalled for weeks, which does not bode well for the United States’ own attempts to broker a peace agreement with the terrorist organization.

Afghan government releases 100 Taliban

200 Taliban Prisoners Were Just Released By Afghan Government

Afghanistan

Taliban

The Trump administration is now the first U.S. administration to label a white supremacist group a terrorist organization. The move, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/terrorist-label-white-supremacy-Russian-Imperial-Movement.html">The New York Times</a> notes, &#8220;could cut against criticism that the Trump administration has played down the threat of white nationalist violence for political reasons.&#8221; The group also happens to be pro-Russia.
The State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, Ambassador Nathan Sales, underscored in a statement to the Times Monday that by naming a white nationalist group a &#8220;specially designated global terrorist organization,&#8221; the Trump administration is doing something &#8220;unprecedented.&#8221;
&#8220;These designations are unprecedented,&#8221; said Sales, as reported by the Times Monday. “This is the first time the United States has ever designated white supremacists as terrorists, and this illustrates how seriously this administration takes the white supremacist terrorist threat. We are doing things no previous administration has done to counter this threat.”
&#8220;The State Department’s designation for the organization, the Russian Imperial Movement, sets up the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to block any American property or assets belonging to the group,&#8221; the Times explains. &#8220;It will also bar Americans from financial dealings with the organization and make it easier to ban its members from traveling to the United States.&#8221; Three of the group&#8217;s leaders — Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev, Denis Valliullovich Gariev and Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov — are being labeled individually as terrorists, officials told the Times, a designation that includes additional sanctions.
Officials told the Times that the group is not believed to be sponsored by the Russian government, but that its actions have been &#8220;tolerated&#8221; by President Vladimir V. Putin and it has &#8220;helped advance the Russian government’s external goals by recruiting Russian fighters to aid pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.&#8221; The organization has also supported neo-Nazi organizations in Scandinavia, which follows a larger Russian government strategy of &#8220;sow[ing] chaos in Western democracies,&#8221; the paper adds.
While Trump&#8217;s critics have frequently portrayed the president as &#8220;racist&#8221; and &#8220;empowering&#8221; white supremacists in his rhetoric, his administration has now taken multiple decisive and historic steps to counter the threat of white supremacism. As the Times notes, the White House added white supremacist groups to the federal government’s <a class="css-1g7m0tk" title="" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NSCT.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Strategy for Counterterrorism</a> in 2018.
In the document, the administration cites nationalist and separatists movements, including specifically neo-Nazis&#8217;, as potential global threats. Below is an excerpt from a passage describing the global threat posed by such groups:
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<blockquote>There is also a broad range of revolutionary, nation- alist, and separatist movements overseas whose use of violence and intent to destabilize societies often puts American lives at risk. For example, the Nordic Resistance Movement is a prominent transnational, self-described nationalist-socialist organization with anti-Western views that has conducted violent attacks against Muslims, left-wing groups, and others. The group has demonstrated against United States Government actions it perceives are supportive of Israel and has the potential to extend its targeting to United States interests. Similarly, the neo-Nazi National Action Group, a terrorist organization that was banned by the United Kingdom in 2016 for its promotion of violence against politicians and minorities, operates mainly in the United Kingdom but has engaged with like-minded groups in the United States, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, and Poland—expanding the potential influence of its violent ideology. Likewise, Babbar Khalsa International seeks, through violent means, to establish its own independent state in India and is responsible for significant terrorist attacks in India and elsewhere that have claimed the lives of innocent civilians. Such groups may avoid or deprioritize targeting United States interests for now to avoid detracting from their core goals but frequently conduct assassinations and bombings against major economic, politi- cal, and social targets, heightening the risk to United States personnel and interests overseas.</blockquote>
The document also describes domestic terrorists motivated forms of violent extremism not connected to radical Islam, &#8220;such as racially motivated extremism&#8221;:
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<blockquote>Lastly, the United States has long faced a persistent security threat from domestic terrorists who are not motivated by a radical Islamist ideology but are instead motivated by other forms of violent extremism, such as racially motivated extremism, animal rights extremism, environmental extremism, sovereign citizen extremism, and militia extremism.</blockquote>
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/first-european-country-announces-multi-step-plan-to-ease-coronavirus-lockdown">First European Country Announces Multi-Step Plan To Ease Coronavirus Lockdown</a>
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Trump Administration First In History To Label A White Supremacist Group Terrorists

