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Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri The Coordinator 2015 Part 17-49-The Deep Battle against the West

ISIS to Western Christians: "You Won't Have Safety ... Until You Embrace Islam"- "After Blowing Up the White House, We Want Paris”

Update An English speaking IS supporter addressed IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in video, and offered to gather an army of 10,000 in the UK while asserting “the solution to win this last crusade is bring the war into the enemy lands.” (C: remember equals AQSL 2020 plan Phase VI) Europe is at risk from a terror attack by ISIS, experts have warned ISIS fanatics have taken advantage of porous borders by travelling from North Africa to Italy on boats packed with refugees, according to terrorism experts.

One of Britain's most senior terror experts has warned that competition between jihadi groups is contributing towards a newly heightened threat against European Jews. Peter Neumann, director of International Centre for the Study of the Radicalisation and Political Violence at King's College London said that a growing battle for influence between Al Qaeda and Daesh (sometimes known as Isis) "will be suffered by Jewish institutions here in Europe". Mr Neumann argued that security services in Europe are "struggling to cope" and that "the threat we are facing is more severe than it's been in past 10 to 15 years".

The military success of so-called Islamic State (ISIS) has resulted in "euphoria among jihadists in Europe", and has raised the terrorist threat in Europe to a new level, according to the latest report published by Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, an agency of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The 2014 annual report, known as Verfassungsschutzbericht, warns that "IS has gone beyond being a mere terrorist organisation" and that returning militant fighters from Syria and Iraq pose a considerable threat to the country's security. "Its proclamation of the 'caliphate' and its military success have led to euphoria among jihadists also in Europe, regardless of the atrocities committed by jihadi militias and the terror spread by them," the report says.

France struggles to infiltrate terror networks. After the attack in southern France, Paris needs to look at working its intelligence better, says Susi Dennison with the

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European Council on Foreign Relations. One of the suspects was known to authorities.

Europol unit set up to identify and remove extremist social media posts. In a sign of an escalation in the problem, Europol set up a Europe-wide police unit begins work today to tackle the tide of ISIS propaganda online being used to radicalise and recruit extremists around the world.

India and four other members of the BRICS said there should be no “political approaches” and “selective application” in dealing with terrorism and insisted that all countries should adhere to their obligations of fighting against the menace, a statement that could apply to Pakistan. At a summit meeting in Ufa, the grouping, which includes Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa, also condemned terrorist activities of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and associated terrorist groups. “We believe that terrorist threats can be effectively addressed through a comprehensive implementation by states and the international community of all their commitments and obligations arising from all relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy,” said the BRICS Declaration. “We call upon all states and the international community to adhere to their commitments and obligations and in this regard to resist political approaches and selective application,” it said.

Spokesman for the murderous organisation promised 'tenfold' reward in paradise for those who targeted 'the kuffar' (unbelievers) during the holy month. Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the chief spokesman for ISIS, put out a statement urging jihadists to attack western targets. In a chilling message, he said: 'Allah may increase the reward of a shahid [martyr] tenfold in Ramadan in comparison to other months. 'So, O Muslims embark and hasten towards jihad. And O mujahidin [jihadists] everywhere, rush and move to make Ramadan a month of disaster for the kuffar [unbelievers].' Last year, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi marked the beginning of Ramadan by proclaiming himself caliph of the new “Islamic State” and urged supporters to “take up arms” around the world. ISIS will mark the holy month of Ramadan and the first anniversary of its self-imposed caliphate by launching bloody terror attacks on the West and activating 'terror cells' in countries as far as the Philippines, respected terrorism analysts have predicted. Its experts claim the countries ISIS has announced as targets are England, France, Italy, Spain, the United States, the Caucuses region of southern Russia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan.Meanwhile dozens of other nations including Greece, Romania and Australia are at risk of deadly 'surprise attacks'.

It already controls large swathes of land across Iraq, Syria and Libya - where over eight million people live under the terror group's brutal regime - and has formed partnerships with other extremist groups across the Middle East and north Africa. Now the terror group will capitalise on religious tension and war to plunge as much of the world into chaos as it can by July 18, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says. In its report, 'ISIS Military Operations during Ramadan' which was published on June 7, it correctly predicted ISIS would execute a 'mass casualty attack' in Tunisia, which has become a 'breeding ground' for the extremists in recent years.  It also said Islamic State - which is a Sunni Muslim extremist group - would target Shia mosques in the Middle East.

