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Showing posts from February 16, 2020

What China has to fear from a US-Taliban peace deal in Afghanistan

A withdrawal of US troops could pave the way for a return of Uygur militants and reignite violence in Xinjiang But trying to fill American boots would aggravate Beijing’s rivalry with the US and Washington’s resistance to the Belt and Road Initiative After more than 18 years of war, the Taliban has agreed to a week-long nationwide reduction of violence, setting the stage for the signing of a peace deal by the end of this month that would see all US military forces depart Afghanistan in 18 months’ time. The pause in Taliban attacks will also pave the way for negotiations with a government-appointed delegation of mainstream politicians over the country’s future. But China, which used its influence with close ally Pakistan to facilitate Taliban participation in negotiations with the US, has no plans to fill the political space on its southwest flank that will be vacated by departing foreign troops, according to analysts focused on the region. Any attempt to fill American boots in

Malaysia Drops LTTE-Related Charges Against 2 Lawmakers, 10 Others

Malaysia abruptly dropped all charges on Friday against two lawmakers and 10 others facing allegations of supporting the Sri Lankan rebel group Tamil Tigers, saying there was no realistic prospect that any of the accused would be convicted. Attorney-General Tommy Thomas said the 12 men were facing 34 charges after police found some photos of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the slain founder of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in their mobile phones and Facebook accounts. “If such conduct can constitute a criminal offense, it would bring the law into disrepute,” Thomas said. “I have decided that there is no realistic prospect of conviction for any of the 12 accused.” He said his order to discontinue court proceedings against the accused would be effective immediately. Assemblymen Gunasekaran Palasamy and Saminathan Ganesan and the 10 other men were arrested in October last year and were charged under the nation’s draconian anti-terrorism law, the Securi

Bulgaria publishes first assessment on risks of money laundering and terrorist financing

On 9 January 2020, the Bulgarian State Agency for National Security (SANS) issued the  National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing , which analyses the internal and external risks of money laundering and terrorist financing facing in the country. Heavily involved in the prevention, establishment and prosecution of money laundering, Bulgaria views the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism as a crucial factor in its security and economic development. Two years in the making, the National Risk Assessment is a result of consultations and cooperation between national security anti-corruption specialists, prosecutors, bank and financial supervisory bodies, tax and custom authorities, NGOs and private experts. These stakeholders are calling this assessment a valuable tool for government, national authorities, the private sector and partner countries to better understand the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in Bulgaria. It

How Pakistan's Unregulated Economy Feeds the Criminal Terror Nexus

Rising above the exultation from Pakistan’s continued categorisation as ‘grey’ on the FATF, it is crucial to identify ways to effectively dent its militant economy. At the ongoing Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary in Paris, Pakistan’s case was up for review and it was retained on the ‘grey list’ failure to fully comply with global Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CTF) standards. Pakistan has been under FATF observation for eleven years now, having been placed on the grey list first in 2012, and subsequently again in 2018. Although the case for ‘black listing’ Pakistan for its flagrant violation of FATF standards has been strong, with support from three nations, China, Turkey and Malaysia, this has been an arduous diplomatic struggle for India. Any country under review requires only three votes to keep if off the ‘black list’ and 12 votes to take it off the grey list. In June 2018, the FATF granted Pakistan 15 months to implement an appropriate

Turkish President Admits Sending Syrian Fighters to Libya

Source:  https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2144166/turkish-president-admits-sending-syrian-fighters-libya

Cameroon: Boko Haram Raids Displace Thousands More in Cameroon

New Boko Haram attacks have displaced more than 3,000 people along Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria in the past three months. Authorities say the Nigerian Islamist militants torched houses, abducted, raped and looted, creating panic among villagers. Twenty-seven-year-old Cameroonian Alidda Mannodi is getting help from the Association of Muslim Women in the northern town of Mora, on Nigeria’s border, after escaping from Boko Haram. Last week, she managed to flee the border village of Touski, where the Islamist militants were holding her captive as a sex slave. She said at the first opportunity she fled a hut in the bush, where she was repeatedly raped by several men. Mannodi said she told one of the men that she was menstruating, but the man still raped her. Mannodi said she trekked for three hours before getting help from a Nigerian fuel vendor, who brought her to Mora. She said she was among 12 people Boko Haram abducted from her village - some for a second time. T