Nationalism

Racism

Trump Administration

White Supremacy

Law enforcement officials in Germany say that 52 people, including 18 children, were hit on Monday when a man rammed a car into a carnival crowd in the western part of the country.
&#8220;A 29-year-old German citizen was arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide in the town of Volkmarsen,&#8221; the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51626844">reported</a>. &#8220;Police have also arrested a second person for allegedly filming the incident.&#8221;
The victims ranged from two-years-old to 85-years-old, and 35 people remained in the hospital. It was not clear whether there were any fatalities from the apparent attack.
The incident happened during celebrations for Rose Monday, which is celebrated throughout parts of Europe.
&#8220;A silver Mercedes drove through plastic barricades set up for the parade and into a group of people at about 14:45 local time,&#8221; the BBC reports.
Eyewitnesses told German media that the driver had accelerated toward the crowd and appeared to target children. Police said they believed it was an attack but that there was no indication of a political motive.&#8221;
Authorities said that the driver was being treated for injuries sustained during the incident before being questioned by prosecutors. Those same authorities rejected rumors that the driver was drunk during the incident.
The Telegraph <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/24/car-driven-crowds-carnival-parade-germany/">reports</a>:
<blockquote>The driver is a 29-year-old German citizen who has not been named under the country’s privacy laws. He is understood to be from the local area, and has no history of political extremism. &#8230;
The police presence is already heightened across Germany in the wake of a series of attacks.
The latest incident comes just days after a far-Right gunman killed nine people before turning his gun on his mother and himself in the town of Hanau, which also lies in Hesse.</blockquote>
&#8220;We’re assuming it was an intentional crime,&#8221; a police spokesman told reporters.
Regional government officials reportedly said the possibility that it could have been a terrorist attack &#8220;could not be ruled out.&#8221;
Reinhard Kubat, a local councillor, told Bild, “It was a beautiful procession and just as it ended I suddenly saw flashing lights and heard sirens. Crying people came towards me. There were mainly injured children on the street, but also older people.”
Elmar Schulten, a reporter for Waldeckische Landeszeitung, said, “When I arrived there were 15 people on the floor, many of them small children. People were howling everywhere, including grown men. Fathers who saw their children lying on the floor.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, “Our thoughts are with the injured. We hope they will all make a swift and full recovery. I wish them, their families and everyone who was in the Rose Monday parade strength. And I thank the emergency services from the bottom of my heart.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Unsere Gedanken sind bei den Verletzten von <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Volkmarsen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Volkmarsen</a>. Wir hoffen, dass alle gut und zügig wieder genesen. Ihnen, ihren Angehörigen und allen, die bei dem <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rosenmontagszug?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Rosenmontagszug</a> waren, ganz viel Kraft. Und von Herzen danke den Einsatzkräften vor Ort.
&mdash; Heiko Maas 🇪🇺 (@HeikoMaas) <a href="https://twitter.com/HeikoMaas/status/1231992989163098114?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Regional Prime Minister of Hesse Volker Bouffier said in a statement, “I am shocked by this bad deed, which has injured so many innocent people, some of them seriously. My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives and friends, and I wish everyone a speedy and complete recovery.”
USA Today <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/02/24/man-drives-car-into-germany-carnival-crowd-volkmarsen-30-injured/4860079002/">added</a>, &#8220;Chancellor Angela Merkel sent her condolences to those injured in the crash, wishing them a speedy and full recovery. She also thanked the police and all medical personnel involved.&#8221;

