Tag Archives: terrorism

CBS News reports: The FBI has elevated its assessment of the threat posed by racially motivated violent extremists in the U.S. to a “national threat priority” for fiscal year 2020, FBI director Christopher Wray said today. He said the FBI is placing the risk of violence from such groups “on the same footing” as threats posed to the country by …

The Informant reports: A man in Arizona has been accused by federal authorities of threatening to kill Congressman Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. Court records show that Jan Peter Meister, a 52-year-old registered sex offender, told investigators he drunkenly left the threatening voicemail at Schiff’s Washington, D.C. office after watching Fox News …

Reuters reports: Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who killed nine black people at a South Carolina church in 2015, has appealed his conviction and death sentence, with lawyers arguing the mentally ill defendant never should have been allowed to represent himself at trial. “This Court should vacate Roof’s convictions and death sentence,” says his appeal, filed with the 4th U.S. …

The BBC reports: The American founder of US-based militant neo-Nazi group The Base is directing the organisation from Russia, a BBC investigation has found. Rinaldo Nazzaro, 46, who uses the aliases “Norman Spear” and “Roman Wolf”, left New York for St Petersburg less than two years ago. The Base is a major counter terrorism focus for the FBI. Seven alleged …

The San Jose Mercury News reports: A pastor at a Lutheran church in San Mateo was arrested after allegedly delivering letters full of shooting threats to a San Carlos church where he was formerly a congregation member, authorities said. In four separate instances between Jan. 7 and Jan. 16, Paul Michaelson, 79, dropped off letters to the Holy Trinity Church …

Law & Crime reports: Former senior CIA official Douglas London claimed in an article on Wednesday that President Donald Trump is “obsessed” with killing celebrity targets for the “immediate gratification” of media headlines while ignoring “important threats” and long-term interests. “When it comes to intelligence, like with so much else, President Donald Trump likes big names. It’s this focus on …

The New York Times reports: Attorney General William P. Barr declared on Monday that a deadly shooting last month at a naval air station in Pensacola, Fla., was an act of terrorism, and he asked Apple in an unusually high-profile request to provide access to two phones used by the gunman. Mr. Barr’s appeal was an escalation of an ongoing …

The Washington Post reports: A California woman has been charged with allegedly leaving voice-mail messages threatening to bomb, burn and kill people at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, after the private, Catholic all-girls high school announced plans to include information about same-sex weddings in its alumnae magazine, according to court filings. Sonia Tabizada pleaded not guilty Jan. 3 to federal charges …

The New York Daily News reports: A wacko customer at a Manhattan gay bar mailed a powder-filled envelope with a message reading “It’s called anthrax. Enjoy,” to an employee after he was threatened with a ban from the watering hole, prosecutors charged Monday. Unhinged patron Ameen Keshavjee, allegedly menaced the male employee at Nowhere Bar in the East Village starting …

The stochastic terrorism is relentless: President Trump’s son Donald Trump. Jr. on Sunday shared a picture of himself on Instagram holding an AR-15 style rifle featuring a magazine with an illustration of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton behind bars. The rifle is also adorned with the image of a cross symbol used amid the Crusades. The Instagram post featured …

The New York Post reports: Senior Iranian officials are using Twitter to hint at threats against President Trump’s properties — including his Mar-a-Lago Club resort in Florida and Trump Tower in Manhattan — over the killing of Iran’s top military commander. Hesameddin Ashena, a top adviser to Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, tweeted a link to a Forbes Magazine video that …

CNN reports: The Trump administration has warned members of Congress that Iran is expected to retaliate against the US “within weeks” for the strike that killed Qasem Soleimani even as they failed to convince some that the operation was merited due to an imminent threat against American lives. There are also intense discussions taking place inside US military and intelligence …

Politico reports: NATO suspended its training mission in Iraq, the alliance said Saturday after a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. NATO has been advising the Iraqi defense forces on how to keep ISIS from regaining strength. However, those “training activities are temporarily suspended,” NATO spokesman Dylan White said in an emailed statement. “The safety of …

The Washington Post reports: Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq early Friday, wasn’t just an infamous terrorist organizer and one of the regime’s most powerful officials — he was also one of President Trump’s social media antagonists. International experts have long known of Soleimani as the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force …

NPR reports: Federal prosecutors in New York have filed hate crime charges against the man accused of carrying out a stabbing rampage north of New York City over the weekend that wounded five people as they celebrated Hanukkah. According to the FBI, the suspect, Grafton E. Thomas, 37, appears to have been driven by anti-Semitism, citing journals written by Thomas …

Reuters reports: Russia said on Sunday it had thwarted terrorism attacks reportedly planned in St. Petersburg thanks to a tip from Washington, bringing personal thanks again from President Vladimir Putin to his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump. Russian news agencies cited the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying that thanks to the information, two Russians were detained on Dec. 27 on …

CNN reports: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the attack by a machete-wielding man at a Hanukkah celebration at a New York rabbi’s home Saturday night an “act of terrorism” and challenged his state to fight the rise of anti-Semitism and hate. Standing out the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg in the town of Monsey on Sunday morning, Cuomo called …

The New York Times reports: A suspect involved in a prolonged firefight in Jersey City, N.J., that left six people dead, including one police officer, had published anti-Semitic and anti-police posts online and investigators believe the attack was motivated by those sentiments, a law enforcement official familiar with the case said on Wednesday. The Jersey City mayor said surveillance footage …

Mediaite reports: Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, appeared to claim that mass shooter Dylann Roof “hijacked” the Confederate flag, and that it was seen as “service, and sacrifice, and heritage” before the 2015 Charleston Church Shooting, during an interview with the Blaze’s Glenn Beck this week. “There is this guy that comes out with this manifesto, …

“Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Eliot Engel, Brad Sherman, and Charles Schumer are compelling calm, law-abiding, middle-class American citizens to prepare for the unthinkable: a violent civil war in America fought between the pagan left and the religious right. “Their actions are compelling me and others to immediately get ready to defend our families, our personal lives, and our …