Yet IS does consider attacks in the West – the “Far Abroad” ring (Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia) – as part of its overall strategy to foment a broader war. IS encourages attacks in the Far Abroad in order to provoke Western governments and

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societies into targeting and alienating Muslim communities and thus drive Muslims toward IS.

Ramadan in 2015 starts on Thursday, the 18th of June and will continue for 30 days until Friday, the 17th of July.

Islamic militants claiming to be representatives of terror group ISIS in Jerusalem have threatened to "cleanse" Israel of all Christians and "non-believers" unless they leave the country. The extremists are accusing Christians of encouraging Muslims to abandon their religion.

"Those who work with the Zionists also encourage Muslims to leave their religion and become more secular and open, and they spread evil," Arabic-language leaflets warns, according to The Jerusalem Post. "They take these Muslims away from us. ... We know where they are, but we need help to find them all — all those Christian collaborators."

The message continues: "ISIS soldiers will work to kill these people so this country is clean of them and ... will clean this country and the Muslim Quarter from these Christians during this holy Ramadan."

And further warns: "Because the Christians violated the Pact of Omar [made when Muslims conquered Jerusalem], we will do this. So we tell our Christians and the nonbelievers: Go away now or you will be killed when the Id [al Fitr festival ending Ramadan] is near. And you will be slaughtered like the sheep. One month is enough for them to go away."

The Islamic State group remains resilient despite suffering military setbacks in Syria, and is recruiting a growing number of young men and women from Europe, according to Gilles de Kerchove, the European Union’s counterterrorism chief. Kerchove said in an interview with the Agence France-Presse (AFP) that thousands of Europeans have joined ISIS in Syria while many residents in Europe have been radicalized on the Internet. About 4,000 Europeans are estimated to have joined ISIS, which continues to attract young people from European countries to join the jihad in the Middle East, Kerchove said, AFP reported

ISIS terrorists 'sneak into Europe disguised as migrants' – sparking fears of bomb attacks HORDES of Islamic State members have reportedly sneaked into Europe along with desperate migrants – sparking fears of terror attacks on the continent. By Tom Parfitt Tom Parfitt , Mon, Jun 22, 2015 | Europe is at risk from a terror attack by ISIS, experts have warned ISIS fanatics have taken advantage of porous borders by travelling from North Africa to Italy on boats packed with refugees, according to terrorism experts.

Now it is feared that the notorious group, which controls much of Iraq and Syria, could target Europe within months. A counter-terrorism insider said: "Once in Europe they can go through the asylum process or disappear off the radar of the authorities by linking up with even more smuggling networks." "This means they can penetrate deeper into Europe and avoid detection from the police and security services. "Nobody knows just how many there are." There are thought to be around a million migrants looking to sneak across the Mediterranean from North Africa, mostly from war-torn Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea.

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Last year David Cameron warned that Britain was at threat from the group's "extreme Islamist regime". He said: "The people in that regime, as well as trying to take territory, are also planning to attack us here at home in the United Kingdom." Soon after the UK's terror threat level was raised from 'substantial' to 'severe' – meaning that an attack is highly likely. And last month Express.co.uk reported that Britain is at "huge risk of an attack" from jihadists seeking revenge after a US airstrike injured leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. His wounds were thought to be so severe that he may have been left paralysed for life and unable to lead the barbaric group ever again.

In Egypt, the ISIS’s Sinai Province formerly (Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis) is a hub of ISIS activity. But it is important to note that the cult-like ability for ISIS to recruit sympathizers and lone wolves may be strong in Egypt. An Egyptian official told me that ISIS is attracting more and more disenchanted Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) sympathizers. In other words, the nexus between ISIS as a Sunni extremist group and the Ikhwan is growing stronger to the point that the Brotherhood’s revolutionary stance of violence could be matching ISIS’s violent goals. That’s dangerous. Thus, the attack on the Italian consulate, claimed by ISIS, is symptomatic of the current ISIS program for Egypt. Let’s face the truth: ISIS in Egypt is on a roll. For all the violence against Egyptian military personnel and police officers killed in the past year, we need to think about how ISIS in Egypt is hijacking the agenda of other Islamist militants not caught up in security sweeps

