“... The people who have been in prison so far cannot therefore be described as prisoners or detainees. "They are hostages of the regime," says Schindler, who now heads the Counter Extremism Project, a think tank that focuses on terrorism. Ultimately, the Iranians are not interested in giving the German detainees a fair trial, but rather in convicting them on flimsy evidence in order to use them as political bargaining chips. This was also the case with Helmut Hofer. "The Iranians' idea was to exchange him for the terrorist Darabi and his accomplices," says Schindler. Kazem Darabi was the mastermind behind the Mykonos attack in Berlin, in which four Kurdish politicians in exile were killed. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Germany did not allow itself to be blackmailed by Iran.” 

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "Shawcross has now disagreed publicly. The Home Office had, he said, ‘ignored’ key recommendations to beef up Prevent’s performance and the glass remained only ‘half full.’ I have some experience of bureaucratic sleight of hand at work when it comes to reviews and recommendations. When I was tasked by the Government to look into the Prison Service’s colossal and unforgivable failures in containing Islamist extremism a few years ago, I made 69 recommendations which were mysteriously repurposed into 11 without my consent; eight were finally accepted."

CEP Senior Advisor Edmund Fitton-Brown was interviewed on BBC News World Service's Newsday, discussed the Houthis in Yemen and a new report from CEP that discusses the group's security and intelligence service, as well as its humanitarian aid diversion. 

"The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) on Thursday published a report delving into the unique brutality of the Yemen Houthi intelligence services.

The report, which The Jerusalem Post exclusively obtaining a copy of the report prior to its publication, names some of the top Yemen Houthis intelligence officials which could also lead to new sanctions against some of those individuals."

"Dr Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director at the Counter Extremism Project, said: “To fully assess the emerging terrorism challenges emanating from the fall of the Assad regime and the rise of HTS, it is important to understand that from a global Islamist terrorist perspective, these events did not happen in a vacuum. “Islamist terrorist sympathizers think that their forces were able to drive American and international forces out of Afghanistan in 2021; expel the French, the United Nations, and American and European forces out of West Africa since 2022; and now defeat Russia and Iran in Syria.”"

 

“The threats posed by the IS terror network have increased in recent years. The terror network has expanded its branches, gained more fighters and increased financial income. IS has expanded in Syria, Iraq and West Africa. The attack in Moscow in March, the attempted attacks on Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna and the attack in Solingen show the increased activities of IS. How can attacks be prevented in the future? What role does the Internet play in this? Terrorism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler says: "Online, all terrorists are alone." Hans-Jakob Schindler explains the current challenges in the fight against international terrorism on SWR1 Leute. Hans-Jakob Schindler heads the Counter Extremism Project, an international organization that aims to counteract the threat posed by extremist ideologies.”

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler referenced: "Parts of the HTS alliance in Syria are clearly extremist and Islamist, even if their leader appears moderate, explains extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler.”"

"Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, a diplomat with years of experience in Middle East affairs, former coordinator at the UN Security Council and now director of the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit organization with offices in New York and Berlin, tells iMEdD that it will take time to prove that the shift away from Islamic extremism advocated by HTS is sincere. “The group’s history is really also the current leader’s history,” says Dr. Schindler, highlighting al-Jolani’s role in the creation and development of the organization.”"

""Internally, the Iranian regime is weakened. However, there is currently no sign of disruption," Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director at the Berlin-based think tank Counter Extremism Project, told our editorial team. According to Schindler, the revolutionary potential in Iran and Syria is not comparable. "The resistance in Iran has energy, but no vision for the country's future. And it has neither organization nor structure. The opposition in Syria had all of these things," the expert emphasizes.”"