'If peace comes': Afghans dream of life after war

With a partial truce under way Saturday and a deal between the US and the Taliban likely on the horizon, Afghans are daring to dream of the war ending and their country finally opening up. The "reduction in violence" agreed by the Taliban, the US and the Afghan security forces comes ahead of a possible deal between the insurgents and Washington which would see the US pull thousands of troops out of Afghanistan. While the move is fraught with uncertainty, it marks a potentially historic step in the country's more than 18-year-old war. Afghans have been sharing their hopes for peace on social media, tagging posts with hashtags in Dari and Pashto -- Afghanistan's two main languages -- that translate to #ifPeaceComes and #whenThereIsCeasefire. "In the past 15 years, people have not been able to travel on highways safely. The Taliban stop them, kill them or kidnap them," Ramin Mazhar, a popular poet who helped spread the hashtags, told AFP. If th

Home minister maintains LTTE as terror group and a real threat to Malaysia after AG drops charges against 12

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is still a terrorist organisation in the Home Ministry’s books despite a call for a review by Attorney General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas yesterday. Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin insisted that the LTTE — a separatist group now regarded as defunct following the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009 — remains a threat to Malaysia’s public order and security due to its ideologies. “Thus, it is the responsibility of the authorities to take action according to the legal channels to curb any form of ideological propaganda and activity associated with this group,” he said in a statement today in response to Thomas’ call for a review. He also cited Section 668(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 to assert his ministerial power in deciding whether a group or an individual is involved in terror activities and should be listed as a terror threat. “I

How the internet fosters far-right radicalization

Researchers still know relatively little about far-right lone wolf terrorists. But many, it seems, become radicalized online. We now know that Tobias R., the man behind Wednesday's bloody terror attack in Hanau, western Germany, disseminated racist online videos. These, and his so-called manifesto, echo some of the far-right conspiracy theories circulating on the web today. He is evidently one of the many individuals to have been radicalized online. A 2019 analysis by Germany's domestic intelligence agency states that it struggles to keep track of extremist lone wolves. Many of them, it claims, are radicalized not by engaging with known far-right groups, but on their own. Last summer, the agency subsequently launched a task force to monitor extremist behavior on social media to counter the threat of online radicalization. Hanau Trauer um Opfer nach Amoklauf (picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Schreiber) Online radicalization can lead to deadly attacks, such as the one in the

Joint French-Nigerien military operation 'neutralises' more than 100 jihadists in Niger

A joint operation by Nigerien and French troops in southwest Niger killed 120 "terrorists" and seized bomb-making equipment and vehicles, the country's defence ministry said Friday. As of February 20 "120 terrorists have been neutralised" in the operation in the vast Tillaberi region near the border with Mali and Burkina Faso, the statement said, adding there had been no losses among Nigerien or French troops. Niger's defence minister Issoufou Katambe praised the "cooperation... in the battle against terrorism," according to the statement. Authorities in the restive Tillaberi region have ramped up security restrictions, closing markets and banning motorbike traffic after attacks by jihadist groups over December and January killed 174 Nigerien soldiers. A state of emergency has been in place in the region for the past two years. Since 2015, Niger has struggled against a wave of jihadist attacks near the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso

Indonesia’s Silence over Xinjiang

One million Muslims detained. Mass surveillance. Political indoctrination. Separation of children. If human rights violations of this scope and scale were taking place in Europe or the United States, one would expect Muslim-majority countries, including Indonesia, to have erupted in protest. But so far, there has been little to no response. Why? Because these abuses are taking place in China. Since 2014, the Chinese government has imposed a harsh “Strike Hard Campaign” in Xinjiang, in the northwest region of China, to “eradicate the ideological viruses” of “Islamic extremism” from the Turkic Muslim population. This campaign dramatically escalates Beijing’s longstanding conflation of Uyghur and other Muslims’ distinct cultural, linguistic, and religious identity with political disloyalty or “separatism”. The Chinese government considers a wide variety of religious behaviour to be “extremist”—such as giving babies certain religious names such as Medina, or wearing a veil. Over the