GERMANY-CARNIVAL-POLICE

Man Rams Car Into Crowd In Germany In Apparent ‘Attack’; Hits 52 People

Authorities have reportedly opened an investigation into the death of Obama-era Department of Homeland Security (DHS) whistleblower Philip Haney, who was was found dead in his California home on Friday.
&#8220;On February 21, 2020 at approximately 1012 hours, deputies and detectives responded to the area of Highway 124 and Highway 16 in Plymouth to the report of a male subject on the ground with a gunshot wound,&#8221; the Amador County Sheriff&#8217;s Office said in a statement. &#8220;Upon their arrival, they located and identified 66-year-old Philip Haney, who was deceased and appeared to have suffered a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound. A firearm was located next to Haney and his vehicle. This investigation is active and ongoing. No further details will be released at this time.&#8221;
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/dhs-whistleblower-philip-haney-found-dead-police-say">reported</a>:
<blockquote>He was an outspoken <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/268282-dhs-ordered-me-to-scrub-records-of-muslims-with-terror" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">critic</a> of the Obama administration, specifically its handling of radical Jihadist elements and Islamic terrorism.
Haney, who retired in 2015, studied Arabic culture and language while working as a scientist in the Middle East before becoming a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 as a Customs &amp; Border Protection (CBP) agriculture officer.
After serving as an armed CBP officer, he was promoted to its Advanced Targeting Team. He specialized in Islamic theology and the strategy and tactics of the global Islamic movement.</blockquote>
Fox News contributor Sarah Carter responded by suggesting that Haney had been murdered, &#8220;Somebody I deeply respected and considered a friend Phil Haney – a DHS whistleblower during the Obama Admin was apparently killed yesterday in Southern California. Pray for his family and pray they find the person who murdered him. Still trying to get confirmation on details.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Somebody I deeply respected and considered a friend Phil Haney &#8211; a DHS whistleblower during the Obama Admin was apparently killed yesterday in Southern California. Pray for his family and pray they find the person who murdered him. Still trying to get confirmation on details
&mdash; Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/SaraCarterDC/status/1231249584925630464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Haney was known for blowing the whistle on the Obama administration, claiming that the administration shut down a program that could have prevented Islamic terrorist attacks that were carried out on U.S. soil.
In 2015, Haney told then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly that his work could have prevented the 2015 Islamic terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California.
“The network of individuals that we work with were tied to a large group called Tablighi Jamaat, part of a larger group called Deobandi,&#8221; Haney said. &#8220;We had thousands of organizations or individuals in the database and we tracked them as they moved in and out of the United States on the visa waiver program. That’s what first brought the group to our attention.&#8221;
&#8220;And as we developed the case and started putting the pieces in place, we gain more and more evidence of their activities,&#8221; Haney continued, adding that the mosque of one of the terrorists behind the attack was allegedly connected to the organization that he was investigating.
Haney told Kelly that had the Obama administration not shut down the investigation, which was years in the making, would have likely flagged the terrorists who carried out the attack.
<iframe title="Whistleblower Says He Could Have Prevented CA Attack If Gov&#039;t Didn&#039;t Cut Funding" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bClwr4osp50?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
In 2016, following the Islamic terrorist attack on the Orlando Pulse nightclub, which at the time was the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, Haney told Fox News&#8217; Sean Hannity that he believed that the Obama administration&#8217;s decision to shut down his investigation likely prevented DHS from stopping the terrorist attack.
<iframe title="DHS whistleblower speaks out about jihad in America" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ea6pt13Jp5Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Philip Haney

Homeland Security Whistleblower From Obama Era Found Dead

Obama Administration

Suicide

whistleblower

The United Kingdom now says it will end an &#8220;early release&#8221; program in place for individuals convicted of &#8220;terror offenses&#8221; after two people were wounded in a second attack committed by someone granted leniency under the early release rules.
According to <a href="https://apnews.com/bee3f1d416f1de836ba26fa04f025f4f">the Associated Press</a>, the UK has been employing a rule which allows those convicted of planning terror attacks to serve a fraction of their prison sentence before being automatically paroled without a hearing. The rule, introduced ten years ago by the Labour Party, is meant to show mercy to those who may have been targeted for radicalization and to keep terror cells from recruiting in prisons. In the last decade, around 70 people have walked free because of the rule.
Sunday, Sudesh Amman, one of the parolees, &#8220;strapped on a fake bomb and stabbed two people on a busy street before being shot dead by police,&#8221; per the AP. It was the second such attack by a former prisoner in less than six months.
Amman was sentenced to just three years for &#8220;publishing graphic terrorist videos online and had stockpiled instructions on bomb making and knife attacks,&#8221; but got out of jail after only around 18 months &#8212; half his sentence. In November, Usman Khan killed two people near the London Bridge while out on conditional release.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told the British Parliament on Monday that he will propose a slate of new rules, curbing the state&#8217;s ability to allow terror offenders to walk free.
&#8220;We cannot have the situation, as we saw tragically in yesterday&#8217;s case, where an offender &#8211; a known risk to innocent members of the public &#8211; is released early by automatic process of law without any oversight by the Parole Board,&#8221; Buckland said in a speech Monday morning.
The new rules would ensure that terror prisoners serve at least two thirds of their sentence before being considered for early parole. And instead of an automatic release, each prisoner will have to demonstrate rehabilitation.  Because, Buckland added, this is &#8220;an unprecedented situation of severe gravity,&#8221; the rule will apply to the approximately 200 prisoners currently serving time on terror-related charges.
&#8216;This is a liberal country, it is a tolerant country,″ Prime Minister Boris Johnson added in his own interview. “But I think the idea of automatic early release for people who obviously continue to pose a threat to the public has come to the end of its useful life.”
&#8220;Now that I am prime minister I&#8217;m going to take steps to make sure that people are not released early when they commit&#8230; serious sexual, violent or terrorist offences,&#8221; <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50618744">he told the BBC</a>. &#8220;I absolutely deplore the that fact that this man was out on the streets&#8230;and we are going to take action against it.&#8221;
The new slate of rules will likely include measures requiring that law enforcement officials closely monitor those convicted on terrorism charges and then released for a certain period of time.
“We are going to have to accept that we have to be much more skeptical and robust about dealing with the risk of harm,″ one expert told the AP. “We may need to accept that there are certain people who are so dangerous they must be kept in prison indefinitely.”
Leftists in the UK were unhappy at the news. Labour Party leaders blamed law enforcement &#8220;budget cuts&#8221; for the rise in terrorist activities, not the early release program, and a &#8220;human rights activist&#8221; <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51364047">told the BBC that the new rules</a> present &#8220;civil rights concerns.&#8221;
&#8220;From last month&#8217;s knee-jerk lie detector proposal, to today&#8217;s threat to break the law by changing people&#8217;s sentences retrospectively, continuing to introduce measures without review or evidence is dangerous and will create more problems than it solves,&#8221; he said.

