The Daily Beast ‘Jihad Is The Way To Go’: Connecticut Man Charged With Trying To Fight For ISIS “I’ve been ready for quite a long time now. I just need help to get out of here,” 26-year-old Kevin Imam McCormick allegedly told an FBI informant. by Seamus Hughes and Pilar MelendezAfter tips from Islamic Centers in two different states, authorities arrested a Connecticut man they allege attempted to travel overseas to join the Islamic State. Kevin Imam McCormick, 26, was charged on Oct. 21 with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization after a months-long FBI investigation and allegedly pledging his allegiance to ISIS and its leader in a video. “I do like, I do like ISIS because Abu Musa was like my hero, I cry when I watch that video,” he said during one conversation with an FBI informant, according to court documents unsealed Thursday. Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/kevin-imam-mccormick-charged-with-trying-to-join-isis...

International Business Times ISIS Now Uses Blockchain To Spread Propaganda, Utilizes Bcm Messenger's 'Supergroups' KEY POINTS    ISIS is using a blockchain-based messaging app BCM to spread propaganda     BCM boasts the capability of creating supergroups that could accommodate 100,000 people     BCM also features a crypto walletThe use of blockchain isn't limited to serving companies and organizations that benefit from the distributed digital ledger. Nefarious activities stem out of blockchain because of the technology's inherent capability to mask the identities of those behind transactions. While terror funding and cryptocurrencies are nothing new since terror groups are increasingly turning to digital assets amid traditional channels being blockaded by sanctions, ISIS is reported to have been taking more careful measures to secure the confidentiality in spreading their propaganda. Read more: https://www.ibtimes.com/isis-now-uses-blockchain-spread-propaganda-utilizes-bcm-messengers-supergroups-2887873...

The Telegraph Dozens Of Former French Soldiers Joined Jihadist Groups In Middle East, New Report Reveals by David Chazan, Paris Islamist groups have recruited dozens of former French soldiers, a troubling new report has revealed less than three months after a terrorist attack by a staff member at police headquarters in Paris shocked the nation. More than a third of the ex-servicemen are converts to Islam and nearly half served in elite Foreign Legion, parachute, commando or marine units where they acquired expertise in combat and handling weapons and explosives. The conservative newspaper Le Figaro published excerpts on Wednesday from the forthcoming report by the Centre for the Analysis of Terrorism, a Paris-based think tank.The report says the French army “constitutes a strategic recruitment target for terrorist groups… and former soldiers represent tremendous assets for these groups.” Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/18/thirty-former-french-soldiers-joined-jihadist-groups-middle/...

The Times Of Israel In 3rd Night Of Violence, Hezbollah Supporters Clash With Security Forces Protests and skirmishes come hours after Lebanon’s president postpones talks on naming new prime minister, further prolonging turmoil and unrest By Bassem Mroue    BEIRUT (AP) — Supporters of Lebanon’s two main Shiite groups Hezbollah and Amal clashed with security forces and set fires to cars in the capital early Tuesday, apparently angered by a video circulating online that showed a man insulting Shiite figures.Police used tear gas and water cannons trying to disperse them. It was the third consecutive night of violence, and came hours after Lebanon’s president postponed talks on naming a new prime minister, further prolonging the turmoil and unrest in the Mediterranean country.President Michel Aoun postponed the binding consultations with leaders of parliamentary blocs after the only candidate — caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri — failed to win the backing of the...

Quartz West Africa’s Sahel Struggles To Contain Deadly Jihadist Groups That’ve Infiltrated Communities By Clair MacDougall in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso Leaders of G5 Sahel countries gathered for emergency talks in Niamey on Sunday after Niger faced the most spectacular military attack on its soil since jihadists gained a foothold in the region.Reportedly executed by dozens of men on motorcycles, on a base just 124 miles outside of the capital, near the border with Mali, the attack that killed 71 soldiers was claimed by the Islamic State and is being read as a warning that group is fast expanding its territory throughout the region.“These endless attacks carried out by terrorist groups in our region remind us not only of the gravity of the situation, but also the urgency for us to work more closely together,” said Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, the president of Burkina Faso, a nation that has now become...

