@CJTFOIR says ISIS has been relaying mostly on small arms, IEDs & mortars for attacks in #Iraq#Syria but that attacks in Diyala, Salah ad Din were “more audacious" & showed "extensive pre-operational planning & preparation"
US-backed forces warned of a better prepared, more brazen #ISIS earlier this year, one source telling @VOANews that the terror groups fighters "are spread like cancer" voanews.com/middle-east/da…
Like, the US-backed forces, US counterterrorism officials assessed #ISIS had "made incremental, localized improvements to their operating capacity in primarily eastern #Syria..." voanews.com/middle-east/re…
But per the @DoD_IG, @DefenseIntel says #ISIS is only capable of operating in small cells and "does not have the capability it once had to “target Sunni tribes writ-large"
@US_EUCOM tells @DoD_IG Turkey continues to be a “major facilitation hub” for ISIS even as Turkish forces bolstered security along the country's border w/#Syria#Iraq
#Turkey's action "impacted #ISIS’s ability to smuggle fighters, funds and supplies" but the challenge of securing the borders "likely ensures" ISIS will continue to move fighters, followers, families back & forth, per @US_EUCOM
.@CJTFOIR blames increase of #ISIS attacks during Ramadan on an "“opportunistic exploitation of a confluence of factors," including #COVID19, arguing there was no notable increase in [ISIS] capability" per latest @DoD_IG report
.@DefenseIntel estimates #ISIS still has $50 million to $300 million in reserves... In contrast, latest @UN report-based on member state intelligence-estimates ISIS's cash reserves are dwindling, though still substantial
Note on #ISIS attacks in #Diyala - @DefenseIntel assesses "ISIS was able to maintain a high rate of attacks in Diyala province this quarter due to US force consolidation, security forces’ preoccupation w/managing w/COVID19, and other security-related crises" per @DoD_IG
Per @DoD_IG, #Iran-linked #PMF "have outsized influence relative to the ISF [#Iraq|i Security Forces]" in #Diyala, where #ISIS has carried out a high proportion of its attacks
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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