Why Italy, an explosion outside the nearly empty Italian Consulate in Cairo killed one person and injured seven? Egyptian President Al-Sisi visited Italy last November. Sisi also visited Pope Francis to restore relations between al-Azhar and the Vatican. In addition, Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stated strongly that the country is seeking to build a strong defense and military relationship with Egypt because of the threat from Islamic extremists, specifically ISIS and al-Qaeda franchises. Renzi argued that “Italy is absolutely convinced that the Mediterranean is not the frontier but the heart of Europe, and Egypt must be considered a strategic partner in addressing together the problems of this area. The only way to avoid an escalation of them is through very strong cooperation between Egypt and Europe.” Let’s be clear that the primary point of impact of the Libyan situation in Europe is Italy. Italy has borne the brunt of Libyan refugees and the political fallout regarding this refugees is affecting the country’s security. Perhaps ISIS and its minions see the Italian consulate as a simple statement of what comes next. In regard to Italian targets, we need to recall ISIS’s gruesome February 2014 “A Message Signed in Blood to the Nation of the Cross” when 21 Egyptian Copts were executed on a Libyan beach. It is well known that ISIS in Libya through the Derna, Sirte and affiliated Vilayet system are connected to extremists who use Western Egypt as a transit zone for weapons across North Africa. Sinai Province, demonstrating their reach, has launched attacks in this area before against Egyptian forces over the past year. Italy is also helping Egypt in monitoring the situation in Libya through intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Italy may also be a target because of the Tripoli-based Libya Dawn-ISIS connection in turning a blind eye to that government’s activity in migrant smuggling to southern Europe. Recently, an EU official recently announced that ISIS are using these migrant routes to send its adherents to Europe. The key issue is now how the Egyptian government contends with the ISIS threat in the coming months

Just a month ago, London researcher Charlie Winter told The Independent that Islamic State, also known as IS, will likely act to make itself appear stronger than ever as the anniversary of the declaration of the “caliphate” approaches. “There is a concerted effort to appear as relevant as ever, stronger than ever and more defiant than ever in the face of

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international opposition,” Mr White said, adding that the group would be planning “more violence, more advances, more attacks”.

For Muslims worldwide, Ramadan is a time of contemplation, community bonding and religious devotion. But after a recent call from the Islamic State group to its supporters around the globe to launch attacks during the Muslim holy month, Muslim leaders in America and Europe have also been at work trying to repair Islam’s troubled image in the West. Ramadan “is about self-reflection and increased compassion for those in need, and [ISIS] turns that completely on its head,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C. “It’s so diabolical in terms of their call being diametrically opposed to the actual purpose of Ramadan." Ramadan this year has been marred by a series of terrorist attacks, most of them inspired by ISIS’ call for Muslims to expand their war during the holy month. “Make it a month of disasters, defeats and disgrace for infidels everywhere,” Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, an ISIS spokesman, said in an audio statement at the start of the month-long holiday. Now Muslim leaders said they are worried that recent terrorist attacks could give the holy month a bad image. They say Ramadan, the month Muslims believe God began to reveal the Quran, should be a time of peace and introspection. Muslim leaders across Europe and America have called on mosques to issue statements condemning the killings and to open their doors to people of all faiths during the holy month. The Muslim Council of Britain has encouraged Muslims to take part in Friday’s national day of silence for the more than 30 British citizens killed in last week’s terrorist attack on the Tunisian beach resort.“I’ve been involved in interfaith for some time and I’ve never seen such vigorous interfaith outreach as I’m seeing now in the aftermath of these recent terrorist attacks,” Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, assistant secretary general of the Muslim council, said.Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that Muslims are largely opposed to the violence carried out in the name of their religion

ISIS has demonstrated an unflinching determination to take out anyone who dares to disagree with it. Its members have slaughtered Yazidis and Christians, but the vast majority of its victims have been Muslims who resist it and refuse to acknowledge its authority. ISIS has even executed Sunni clerics who refused to swear allegiance to it, and Muslim women who did not submit to its worldview. This feature is shared across all terrorist groups operating in the name of Islam. The vast majority of the victims of the Taliban, for instance, are also Muslims. Hundreds of Shia Muslims have been killed just in the last few years. And I have lost many close friends in similar attacks on the Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and even in America.