uk terror

Finally: UK Will End ‘Early Release’ Program For Convicted Terrorists After Latest Attack

Radical Islamic Terror

United Kingdom

An Islamic terrorist organization claimed credit this weekend for the December 6, 2019, terrorist attack on Naval Air Station Pensacola which resulted in the deaths of three U.S. sailors and severe injuries to eight other Americans.
&#8220;Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed on Sunday that it directed a Saudi military officer to carry out the shooting,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/02/world/middleeast/al-qaeda-claims-it-directed-florida-naval-base-shooting.html?action=click&amp;module=Latest&amp;pgtype=Homepage">reported</a>. &#8220;In an audio recording released on Sunday, the leader of the Yemen-based group, Qassim al-Rimi, claimed responsibility for the Dec. 6 attack at Naval Air Station Pensacola, according to SITE, an organization that tracks jihadist media.&#8221;
The Times noted that the group &#8220;produced a copy of his will as well as correspondence that indicated he had been in contact with Al Qaeda. Experts said those elements gave the claim a plausible air.&#8221;
The development shines new light from a separate <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-takes-out-another-top-terrorist-in-the-middle-east">report</a> from late last week that indicated that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly killed al-Rimi in a drone strike last month in Yemen.
Bruce Riedel, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and a former C.I.A. officer, told The Times that Al-Qaeda&#8217;s release of the audio was “a statement that AQAP has infiltrated the Saudi military, which is an embarrassment for the Saudis.”
Colin P. Clarke, a senior fellow at a New York-based research organization, said that Al Qaeda’s claim “makes the F.B.I.’s battle with Apple for access to [the terrorist&#8217;s] phone even that much more critical.”
On January 13, Attorney General William Barr announced the findings of the government&#8217;s findings and declared that the attack on the base was a terrorist attack.
&#8220;The evidence shows that the shooter was motivated by jihadist ideology,&#8221; Barr said. &#8220;During the course of the investigation, we learned that the shooter posted a message on social media on Sept. 11 of last year that said: &#8216;the countdown has begun.&#8217; Over Thanksgiving weekend, he visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. He also posted other anti-American, anti-Israeli, and jihadi messages on social media, and did so two hours before his attack at the naval base.&#8221;
&#8220;Early reports indicated that the shooter arrived at the site, accompanied by other Saudi cadets, who took video of the attack as it unfolded,&#8221; Barr continued. &#8220;These reports turned out not to be accurate. The shooter arrived by himself. Other Saudi cadets happened to be in the area and, after the attack began, they took some videos of the resulting commotion. They fully cooperated in the investigation, as did the other Saudi cadets who were interviewed by the FBI at Pensacola and at additional bases across the country.&#8221;
Barr said that there was no evidence suggesting that the Saudi military knew of the attack ahead of time and said that they were cooperative in the investigation.
&#8220;While there was no evidence of assistance or pre-knowledge of the attack by other members of the Saudi military (or any other foreign nationals) who are training in the United States, we did learn of derogatory material possessed by 21 members of the Saudi military who are training here in the United States,&#8221; Barr said. &#8220;17 had social media containing some jihadi or anti-American content.  However, there was no evidence of any affiliation or involvement with any terrorist activity or group.&#8221;
&#8220;15 individuals (including some of the 17 just mentioned) had had some kind of contact with child pornography.  While one of these individuals had a significant number of such images, all the rest had one or two images, in most cases posted in a chat room by someone else or received over social media,&#8221; Barr continued. &#8220;The relevant U.S. Attorneys offices independently reviewed each of the 21 cases involving derogatory information and determined that none of them would, in the normal course, result in federal prosecution.&#8221;
Barr added, &#8220;However, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia determined that this material demonstrated conduct unbecoming an officer in the Saudi Royal Air Force and Royal Navy and the 21 cadets have been dis-enrolled from their training curriculum in the U.S. military and will be returning to Saudi Arabia (later today).&#8221;
This is a developing news story, refresh the page for updates.

