The Jakarta Post News Desk      Agence France-Presse A man was jailed for 17 years Tuesday for plotting a terrorist attack in Australia after being prevented from travelling to Syria, with the judge saying he continued to hold extremist views.Agim Kruezi, 25, was arrested in 2014 and pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to one count each of preparing for terrorist acts and planning a foreign incursion.The court heard Kruezi, reportedly an Australian-born Albanian, planned to travel to Syria to fight with an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group but was stopped by customs officers and his passport was cancelled.He instead turned his attention to an attack on home soil.Broadcaster ABC said police found a loaded semi-automatic sawn-off rifle, two balaclavas, two machetes, a photocopy of a book titled Jihad, and an Islamic State flag pinned to his bedroom wall when he was arrested.Instructions to carry out beheadings were also discovered on his computer...

ABC News 5 Cleveland by CLEVELAND - The man arrested for plotting a terrorist attack in downtown Cleveland on the Fourth of July will undergo a psych evaluation before his case moves forward.The court has ordered a psychiatric and/or psychological examination of Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts to determine his competency to stand trial and his ability to exercise his rights related to the defense of his case, according to court documents.The judge has also ordered that a report on the examination be submitted to the court and counsel — Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle Baeppler and Matthew Shepherd and Assistant Federal Public Defender Charles Fleming. The report should be completed at the earliest possible date in the interest of justice, the court documents said.A competency hearing will also be scheduled after the court and counsel receive the report, according to court documents. Read more: https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-cuyahoga/man-accused-of-plotting-terrorist-attack-in-downtown-cleveland-on-july-4-to-undergo-psych-evaluation...

AP LONDON (AP) — The Royal Navy rescued the Manchester Arena suicide bomber and his younger brother from the civil war in Libya three years before he killed 22 people at the Ariana Grande pop concert. Britain's Daily Mail reported Tuesday that the HMS Enterprise picked up Salman Abedi and more than 100 other British citizens from the Libyan coast and took them to Malta, where they flew back to the U.K. Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton of Libyan descent, blew himself up as fans were leaving Grande's concert at Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017. Twenty-two concertgoers were killed, and police say more than 800 people were left "with physical and deep psychological injuries." Abedi's brother, Hashem, is in jail in Libya. British government requests for his extradition to face trial have been refused. Read more: https://missoulian.com/entertainment/music/royal-navy-rescued-suicide-bomber-years-before-attack/article_da38defa-3d48-50ae-8cc3-ed57b1be994d.html...

Opinion The Inquirer - Philly by Marisa Porges, For the InquirerPARIS — On the streets of Paris, police are breathing a sigh of relief.The two-year anniversary of the Nice terrorist attack, when a man associated with the Islamic State killed 86 people and injured 434 by driving a truck into large crowds watching Bastille Day fireworks, passed without incident. This despite massive parades and public gatherings across France, in honor of last weekend’s national holiday and the French soccer team’s World Cup win.For the hundreds of thousands celebrating in central Paris, the World Cup victory parade was a reminder of how a city and country can recover from a series of deadly terrorist attacks that have killed 246 people all told. For those watching from across the Atlantic, it provided lessons for how to effectively respond to the sorts of terrorist attacks that have become more and more common over...

FDD's Long War Journal By Bill Roggio & Alexandra Gutowski For more than a decade, the United States has been engaged in air campaigns against jihadists in what the Obama administration referred to as areas “outside of active hostilities,” or active war zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. FDD’s Long War Journal tracks these counterterrorism air campaigns in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Libya from press releases, media reports and correspondence with the relevant combatant commands. LWJ has visualized this data in interactive maps and timelines, which are available online.In 2017, LWJ reported unprecedented levels of airstrikes in Somalia and Yemen. Thus far in 2018, the United States has sustained its high strike tempo in Somalia and increased transparency on its air campaign in Yemen. Strikes in Pakistan have leveled off, although press restrictions make tracking operations there difficult. In Libya, the US has targeted jihadists sparingly.SomaliaThe rate of US...

News.com.auBRITAIN is bracing itself, with 80 terrorists expected to be free to walk the streets by Christmas — and that’s not all the bad news. Andrew Koubaridis AS MANY as 80 convicted terrorists will be free to roam British streets by the end of the year, including an Islamist preacher who urged people to join the Islamic State.The extraordinary situation has arisen because about 40 per cent of the sentences for terrorism issued between 2007 and 2016 will have ended by Christmas — meaning police are powerless to stop them walking free.Police and the government have admitted more resources will have to be pumped into keeping a close eye on the terrorists, at a time when resources are already stretched coping with a crime wave that has seen 80 killings in London so far this year.UK Security Minister Ben Wallace said police would focus on getting them to “disengage” from...

