Universities are on the frontline in the UK’s battle against Islamic extremism July 21, 2015 Mohammed Emwazi, Michael Adebolajo, Seifeddine Rezgui – by all accounts quiet, unassuming individuals until they became ISIL’s celebrity executioner, Lee Rigby’s murderer, and author of the Tunisian massacre respectively. Insofar as any common thread binds this grim trio and all too many other recent terrorists, it is not poverty, deprivation or social isolation, but their [...]
David Cameron sets out five-year plan to fight Islamic extremism in UK July 19, 2015 The Prime Minister will today call on Britain to fight the “subversive” doctrine of Islamist extremism and its “sick worldview”. In a keynote speech in Birmingham today, the Prime Minister will set out the principles he will adopt over the next five years to defeat extremism. Addressing the “struggle of our generation”, he [...]
David Cameron: “I want Britain to do more” fighting Isis in Syria and Iraq, PM tells NBC’s Meet the Press July 19, 2015 David Cameron has said he wants Britain to do more to help fight Isis in the Middle East and is committed to working with the US to destroy the caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Speaking to NBC News, the Prime Minister said there were discussions taking place in parliament about what more could be done. [...]
HSBC fires Birmingham staff after filming video of mock-Islamic State execution July 7, 2015 HSBC has sacked several employees who made a video in which they pretended to be Islamic State militants beheading a hostage. The video, which was posted online, shows one man dressed in an orange jumpsuit surrounded by five other men dressed in black, one of whom was holding a fake knife. One man is [...]
Despite Obama’s silver tongue, the future of Iraq is looking pretty bleak after fall of Ramadi to Islamic State May 25, 2015 No Mr President, losing Ramadi is not a “tactical setback” – it is a catastrophe. Having also got by on my wits in graduate school, I always had a sense that I understood the elusive failings of Barack Obama far too well. When he obfuscates, he does so elegantly, often speaking in half-truths, illustrating his [...]
New airline laws will stop possible terrorists leaving the UK to join Islamic State March 8, 2015 Airline laws aimed at stopping would-be terrorists from leaving the UK will go before parliament next week. The new legislation, devised by home secretary Theresa May, would target flights carrying passengers to Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State and other radical groups are based. According to The Sunday Times, airlines would be required to [...]
Islamic State earnings call: The terrorist group’s finances point to a difficult year ahead February 24, 2015 The first quarter of every year brings a blizzard of financial reporting, as companies reflect on the past year’s achievements and (most often) make promises of greater things to come. Governments are no different, particularly in an election year. This quarter has seen record earnings from Apple, tax cut promises from the Tories, and anti-austerity [...]
Islamic State’s dominance must be halted – the West needs to act now February 8, 2015 There are no words to describe what flight lieutenant Moaz al-Kasasbeh – the Jordanian pilot captured by Isis in Syria in December 2014 – endured at the hands of his captors. But perhaps we should remember what writer Edgar Allen Poe once said: that “there are moments when, even to the sober eye of reason, [...]
The UK is creating a social media army January 31, 2015 The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. The Simpsons missed one important point: the wars of the future [...]
US Centcom Twitter account hacked by pro-Islamic State “CyberCaliphate” January 12, 2015 The US Central Command (Centcom), perhaps the most powerful unified command in the US military armoury, has had its Twitter account hacked and made to read “I love you isis.” The Twitter account, which is run by Centcom, was hacked by a group calling themselves the “CyberCaliphate.” The hackers replaced Centcom’s profile picture with an [...]