Shooting On Naval Air Station Pensacola Leaves Multiple Dead And Injured

Terrorist Organization Claims Credit For December Attack On Florida Naval Base

Florida

Law enforcement officials in London shot and killed a man on Sunday who allegedly went on a mass stabbing spree in a &#8220;terrorist-related&#8221; attack.
“Three victims have been taken to south London hospitals,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner Lucy D’Orsi said in a statement. “One man is being treated as life-threatening, one woman has non-life threatening injuries and another woman has minor injuries.”
“As part of a proactive Counter Terrorism operation, armed officers were in immediate attendance and shot a male suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene,” D’Orsi continued. “A device was found strapped to the body of the suspect and specialist officers attended. Cordons were put in place and it was quickly established that this was a hoax device.”
&#8220;The situation has been contained and officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are now leading an investigation into the incident,&#8221; D’Orsi added. &#8220;The incident was quickly declared as a terrorist incident and we believe it to be Islamist-related.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/INCIDENT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#INCIDENT</a> A man has been shot by armed officers in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Streatham?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Streatham</a>. At this stage it is believed a number of people have been stabbed. The circumstances are being assessed; the incident has been declared as terrorist-related. Please follow <a href="https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@metpoliceuk</a> for updates
&mdash; Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) <a href="https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/1223987448742666241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
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British Prime Minister responded to the attack by <a href="https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1224000347645063174">tweeting</a>, &#8220;Thank you to all emergency services responding to the incident in Streatham, which the police have now declared as terrorism-related. My thoughts are with the injured and all those affected.&#8221;
Johnson later added: “An investigation is taking place at pace to establish the full facts of what happened, and the Government will provide all necessary support to the police and security services as this work goes on.”
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/london-police-shoot-man-dead-after-stabbing-attack-11580660534">highlighted</a> some of the recent terrorist attacks that have rocked London over the last couple of years:
<blockquote>The incident is the latest in a series of terrorist attacks to have hit London in recent years. In November, a convicted terrorist on parole was shot dead by police after he killed two people in central London.
In June 2017, London Bridge and the surrounding area were the scene of a bloody rampage by three knife-wielding men, who plowed a van into pedestrians and stabbed people in nearby bars and restaurants. All three were shot dead by police. Eight people were killed and dozens hospitalized in the assault.
Also in June 2017, a van struck pedestrians outside a London mosque. Earlier that year, another car attack occurred on London’s Westminster Bridge, leaving five dead. And in May 2017, a suicide bomber killed 22 concertgoers in Manchester.</blockquote>
In 2017, EU anti-terror chief Gilles de Kerchove said that Britain was home to up to 35,000 Islamic extremists, more than any other country in Europe.
De Kerchove <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/31/britain-home-35000-islamist-fanatics-country-europe-top-official/">told</a> Spain&#8217;s El Mundo newspaper: “The United Kingdom has identified 20,000 to 35,000 radicals. Of these, 3,000 are worrying for MI5, and of those 500 are under constant and special attention. France has 17,000. Spain many less, but more than 5,000 I suppose. In Belgium almost 500 have been to Syria and there are around 2,000 radicals or more. I wouldn&#8217;t like to put a concrete figure on it, but (in Europe) tens of thousands, more than 50,000. We must select those who are really worrying and the most dangerous, and they should be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
This report has been updated to include additional information.

Police Shoot Armed Man In South London

Multiple Victims Reported In ‘Islamist-Related’ Mass Stabbing London Terror Attack

