"After a wave of plots and attacks in Europe and the stunning New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, experts think terrorists are growing stronger and more sophisticated.

On this week’s episode of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,” Hans-Jakob Schindler said the groups are not hiding their ambition."

“The man who plowed through Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day with an ISIS flag on his truck was closely following the terror group’s playbook, promoted in English language magazines and online content circulated globally in an attempt to inspire lone-wolf attacks. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the Army veteran from Texas whose attack killed 14 and injured dozens more, checked almost every box of ISIS’s guidance for carrying out such an attack, based on a review of ISIS literature and interviews with experts… “Even before reviewing my notes, the details of the attack struck me as being particularly reminiscent of ISIS advice,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, researcher at the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit. ISIS and its affiliates have called for attacks similar to Jabbar’s for years, and ISIS followers have carried out or attempted several attacks on New Year’s celebrations before, according to the Counter Extremism Project. Several plots have been foiled in the U.S. and Europe in recent years.”

"The newsletter bulletin, obtained by the Counter Extremism Project, a terrorism watchdog, appeared to mock the American news media for “holding its breath” while waiting for ISIS to claim the attack...

“Unlike other attacks in the past, where ISIS has released a claim of responsibility for the attack, in this case, the group has stated that the attacker was inspired by ISIS propaganda messaging but does not claim they had a direct relationship,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher at the Counter Extremism Project.

The ISIS statement’s emphasis on the importance of people who translate and share ISIS content, Mr. Fisher-Birch said, “speaks to the efforts to continue the spread of the group’s official messaging and unofficial propaganda efforts made by supporters.”"

"A translation of ISIS’s Al-Naba newsletter provided by the Counter Extremism Project shows ISIS wrote a wide-ranging piece on the attack. The piece said Jabbar had been influenced by its discourse and propaganda, noting the costs of the attack were negligible.

...

"ISIS's al-Naba statement confirmed that the terrorist group's propaganda helped inspire the New Year's Eve attacker and noted the significance of his claim of allegiance to the organization,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, researcher at the Counter Extremism Project.

Fisher-Birch added that ISIS emphasized its propaganda network and encouraged other attacks on public events, part of a pattern of content encouraging lone-actor attacks."

"Terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project also sees a growing danger from IS terror for Europe and Germany . However, a special fund alone will not provide a solution, Schindler warned in an interview with the Münchner Merkur . "Money alone is not a solution. The legal basis must first be created, only then can the money from a special fund be used effectively," said Schindler.”"

“For a few years, the Islamic State seemed to be nothing more than a ghost from the past. A fallacy, because it is now clear that the terrorist organization never really disappeared and is once again highly active. Terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler from the Counter Extremism Project warns of a new danger of attacks in Europe and Germany. "What is new is that the terrorists are again daring to use more resources for elaborate attacks like the one in Moscow," said Schindler in an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA . At the end of March 2024, armed men carried out an attack on a concert hall in the Russian capital, leaving more than 140 people dead and hundreds injured.”

"“That would create some kind of uproar within the community of supporters and sympathisers of IS,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter-Extremism Project (CEP) think tank.

In theory, the caliph has to be an Arab from a tribe linked to the prophet. The supreme leader of a group so concerned with its ideological foundations “cannot be just any Somali with an orange beard,” Schindler told AFP."

“There’s no question it was IS inspired,” said Edmund Fitton-Brown, senior adviser to the Counter Extremism Project. “So why would they not grab it gratefully? It seems an unmissable opportunity to claim a direct hit on the ‘biggest Satan.’"

CEP Senior Advisor Edmund Fitton-Brown quoted: "Individuals susceptible to recruitment “might have lost their jobs, might have had a mental health crisis, might have just concluded that however hard they’ve tried, they never belong,” said Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British diplomat who led a UN team that monitors Islamic State and al Qaeda."