WPBF News - ABC 25 ISIS confirmed the death of former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and named his replacement in an audio message on Thursday.In the recording, published on the terrorist group's media wing al-Furqan, ISIS announced its new leader as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. Baghdadi died during an American raid on his compound in northern Syria over the weekend.Thursday's message was voiced by ISIS' new spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qarshi. He replaces the former spokesman, who was killed by U.S. forces in northern Syria, a senior State Department official said Monday."America, do not be happy," the new spokesman said in the recording. "Do you not realize that the State today is not only on the doorstep of Europe and in the center of Africa, it is staying and expanding from the east to the west." Read more: https://www.wpbf.com/article/isis-confirms-baghdadis-death-after-us-raid-names-new-leader/29663744...

Genetic genealogy, law enforcement’s new crime-solving lead, helps solve cold cases By Patricio G. Balona, The Daytona Beach News-Journal ORLANDO — Crime investigators call genetic genealogy a lead with DNA in it, a tool that can crack open decades-old homicide and rape cases. That's because the science tracks family trees loaded with DNA available in public databases that police can use to identify the unknown source of DNA found at a crime scene.And it's proving effective, as 70 cold cases have been solved in the country since law enforcement started using genetic genealogy 18 months ago, said Lori Napolitano, chief of forensics for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Orlando. Also, the arrest of a South Florida man using genetic genealogy evidence has led to a break in the more than decade-old Daytona Beach serial killer case.But 25 other cases still remain unsolved, Napolitano said at a press conference...

WTSP 10 Hillsborough County deputy buys Halloween costume for kid who wants to protect and serve HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputy made a little boy's dream come true when she bought him a police officer Halloween costume. Deputy Sanderson met the boy while on duty, last month. He told her -- he wants to be a law enforcement officer when he gets older.In a Facebook post, the sheriff’s office shared the story, stating -- “this is why we do what we do.” According to the post, Sanderson met a boy, who she calls “her friend”, while she was on her way to a call. A few blocks from her destination, she saw the boy riding a toy police motorcycle and waving at her “so hard I thought his arm was going to fall off,” Sanderson said.Sanderson pulled over and quickly introduced herself, but she didn't...

Central Command Chief Gives Details on Baghdadi Raid BY Jim Garamone The mission to capture or kill ISIS founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was exquisitely planned and executed, the commander of U.S. Central Command said.Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie briefed Pentagon reporters today on the Oct. 26 raid in northwestern Syria that resulted in Baghdadi's death. Pentagon officials also released videos of the raid. McKenzie said planning for the raid began much earlier. He said Baghdadi was a priority target for Centcom, and as a result, was the subject of an intense effort to bring him to justice. "As it became clear that we had gained clear and actionable intelligence on his hideout, we developed a plan designed to capture or kill him and started preparing a special operations team for the mission," he said. McKenzie said he briefed Defense Department leaders on the intelligence and the plan...

The Local Swiss Police Target Islamist Extremists In Raids Across The Country  Around 100 police officers took part in the raids in the cantons of Zurich, Bern and Schaffhausen, conducting a total of 11 house searches, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said in a statement. The operation targeted 11 individuals, including five juveniles who will face proceedings headed by a special office for juvenile prosecutions, the statement said.OAG meanwhile said it had launched criminal proceedings against the six adults over suspicions that they violated Swiss law banning support of and membership in Islamic terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.One of the six was a returned foreign fighter who had been convicted previously of violating Switzerland's anti-terror legislation. Read more: https://www.thelocal.ch/20191030/vast-anti-islamist-sweep-in-switzerland-nets-11...

