CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: "The Washington Post reported this week that the Islamic State terror group “has regrouped in Somalia — and has global ambitions.”

On this week’s edition of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,” Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, former U.N. coordinator for the U.N.’s al-Qaida, Taliban, ISIS monitoring groups, says this has been in the works since 2021."

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler writes: "A dangerous cocktail of indifference and complacency enabled al-Qaeda to evolve from a shadowy fringe network in the early 1990s into one of the most destructive and infamous terrorist organizations the world has ever known. Early warning signs – including attacks on U.S. embassies in East Africa and on the USS Cole – were dismissed as distant dangers, failing to provoke a coordinated decisive response in Western capitals. This complacency paved the way for the tragedy of 9/11. As the several attacks in Europe and the recent tragedy in New Orleans have shown, history is starting to repeat itself, except now the scale of the problem is larger, the geography more expansive and the consequences equally dire."

"After a wave of plots and attacks in Europe and the stunning New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, experts think terrorists are growing stronger and more sophisticated.

On this week’s episode of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,” Hans-Jakob Schindler said the groups are not hiding their ambition."

“The man who plowed through Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day with an ISIS flag on his truck was closely following the terror group’s playbook, promoted in English language magazines and online content circulated globally in an attempt to inspire lone-wolf attacks. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the Army veteran from Texas whose attack killed 14 and injured dozens more, checked almost every box of ISIS’s guidance for carrying out such an attack, based on a review of ISIS literature and interviews with experts… “Even before reviewing my notes, the details of the attack struck me as being particularly reminiscent of ISIS advice,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, researcher at the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit. ISIS and its affiliates have called for attacks similar to Jabbar’s for years, and ISIS followers have carried out or attempted several attacks on New Year’s celebrations before, according to the Counter Extremism Project. Several plots have been foiled in the U.S. and Europe in recent years.”

"The newsletter bulletin, obtained by the Counter Extremism Project, a terrorism watchdog, appeared to mock the American news media for “holding its breath” while waiting for ISIS to claim the attack...

“Unlike other attacks in the past, where ISIS has released a claim of responsibility for the attack, in this case, the group has stated that the attacker was inspired by ISIS propaganda messaging but does not claim they had a direct relationship,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher at the Counter Extremism Project.

The ISIS statement’s emphasis on the importance of people who translate and share ISIS content, Mr. Fisher-Birch said, “speaks to the efforts to continue the spread of the group’s official messaging and unofficial propaganda efforts made by supporters.”"

"A translation of ISIS’s Al-Naba newsletter provided by the Counter Extremism Project shows ISIS wrote a wide-ranging piece on the attack. The piece said Jabbar had been influenced by its discourse and propaganda, noting the costs of the attack were negligible.

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"ISIS's al-Naba statement confirmed that the terrorist group's propaganda helped inspire the New Year's Eve attacker and noted the significance of his claim of allegiance to the organization,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, researcher at the Counter Extremism Project.

Fisher-Birch added that ISIS emphasized its propaganda network and encouraged other attacks on public events, part of a pattern of content encouraging lone-actor attacks."

"Terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project also sees a growing danger from IS terror for Europe and Germany . However, a special fund alone will not provide a solution, Schindler warned in an interview with the Münchner Merkur . "Money alone is not a solution. The legal basis must first be created, only then can the money from a special fund be used effectively," said Schindler.”"

“For a few years, the Islamic State seemed to be nothing more than a ghost from the past. A fallacy, because it is now clear that the terrorist organization never really disappeared and is once again highly active. Terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project warns of a new danger of attacks in Europe and Germany. "What is new is that the terrorists are again daring to use more resources for elaborate attacks like the one in Moscow," said Schindler in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA . At the end of March 2024, armed men carried out an attack on a concert hall in the Russian capital, leaving more than 140 people dead and hundreds injured.”