CEP Senior Advisor Ambassador Edmund Fitton-Brown interviewed: "A special meeting with the former British Ambassador to #Yemen , Edmund Fitton-Brown. The meeting includes many important points about the British and Western position in general on the #Houthi militia , and how the international community is dealing with the Yemeni crisis?"

CEP Senior Advisor Edmund Fitton-Brown writes: "As we pass yet another anniversary of 9/11, let us think back briefly to the eve of that watershed moment: In the 1990s, this author worked on counterterrorism issues in London, Cairo, and Kuwait. There was a lot going on: attacks on tourists in Egypt, the early days of what became al-Qa`ida in the Arabian Peninsula. But international CT efforts were unsophisticated with objectives that were variable and not always clear. In those days, it was the norm (albeit infuriating) for one government to lie to another about in-country terrorist threats and hold back information except in the immediate aftermath of major attacks. State sponsorship of terrorism was also common in those days, and it was difficult to achieve international consensus on how to react in such cases. If all that sounds familiar, it is because we now find ourselves dealing with those same unpropitious circumstances. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 and Hamas’ attack on Israel just under a year ago, international CT cooperation is the weakest it has been in 23 years."

"'You still have a central media service and a central command that directed, for example, the attacks in Russia. But right now I think there is a much more diverse network recruiting these young people,' says Pieter Van Ostaeyen, an analyst who has been researching the IS group for over a decade and also monitors it for the Counter Extremism Project, an international think tank."

"Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Advisor to the Counter Extremism Project and former Ambassador of the UK to Yemen, told MailOnline: 'ISIS methodically kept itself alive during the height of military and counterterrorism pressure it faced by creating a global structure of mutually supportive regional networks.'

He said those operating out of Afghanistan, East Africa and West Africa have been 'particularly effective'.

'The regional network structure allows for a formerly "remote province" like Khorasan to step up and enable international attacks if it has the capacity to do so.

'That capacity is partly enabled by funds authorised by the leadership in Syria.

'Khorasan is also important because of diasporas: Uzbek, Chechen, Daghestani and especially Tajik.

'These ethnicities provide networks that link Afghanistan, Turkey, Central Asia, the Caucasus with target venues in Russia, Iran, Germany, Scandinavia, France.'"

"According to Joshua Fisher-Birch, an analyst at the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), 'These groups will continue to hold anti-immigration rallies before the November election because they see an opportunity to recruit and gain publicity within the broader anti-immigrant space,' before warning, 'These extremist groups are not popular but frequently try to gain momentum from culture-war issues in an attempt to stay relevant and recruit.'"

“... Update, 5:01 p.m.: According to extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), there is a "very aggressive and relatively large Islamist scene" in Austria. There is a "huge illegal arms trade in Austria." You can read what else is known about the Islamist scene in Austria here. Update 4:53 p.m.: After the exchange of gunfire near the Israeli Consulate General in Munich, investigators believe that the victim attempted a terrorist attack. According to current information, the attack by the 18-year-old Austrian armed with a rifle is believed to have a "connection to the Consulate General of the State of Israel," police and the Attorney General's Office announced after the shooting in Munich this afternoon.”

"Thousands of prisoners are to be freed early to ease overcrowding in England’s prisons.
@JonnyDymond asks Ian Acheson, former prison governor, what most concerns him about this new scheme."

"According to the police, the man is an 18-year-old who was born in Austria and has Bosnian roots. There are many indications that the incident has a radical Islamist background, says extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP). Why did the Austrian choose Munich as his target? "There may be a connection to the anniversary of the 1972 Olympic attacks," says Schindler. On September 5, 52 years ago, Palestinian terrorists carried out an attack on Israeli athletes at the Summer Games in Munich and murdered eleven Olympic participants."

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson: "Are you ready for SDS40? You might need to be if you’re unlucky enough to live in a high crime area. This is the anodyne descriptor for the government’s emergency release of an estimated 5,000 offenders this month and next, having served only 40 per cent of their sentence in prison custody. This is the result of a hospital pass from the outgoing Conservative government who passed laws to lock more people up for longer without any coherent thought about where they would be banged up."