CBS Minnesota: Feds: Brothers With Ties To Hezbollah Tried To Export Drone Tech MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors say two brothers charged with conspiring to export drone parts and technology from the U.S. to Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon are “dangerous” and should remain in custody while they await trial, according to a court document filed Monday.Usama and Issam Hamade are charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. export laws. Usama Hamade is also charged with smuggling. Prosecutors say that from 2009 to 2013, the Lebanese brothers repeatedly acquired sophisticated technology for drones then illegally exported them to Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.The Hamades were arrested in February 2018 in South Africa and were recently extradited to the U.S. They will appear in a federal court in Minnesota on Tuesday for a hearing to determine whether they will be released pending trial. A third defendant, Samir Ahmed Berro,...

Pentagon releases video of raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-BaghdadiBy Andrew O'Reilly | Fox News The Pentagon on Wednesday released video footage of the raid that led to the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, gave a play-by-play of the special operations forces raid on an ISIS compound in northern Syria last Saturday that ended with Baghdadi killing himself with an explosive vest.Overall, U.S. forces killed six ISIS members – four women and another man aside from Baghdadi – in the raid. McKenzie also clarified that Baghdadi’s explosive vest also killed two children he had brought with him into a tunnel when U.S. troops pursued him. Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/baghdadi-raid-video-pentagon-release-isis...

Reuters Sixteen Killed In Burkina Faso In Suspected Jihadist Attack OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Suspected jihadists killed 16 villagers in northern Burkina Faso on Monday in an incident highlighting the increased presence of Sahel-based Islamists in the area, local and security sources said.The gunmen came to Pobe-Mengao, about 200 km (160 miles) north of the capital Ouagadougou, threatening to take way children and telling villagers to help them buy weapons, a security source told Reuters.When they refused, they were shot dead, the sources said. A security source told Reuters that the death toll had reached 16. An Islamist insurgency with links to Islamic State and al Qaeda has crossed into Burkina Faso this year from neighboring Mali, igniting ethnic and religious tensions, especially in northern regions. Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-burkina-violence/sixteen-killed-in-burkina-faso-in-suspected-jihadist-attack-idUSKBN1X71KM...

The New York Times Intelligence From Al-Baghdadi Raid, Including 2 Prisoners, Could Reveal Trove Of ISIS CluesBy Julian E. Barnes and Eric SchmittWASHINGTON — Delta Force commandos took two Islamic State fighters as prisoners and a trove of intelligence from the now-destroyed compound where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the world’s most wanted terrorist, had been hiding, officials said Monday.The prisoners, who are being held in Iraq, are being questioned by the United States military. If the Trump administration follows its previous practice with captured Islamic State fighters, the men will eventually be turned over to the Iraqi government for prosecution.Both the captives and the documents taken from the compound during a two-hour search of the area following the nighttime raid in which Mr. al-Baghdadi was killed over the weekend could provide a trove of information for the military and intelligence agencies, current and former officials said. Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/us/politics/baghdadi-raid-intelligence.html...

InHomelandSecurity.com US Needs Active Counterintelligence Tools to Stop China Spying By William TuckerColumnist, In Homeland SecurityWilliam Evanina, Director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), recently stated, “From the American Revolution to the cyber revolution, spies among us have caused lasting damage to our national security, and just as our adversaries and the threats we face continue to evolve, counterintelligence and security professionals…must evolve as well.”Following those remarks, Evanina stated that China is by far the most significant threat to the U.S. But it’s worth mentioning that Russia, and to a lesser extent Iran, poses a significant risk as well. Writing in Politico, former NCSC Director Michelle Van Cleave lamented the lack of coordination across the U.S. intelligence community in offensive counterintelligence operations. US Has Never Had a Strategic Mission to Disable Hostile Intelligence Services Read more: https://inhomelandsecurity.com/us-counterintelligence-tools-china-spying/...

