Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 09 February 2024

These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters.

CISA Release Violence Prevention Through De-Escalation Video

Yesterday, CISA released of a new resource titled, Violence Prevention through De-escalation Video, to help critical infrastructure and public gathering location stakeholders identify concerning behaviors and mitigate the risk of an incident of targeted violence.

Analyst Comments:

As we anticipate continued protest activity over a number of social and political topics this year, these resources can be valuable to both security and non-security personnel on conflict resolution strategies.

Islamic State, Al-Qaeda Call for Violence Against Jewish Communities Following October 7 Attack

An unclassified National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) Operations Center Alert released on 8 February which details a recent video release from AQAP titled “Jihad for the Sake of Allah is the Solution”. The 9 minute 20 second video featured Shaykh Kubaib al-Sudani. The narrator of the video and Sudani called for lone actor attacks against Jews, Christians, and unbelievers – especially in the West – to promote jihad and free Palestine, according to social media.

Analyst Comments:

The video featured several well-known lone actor attacks, including the 2009 Fort Hood Shooting by U.S. Army Major Nidal Hassan who was described as a “good model and example” for lone actors. These pieces of propaganda are of course not new, but should serve as reminders that the intent to conduct attacks remains, and that houses of worship are attractive topics. If additional information related to this most recent video is released, those details will be shared in the FB-ISAO Slack Workspace, which we encourage all members to be active participants in.

LA LIÑA LOOKS LIKELY

The current El Niño is now one of the strongest on record, new data shows, catapulting it into rare “super El Niño” territory, but forecasters believe that La Niña is likely to develop in the coming months. A La Niña watch is now in effect, meaning conditions are favorable for a La Niña to form within the next six months, according to a forecast released by the CPC Thursday.

Analyst Comments:

La Niñas often produce the opposite weather patterns as El Niño, including a more active Atlantic hurricane season. La Niña conditions were in place for a portion of the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record: 2020.