So when some anti-Islam critics keep doggedly associating the faith of us Muslims with the acts of our tormentors, we call them out for their insensitivity. An honest study of the Quran shows that groups like ISIS act in complete defiance of the injunctions of Islam. The Quran, for instance, equates one murder to the elimination of the whole human race (5:32), and considers persecution and disorder on earth as an even worse offense (2:217). It lays emphasis on peace, justice and human rights. It champions freedom of conscience and forbids worldly punishment for apostasy and blasphemy. A study of the traditions of the Prophet

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Muhammad also demonstrates that he warned us of the rise of religious extremism in this age in astonishing detail. 1,400 years ago, he prophesized that a time would come when nothing would remain of Islam but its name, nothing of the Quran but its word, and that many "Mosques would be splendidly furnished but destitute of guidance" (Mishkatul Masabih). In these latter days, the true spiritual essence of Islam would be lost, and religion, for the most part, would be reduced to a ritualistic compulsion. He foretold that the clergy would be corrupt and be a source of strife during these times.

How true this is of the extremist clerics in parts of the Muslim world that abuse the pulpit to preach division and hate. He also went on to describe terrorist groups such as ISIS that would try to hijack the Islamic faith. At this time of dissension, he said there would appear "a group of young people who would be immature in thought and foolish." They would speak beautiful words but commit the most heinous of deeds. They would engage in so much prayer and fasting that the worship of the Muslims would appear insignificant in comparison. They would call people to the Quran but would have nothing to do with it in reality. The Quran would not go beyond their throats, meaning they wouldn't understand its essence at all, merely regurgitating it selectively. The Prophet then went on to describe these people as "the worst of the creation." As if this outline wasn't clear enough, another tradition in the book Kitaab Al Fitan reported by Caliph Ali, the fourth successor to Prophet Muhammad, describes these people as having long hair and bearing black flags. Their "hearts will be hard as iron," and they would be the companions of a State (Ashab ul Dawla). Interestingly, ISIS refers to itself as the Islamic State or Dawla. The tradition further mentions that they will break their covenants, not speak the truth and have names that mention their cities.

The ISIS caliph, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, comes to mind. Prophet Muhammad furiously and painfully described these evildoers, and admonished Muslims to beware of their evil and fight it. "Whoever fights them is better to Allah than them," he proclaimed. Reflect on this critical point. Whenever ISIS kills in the name of Islam, claims to follow the Quran, or uses the Holy month of Ramadan to spread anarchy across the globe, know that Prophet Muhammad explicitly warned us of these imposters, and entrusted us to root them out. The only people who refuse to reflect on this point are ISIS, ISIS sympathizers and anti-Islam extremists who want the world to believe that ISIS is legitimate. Intelligent people, meanwhile, see Prophet Muhammad's prophetic wisdom and thus remain united against both ignorance and extremism. -- Kashif N. Chaudhry

Following a wave of terrorist attacks in late June in France, Tunisia, and Kuwait, the narrative that ISIS is on the march has been dusted off by Western governments and media – though that particular fairy tale has never been allowed to collect dust for very long.  While it’s entirely unclear what, if any, ties the alleged perpetrators of the aforementioned attacks had with ISIS fighters based in Iraq and Syria, the media ran with the tale of ISIS expansion, and Americans spent another July 4th threatened by their national security establishment with jihadists planning to attack their summer barbecue and pool parties. (Naturally, nothing happened.) The beheading “attack” in France, already on high alter after January’s massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices, was immediately cited by Europe’s security “experts” and politicians, including Britain’s Teletubby-totalitarian prime minister David Cameron, to justify expanding Europe’s already massive surveillance apparatus. The suspect in France was already known to the DST, French domestic intelligence, and the individual he beheaded was his employer, with whom he apparently had a hostile relationship. But the fact he had some nominal relationships with other Islamic radicals was enough to depict the murder of his boss as an ISIS-connected attack.