CBS News A “Victory:” Families Of Americans Killed By ISIS Respond To Al-Baghdadi's Death By Li Cohen The families of U.S. citizens who were murdered by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Sunday called his death a "victory." Mr. Trump said in his address Sunday morning that ISIS "murder of innocent Americans Jim Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller were especially heinous."President Trump announced al-Baghdadi's death at a press conference Sunday morning. During a special operation that resulted in U.S. forces pursuing al-Baghdadi and three of his children in a "dead-end tunnel," the ISIS leader detonated a suicide vest.Al-Baghdadi has been accused of taking at least three U.S. civilians hostage and murdering them. According to the White House, the ISIS leader is responsible for more than 300 public beheadings and for killing thousands of captured prisoners of war.  Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/al-baghdadi-families-of-americans-killed-by-isis-respond-to-al-baghdadis-death/...

How Baghdadi's Death Reveals Trump's Clever Syria StrategyU.S. president outsmarts Putin -- leaves him with Syria headaches as U.S. withdraws. by Joseph Klein  According to conventional thinking, President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northeast Syria opened the door to a resurgence of ISIS. “Make no mistake, President Trump ignores the national security threat posed by ISIS at our nation’s peril,” Senator Bob Menendez, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said last week. How foolish Senator Menendez and his fellow critics look now after President Trump announced on Sunday that a special operations raid, which he had approved and closely monitored, resulted in the cowardly death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.“Last night, the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice,” the president said in remarks from the White House, describing the operation in detail. “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead....

Special-Ops.org The operation that took out Abu Bakr al-BaghdadiNotorious ISIS leader al-Baghdadi detonated his suicide vest killing himself on the scene after the Delta Force entered his compound by Eric Sof Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the notorious Islamic State (also known as IS, ISIS, ISIL), was killed in Syria’s Idlib province on October 27, 2019, in a military raid carried out by the United States 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), also known as Delta Force. The Delta Force is considered as Tier 1 unit.The operation was carried out after the CIA agents have acknowledged the al-Baghdadi’s possible whereabout. In coordination with Joint Special Operations Command, commonly known as JSOC, they have coordinated the raid which resulted in the death of al-Baghdadi. In addition to Delta Force, participating units under JSOC included the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)—also known as “Night Stalkers”—and operators from the CIA’s...

CBS News ISIS leader dead after U.S. commandos stage dramatic raid in SyriaBy Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Caroline Linton Washington — Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ruthless leader of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) who once controlled a vast swath of territory and tens of thousands of jihadist fighters, died in a raid by U.S. troops in northern Syria, bringing a dramatic end to a years-long U.S.-led hunt.Addressing the nation on Sunday morning, President Trump said a team of U.S. special forces targeted al-Baghdadi in a "dangerous and daring" overnight raid. During the operation, the ISIS leader was "crying and screaming" and attempted to flee through a tunnel, the president said. As U.S. forces and dogs approached him, al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and a group of children who he brought with him, according to Mr. Trump."He died like a dog. He died like a coward," Mr....

Newsweek U.S. Strikes Kill ISIS Spokesperson One Day After Baghdadi's Death in Syria Raid By James LaPorta and Tom O'Connor The CIA has targeted Islamic State militant group (ISIS) spokesperson Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir in a new operation that comes one day after the organization's leader was killed in a Joint Special Operations Command raid, Newsweek has learned.President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday that Baghdadi had died during the Delta Team raid first reported by Newsweek the night before. The jihadi leader was detonated a suicide vest as U.S. forces sought to kill or capture one of the world's most wanted men and, as the president announced it to the world, Hellfire missiles targeted Muhajir by Ayn al-Bayda, near Jarablus in Aleppo province.Syrian Democratic Forces commander Mazloum Abdi, also known as Mazloum Kobane, also reported on the news Sunday.Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/us-strikes-kill-isis-spokesperson-day-after-baghdadi-death-syria-raid-1468018...

