International

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HVEs Focus on Military Targets and Travel to Support FTOs

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HVEs Focus on Military Targets and Travel to Support FTOs

On March 31, James Bradley, a.k.a. Abdullah, and his wife, Arwa Muthana, were arrested in Newark (Essex County) after attempting to board a cargo ship traveling to Yemen to fight for ISIS. The couple also conspired against military targets in the event their travel was unsuccessful, similar to other plots by homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) apprehended last year. Since 2020, several HVEs have been arrested for attempting to join a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) overseas and/or attack military personnel in the United States.

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Foreign Adversaries Leverage US Capitol Unrest

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Foreign Adversaries Leverage US Capitol Unrest

Foreign adversaries will likely leverage US Capitol unrest to advance their narratives and attempt to diminish the United States’ standing on the world stage. In the aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol, foreign adversaries such as China, Iran, and Russia have made numerous statements criticizing democracy in the United States and questioning its role as a world power.

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Foreign Terrorist Groups Direct Operatives to Attack US

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Foreign Terrorist Groups Direct Operatives to Attack US

Foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) maintain the ability to train operatives to plot external operations in the United States while supporters and affiliates focus on regional conflicts. Since 2019, three FTOs have instructed and supported a foreign national to engage in preoperational planning to conduct an attack in the United States, resulting in one attacker killing three US sailors and wounding eight others before responding officers killed him.

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China Committed to Spreading COVID-19 Disinformation

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China Committed to Spreading COVID-19 Disinformation

As distribution of COVID-19 vaccines begins in the United Kingdom and United States, China continues to shift blame for concealing the virus’ severity by disseminating new falsehoods about its origins and misrepresenting scientific and medical experts. These attempts to discredit verified facts can be replicated to target the reliability of vaccines approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Such efforts could dissuade segments of the population from receiving inoculations, increasing infections and mortality rates in the United States.

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Al-Qa’ida Suffers Leadership Losses in Iran and Mali

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Al-Qa’ida Suffers Leadership Losses in Iran and Mali

Recent losses in al-Qa’ida’s leadership will not hinder the overall operational tempo of the terrorist organization due to its formal structure and the increasing independence of its affiliates. Al-Qa’ida anticipates losing leaders and usually chooses successors far in advance. NJOHSP assesses these deaths will not impact the group’s long-term capabilities, owing to its decentralized leadership structure and ability to encourage followers to conduct external attacks in the West.

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ISIS Supporter Conducts Mass Casualty Attack in Vienna

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ISIS Supporter Conducts Mass Casualty Attack in Vienna

On November 2, Kujtim Fejzulai, a 20-year-old man with dual citizenship from Austria and North Macedonia, killed four people and injured at least 22 in an attack that began outside of a closed synagogue in Vienna, Austria. The attack occurred at six locations in the city center of Vienna starting at about 8 p.m. local time. Initially, law enforcement believed the gunman, known to Austrian authorities as an ISIS sympathizer, was part of a coordinated attack with additional shooters still at large; however, authorities now believe he was a lone offender.

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Jihadists Target French Citizens in Retaliation for Satirical Cartoon

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Jihadists Target French Citizens in Retaliation for Satirical Cartoon

On October 29, an attacker killed three French citizens, including a woman who was beheaded, at the Basilica of Notre-Dame in the southern French city of Nice. This is the fourth incident where Salafi-jihadists targeted and killed French civilians since September and follows President Emmanuel Macron’s defense of a satirical cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed. On the same day as the attack at the basilica, a man was arrested after stabbing a security guard with a knife at the French consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

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Seized Iranian Websites Reveal Online Threat Tactics

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Seized Iranian Websites Reveal Online Threat Tactics

The US Department of Justice’s seizure of websites belonging to Iranian supporters and foreign terrorist organizations reveals tactics that include covertly managing Internet domain names to spread disinformation about US domestic and foreign policies. In October, the US Department of Homeland Security assessed that Iran continues to present a cyber espionage threat and its supporters are employing inauthentic social media networks, proxy news websites, and state media outlets.

