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New Zealand beefs up counter-terrorism law after ‘ISIS-inspired’
knife assailant injured 7 despite weeks of police surveillance
30 Sep, 2021 06:13
© Reuters / Stuff Limited/Ricky Wilson
New Zealand has voted to strengthen a counter-terrorism bill, now criminalizing the planning of attacks after a knifeman inspired by Islamic State recently left several injured, despite being trailed by police for weeks.
Parliament passed the bill on its third reading on Thursday, voting to amend two previous pieces of legislation that took effect in 2002 and 2012 in order to empower authorities to go after suspected terrorists.
Should the law receive final royal approval, anyone determined to be “planning” or making “other preparations” for an attack will be subject to a number of warrantless police powers, including those pertaining to entry, search, seizure, and surveillance.
The legislative push is long in the making, with calls to strengthen the country’s counter-terrorism laws growing louder following the infamous Christchurch shooting in 2019, in which a gunman massacred 51 people and injured another 40 in a shooting rampage at two different mosques.
However, a knife attack in Auckland earlier this month – said to have been inspired by Islamic State – provided more direct impetus for the terrorism bill. Though the attacker, identified as Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, had been under law enforcement surveillance for 53 consecutive days and police strongly suspected he was planning violence, they had no legal pretext to detain him before the attack. The new bill aims to remedy such issues going forward, empowering police to take more aggressive action ahead of a planned incident.
Last year, prosecutors attempted to charge Samsudeen with a terrorism offense, saying he had recently bought a large hunting knife and was found with IS propaganda material in his possession. However, the case was later thrown out, as a judge determined the knife and videos alone were not enough to proceed with criminal charges. The judge also noted that New Zealand law at the time made few provisions for terrorist plots, focusing instead on attacks themselves, saying this “could be an Achilles’ heel” in the justice system.
This is a good step forward although I wonder how long such convicted terrorists would end up spending in jail?
Personally, I agree with Syrian Psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan, who once wrote: “I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible…impossible…for any human being to read the biography of Mohammed and believe in it, and then emerge a psychologically and mentally healthy person.”
Consequently, radical Muslims should be segregated from society because of their madness. And, they should be locked away until they abandon their radical faith.
Ethiopia expels 7 U.N. officials over 'meddling' in Tigray conflict
By Darryl Coote
Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Ethiopia has ordered the expulsion of seven senior United Nations officials on accusations of "meddling in the internal affairs of the country," the ministry of foreign affairs said following criticism that the country has established a humanitarian blockade over the crisis-hit Tigray region.
The ministry sent the officials from the U.N.'s Children Fund and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs letters informing them that they have been designated "persona non grata" and have 72 hours to leave the country.
Among those expelled include Grant Leaity, acting humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia with the OCHA, who early this month warned that the war-torn Tigray region was under "a de facto humanitarian aid blockade."
Tigray, in northeastern Ethiopia, is at the center of fighting between the militaries of Ethiopia and Eritrea and the ethnic nationalist Tigray People's Liberation Front that erupted in November.
Most media coverage of this tragedy does not include the fact that Tigray is mostly Christian while the rest of Ethiopia is mostly Muslim.
A 'humanitarian aid' is meant to save lives, therefore, a blockade of such aid is meant to end lives. This is genocide!
The United Nations has repeatedly said more than 5.2 million people across the state, equaling 90% of Tigray's population, are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including 400,000 people currently facing famine conditions with more than 100,000 children posed to suffer from life-threatening acute malnutrition in the next 12 months.
In his letter dated Sept. 2, Leaity said there is only one road into Tigray that humanitarian partners can use but long delays and clearance "render passage extremely difficult."
"Stocks of relief aid, cash and fuel are running very low or are completely depleted. Food stocks already ran out on 20 August. A minimum of 100 trucks of food, non-food items and fuel must enter Tigray every day to sustain an adequate response," he said, adding that between July 12 and Sept. 2, only 355 trucks had entered the region.
In the past three weeks, 171 trucks have entered Tigray, carrying a combined 6,150 metric tons of food for 360,000 people for one month, the WFP said via Twitter.
"It is vital we have a free flow of aid into northern Ethiopia to reach all in need," it said.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Thursday that he was "shocked" that Ethiopia had designated his officials as persona non grata as they are delivering lifesaving aid to people in need in the country.
"I have full confidence in the U.N. staff who are in Ethiopia during this week," he said. "We are now engaging with the government of Ethiopia in the expectation that the concerned U.N. staff will be allowed to continue their important work."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also issued a statement condemning the expulsion, calling on Ethiopia to immediately revise its decision or face consequences.
"The expulsion is counterproductive to international efforts to keep civilians safe and deliver lifesaving humanitarian assistance to the millions in dire need," he said.
Of course, that's the plan!
On Sept. 17, President Joe Biden signed an executive order permitting sanctions against leaders in Ethiopia over the fighting in Tigray.
"We will not hesitate to use this authority or other tools to respond to those who obstruct humanitarian assistance to the people of Ethiopia," he said.
Tigray, Ethiopia
Saudi-Canadian Islamic State narrator, ‘voice behind violence’
in terror group’s gruesome videos, hit with terror charges in US
2 Oct, 2021 17:33
A Saudi-born Canadian citizen has been charged with supporting terrorism, after he fought for IS in Syria and provided English narration for the jihadi group’s brutal execution videos.
Mohammed Khalifa was charged with conspiring to provide material support to IS resulting in death, the US Department of Justice announced on Saturday.
Khalifa was captured in 2019 by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-supported and predominantly Kurdish faction in Syria’s multi-front civil war. According to a Justice Department statement, he was “recently” handed over to the FBI, and has been held in Virginia awaiting charges since.
Born in Saudi Arabia, Khalifa was a citizen of Canada, and “had a normal life” there, according to a 2019 interview he gave to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Nevertheless, he abandoned this life in 2013 and traveled to Syria to take up arms alongside IS, which, at that point, was rapidly expanding in the region.
Khalifa swore an oath of allegiance to the group’s now-deceased leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and, the following year, began work in the terror group’s media bureau. According to the Justice Department, Khalifa translated and narrated approximately 15 videos for the group, including two “exceedingly violent ISIS propaganda videos” featuring the execution of prisoners.
He is also accused of narrating several other propaganda videos, in which he allegedly encouraged would-be recruits unable to leave their home countries to carry out attacks in the West.
Immediately before his capture by SDF fighters in 2019, Khalifa allegedly took up arms beside his comrades, “throwing grenades against opposing combatants,” according to the Justice Department.
“As alleged, Mohammed Khalifa not only fought for ISIS on the battlefield in Syria, but he was also the voice behind the violence,” said Raj Parekh, Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Through his alleged leading role in translating, narrating, and advancing ISIS’s online propaganda, Khalifa promoted the terrorist group, furthered its worldwide recruitment efforts, and expanded the reach of videos that glorified the horrific murders and indiscriminate cruelty of ISIS.”
If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars in a federal prison.
Khalifa is not the only English-speaking recruit who lent his voice to IS’ shockingly brutal videos. Many of the group’s most infamous execution videos were narrated by Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-British militant best known as ‘Jihadi John’. Emwazi is believed to have been the masked figure responsible for a string of beheadings in 2014 and 2015, including the murders of American journalist James Foley and British aid worker Alan Henning. Emwazi was killed in a drone strike in late 2015, with IS confirming his death early the following year.
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