The Wall Street Journal Barr Wants to Adopt Terrorism-Prevention Tactics to Stop Mass Shootings Attorney general’s memo stops short of proposing gun control and highlights absence of plan from White House to reduce gun violence By Sadie Gurman The same tactics that law-enforcement officials developed to stop terrorists should be adopted to prevent mass shootings, Attorney General William Barr said in a memo released Wednesday directing the FBI to find ways to better identify and thwart such attacks.Authorities should include psychologists, community groups and “intervention teams” when trying to gauge whether someone is gearing up for mass violence, in much the same way the FBI’s terrorism squads seek to identify people as they radicalize, Mr. Barr wrote in the memo to the nation’s federal prosecutors. “Some of our most creative and effective disruption and early engagement tactics were born of the posture we adopted with respect to terrorist threats,” Mr....

The Hill House Homeland Security Committee Advances Online Extremism Bill By Emily Birnbaum and Chris Mills Rodrigo A House panel on Wednesday voted to advance a bill aimed at combating the scourge of extremist content online despite ongoing pushback from civil liberties groups and Republicans on the committee. The House Homeland Security Committee unanimously voted to advance the National Commission on Online Platforms and Homeland Security Act, greenlighting one of the first legislative efforts to address internet extremism and bigotry after a string of mass shooters were tied to white supremacist online footprints this year. “Through our oversight of the social media companies, it is evident that this is one of those areas where the private sector needs the government to be a convener,” committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said during his opening remarks. Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/467076-house-homeland-committee-advances-online-extremism-bill...

Clarion Project By Ryan Mauro and Alex VanNess Michigan Imam Feted at Interfaith Events, Spews Hate A Michigan imam preached that the leaders of Saudi Arabia are “agents of the Jews” and should be put to death, as seen in a video posted to Facebook and found by Clarion Project.The video shows Dearborn Imam Husham al-Hussainy condemning the Saudi royal family as “impure,” calling for them to be executed for the Saudi campaign in Yemen against the Houthi rebels backed by the Iranian regime, and is filled with conspiratorial anti-Semitism.Speaking in Arabic, al-Hussainy said that the Saudi leaders are “agents of the Jews” and that the so-called Zionist conspiracy should be blamed for any Saudi transgression.Al-Hussainy even went so far as to claim that the Saudi airplanes bombing Yemen “are Israeli airplanes with Israeli policy and Israeli targets.”He then urged Muslims to “stand together” with Christians against the “oppressive Saudi-Zionist...

The Washington Post Afghan Official: Taliban Storm Checkpoint, Kill 15 Policemen By Rahim Faiez | AP KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban stormed a checkpoint in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 15 policemen in the latest attack by insurgents, an Afghan provincial official said Tuesday.The multi-pronged attack on the checkpoint in the Ali Abad district of northern Kunduz province began late on Monday night and set off an hours-long gunbattle, according to Ghulam Rabani Rabani, a provincial council member. Along with the 15 policemen killed, two other officers were wounded in the assault, he said.The attack came as Afghan troops have been battling the Taliban for the past few weeks in Kunduz’s Dashti Archi and Imam Sahib districts, Rabani added. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the checkpoint attack.The Taliban have a strong presence in Kunduz and are in control in several of the province’s districts. Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afghan-official-taliban-storm-checkpoint-kill-15-policemen/2019/10/22/84b1ca10-f496-11e9-b2d2-1f37c9d82dbb_story.html...

The Hill Bipartisan Lawmakers Dig Into Twitter Over Policy Allowing Hamas, Hezbollah Accounts By Emily Birnbaum A team of bipartisan lawmakers are digging into Twitter over its policy of allowing Hamas and Hezbollah to maintain presences on the powerful social media platform. In a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Tuesday, the four House lawmakers offered a sharp rebuke of the company’s decision to support accounts even for groups designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” by the U.S. government, particularly Hamas and Hezbollah.“If you believe that Twitter is better at determining violent extremist content than the United States Government's interagency process, then we urge you to come testify before Congress to explain your own process and how it differs from that of the State and Treasury Departments,” the lawmakers — including Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.Y.), Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), Max Rose (D-N.Y.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) — wrote to Dorsey. Read...