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Last year in the American state of Oklahoma, a black Muslim prison convert with sympathies for radical Islam beheaded a co-worker at the meat-packing plant from which he had been fired. The media toyed with the notion that the beheading might have been ISIS-inspired or an act of “lone-wolf” terrorism, but quickly moved on to other items. The similar event in France has now established that disgruntled workers of a radical Islamic persuasion who seek violent revenge on employers or coworkers can now officially be cast as nefarious foot soldiers of ISIS. (Apparently any resentful office gnome that fantasizes about taking out his boss is a potential ISIS recruit.)Meanwhile, in Tunisia a young jihadist (with possible accomplices) infiltrated a beach frequented by foreign terrorists and murdered almost 40 people. Tunisian authorities had been warned the month before that a terrorist attack in that area was likely, but apparently did next to nothing to prevent the attack.The Tunisian suspect was allegedly trained by a jihadist faction in neighboring Libya.[1] Western powers – Britain, France, and the United States – deliberately destabilized Libya and armed jihadist brigades there, a fact continuously glossed over by the politicians and media, and now they demand action be taken in the wake of the Tunisian beach massacre.The violent NATO intervention in Libya in 2011 and subsequent overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi has led to a significant proliferation of terrorism across North and Central Africa, with waves of Africans fleeing across the Mediterranean to Europe to escape the civil and sectarian strife unleashed in their countries. Yet none of the Western leaders who ignited the crisis have been held to account. Indeed, those who wrecked Libya, and Syria, along with unleashing ISIS upon the Middle East, have done quite well for themselves.In this vein, after the recent shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, allegedly by a mentally imbalanced white supremacist, former Secretary of State and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton came out to decry gun violence and call for further gun control.The hypocrisy of her stance was completely ignored by the establishment media, which allowed her to self-righteously pontificate, never calling her out over her policy of Secretary of State of arming vicious jihadists in Libya and Syria. It should be further remembered that while Clinton feigned moral outrage over Charleston, she cackled with joy over the vicious torture and murder of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi by her pet Libyan mujahideen.But of course Hillary can laugh, because she knows that the population that she aspires to soon rule doesn’t have the slightest clue about her role in helping generate the synthetic terrorism of ISIS, which has been a boon to the national security establishment and surveillance societies in North America and Western Europe. The threat posed by elusive ISIS, allegedly present in all 50 American states and across the border in Mexico, is enough to keep American television consumers perpetually on edge. The bizarre events in Garland, Texas and further sectarian tensions have only served to maintain this elite-induced heightened state of paranoia.

One of these is a Hollywood B-movie production. The other is Iron Man.Add on top of this an unending flow of slick, high quality ISIS videos allegedly showing beheadings, mass executions, and other nasty items. These conveniently timed and well-produced videos, eerily similar to plot elements of the popular Iron Man movies, as some commentators have pointed out, have helped serve the agenda of manufactured consent that “something must be done.” With the American presidential election cycle coming into full swing, we should expect more of the same, as recently observed by 21st Century Wire columnist Shawn Helton:“As the US election cycle heats up over the next year, the psychological warfare regularly used to deceive the public will also increase.”

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The public mind is not able to think beyond the dualistic and cartoonish notions that it has been fed by the mass media. Shadowy terrorists, be it ISIS or Cobra Command, are out to destroy our freedoms and way of life, which nowadays consists of little more than waving rainbow flags as one plays Candy Crush on an iPhone at the local Starbucks, and it’s up to G.I. Joe and the military-industrial complex to save the day. That G.I. Joe runs and funds Cobra Command never occurs to them; they’ll just vote for Hillary or another globalist sock puppet, deluding themselves that she’ll make everything better. Although a growing number of people have adopted a jaded and dismissive attitude in response to the ceaseless flow of terror propaganda, they sadly remain a minority.Dialectical synthesis in one social media profile picture: ISIS’s Al Baghdadi celebrates #lovewins. Synthetic terrorism and the endless media spectacle that surrounds it is a necessary and essential component of the control grid that the Atlanticist oligarchs need to maintain hegemony over the societies they own. Just as well, it serves as a pretext to subvert any remaining states and cultures that dare defy them.