‘MAHATHIR THE GREAT DESTROYER’ REFUSES TO LET GO – NOT WITHOUT A ‘WAR’ THAT WILL BREAK MALAYSIA APART: ‘HE THINKS HE IS INDISPENSABLE & SHOULD RULE FOREVER’

Mahathir, despite his advanced age, is extremely unwilling to let go of his power. The man who practised dictatorial-style leadership and gerrymandering and misused institutional tools to manipulate an electoral process to stay in power for 22 years (from 1981 to 2003) became a prime minister for the second time after he led opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition to a stunning victory in May 2018. He was hailed as the hero who slays the evil Najib Razak, the former premier who was, amusingly, handpicked by Mahathir himself. International news calling him the world’s oldest prime minister was enough to send the then-93-year-old man grinning from ear to ear. The defeat of the (previous) ruling Barisan Nasional after 61 years of one-party rule was arguably Mahathir’s biggest victory. Initially, the country appeared to be moving in the right direction. The unpopular 6% GST (goods and services tax) was scrapped. Inflation fell to below 1% for the first time in 40 months. The fallen Naji

Chinese Uighurs in Saudi face impossible choice

MEDINA: His eyes brimming with tears, a Uighur student in Saudi Arabia holds out his Chinese passport – long past its expiry date and condemning him to an uncertain fate as the kingdom grows closer to Beijing. The Chinese mission in Saudi Arabia stopped renewing passports for the ethnic Muslim minority more than two years ago, in what campaigners call a pressure tactic exercised in many countries to force the Uighur diaspora to return home. Half a dozen Uighur families in Saudi Arabia who showed AFP their passports – a few already expired and some approaching the date –said they dread going back to China, where over a million Uighurs are believed to be held in internment camps. “Even animals in other countries are allowed to have passports,” said the 30-year-old religious student in the Muslim holy city of Medina, whose passport expired in 2018. “Either they should renew my passport or let me drop my nationality. They make us feel like worthless humans.” The community, now

Emboldened by 'heroes' and hate music, white extremists on the rise

They may lack centralised organisation or even a common goal, but white supremacists encouraged by the exploits of extremist "heroes" canonised on social media pose an ever-growing security threat, analysts say. After nine people in Germany were killed by a gunman with "a very deeply racist attitude," the country's interior minister on Friday warned that the far right still posed a "very high" security threat. The shootings on Wednesday at a shisha bar and a cafe in the city of Hanau were the latest in a growing list of attacks in the West attributed to self-appointed defenders of a "white race" perceived to be under threat from migration, globalisation and Islam. From Christchurch to Pittsburg, Halle to El Paso, militants have been emboldened by a narrative of hatred spread on the internet with an ease that observers find worrying. "This digital ecosystem is fuelling a cumulative momentum, which serves to lower 'thresh

UK says Russia's GRU behind massive Georgia cyber-attack

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A huge cyber-attack which knocked out more than 2,000 websites in the country of Georgia last year was carried out by Russia, according to Georgia, the UK and the US. The UK government says that the GRU (Russian military intelligence) was behind the "attempt to undermine Georgia's sovereignty". Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab described it as "totally unacceptable". Russia's Foreign Ministry denied any involvement, the RIA news agency said. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) found that the GRU was "almost certainly" behind the attacks, which affected pages including Georgia's presidential website and the country's national TV broadcaster. It said the attack was the first significant example of GRU cyber-attacks since 2017. Previous GRU cyber-attacks December 2015:  An attack on part of Ukraine's electricity grid left 230,000 people without power for between one and six hours December 2016:  A malware designe