MARCH 2023

FAKE IDS AND TERRORISM
2022-2023 STORIES IN THE NEWSUK SMUGGLING GANG USING FAKE IDS TO
BRING IN MIDDLE EASTERN MIGRANTS
A smuggling ring based in the United
Kingdom used fraudulent documents
to illegally bring people from Syria, thePalestinian territories, and other places
into Europe. So far, seven members of
this British-Palestinian network havebeen jailed, including a mom anddaughter team. They succeeded insmuggling at least 14 migrants into theUK “had access to around 240 European
ID cards and passports.” Most of thedocuments were reportedly French, butsome were British, Italian, Portuguese,and Spanish. They were also reportedly
moving migrants across Europe,
including through France and theNetherlands. They were caught after
one of the gang members, Firdos
Ahmed, was stopped

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at a port in Essex while carrying a French
identification document with someone
else’s name on it. The ensuing search byauthorities revealed a collection offraudulent documents as well as
communications with other gangmembers. UK Immigration Minister
Robert Jenrick said, “today’s sentencesshow that we will stop at nothing totackle the despicable smuggling gangs
and ensure they are brought to justice.
Thanks to our specialist teams who work
tirelessly to dismantle theseinternational criminal networks, thesmugglers are now behind bars.” We
hope they mean it. Syria in particular is ahotbed for ISIS and other terroristgroups. We don’t know why these
individuals were hiding their identities
and moving across borders, but we doknow that a terrorist armed with fake
identity documents is a dangerous
threat to Europe and the U.S., as the 9/11
hijackers proved.

ISIS OPERATIVES GETTING AFGHAN PASSPORTS IN TALIBAN RULED COUNTRY
As the terrorist group ISIS becomes more active in Afghanistan following the U.S.
withdrawal, experts are warning that dangerous ISIS fighters are obtaining
official Afghan passports under new identities. The Counter Extremism Project(CEP) is citing reports from officials from countries neighboring Afghanistanthat the Taliban has been issuing these passports to known terrorists since its
takeover last year. This will make it far more difficult for American and other
Western counter terrorism authorities to identify and track operatives leaving
the Taliban-ruled nation. “This will, of course, complicate the identification ofpotential foreign terrorists leaving Afghanistan as these will likely travel withoriginal Afghan passports and potentially changed identities,” the CEP said.
The British envoy to the United Nations also warned that they are seeing a sharp
rise in the number of ISIS attacks and tracking a greatly expanding nationalfootprint. “Once limited to a few provinces and Kabul, [ISIS-K] now seems to bepresent in nearly all provinces and is increasingly active.”

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FBI CATCHES MAN IN WASHINGTONATTEMPTING TO JOIN ISISA Seattle man was sentenced to fouryears for attempting to join an IslamicState affiliated group following what
the U.S. Department of Justice called a“lengthy investigation.” Elvin Hunter
Bgorn Williams reportedly told his
family members he was joining ISIS in2020 and then proceeded to act on it.
He posted a video of himself on social media swearing his allegiance to theinternational terrorist organization and “in May 2021, Williams obtained a passport andpawned a laptop computer to raise funds for his travel,” according to DOJ. “In early May
2021, Williams booked an airline ticket from Seattle to Amsterdam and on to Egypt to join
ISIS. On Friday, May 28, 2021, he went to Sea-Tac Airport to catch the first leg of hisinternational flight. Williams was arrested at the departure gate. Mr. Williams persisted
in his plans to join a terrorist organization and commit acts of violence, despite
intervention from his family, his school, members of his mosque, and from the FBI,” U.S.
Attorney Nick Brown said in a news release. “Indeed, he repeatedly stated his intention tocommit an act of terror here at home if he could not travel overseas. Mr. Williams
continues to pose a risk to the community. It will be critically important that he beclosely supervised after he is released from prison.” According to the DOJ press release,
Williams “sought martyrdom, had ‘no problem with killing,’ and planned to be engaged
in beheading people.”

MICHIGAN MAN CHARGED WITH
ATTEMPTING TO SUPPORT ISIS
A man in Michigan has been arrested andcharged with attempting to provide
material support to ISIS “in the form ofpersonnel (including himself) andservices.” Aws Mohammed Naser wasindicted in the Eastern District of Michigan
for his alleged attempts to support ISIS
from 2011 to 2017, “knowing that ISIS was adesignated terrorist organization, and that
ISIS engages in terrorism.” Naser is also
accused of owning a “destructive device”
despite being a felon, according to theDepartment of Justice, although it did not
specify what, exactly, that destructive
device is.

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FRONTEX OPERATION YIELDS 118
SUSPECTED TERRORISTS IN EUROPE
The European Border and Coast Guard
Agency, Frontex, and the Spanish National
Police just wrapped up Operation Minerva
to bolster border security and crack down
on illicit drugs and stolen property. This
year, officers from 23 different European
countries identified 118 people suspectedof being affiliated with terrorist
organizations. They also seized 11 stolencars and 160 kg of hashish. The Frontex
support included officers checking
vehicles, people, and passports, together
with fraudulent document and stolenvehicle experts. Frontex also provided dog
handler teams to help detect hiddenpeople, drugs and other illegal goods. OneFrontex officer said, “we checked two tothree million people in this summer
operation and had several drug seizures ordetections of stolen cars.”

MAN WHO STABBED SALMAN
RUSHDIE USED FAKE ID IN THE NAMEOF TERRORISTS
Hadi Matar, accused of stabbing author
Salman Rushdie 15 times, allegedly held afake driver’s license (left, UANI) brandishing
the name of “Hassan Mughniyah,” a likelymerge of two terrorist leaders who inspired
the attacker. Hassan Nasrallah is the leaderof Hezbollah, a designated terrorist

organization funded by Iran and dedicated to destroying the U.S. and Israel, and ImadMughniyeh is one of his most notorious commanders. Further, it has been learned that
Matar levied praise on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Rushdie has been an
announced enemy of Iran and many terrorist groups for his outspoken criticisms ofradical Islam. Rushdie’s agent said he is on a ventilator and unable to speak, addingthat the news was "not good" and the author will "likely lose one eye." We have been
warning in each one of these newsletters that, based on continued instruction fromterrorist organizations, terrorists continue to seek fake IDs to evade law enforcement
detection, move money, and hide their past crimes. We hate it when we’re proved right.

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