India, Chile agree to work together to defeat terrorism NewsOnAir.com India and Chile have agreed to work together to strengthen the global response to defeat and destroy terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. President Ram Nath Kovind who was on an official visit to Chile said this after a brief Tete-a-Tete with his Chilean counterpart. President said that both countries committed themselves to further strengthen the economic partnership. India and Chile signed three MOUs for cooperation in the fields of mining, culture and Empowerment of persons with disabilities. The agreements would further enhance engagement in economic, social and cultural fields between the two countries. Chile is the sixth largest trading partner of India in the Latin American region. Read more: http://www.newsonair.com/News?title=India%2c-Chile-agree-to-work-together-to-defeat-terrorism&id=361711...

The New Republic U.S. Counterterrorism’s Big Blindspot: Women The United States doesn't think of women as active participants in terrorist groups. It also doesn't think of women as potential counterterrorist allies. By Jamille Bigio and Rebecca Turkington When the Trump administration, in late February, decided to block Hoda Muthana’s return to the United States, many saw it as an unfair and questionably legal denial of citizenship: Muthana, who traveled to Syria in 2014 to join the Islamic State, was born in the United States and previously possessed a U.S. passport. But in the midst of the furor over the particulars of the case, the announcement also signaled a growing recognition that women in violent extremist movements are not merely naïve “jihadi brides.” It’s one of a string of incidents in recent months that suggest the U.S. may finally be ready to address a longstanding blindspot when it comes to gender...

DW Germany: Police conduct major anti-terrorism operationPolice are investigating six terror suspects who were allegedly planning an attack. The suspects, who were arrested and later released, are accused of being affiliated with the "Islamic State" extremist group. German police conducted a series of raids throughout western Germany on Friday and Saturday as part of an anti-terrorism operation, prosecutors said on Saturday. A total of 11 male suspects were arrested as part of the operation. All have since been released after no weapons or explosives were found. What we know so far Raids were carried out on Friday and Saturday in 10 cities across the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and one was conducted in Ulm in Baden-Württemberg. Eleven male suspects aged between 22 and 35, mostly Tajikistan nationals, were detained as part of the operation. At least six of the suspects are being investigated on suspicion of planning a "threatening act of violence against...

  Sydney jihadist gives an ISIS salute as he's sentenced to 18 years behind bars for plotting to kill 'five, six, seven' people in Australia a monthBy Karen Ruiz For Daily Mail Australia Omarjan Azari had planned to kill seven Australians a month for ISIS in 2014 The Australian jihadist was sentenced to 18 years at NSW Supreme Court Friday  Azari was seen giving a one-finger ISIS salute during his sentencing He was found guilty of plotting the attack on the phone with an ISIS commander A Sydney man who plotted to kill 'five to seven' Australians a month under the orders of Islamic State has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.  Omarjan Azari, 24, was seen giving a one-finger ISIS salute and shouting 'Allahu Akbar' at NSW Supreme Court during his sentencing on Friday, The Australian reported. Justice Natalie Adams sentenced him to 12 years behind bars for planning the...

US Kids Indoctrinated With Iranian Propaganda Clarion Project Read more: https://clarionproject.org/us-kids-indoctrinated-with-iranian-propaganda/...

Lawmakers Press Tech Companies On Efforts To Combat Extremism Online The Hill By Emily Birnbaum Lawmakers said Wednesday that they continue to have questions after Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft briefed a House panel on their efforts to take down extremist content online.Members of the House Homeland Security Committee questioned representatives from some of Silicon Valley's largest companies in a closed-door briefing about how they deal with white supremacist and bigoted content online. "While I'm encouraged by their answers, we still have a long way to go," Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), who sits on the committee, told The Hill after the briefing. Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) invited the tech companies to come to Capitol Hill and discuss their efforts to crack down on violent extremists following the mass shooting at two New Zealand mosques earlier this month, an attack that was live-streamed online. Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/436145-lawmakers-press-tech-companies-on-efforts-to-combat-extremism-online...

Chicago Tribune by John Kass, Contact ReporterI’d hate it when some old-time police sergeant, usually an old white guy but sometimes black, would stand, hand on hip and sigh.And in the laconic and bitterly ironic tone of Chicago police, he’d make the big speech of five words:“Gonna be a bad summer.”I’d cringe, because, well, who the hell doesn’t know this?People are outside in summer. Rich people go places. But poor people go outside. And in Chicago, guns go outside with them.Calling it “gun violence” lets local politicians off the hook, because they want to shift the blame away from the lousy schools they’ve provided and taxes that cripple or drive away businesses so there are no jobs.The proper name is “gang violence,” and the gangs kill people over drugs, money, over revenge, over nothing, over they just felt like it.It was always going to be a bad summer. But something...