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White Racially Motivated Extremists Remain Resilient

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White Racially Motivated Extremists Remain Resilient

Despite setbacks, white racially motivated extremists (WRMEs) will likely continue to operate internationally due to social media platform migration, exploitation of high-profile events, and online anonymity. Since 2017, WRMEs have conducted and plotted attacks while suffering mass arrests, infighting, group disbandments, and social media profile removals that should have hindered operational capabilities.

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Knife Attack in Reading, England, a Possible Terrorist Incident

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Knife Attack in Reading, England, a Possible Terrorist Incident

On June 20, Khairi Saadallah fatally stabbed three individuals, including an American citizen, and wounded three others at a park in Reading, England. Saadallah, 25, entered the park around 7 p.m. (local time), a few hours after a Black Lives Matter protest ended, and approached a group of people, allegedly shouted unintelligible words, and then attacked them with a knife. He was arrested on scene following the attack.

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Al-Qa’ida’s Online Magazine Vilifies US Values

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Al-Qa’ida’s Online Magazine Vilifies US Values

In the June edition of al-Qa’ida’s English-language online extremist magazine, One Ummah, the group devotes three sections to disparaging US society, economic policies, and treatment of the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic. While al-Qa’ida seeks to recruit supporters by criticizing US culture and mentions how a New Jersey nursing home failed to protect the elderly, the group does not supply supporters with any lone offender tactics to conduct an attack.

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HVEs to Continue Targeting Uniformed Officers

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HVEs to Continue Targeting Uniformed Officers

Homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) continue to act in support of foreign terrorist organizations as government officials respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide protests attended by the public, and the 2020 elections. Since January, six HVEs have been identified, including two arrested for providing material support, one for plotting an attack, and three for targeting and injuring law enforcement and military personnel amid recent events.

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Violent Islamist Extremists Promote US Social Tensions

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Violent Islamist Extremists Promote US Social Tensions

International Islamist extremists and terrorist groups continue to publish propaganda about US racial and political tensions to proliferate their deception that America is a corrupt state. While US domestic policies are not a focus of these groups’ ideologies, their propaganda is part of a larger campaign to discredit the United States and motivate residents to accept their violent extremism and encourage supporters to conduct terrorist attacks.

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Iranian Hackers Committed to Exploiting US Servers

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Iranian Hackers Committed to Exploiting US Servers

Iranian hackers are using vulnerable US and private-sector computer servers and networks to conceal cyber attacks, steal proprietary information, and disrupt critical infrastructure. In January, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence affirmed that Iran continues to present a cyber espionage threat using increasingly sophisticated techniques.

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Attack on Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi

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Attack on Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi

On May 21, Adam Alsahli, a 20-year-old from Corpus Christi, Texas, tried to speed through security gates at 6:15 a.m. (local time) at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas. Alsahli opened fire and wounded a member of base security who was wearing a bulletproof vest. She rolled over and hit a switch that raised a security barrier, preventing Alsahli from getting onto the base. Other security personnel shot and killed him.

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ISIS Attacks Reveal Extremists’ Resiliency

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ISIS Attacks Reveal Extremists’ Resiliency

In 2020, ISIS and its affiliates have demonstrated their resiliency by continuing suicide attacks and conducting campaigns with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan while attempting to inspire supporters in Western countries. In February, US Central Command assessed that ISIS’s operations would not be disrupted following the death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in October, which has proven accurate as the group continues to target Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian governments and law enforcement officers battling COVID-19.

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Al-Qa’ida Committed to Attacking the United States

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Al-Qa’ida Committed to Attacking the United States

Despite US counterterrorism operations targeting leadership of al-Qa’ida affiliates, experienced operatives can direct supporters to use a variety of terrorist techniques and tactics to attack the United States. In 2017, Mohammed Alshamrani, a Saudi national, enrolled in a US naval training program while serving as an al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operative. He exploited his rank in the Royal Saudi Air Force, conducted surveillance of military targets, and concealed his intentions until he killed three US service members and wounded eight others at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida in December.