Washington Examiner by Anna Giaritelli A man from Jordan was arrested in New York City Saturday for attempting to smuggle six Middle Easterners into the United States by way of the Mexican border, according to the Justice Department.Moayad Heider Mohammad Aldairi, who resides in Monterrey, Mexico, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport after disembarking an international flight. Several federal agencies accuse him of conspiring with others to smuggle six Yemeni nationals from Mexico to Texas in return for money.The criminal complaint states that the 31-year-old man started in the second half of 2017 making plans to get six people across the ocean to Central America and then up to the U.S. “The arrest of Aldairi showcases HSI’s unique ability to coordinate investigative efforts across international boundaries with multiple countries and different agencies throughout the U.S. Government,” said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations Special...

by Clarion Project (Ed.: This is an update to a post published on July 18, 2018:) It took a jury just an hour to found guilty a Harris County, Texas man guilty of a double murder that revolved around his daughter’s love for a non-Muslim. The Texas honor killer Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 60, apparently planned on killing five, including his own daughter.Original post:No, this isn’t a story from Pakistan or Afghanistan. We’re talking about a trial in Texas for Houston honor killings.Jordanian-American Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 60, is on trial for capital murder, after allegedly killing two back in 2012. The victims were Irrsan’s son-in-law, Coty Beavers, and his daughter’s best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, the Houston Chronicle reported. The prosecution claims Irsan murdered the pair as he was furious that his own daughter, Nesreen, wanted to marry Beavers – a local non-Muslim.One of Irsan’s two wives Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, 40, is...

by Dickson LEADERSHIP Recent weeks have seen sections of the legacy and new media, especially the international components, hyping Boko Haram’s ambushes of government troops and attacks on military formations. These attacks are not only celebrated with some sort of twisted glee but their rendition by those that are in a hurry to push such reports is such that the valour of the Nigerian Army in repelling the attacks is often underplayed or sometimes completely ignored. The number of terrorists killed in such incursions is usually deliberately ignored such that citizens are clearly being frightened with stories that suggest that Boko Haram has the upper hand.Nothing can be farther from the truth. Prior to December 2016 when the Nigerian Army, under the leadership of Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, symbolically captured Camp Zero in Sambisa Forest, the military had rapidly degraded Boko Haram with series of strategic operations that have resulted...

  The Daily Caller News FoundationWill Racke | Immigration and Foreign Policy Reporter    A U.S. citizen who was captured while fighting with the Islamic State has been indicted on terrorism charges.     Ibraheem Musaibli allegedly traveled to Syria in 2015 and fought alongside ISIS militants against U.S. coalition forces.     Musaibli, a native of Dearborn, Michigan, will be arraigned Wednesday.An American citizen who was detained in Syria fighting with the Islamic State has been indicted on terrorism charges, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.Ibraheem Musaibli, 28, was captured by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces earlier in July as he was trying to flee the Middle Euphrates River Valley. A native of Dearborn, Michigan, Musaibli was reportedly identified as an ISIS fighter by another detainee in an SDF holding facility. (RELATED: Michigan Man Suspected Of Fighting For ISIS Captured In Syria)The indictment against Musaibli was unsealed Tuesday in the Eastern District...

Global News By Stewart Bell A report released Monday called on countries to bring back and rehabilitate children from the so-called Islamic State, warning that otherwise, they could pose a significant future threat.The London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalization said that more than 4,600 foreign minors were affiliated with ISIS, including an estimated 14 Canadian citizens.But only about a quarter of them had so far returned to their home countries, the think-tank wrote in its report, “From Daesh to Diaspora: Tracing the Women and Minors of Islamic State.”Only two minors had returned to Canada, it said. Read more: https://globalnews.ca/news/4343907/children-isis-study-rehabilitate/...

Detroit Free Press by Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press A Dearborn man captured overseas was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Detroit, accused of being a fighter for the Islamic State, a group that the United States has been designated a terrorist organization.Ibraheem Musaibli, 28, appeared before Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford wearing a white jumpsuit and restraints. He was charged with one count of providing and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization.The government's case could rekindle questions about what should be considered support for organizations identified as terrorists."The facts," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said after the hearing, "will come out in court."A detention hearing, which Schneider suggested will offer more specifics about the allegations, is set for 1 p.m. Friday.How he was detained But there may have been clues in the government's statements Wednesday and in comments from loved ones, including Musaibli's brother and two women...

Counter Extremism Project CEP has documented at least 36 vehicular terrorist attacks since 2006, collectively resulting in the deaths of at least 196 people and the injury of at least 1,050 others.Vehicular attacks continued into 2017, leaving at least 32 people dead and more than 240 wounded. On March 22, 2017, terrorist assailant Khalid Masood killed five people and wounded 50 more during a vehicle and stabbing attack in London.* The following day, a similar attack was thwarted in Antwerp, Belgium.* On April 7, another assailant carried out a suspected terrorist attack, this time in Sweden, hijacking a truck and careening into crowds of pedestrians at the Ahlens Mall in Stockholm, killing four people and wounding 15 more.*On the evening of June 3, 2017, three assailants drove a van at high speed into crowds on the London Bridge and exited the vehicle to stab other pedestrians at the nearby Borough...