The National Yemen - Elite troops supported by Emirati forces have begun a campaign to track down Al Qaeda militants in mountain hideouts in the Shabwa province of southern Yemen.The campaign, called White Mountains, complements a mission in which troops were sent to the three Shabwa districts of Nesab, Markha and Khourah in April 2018.“Fierce clashes flared between our forces and Al Qaeda militants in the district of Khoura, lasting for about three hours," Col Mohammed Al Bouhar, commander of the Shabwa force, told The National."It ended as our forces took control over their main base in the area that was used as training base."There were no casualties reported but the extremists from the base fled towards the province of Al Bayda, Col Al Bouhar said. Read more: https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/yemen-uae-backed-forces-launch-military-operation-to-track-down-al-qaeda-1.841734...

Asharq Al-Awsat Fighters recall the last moments of the battle that lasted for weeks after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced last Saturday seizing ISIS' last bastion in Baghouz following six months of a wide attack that started in Sep. in 2018 in Deir Ezzor.Judy Kubani, a Kurdish fighter from Ayn al-Arab (Kobani) along the border with Turkey, said that the battle in Baghouz was different than the rest because those who remained were foreigners having a wide experience in fighting, and they took shelter in tunnels.Kubani added that SDF, backed by the US-led international coalition, was continuously slowing down the battle to avoid the loss of civilians used as human shield by ISIS. He stressed that they had to be cautious because hundreds of civilians were obliged to stay with the group.Raha, from Women's Protection Units, recounted how she and her fellows were involved in a six-hour battle. Read...

The Post and Courier Plotting terrorism would become a state crime in SC under bill approved by HouseBy Seanna Adcox COLUMBIA — Supporting terrorism would become a state crime under legislation approved Tuesday by the S.C. House, which its backers say could have kept a Ladson man who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State locked up years before he pleaded guilty to a federal charge.If it had been a state law in 2015, then-York high school student Zakaryia Abdel Abdin could have been charged with something more than illegal gun possession when an arrest revealed a plot to rob a gun store and attack military bases. Potentially, there would have been no need for the FBI to keep tabs on Abdin and eventually arrest him at the Charleston airport in April 2017 as he was boarding a flight to join the terrorist group, said House Speaker Pro Tem Tommy Pope,...

WorkBoat DOJ reviews FBI’s management of maritime terrorism threats By David Krapf The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General has released an audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s management of maritime terrorism threats.In the redacted report’s executive summary, the DOJ’s OIG said that “although FBI officials told us they consider the terrorism threat to the maritime domain to be low, we believe this assessment is based on incomplete and potentially inadequate information. Our review determined that the FBI does not conduct Its own, formal maritime threat assessment and the informal assessments made by the FBI have not included all information available to the FBI.”For example, the DOJ found that many maritime-related incidents with a potential nexus to terrorism were not coded as such in the FBI’s threat database, and relevant search terms were omitted from database queries. The DOJ also found significant deficiencies related to the...

Merco Press A former communist militant Cesare Battisti has admitted to four murders in Italy during the 1970s, according to local press. Battisti, 64, spent decades on the run and previously denied any involvement. He was arrested in Bolivia in January after living in Brazil, and later extradited to Italy.Milan's prosecutor, Alberto Nobili, said Battisti confessed during questioning in prison, where he is serving a life sentence.“It is a very important recognition for the work of the magistrates, a sort of 'honour of the arms' for those who have investigated it,” said Milan prosecutor Alberto Nobili.In 1979, Battisti was convicted of belonging to a far-left terrorist group outlawed in Italy - the Armed Proletarians for Communism (PAC).He escaped prison in 1981. Later, Battisti was convicted in absentia for killing two Italian law officials, for taking part in a separate murder and for planning another which left the victim's 14-year-old son...

New Delhi Times Al-Shabab Attack in Somali Capital Kills at Least 10 By New Delhi Times Bureau Militants stormed Somali government offices in Mogadishu on Saturday after setting off a car bomb, and officials said at least 10 people were killed, including a deputy minister. Authorities of Mogadishu’s only free ambulance service said they had collected nearly 10 other wounded civilians.According to eyewitnesses, the attack began when the suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car at the front gate of the compound that houses the Labor and Public Works and Reconstruction ministries.“A car bomb hit the main gate of one of the compounds and then extremists armed with assault rifles stormed to the buildings, engaging a fierce battle with security forces,” Ahmed Mohamed Iman, director general of Somalia’s Ministry of Public Works and Reconstruction, who was present during the attack, told VOA Somalia.Iman said some attackers rampaged through the buildings...

