Month: March 2023

Europe: Jihadists Posing as Migrants
“More than 50,000 jihadists are now living in Europe.”

More than 50,000 jihadists are now living in Europe. — Gilles de Kerchove, EU Counterterrorism Coordinator.

Europol, the European police office, has identified at least 30,000 active jihadist websites, but EU legislation no longer requires internet service providers to collect and preserve metadata — including data on the location of jihadists — from their customers due to privacy concerns. De Kerchove said this was hindering the ability of police to identify and deter jihadists.

The Terrorists Migrating into Europe

“Most migrant terrorists involved in thwarted or completed attacks were purposefully deployed to the migration flows by an organized terrorist group to conduct or support attacks in destination countries.” — Todd Bensman, “What Terrorist Migration Over European Borders Can Teach About American Border Security”, Center for Immigration Studies.

Brussels: Capital of Europe or Eurabia?

“Molenbeek would love to be forgotten, because it is the very example of the failure of the multicultural society, which remains an untouchable dogma in Belgium”. — Alain Destexhe, honorary Senator in Belgium and former Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders, Le Figaro, May 3, 2022.

US volunteers’ infighting in Ukraine undermining the war effort: Report

The infighting between the US volunteers who went to Ukraine to fight Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, when President Volodymyr Zelensky called for help, is undermining the war effort.

Justin Scheck, an international investigative reporter, and Thomas Gibbons-Neff, the Ukraine correspondent, in an article in The New York Times (NYT) said that after a year of combat, many of these homespun groups of volunteers are fighting with themselves and undermining the war effort.

ISIS cells continue to spread terror in northeast Syria

These posters reportedly contain threats of murder against men and women, including accusations of failing to pay “zakat” (Islamic tax) and other charges.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor on Tuesday reported that ISIS cells in the Arab-majority Deir ez-Zor province are spreading fear among civilians by hanging posters on walls, mosques, and electricity poles.

Immigration Into Europe Has To Slow Down – OpEd

“The truth is awful things are now happening. Last year there were race riots in Oldham in the old industrial revolution heartland of England. This year it is the burning of Jewish synagogues in Marseilles by Muslim youths angry at the Israeli response to the Intifada. All over Europe, it is the undoubted rise of crime among immigrant youth.”

Why Force Fails

The Dismal Track Record of U.S. Military Interventions

American soldiers have been deployed abroad almost continuously since the end of World War II. The best-known foreign interventions—in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq—were large, long, and costly. But there have been dozens of other such deployments, many smaller or shorter, for purposes ranging from deterrence to training. Taken as a whole, these operations have had a decidedly mixed record. Some, such as Operation Desert Storm in 1991, which swept the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait, largely succeeded. But others—such as those in Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere—were disappointments or outright failures. It is these unsuccessful post–Cold War interventions that have engendered serious doubts among policymakers and the public about the role of force in U.S. foreign policy.

Release of Hostages in West Africa Highlights Important Role of Partnerships

  • On March 20, American aid worker Jeff Woodke was released following over six years in captivity in West Africa; Olivier Dubois, a French journalist abducted in 2021 by an Al-Qaeda-linked group was also released on Monday.
  • Officials have reaffirmed that the “kidnap for ransom” (KFR) model in the region has largely been about revenue generation rather than ideology; however, captor networks can engage in long drawn-out engagements that can stretch the resources of states.
  • The release of Woodke and Dubois come amidst growing concern about security in the Sahel region, as ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliated groups continue to sow violence and instability against the background of reduced international counterterrorism focus.
  • Woodke’s release also reaffirms the importance of finding alternative pathways to resolve hostage situations beyond the traditional hostage rescue operations, and the value of partnerships between governments and private entities.