Haaretz ISIS Is Still Alive And Well In Sinai, And Israel Fears A Major Attack On Its Egypt Border ISIS may have been crushed in Syria and Iraq, but the group's branch in the Sinai Peninsula is continuing to function without any noticeable problems by Amos Harel Although the American-led coalition has successfully put down the Islamic State and forced most of its operatives out of the last areas they controlled in northern Iraq and eastern Syria, the group’s branch in the Sinai Peninsula is continuing to function without any noticeable problems.More than a year after the collapse of Islamic State strongholds and its main command centers of Mosul in Iraq and in Raqqa in Syria, there may have been somewhat of a drop in the scope of the attacks by the organization in Sinai but it continues to battle the Egyptian army and its police force, causing them numerous...

International Business Times Terrorist In Federal Prison Convicted Of Attempting To Provide Material Support For ISIS The 45-year-old Eretria-born Ethiopian citizen, Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, was found guilty of seeking to provide material assistance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)By Jeevan Biswas The Eastern District of Texas has convicted an international terrorist incarcerated in the US Bureau of Prisons for additional terrorism offences committed in prison. The 45-year-old Eretria-born Ethiopian citizen, Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, was found guilty of seeking to provide material assistance for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).He was also convicted for making a false statement to the FBI. Ahmed was acquitted of two other charges and the verdict on another is pending. He could face up to 25 years in federal prison for the conviction.First conviction in 2013Under the USA Patriot Act, providing material support for terrorism is a crime. Based on the...

ABC News Suspect In Pensacola Naval Base Shooting Wrote 'The Countdown Has Started' 4 Months Before Attack: Report Three people were killed in the shooting and eight others injured. By Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky and Ella Torres  New details have emerged in the deadly shooting at a Florida naval base, including a cryptic message that the suspect wrote just months before the attack, according to a federal report obtained by ABC News.Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, a second lieutenant in the Saudi Air Force who authorities say killed three people and injured eight others after opening fire at the Naval Air Base Pensacola last week, wrote the phrase "the countdown has started" on Sept. 11, 2019 with no further explanation, according to a Joint Intelligence Bulletin released Friday.The post was written about four months before the Dec. 6 shooting, according to the report. Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/suspect-pensacola-naval-base-shooting-wrote-countdown-started/story?id=67733495...

Bloomberg Niger Jihadist Raid Shows Speed Of Islamic State Expansion By Pauline Bax and Katarina Hoije The killing of 71 soldiers in Niger, which had been spared the surge in major militant attacks that have destabilized Mali and Burkina Faso, shows that Islamic State is expanding at breakneck speed across West Africa.The raid on the Inates base, less than 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the capital, Niamey, is the deadliest-ever on Niger’s army and follows a spate of attacks on military outposts in neighboring Mali that left more than 100 troops dead last month. It also came days before leaders of five West African nations were due to convene in France on Dec. 16 to discuss security and the French military deployment in the region as anti-French sentiment escalates. French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday postponed the summit to January because of the attack.“If we look at what’s been happening...

Two Islamist Terrorists Convicted in Texas The Clarion Project Two Islamist terrorists were convicted in Texas due to efforts by the FBI: Mohammed Ibrahim AhmedMohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, 45, an Ethiopian national born in Eretria, was already in prison for terror offenses and convicted on additional charges of recruiting fellow inmates to join ISIS, training them in prison and planning future terrorist attacks for them to carry out.Ahmed recruited at least five inmates to join ISIS and to conduct terrorist acts in the United States after their release from prison, telling them that he was aligned with ISIS and also supported al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda.From prison, he celebrated the suicide bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England in May 2017, which killed 22 and wounded 59.Ahmed wanted the inmates he was recruiting to either travel abroad to join ISIS, or create “sleeper cells” within the United States to carry out...