London

Federal law enforcement officials arrested an alleged Al-Qaeda terrorist leader in Phoenix, Arizona, late this week on murder charges filed by the Iraqi government.
Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, a 42-year-old Iraqi national was &#8220;wanted to stand trial in Iraq for two charges of premeditated murder committed in 2006 in Al-Fallujah,&#8221; the Department of Justice said in a statement.
An Iraqi judge issued an arrest warrant for Ahmed and subsequently requested Ahmed&#8217;s extradition from the United States.
&#8220;According to the information provided by the Government of Iraq in support of its extradition request, Ahmed served as the leader of a group of Al-Qaeda terrorists in Al-Fallujah, Iraq, which planned operations targeting Iraqi police,&#8221; the DOJ added. &#8220;Ahmed and other members of the Al-Qaeda group allegedly shot and killed a first lieutenant in the Fallujah Police Directorate and a police officer in the Fallujah Police Directorate, on or about June 1, 2006, and October 3, 2006, respectively.&#8221;
The DOJ noted that the decision to extradite him to Iraq will ultimately be made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The DOJ statement did not mention when or how Ahmed entered the United States.
In other terrorism-related news, The New York Times reported on Friday that the United States took out <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-takes-out-another-top-terrorist-in-the-middle-east">another top terrorist</a> in the Middle East.
“The officials expressed confidence that the Qaeda leader, Qassim al-Rimi, was killed in a January airstrike in Yemen but were awaiting confirmation before making a public announcement,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/middleeast/qaeda-yemen-alrimi.html">reported</a>. “If confirmed, his death could represent a significant blow to the Qaeda affiliate, which remains one of the most potent branches of the terrorist group. The Yemen branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has tried to attack the United States and Europe and is thought to still want to.”
The Times stated that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) appears to have been the entity responsible for taking out al-Rimi as military officials said that they were not aware of any strikes.
Also on Friday, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/omar-promotes-makes-false-claims-about-new-countries-added-to-travel-ban-list">announced</a> that it added six new countries to the travel ban list due to those countries not meeting certain requirements that allow officials to screen individuals who from those countries.
In a statement, DHS outlined why the six countries were added to the list:
<blockquote>Burma: Burma has begun to engage with the United States on a variety of identity-management and information-sharing issues, but it does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Immigrants, except as Special Immigrants whose eligibility is based on having provided assistance to the U.S. Government.
Eritrea: Eritrea does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Immigrants, except as Special Immigrants whose eligibility is based on having provided assistance to the U.S. Government.
Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyzstan does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Immigrants, except as Special Immigrants whose eligibility is based on having provided assistance to the U.S. Government.
Nigeria: Nigeria does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Immigrants, except as Special Immigrants whose eligibility is based on having provided assistance to the U.S. Government.
Sudan: Sudan generally does not comply with our identity management performance metrics and presents a high risk, relative to other countries in the world, of terrorist travel to the United States.
Suspension of entry for Diversity Immigrants, as described in section 203(c) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1153(c).
Tanzania: Tanzania does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.
Suspension of entry for Diversity Immigrants, as described in section 203(c) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1153(c).</blockquote>
Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf said, “The top responsibility of the President and the Department of Homeland Security is the safety and security of the American people, and these new vetting criteria accomplish that goal and are raising the bar for global security. It is logical and essential to thoroughly screen and vet everyone seeking to travel or immigrate to the United States. However, there are some countries from whom the U.S. does not receive the necessary information about its travelers and, as a result, pose a national security or public safety risk that warrants tailored travel restrictions.”
Wolf continued, “DHS has refined its robust security standards, including enhanced screening and vetting capabilities, that allow us to better identify terrorists and criminals attempting to enter the United States. These screening and vetting capabilities are most effective when foreign governments contribute to our ability to verify a traveler’s identity and assess whether they pose a national security or public safety risk. For a small number of countries that lack either the will or the capability to adhere to these criteria, certain travel restrictions have become necessary to mitigate potential threats. The new, additional restrictions are not blanket restrictions. These tailored restrictions will make the U.S. safer and more secure. And countries that make the necessary improvements will have their restrictions removed accordingly, as was done in 2018.”

SYRIA-CONFLICT-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-GAZA-RALLY

Alleged Al-Qaeda Terrorist Leader Arrested In Phoenix On Murder Charges

President Donald Trump appears to have added another name to the list of terrorists that his administration has killed as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly launched a drone strike that killed the leader of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.
&#8220;The officials expressed confidence that the Qaeda leader, Qassim al-Rimi, was killed in a January airstrike in Yemen but were awaiting confirmation before making a public announcement,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/middleeast/qaeda-yemen-alrimi.html">reported</a>. &#8220;If confirmed, his death could represent a significant blow to the Qaeda affiliate, which remains one of the most potent branches of the terrorist group. The Yemen branch, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has tried to attack the United States and Europe and is thought to still want to.&#8221;
The Times reported the CIA learned about al-Rimi’s location in November from an informant in Yemen and then started to track him using drones and other technology.
Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Times: “He was an Al Qaeda veteran whose career started in the camps in pre-9/11 Afghanistan. After he was busted out of prison, he was part of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s relaunch management team, becoming their military commander.”
The news comes after a Trump-authorized drone strike killed Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), in early January.
In October, Trump authorized a raid targeting ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria which resulted in al-Baghdadi&#8217;s death when he detonated a suicide vest as he was running from U.S. forces.
The day after al-Baghdadi was killed, U.S. forces conducted another attack that resulted in the death of al-Baghdadi&#8217;s likely successor, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, when an airstrike took him out as he was being &#8220;smuggled across northern Syria in the back of an oil tanker truck,&#8221; the Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/27/world/middleeast/al-baghdadi-successor-reported-killed.html">reported</a>.
Another terrorist that the Trump administration took care of was Osama bin Laden’s son, Hamza bin Laden, who had repeatedly threatened to attack the U.S. and who was believed to be in line to taking over Al Qaeda.
&#8220;Details of the strike that killed him were scarce, including when and where,&#8221; The Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/us/politics/hamza-bin-laden-al-qaeda.html">reported</a>. &#8220;The United States government played a role in the operation, but it was not clear how, according to the officials, who discussed his death on the condition of anonymity because it involved sensitive operations and intelligence gathering. Mr. bin Laden was killed sometime during the first two years of the Trump administration, officials said.&#8221;
Not quite making the list was Abdul Reza Shahlai, an official with Iran’s Quds Force, who the Trump administration attempted to take out with a drone strike on the same day that they took out Soleimani.
“The disclosure of a second mission indicated that the Trump administration was attempting to target a larger set of Iranian military and paramilitary leaders than was previously known,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/world/middleeast/trump-iran-yemen.html">reported</a>. “The unsuccessful airstrike in Yemen was aimed at Abdul Reza Shahlai, an official with Iran’s Quds Force, a potent paramilitary organization. He was known as a key financier for Iran’s proxy wars.”
The Washington Post reported that the details surrounding the plan remained “highly classified” and suggested that Shahlai could be re-targeted again in the future.
“Another senior official said the two strikes were authorized around the same time and that the United States did not disclose the Shahlai mission because it did not go according to plan,” the Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/on-the-day-us-forces-killed-soleimani-they-launched-another-secret-operation-targeting-a-senior-iranian-official-in-yemen/2020/01/10/60f86dbc-3245-11ea-898f-eb846b7e9feb_story.html">reported</a>. “The official said Shahlai may be targeted in the future, though both countries have signaled an interest in de-escalating the crisis.”
Refresh the page for updates.

