"Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher with the Counter Extremism Project, cautioned against prescribing unsolved attacks on power stations to a certain ideological bent. Some of the attacks could have been from people hoping to steal wire, he said, or those who are simply destructive. One suspect in an attack on power infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest that cut the lights off for 14,000 people on Christmas Day said he hoped to burglarize a business after knocking out power.

But ideas about attacks on critical infrastructure are discussed constantly in Neo-Nazi messaging groups.

“There are definitely conversations happening on Telegram and happening in places where Neo-Nazi accelerationists congregate where they are discussing these attacks,” he said, “and they’re saying, ‘What can we learn from this?’""
 

On this week’s edition of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,” Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, says this is a very troubling development because they actually had thousands of dollars to pay bribes.

CEP resources and experts quoted throughout: "Read William Shawcross CVO, the Independent Reviewer of Prevent’s report and how the government is responding to the recommendations outlined in the report."

"The think tank Counter Extremism Project (CEP) notes that the TTP has links with the Afghan Taliban and terrorist group Al Qaeda.

'As an ally of the Afghan Taliban, the TTP also fought the US-backed Afghan government prior to the latter’s defeat in August 2021. The TTP was founded in late 2007 by a group of Pakistani militants who had previously fought in Afghanistan alongside both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and the group has maintained close ties to both organizations since,' says CEP about the TTP."

"The recommendation was welcomed by Professor Ian Acheson, a senior adviser to the Counter-Extremism Project and a former prisoner governor.

'It’s the idea that everyone can be redeemed that is infecting the approach, which is always looking for improvement and for reduction of risk,' he said.

'It means officials are particularly vulnerable to psychologically sophisticated, ideologically-motivated terrorists. The terrorists don’t have to be particularly intelligent, they just have to be cunning and adept at hiding their true motivations.'"

CEP Senior Advisor Alexander Ritzmann and CEP Senior Research Analyst Sofia Koller write: "[Translation] Radicalisation, extremism and terrorism are neither purely domestic nor solely foreign policy challenges for the security of the Federal Republic of Germany. Over the past 20 years, dealing with Islamist extremism and terrorism has repeatedly dominated the security policy agendas of domestic and foreign policy. At the same time, well-known phenomena such as right-wing extremism and newer forms of conspiracy ideologies such as QAnon, COVD-19 deniers or Reich citizens have increased in relevance. All these extremist phenomena have a strong transnational dimension."

"Home Office officials responsible for the decision to fund groups that have spread Islamic extremism should be sacked, according to a former counterterrorism official.

Professor Ian Acheson, who is now a senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, said the UK should take a far tougher approach to non-violent Islamist groups who 'undermine social cohesion' by spreading hatred."

"Prof. Ian Acheson, a senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, which contributed to the long-delayed Shawcross review of the government’s anti-extremism Prevent program due to be released this week, called for a stricter approach to Muslim groups that 'undermine social cohesion.'"

"'The group’s ideology blends Islamism and Palestinian nationalism and seeks the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River...Hamas’s preferred methods include suicide bombings, rocket and mortar attacks, shootings, and kidnappings,' says think tank Counter Extremism Project (CEP) about Hamas."

On this week’s edition of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,” Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at the Counter Extremist Project, sees an alarming growth in terrorism emanating from Afghanistan.