UNM student from Saudi Arabia charged with illegally possessing handgun By Elise Kaplan and Ryan Boetel/Journal Staff Writers ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Hassan Alqahtani had plans to walk across the stage and collect his diploma from the University of New Mexico on Saturday, and then he and his parents were going to Disneyland to celebrate the accomplishment.Instead, the 27-year-old Saudi Arabian mechanical engineering student will be spending the weekend behind bars, charged in federal court with being a non-immigrant student visa holder in possession of a firearm. The criminal complaint also says Alqahtani had a list of people he planned to kill, which included UNM professors.Alqahtani, who recently earned his bachelor’s degree from UNM, turned himself in to authorities on Friday afternoon. During his first appearance later that evening in federal court, Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen ordered that he be held through the weekend. He will have preliminary and detention hearings...

Ekathimerini.com Police destroy explosive device outside precinct in ZografouMembers of the Greek Police's (ELAS) bomb disposal unit on Monday used a controlled explosion to destroy a homemade explosive device that was found outside a police precinct in Zografou, eastern Athens. The device had been placed inside a metal pipe which was inside a box placed on a wall opposite the precinct. It contained nails and had a timer, according to police sources. One scenario being considered by ELAS's counter-terrorism department is that the mechanism had been planted outside the station during the night but failed to detonate as it had been incorrectly wired. Read more: http://www.ekathimerini.com/247598/article/ekathimerini/news/police-destroy-explosive-device-outside-precinct-in-zografou...

NBC News New Jersey man linked to Jersey City shooting suspect arrested on weapons charges Ahmed A-Hady, 35, was arrested after police found his contact information in the pocket of David Anderson following the deadly attack on a Kosher market. By Tim StellohA New Jersey man was arrested Saturday on weapons charges after authorities found he was connected to a suspect in the deadly Jersey City shooting that officials have described as a potential act of domestic terrorism.A criminal complaint filed in federal district court charged Ahmed A-Hady, 35, with being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun. A-Hady was convicted in 2012 of attempting to obtain a controlled dangerous substance by fraud, the document says. During a search of A-Hady’s home and a pawn shop in Keyport, south of Jersey City, authorities found six guns and ammunition, the complaint says — three AR-15-style assault rifles, three handguns, a...

Asia Times Turkey Forcing Europe To Deal With ISIS Returnees By Faisal Al YafaiFour weeks have passed since Turkey began enacting one of its most controversial policies, forcibly deporting ISIS fighters and their families without the consent of the receiving country. The deportations have continued regularly; on Monday, 11 French nationals landed back in France.At least two dozen ISIS members have been deported to countries across the European Union; Britain, Germany, Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands have all had citizens sent back. Turkey says it is holding another 1,000 ISIS prisoners and will deport them all by the end of the year.This sudden influx of returning men and women has caught European countries by surprise and raised some difficult legal, political and moral questions – questions that Europe, in common with the estimated 100 countries whose citizens also washed up on the shores of the Islamic State “caliphate,” had hoped...

Fox News Dallas Man Gets 30 Years In Prison After Calling On Slaughter Of ‘Infidels’ For ISIS By Bradford Betz A Texas man who railed against “infidels” in his support of ISIS, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for promoting the group online and lying to investigators, prosecutors said.Said Azzam Mohamad Rahim, a U.S. citizen living in the Dallas area, was convicted in May on eight counts related to social media and supporting terrorism. He could have been sentenced to up to 88 years in federal prison. “Mr. Rahim embraced a warped ideology on social media, promoting violence against innocent people, including Americans,” U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox said in a prepared statement. “The Justice Department is committed to combatting terror at home and abroad.”Evidence presented during his trial showed Rahim, 42, moderated a social media channel dedicated to recruiting fighters for ISIS. Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/world/dallas-man-prison-slaughter-infidels-isis...