President Trump And First Lady Melania Depart White House For Florida

Trump Takes Out Another Top Terrorist In The Middle East

Middle East

Qassim al-Rimi

In its latest annual <a href="http://www.islamophobia.org/reports/228-2018-civil-rights-report-bias-incident-data.html">hate crimes report</a>, the <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/resources/profiles/the-council-on-american-islamic-relations-cair">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a> (CAIR) vilified U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials as the nation’s greatest perpetrators of anti-Muslim discrimination. So, when as many as 60 Iranian and Iranian-American travelers were delayed for hours earlier this month at the U.S.-Canada border, CAIR was quick to accuse the federal agency of living up to its purported reputation. Has the U.S. government decided to make life difficult for Iranians living in America, as CAIR contends? Or are the nonprofit’s actions part of an enduring campaign to subvert U.S. border security?
In response to a January 2 air strike which <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/opinion/soleimani-iran-tom-cotton.amp.html">killed</a> Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/ntas/alerts/20_0104_ntas_bulletin.pdf">published</a> a bulletin warning that Hezbollah and other Iranian loyalists could carry out homeland-based plots by targeting “critical infrastructure.” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo deployed the national guard to protect public transportation, while <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-01-03/us-cities-on-alert-after-killing-of-iran-leader-qassem-suleiman">government officials</a> in California, Washington, and Massachusetts ordered increased police patrols or warned citizens to remain extra vigilant.
Meanwhile, the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Washington became congested on January 4 after as many as 60 Iranian natives were allegedly selected for additional screening and detained, in some cases, for several hours. The travelers, who were returning from a pop concert in Vancouver, put a <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article238985213.html">strain</a> on CBP resources as customs agents struggled to keep up with the sudden increase in cross-border traffic. However, CAIR officials explicitly alleged that delays and mistreatment were premised solely on national heritage.
Soon after, CAIR’s Washington chapter issued a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cair-wa-assisting-iranian-americans-detained-at-us-border-300981286.html">press release</a> accusing CBP officials of treating Iranians and Iranian-Americans to prolonged interrogations at the U.S.–Canada border. “A source at CBP reported that the [DHS] has issued a national order to CBP to ‘report’ and detain anyone with Iranian heritage entering the country who is deemed potentially suspicious or ‘adversarial,’ regardless of citizenship status,” CAIR wrote.
CBP <a href="https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/us-border-protection-denies-reports-that-iranian-americans-were-detained-at-washington-canada-border/281-e276b43b-21a1-46d3-8de7-f1e700b0016a">rejected</a> these allegations. &#8220;Social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the U.S. because of their country of origin are false. Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false,” said CBP spokesperson Michael Friel.
So far, CAIR has failed to produce any evidence supporting its discrimination claims. Instead, the nonprofit denigrated CBP personnel based on the testimony of frustrated tourists who experienced delays while crossing an international border during a period of heightened geopolitical tension.
What can’t be known about the recent cross-border controversy, because it falls beyond the public purview, is whether there was specific intelligence from the Terrorist Screening Center that indicated a need to conduct a more robust screening operation at the Peace Arch crossing. It is telling that <a href="https://www.thenorthernlight.com/stories/order-to-detain-iranian-american-travelers-likely-originated-in-blaine-say-lawyers,9173">no other enhanced security measures</a> were enforced at other U.S. entry points around the same time.
Even public knowledge of the threats posed by Shi’ite Islamism suggests that it was credible national security risks, and not uninformed profiling, that guided CBP’s actions. The agency must contend with Hezbollah’s elite external operations unit, known as the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), whose members have been <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/07/iran-has-terrorists-embedded-inside-the-united-states-and-across-our-border/">trained</a> to &#8220;maintain ostensibly normal lives” until they are activated to serve the Iranian regime&#8217;s interests.