ABC News By Justin Doom Almost three days after two people were shot and killed in Toronto, and after local authorities said their killings had nothing to do with terrorism, ISIS has claimed credit for the attack.A statement from the group's Amaq agency, translated from Arabic, reads in part:"The person who carried out the attack on the city of Toronto in south-east Canada on Sunday evening is one of the soldiers of the Islamic State and he carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the coalition countries."  The 29-year-old suspect, Faisal Hussain, who killed an 18-year-old and a 10-year-old and injured 13 others, also died on Sunday.Hussain's family released a statement saying that he suffered from mental-health issues that read, in part:"We are utterly devastated by the incomprehensible news that our son was responsible for the senseless violence and loss of life that took place....

CBS NewsToronto shooting rampage: New details emerge about gunman Faisal HussainTORONTO -- Canadian investigators were digging Tuesday into the life of the 29-year-old man who opened fire on restaurants and cafes in a popular Toronto neighborhood, seeking to explain what prompted the rampage that killed a 10-year-old girl and a young woman and wounded 13 others. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Public Safety knocked down suspicions of any links to terrorism."At this stage, based on the state of the investigation, which is led by the Toronto police service, there is no connection between that individual and national security," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday.But a law enforcement source told CBS News Canadian investigators have indications that Faisal Hussain visited Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) websites and may have expressed support for the terrorist group. They were looking into whether Hussain may have lived at one time in...

Japan Forward by Anders Corr Anders Corr, Ph.D.China is encouraging, enabling, and acquiescing in the behavior of allies and private citizens of China acting in a violent manner globally, earning it consideration as a state sponsor of terrorism.This violent behavior includes reported use of lasers from fishing boats against United States Air Force pilots in the East China Sea. It also includes a maritime militia that harasses, rams, and sinks coast guard and fishing boats from Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines in the South and East China Seas, and the global export of deadly synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil. Moreover, China allies itself with and enables U.S.-listed state sponsors of terrorism, such as North Korea, Iran, Sudan, and Syria.Given the pattern and magnitude of these activities, China should be considered not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but the ringleader of such, and appropriately sanctioned through economic and law...

Gatestone Institute by Guy Millière  •  July 15, 2018 at 5:00 am Organizations representing the families of the Bataclan victims said that an Islamic rap concert praising jihad, in a place where people were murdered and tortured by jihadists, would be an insult to the memory of the victims, and asked that the concerts be canceled. "France is at war, and leaves the enemy in peace". — Ivan Rioufol, journalist, in Le Figaro. Macron and the French government speak and act as if the enemy has won and as if they want to gain some time and enjoy the moment before the final surrender. "The French Suicide" ("Le suicide français") is a book published by the author Éric Zemmour in October 2014. Just one year later, on November 13, 2015 in Paris, a horror took place at the Bataclan Theater, when three terrorists fired into the crowd during a concert,...

Washington Examiner by Anna GiaritelliThe Coast Guard seized nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars worth of cocaine over the past two months from smugglers who had attempted to move drugs by boat from Central and South America to the U.S. through international waters, according to a military spokesman.Coast Guard vessels deployed to the region over the past two months intercepted traffickers and took approximately 52,900 pounds of cocaine valued at $729 million from those boats into custody, Coast Guard spokesman Chad Saylor confirmed to the Washington Examiner Monday.Fifty-seven suspected smugglers were also taken into custody.Three ships from the Coast Guard's Medium Endurance Cutter fleet returned last week from deployments to the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Basin, which are high drug transit zones for cartels trying to ship product from Central and South America to North America.Coast Guard Cutters Venturous, Steadfast, and Alert seized the majority of the cocaine, aided...

BBC News Canadian officials have identified the suspect in Sunday's deadly shooting in Toronto as Faisal Hussain, 29.The Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said it was releasing his name due "to the exceptional circumstances of this tragic incident".A 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman died after a gunman opened fire on a busy avenue in Canada's largest city.Thirteen others were injured in the rampage in Canada's largest city.The SIU, which looks into incidents involving police which result in death, said a post-mortem examination on the suspected shooter is scheduled for Tuesday.Image copyright ReutersAccording to the SIU, the gunman was tracked by officers to Bowden Street during the shooting, which happened on Sunday evening shortly after 22:00 (02:00 GMT Monday)."An exchange of gunfire" then took place, before the man fled once more. He was found dead about 100m (328ft) away on Danforth Avenue.In a statement released to various media outlets, Hussain's...

Gizmodo by Melanie Ehrenkranz After three British men conspired to detonate liquid explosives aboard a transatlantic flight in 2006—a plan thwarted weeks ahead of its execution—airports have cracked down on items travelers are allowed to carry through security, from bottled water to more recently introduced rules for smartphones and laptops. But a new scanner introduced at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport signals a future where you might be able to leave things like your MacBook and a bottle of water in your carry-on bag as you weave through security checkpoints. The TSA partnered with American Airlines to test out its new CT scanner at a security checkpoint at JFK, the airline announced on Monday. The new scanner works in three dimensions, meaning operators would have a better view of what’s inside your carry-on in contrast to the typical two-dimensional equipment deployed at security checkpoints. The CT scanner will...