#ISIS in #Iraq#Syria "remains resilient" per latest @UN report, calling it "a cause of concern for Member States"
"#ISIL operations have increased in the core conflict zone of Iraq & the Syrian Arab Republic" per the report
#ISIS "#ISIL maintains the ambition to control territory & populations but, for the moment, represents an entrenched rural insurgency without the reach to threaten urban areas on a sustained basis" per @UN report
.@UN report says there may be an #ISIS power vacuum
"The new leader of #ISIL, Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla, has not visibly asserted himself in communications, which may prove to be a limiting factor in his influence and appeal, & perhaps that of the group"
"The delegation of authority from the [#ISIS] core to the remote provinces & the loosening of command & control within #ISIL are expected to continue & perhaps accelerate in present circumstances" per @UN report
.@UN report estimates #ISIS has more than 10,000 fighters in #Iraq & #Syria "with regular movement between the two, especially where #Anbar & #Ninawa Provinces border the Syrian Arab Republic"
ISIS "has established safe havens in the Hamrin mountain range of north-eastern Iraq"
#ISIS waging "war of attrition" in #Iraq, per @UN report "... targeting security forces & other communities, as well as members of its own community who are deemed to be collaborators"
#ISIS "has exploited security gaps caused by the pandemic and by political turbulence in #Iraq to relaunch a sustained rural insurgency, as well as sporadic operations in #Baghdad & other large cities" per @UN report
#ISIS utilizing political assassinations as parts of its #Iraq strategy, per @UN
"It also attacks businesses in territories it previously occupied...Attacks on farms and the burning of crops in fields have become increasingly common tactics"
In #Syria "the overall situation remains precarious" re #ISIS, with concern about prisons, displaced person camps
"A steady stream of #ISIL-affiliated women are reported to have escaped the camp into #Turkey with the aid of corrupt guards & smugglers" per @UN report
East of the #Euphrates River, #ISIS fighters "attacking energy, transport & communications facilities" per @UN report
West of the river, sleeper cells attack "power installations & oil facilities...military convoys & civilian traffic along the Dayr-al-Zawr Tadmur (Palmyra) Road"
#ISIS financial reserves at $100 million, per @UN-down from previous estimates of up to $300 million
"The group continues to raise funds deemed sufficient for its ongoing operations...kidnap for ransom,donations, some commercial activity&the extortion of individuals &businesses"
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NEW: US charges American TV presenter for Channel One #Russia & his wife in scheme to evade US sanctions
@TheJusticeDept unsealed the indictment vs 76yo Dimitri Simes & 55yo Anastasia Simes Thursday
They have a home in #Virginia but "remain at large...believed to be in Russia"
Dimitri & Anastasia Simes each charged w/1 count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 1 count of violating the IEEPA & 1 count of conspiracy to commit int'l money laundering
Per @TheJusticeDept, it's a maximum of 20 years per count
Dimitri Simes alleged to have violated sanctions by "serving as a presenter & producer of programming, & by receiving over $1 million, a personal car & driver, a stipend for an apartment in #Moscow... a team of 10 employees from Channel One Russia" per DOJ
Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash & Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi were charged in June 2008 & then again in May 2012 for their alleged roles in planning the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on #NewYork's World Trade Center & the Pentagon
JUST IN: US issues new National Counterintelligence Strategy
Updated strategy, signed by @POTUS Thursday, based on 3 pillars, per @NCSCgov:
-outmaneuver/constrain foreign intelligence entities
-protect US strategic advantages
-invest in the future
"Foreign intelligence and security services & their proxies persist in seeking to acquire our most
sensitive information, technology, and intellectual property" per @POTUS in the just-released strategy
"Non-state actors are following suit"
Foreign intelligence entities "also seeking to take advantage of the proliferation of commercially available tools to conduct surveillance; collect vast amounts of previously unavailable personal data;
& position themselves to disrupt our infrastructure..." per @POTUS
Some nuggets from @FBI Dir. Christopher Wray's appearance Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies...
#ArtificialIntelligence & #Election2024-"We are, of course, seeing & I've been warning about this for some time, the role of AI to enhance efforts that our foreign adversaries have already been engaged in" per @FBI's Wray
"It's not that it [#ArtificialIntelligence] changes fundamentally what it is our adversaries want to do...it allows them to amplify to do it, to make it more sophisticated, more deceptive, cheaper, faster" per @FBI's Wray