<a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/01/07/iran-has-terrorists-embedded-inside-the-united-states-and-across-our-border/">FBI reports</a> indicate that Canada serves as a staging area for future homeland attacks. Ali Kourani, a Hezbollah sleeper agent <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/hizballah-operative-sentenced-40-years-prison-covert-terrorist-activities-behalf-hizballah-s">convicted</a> in 2019 of planning attacks in the U.S., <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/14/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut-its-in-new-york-too-canada-united-states-jfk-toronto-pearson-airports-ali-kourani-iran/">told </a>FBI agents that IJO is “even more active in Canada than they were in the United States.” Kourani’s Iranian handlers discussed the strategic advantages of cultivating familial ties to Canada, so that “it wouldn’t appear suspicious or odd if he were to make travel to Canada with some regularity or frequency.”
Iran is a country that is regularly <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-state-department-iran-remains-world-s-worst-state-sponsor-of-terrorism-/30248755.html">cited</a> as a state sponsor of terrorism, with a track <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/14/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut-its-in-new-york-too-canada-united-states-jfk-toronto-pearson-airports-ali-kourani-iran/">record</a> of penetrating U.S. borders. For instance, between 1995 and 2000, Lebanese immigrant Mohammed Youssef Hammoud oversaw a vast “<a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/mohamad-youssef-hammoud-sentenced-30-years-terrorism-financing-case">criminal enterprise</a>” in Charlotte, North Carolina, which accumulated millions of dollars in capital intended for Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon.
In 2011, Soleimani’s Quds Force was implicated in a clandestine <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/">plot</a> to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. and bomb the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. Then there is Alexei Saab, a New Jersey resident charged in September with a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-indictment-new-jersey-man-terrorist-activities-behalf">nine-count indictment</a> for surveilling targets on behalf of IJO, probing for “soft spots” throughout New York City.
CAIR’s position on screening for terrorists, however, has been to <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_to_announce_complete_victory_in_constitutional_challenge_to_federal_terror_watchlist">undermine</a> the process wherever possible. Indeed, the organization exerts a great deal of <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cair-asks-federal-court-in-mich-to-prohibit-fbi-border-agents-from-interrogating-muslim-travelers-about-religious-beliefs-and-practices-300858541.html">effort</a> challenging the government’s immigration and border security policies.
In September, CAIR proclaimed “complete victory” in a <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_to_announce_complete_victory_in_constitutional_challenge_to_federal_terror_watchlist">lawsuit</a> that challenged the constitutionality of the <a href="https://apnews.com/f8abc66af1a64cc7a5f4fba0420cfc54">terrorist watch list</a>, a security protocol that subjects implicated airline passengers and border transients to additional screening. (Fewer than 0.5% of watch list suspects are U.S. citizens or legal residents.) For more than a year, CAIR filed lawsuits and amicus briefs that <a href="https://www.cair.com/fighting_the_unconstitutional_muslim_ban">stalled</a> Trump administration efforts to implement a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">travel ban</a> affecting visitors from select high-risk countries
CAIR has even directed Muslim Americans who are detained by customs officials to <a href="https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wtsp.com/amp/article/news/politics/muslim-rights-groups-urge-passengers-to-refuse-secondary-questioning/67-395025140">obstruct</a> the screening process whenever possible, perhaps explaining the delays experienced at the Peace Arch Border Crossing. “Whether you wait an hour or four hours, remain silent until they let you out,” advised CAIR-Florida executive director Hassan Shibly.
National-level law enforcement efforts must be led by consulting relevant intelligence <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/law-enforcement-guard-iran-retaliation-u-s-after-commander-killed-n1109826">sources</a>. Given the geopolitical context, the enhanced security posture at the U.S.-Canada border can be attributed to due diligence, and not some nefarious desire to pester Iranian-Americans. Yet, CAIR is far too eager to paint American security personnel as aggressors. CBP was merely taking reasonable precautions in the face of escalating hostility from a rogue nation that has spent decades building powerful Islamist infrastructure across North America.
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David Firester is a writer for Islamism in Politics, a project of the <a href="https://www.meforum.org">Middle East Forum</a>. He is the founder and CEO of TRAC Intelligence, LLC, an Adjunct Lecturer at Hunter College, and a former U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst.

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