“... 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."

"The villa was bought by the American NGO Counter Extremism Project (CEP), which works worldwide against all forms of extremism, hatred and racism. "We are definitely not going to turn it into a museum," says CEP director Hans-Jakob Schindler. The organization has coined the building House 88, which is to serve as an 'experience space'. The house number 88 of Höss' home refers to the eighth letter of the alphabet and is a code for Heil Hitler. The world-famous architect Daniel Libeskind, son of Holocaust survivors and architect of the Holocaust Namenmonument in Amsterdam, is going to completely renovate the villa. The CEP has also bought the adjacent building, which will house a think tank."

Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director of the international Counter Extremism Project, tells the Tagesspiegel that the renewed escalation was unfortunately foreseeable. “The basic problem remains that no decision has been made as to who should ultimately control the Gaza Strip,” he tells the Tagesspiegel. “A withdrawal of the Israeli military at this point in time would therefore have meant that Hamas would have automatically taken control again.”

CEP Senior Advisor Ian Acheson writes: "A new report entitled “The enduring role of ideology in terrorism and radicalisation” is a meticulously researched and timely riposte to Keir Starmer’s view that we are now facing a “changed” terrorist threat in the aftermath of the Southport attack. What the author of the report, Robin Simcox, found instead was the enduring power of ideas and beliefs."

CEP Analyst Gregory Waters writes: "Shortly after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) drove Bashar al-Assad out of Syria last year, the group pledged to respect the rights of minorities. Yet, since HTS took control over much of the country, some across the international community have raised fears that Syria’s new leaders—with their jihadist backgrounds—might erode minority rights or exclude these communities from the political transition process. These fears have been newly flamed by the massive, targeted violence against Alawites on Syria’s coast during the second week of March. Nevertheless, there have been some signs for optimism about the inclusion of at least some minorities in post-Assad Syria."

CEP Non-resident Fellow: "For more than three decades, Oman has served in the role of mediator for the resolution of disputes in Yemen. This began after north and south Yemen unified in the early 1990s, and then Yemen and Oman officially demarcated the contested border between the two countries. Today, however, there is good reason to question whether Oman is in fact a neutral arbiter and whether its current role in the Yemeni arena promotes regional stability."

Commenting on the EU-summit deliberations on Gaza, British Middle East expert Edmund Fitton-Brown said: "That element of balance [deploring also Hamas] rescues the exercise from being completely counterproductive". The original statement on Hamas' 7 October attack said the EU "condemns [it] in the strongest possible terms", in what Fitton-Brown said was "a 10 out of 10 condemnation" in terms of diplomatic vocabulary. "I think they [EU leaders] have it about right on Syria - balancing criticism with encouragement and potential incentives," the British ex-diplomat, Fitton-Brown, said. But reading the draft summit communiqué on al-Sharaa more closely (which "strongly condemns" the sectarian violence), Fitton-Brown added: "I'm not sure the word 'strongly' is necessary."

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: Israel has restarted strikes on Gaza, the fiercest since a now-expired ceasefire came into effect in January. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the recent airstrikes on Gaza are, "only the beginning." Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says the strikes killed over 400 Palestinians, including many children. The IDF has ordered evacuations in eastern Gaza, while Israelis have called for protests. In Tel Aviv, the families of hostages joined thousands protesting against the Israeli strikes on Gaza - accusing Netanyahu's government of sacrificing their relatives.

"One of them, Dr Hans-Jakob Schindler (Senior Director of the Counter Extremism Project), addressed the situation of Samidoun in Germany, a country where administrative ban measures were taken in 2023."