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center At the Israeli Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center Spotlight on Global Jihad (February 7-13, 2019) Following is an overview of the situation in four centers of conflict and friction in Syria: The “pocket” of ISIS’s operatives along the Euphrates River, which is a few square kilometers in size, is shrinking. Fierce battles are currently taking place in the village of Al-Baghouz Fawqani, ISIS’s last remaining significant stronghold. According to the SDF forces, “ISIS operatives are breathing their last breath.” At the same time, talks between the ISIS operatives and the SDF are continuing, with the goal of reaching a surrender arrangement that would enable the operatives to leave the “pocket.” No results have been achieved to date. In the Idlib area, incidents continue between the Syrian army (which continues to bring in reinforcements) and thejihadi organizations. Russian officials expressed the hope that...

  by Uzay Bulut  •  Gatestone Institute "An estimated 3,100 Yazidis were killed [in Iraq], with nearly half of them... either shot, beheaded, or burned alive... The estimated number kidnapped is 6,800... All Yazidis were targeted... but children were disproportionately affected." — PLOS Medicine, 2017. By contrast, Shamima Begum said that she had been fully aware of the beheadings and other atrocities committed by ISIS before going to Syria. "I knew about those things and I was okay with it," she said. "Because, you know, I started becoming religious just before I left. From what I heard, Islamically, that is all allowed." When asked whether she had questioned any of that, Begum replied, "No, not at all." "[W]e recently learned of the 50 [Yazidi women and children]... who were beheaded. Meanwhile, those people who raped and killed our women are free to go back to their countries and live normal...

Voice of America by Joshua Brilliant JERUSALEM —  A Hezbollah commander who allegedly headed a 2007 raid on an American base in Iraq, which ended with the slaying of kidnapped American soldiers, is now building a secret force that could attack Israel from Syria, according to an Israeli military intelligence report.Their report was released in the days leading up to a visit to Israel by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who also is stopping in Kuwait and Lebanon, where discussions will include the threat of Iran and Hezbollah.The force that Ali Musa Daqduq is building could be used to widen a front with Israel in case of another clash with Lebanon. Hezbollah also could launch attacks only from Syrian territory in an effort to spare Lebanon from painful Israeli retaliations, Yoram Schweitzer of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv said in an interview.Israel and Lebanon have...

  BBC Seven people have been injured after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house belonging to a British-Israeli family in central Israel.The rocket came down at 05:25 (03:25 GMT) in the community of Mishmeret, 20km (12 miles) north of Tel Aviv.This is the furthest a Palestinian rocket has reached in Israel since the 2014 conflict with militants in Gaza.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a trip to the US over the attack and vowed to respond with force.So far no-one has said they carried out the attack. The Israeli military accused the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, but a Hamas official said it had "no interest" in doing so.A week and a half ago, two rockets were launched towards Tel Aviv and nobody was hurt. The Israeli military responded with dozens of air strikes across Gaza, which injured four people.Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47689684...

FOX 13 By Amir Shah, Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Two American service members were killed during an operation in Afghanistan on Friday, the U.S. and NATO forces said, providing no other details on the combat deaths.The fatalities, which bring to four the number of U.S. soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan, underscore the difficulties in bringing peace to the war-wrecked country even as Washington has stepped up efforts to find a way to end the 17-year war, America's longest.The U.S. and NATO Resolute Support mission said the names of the service members killed in action were being withheld until after notification of the next of kin, in accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy. The statement also did not specify the location of the combat or say who the soldiers were fighting. "The incident is under investigation and we have no additional information to provide," said...

Military Times By: Philip Issa, The Associated Press BAGHOUZ, Syria — U.S.-backed Syrian fighters are searching tunnels a day after seizing most of the last pocket of land held by Islamic State militants, an official said Wednesday.The long-running battle to retake the last outpost held by ISIS in eastern Syria appeared to have reached its conclusion, with no signs of battle Wednesday, although officials said a few remaining ISIS militants still had not surrendered.Ciyager Amed, an official with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said they were searching for any ISIS militants hiding in tunnels in a riverside pocket in the village of Baghouz. The SDF held back on announcing victory over ISIS. Associated Press journalists saw SDF soldiers loading women and children into trailer trucks on the hilltop over Baghouz, in a sign evacuations were ongoing Wednesday. Black smoke could be seen rising from the village. The SDF on Tuesday...

  Columbia Journalism Review Terrorism bred online requires anticipatory, not reactionary coverage by Emily Bell Journalism has a panopticon problem. Just like the watchman in the center of Jeremy Bentham’s theoretical circular prison, we can now surveil a vast amount of human activity on the internet. Either through watching users reveal themselves on social media, or by digging into the carelessly secured digital footprints we all leave behind, the amount of information journalists and others can now “see” outweighs what we could and should report. Unlike Bentham’s penitentiary, in which the knowledge they are being surveilled limits the brazenness of the prisoners, the easy publicness of actions on social media has not served to discourage bad actors. Instead, it has empowered them to shock and radicalize more widely than would have otherwise been the case.In the wake of the pre-meditated murder of 50 Muslim worshipers in mosques in Christchurch, New...