The totalitarian nature of the liberal globalist order demands such actions, as the Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin correctly noted:“… liberalism is a totalitarian and violent ideology, a means to direct and indirect political repression, to educational pressure and ferocious propaganda, self-proclaiming to be non-totalitarian, that is, concealing its very nature. This is a scientific fact. [Liberal] totalitarianism is entirely coherent with the whole perspective of its political concept.”McBabylon needs an enemy as its excuse for world conquest, and while geopolitical opponents like Russia can certainly be cast in that role, in order to make the fear more close to home, sometimes the enemy has to be constructed and stage managed for the proper effect.[1] Another interesting item relating to the Tunisian attack is the presence of Cal Sarwar, a self-styled terrorism expert, at a hotel near the site of the massacre. Mr. Sarwar had previously gained some attention after claiming to have infiltrated the Taliban, though on whose behalf he acted, we don’t know.Author Daniel Spaulding earned a BA in English literature from Bridgewater State University. He currently works and lives in Seoul, South Korea

4 July, JP. Australia is not new to the threat of jihadi terrorism. Jihadi militants have been active in Australia since the 1980s. Al-Qaida (AQ), including its regional franchise Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), was behind most of the earlier failed or foiled terrorist plots on its soil. It even seems AQ had an obsession with Australia’s only nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, targeted various several times in different plots. JI targeted Australian interests mainly abroad, in Indonesia. The most serious jihadist activity occurred from 2003-2005. The civil war in Syria has clearly been the main trigger for the changes in the Australian jihadist arena since 2012. In July 2014, following the uproar produced by the tweets and gruesome photos posted by two now famous Australian jihadists, then director-general of security (head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization or ASIO) David Irvine declared that some tens of people had already returned from the Middle East and another 150 in Australia had inclinations to support extremist movements. Then, in the eyes of millions of people around the world Australia became a symbol of the global Islamic State (IS) threat when on the morning of December 15, 2014, Man Haron Monis, a troubled 50-year-old man of Iranian origin on the fringes of the city’s Muslim community, took 18 hostages in a famous café located in downtown Sydney, practically paralyzing the center of the metropolis. The televised saga ended after a 16-hour siege in which two people and Monis were killed.

In the foreword of the sixth issue of its English magazine Dabiq, IS described how Monis

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“brought terror to the entire nation” and called upon others to copy his “daring raid.” He was also praised for his conversion to Sunni Islam. Monis was also mentioned discretely in a short note in the December 2014 issue of Inspire, the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) magazine. Andrew Zammit, a leading researcher of this topic, notes the large number of Australians involved with groups such as IS greatly exceeds any of Australia’s earlier jihadist mobilizations. Although this raises well-founded fears of an increased threat at home, Zammit evaluates that “the foreign fighter threat to Australia may not turn out to be as great as feared” as neither JN nor IS appear to have made attacks in the West as high a strategic priority as al-Qaida’s senior leadership did. Yet IS does consider attacks in the West – the “Far Abroad” ring (Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia) – as part of its overall strategy to foment a broader war. IS encourages attacks in the Far Abroad in order to provoke Western governments and societies into targeting and alienating Muslim communities and thus drive Muslims toward IS. Paradoxically, the more IS is squeezed in Iraq and Syria and defeated militarily by the broad ad-hoc coalition gathered against it, the more foreign fighters, who for the moment serve mainly as cannon fodder, will be compelled to return home or immigrate to more hospitable lands. Since January 2015 this trend has begun to materialize: the January 2015 attacks against the Charlie Hebdo offices and the Jewish kosher grocery store in Paris, France; pre-emptive raids by Belgian police in the town of Verviers against a group suspected of preparing a major attack ending with two killed IS jihadists; the attacks in February against both a public event called “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression” and a synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark; the arrests of nine people in Barcelona and Tarragona, Spain, suspected of links to IS, in April; and the various police operations in Malaysia in April that led to the arrests of 95 individuals with links to IS. The arrests in April 2015 of five young would-be terrorists in Melbourne accused of plotting to bring terror to the city’s streets during Anzac Day centenary commemorations are part of the same trend. It should be noted that IS invests few resources and operational effort in most of these attacks – apart from very effective and targeted propaganda on the Internet amplified by the mainstream media, which is sometimes hypnotized by the gruesome events and thus serves as a resonance chamber. The Monis hostage situation in December 2014 is a good example of such a success. Moreover, there is a fierce competition between IS under the leadership of Abu Bakr al– Baghdadi and al-Qaida under the leadership of Ayman al-Zawahiri for the hearts and minds of jihadists worldwide. Zawahiri announced in September 2014 the establishment of a new affiliate group, “Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent” or AQIS, which covers jihadist activities in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and India’s states of Assam, Gujarat and Kashmir. Interestingly there is no mention of who is responsible for Indonesia or Australia, territories where AQ and its associates were active in the past. Competition between the two jihadist organizations has clearly emerged as playing a role in the case of the attacks in France. AQAP claimed responsibility for the massacre at Charlie Hebdo’s offices by the two brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi. But Amedy Coulibaly, who killed a policewoman and four people in the Parisian kosher grocery store, pledged allegiance to IS in a video published online after his death. A month later IS referred to Coulibaly in Dabiq as a “brave mujahid” who had given his “bay’ah” (oath of allegiance) to the group beforehand. It remains to be seen if AQ or AQIS will try in the future to challenge IS in Australia by reviving old networks or recruiting a new generation of jihadists. The writer who holds a PhD is a Senior Research Scholar at The International Institute for Counter- Terrorism (ICT) and The Institute for