  Jihadists kill 71 soldiers in mass attack: Niger military by Moussa AksarNIAMEY (Reuters) - Islamist militants killed 71 soldiers in an attack on a remote military camp in Niger near the border with Mali, an army spokesman said on Wednesday, in the deadliest raid against the Nigerien military in living memory. Jihadists with links to Islamic State and al Qaeda have mounted increasingly lethal attacks across West Africa’s Sahel region this year despite the commitment of thousands of regional and foreign troops to counter them.The violence has hit Mali and Burkina Faso the hardest, rendering large swathes of those countries ungovernable, but it has also spilled into Niger, which shares long and porous borders with its two neighbors.Several hundred militants attacked a base in the western Niger town of Inates over a period of three hours on Tuesday evening, army spokesman Colonel Boubacar Hassan said on state television. Read...

U.S. News & World Report Man Sentenced To 6 Years For Plotting Foiled Terror Attack   An Ohio man accused of plotting with his girlfriend to obtain guns and explosives for a foiled domestic terror attack at a bar has been sentenced to six years in prison. By Associated Press, Wire Service Content TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man accused of plotting with his girlfriend to obtain guns and explosives for a foiled domestic terror attack at a bar was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison.Vincent Armstrong, 24, of Toledo, pleaded guilty in August to a charge related to conspiring to transport or receive an explosive with intent to harm. He will remain on probation for three years after his release, The Toledo Blade reported.Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Freeman said Armstrong's girlfriend Elizabeth Lecron was the mastermind behind the planned attack and that she introduced him to online communities...

Fox News Iran Building New Underground Tunnel To House Missiles: Intelligence Sources By Trey Yingst Iran is building an underground tunnel to store missiles and large-scale weapons, according to satellite images obtained by Fox News and Western intelligence sources who reviewed the information.The structure, housed within the Imam Ali military base in Eastern Syria, is estimated to be nearly 400 feet long, 15 feet wide and 13 feet deep. The first image--taken by Image Sat International (ISI), an end-to-end geospatial intelligence solutions company, where construction of the tunnel can be seen--was captured on Oct. 5.Two weeks later, a shed was used to hide the tunnel entrance from the air. Large dirt piles appeared at the opposite end of the tunnel as excavations continue. Western intelligence sources believe missiles and other weapons will be housed in this structure. Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/world/iran-underground-tunnel-missile-storage...

Pensacola Attack: The Terrorists Didn’t ‘Just Snap’ by Clarion Project In the podcast below, counter-terrorism analyst Oz Sultan unpacks the events around the December 6 Pensacola terror attack by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Saudi Air Force aviation student who killed three and wounded eight when he open fired with a handgun.Alshamrani was killed by sheriff deputies during the incident at Naval Air Station Pensacola. As the story unfolds, six other Saudis have been arrested, one of whom filmed the attack as it happened.The attack put Islamist terror back on the radar in the U.S.Among the victims was 19-year-old Airman Mohammed Sameh Haithman, a Muslim, as well as 21-year-old Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walter, and 23-year-old Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson. Read more: https://clarionproject.org/pensacola-attack-the-terrorists-didnt-just-snap/...

USA Today Suspects targeted kosher supermarket in Jersey City shooting rampage, mayor says by Anthony Zurita JERSEY CITY, N.J. – The deadly shooting that left a police officer and five others dead here targeted a kosher supermarket, the city's mayor said Wednesday. "Last night after extensive review of our CCTV system it has now become clear from the cameras that these two individuals targeted the Kosher grocery location" on Martin Luther King Drive, Mayor Steve Fulop tweeted. Fulop did not explain why the grocery store was a target. Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly said Tuesday he had "no inkling on motive."The detective was identified as Joseph Seals, a father of five from North Arlington who was part of a department tasked to get guns off of the city's streets. Seals was on duty and in plainclothes Tuesday when he was shot by at least one of the suspects at...