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Policy and Strategy (IPS) at The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzlyia, Israel.

**

Regards Cees

Two airline pilots 'radicalised by Isis pose major threat'By Eilish O'Gara 7/9/15 It's thought that Ridwan Agustin (left) and Tommy Abu Alfatih (right) have links to Isis Facebook

Australian Federal Police (AFP) believe two Indonesian pilots pose a major security threat after being radicalised by Isis, according to a leaked intelligence report, obtained by the Intercept, an investigative website today. The two men, formally identified as Ridwan Agustin and Tommy Hendratno, have been monitored by the AFP since September 2014 after they began posting messages in support of the so-called Islamic State and connecting with pro-Isis accounts. The report is titled: "Identification of Indonesian pilots with possible extremist persuasions" and is dated 18 March, 2015. The AFP claim that Agustin, who formerly worked for low-cost airline AirAsia, frequently flying to destinations such as Hong Kong and Singapore, began showing signs of radicalisation in September last year when he begun sharing "extremist related articles" on Facebook.It was about this time that Agustin befriended the second pilot, Tommy Hendratno, on Facebook. Hendratno is a former Indonesian navy pilot who worked for Premiair and has flown to international destinations including Australia, the US and Europe. He ceased working for Premiair on 1 June. An AirAsian spokesperson has confirmed that Agustin no longer works for the airline and in mid-March Agustin reportedly listed his "current city" as Raqqa, Syria on Facebook. The Australian police monitored the two pilots' interactions with each other and with other pro-Isis profiles, noting that Hendratno changed his name to Tommy Abu Alfatih on Facebook. The two men also communicated with Indonesian fighters who had travelled out to Syria to fight with Isis.Sidney Jones, the director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, an organization tracking Indonesian foreign fighters in Isis, told the Intercept: "It makes a lot of sense that the Australians would be extremely nervous," and said that in the last few months there had been a marked increased in the number of Indonesians fighting with the terror group. Jones said that between 1 March and 1 June, 2015, 44 Indonesians have been killed in Syria and Iraq. The AFP report concluded that the two pilots "both appear to be influenced by pro-Isis elements including extremist online propaganda by well-known radical Indonesia outlets and a suspected Indonesian terrorist fighter who is likely to be in either Syria or Iraq."It also emphasised the threat of pilots becoming radicalised by terrorist groups, citing a recent edition of the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, which encouraged aviation attacks by those with working knowledge of the aviation industry.Raffaello Pantucci, director of International Security Studies at defence thinktank The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says the implications of pilots being radicalised could be "catastrophic" but says he believes that the danger of them carrying out attacks on home soil is limited. "In many cases, those radicalised by Isis do not want to stay at home and launch

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spontaneous attacks, they want to go out to the country [Syria] and see if for themselves," he says. "They want to personally participate in the fighting".Unlike al-Qaeda, Isis have never directly called for aviation attacks, although Pantucci points out that, "the group is of course keen for people to try and launch all types of attacks that will instigate chaos and misery and this could be the perfect vehicle for it." The AFP issued the following statement but declined to comment further: "The AFP maintains strong relationships with its domestic and foreign law enforcement partners to ensure the ongoing safety of Australians both within Australia and abroad."

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