Recent social media posts by a number of well-known ISIS leaders led the FBI and DHS to issue a memo warning law enforcement and military personnel against potential personal attacks by Homegrown Violent Extremists (HVEs).
Entitled “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Its Supporters Encouraging Attacks Against Law Enforcement and Government Personnel,” the memo was sent to “ensure law enforcement and government personnel are aware that ISIL and its supporters continue to issue threats online.”
The memo was issued on October 11 and leaked to the Breitbart Texas on the heels of the two attacks in Canada that left two military personnel dead.
The mainstream media really picked up on the story after the hatchet-wielding man to attack four NYPD rookies on the city sidewalks. Since then, I’ve been gathering additional information — stuff which merits mention in this space.
Specific ISIS Instructions
The FBI/DHS memo pointed to online messages attributed to Abu Muhammad al-Adnani — the alleged spokesman for ISIS — in which he advocated attacks on American military and law enforcement personnel, as well as government officials and media figures.
There have also been social media posts have told the lone extremists to discover home address of a cop and either stab or potentially behead them. Another style of attack ISIS has recommended is to set fire to an officer’s house or vehicle.
Another instruction was chillingly alike the deadly ambush of Pennsylvania state police troopers in which Corporal Bryon Dickson was fatally shot outside his Blooming Grove barracks.
“Monitor the officer’s activities and identify his shift change. Watch for the officer to leave in civilian clothing, get him alone on the street or a deserted location and kill him.”
Yet another instruction is equally chilling. “If a brother knows that he is under surveillance by LE, he should evacuate his family then lure the officer into your home and blow it up.”
Other ISIS plots include using the placement of suspicious objects to lure officers into a kill zone and using radio-controlled cars to deliver explosives beneath squad cars stopped in the streets.
Maintain 360, Condition Yellow
Recall that ISIS released an online video in September stating, “If you can kill a disbelieving American or European, especially the spiteful and filthy French, or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever, then rely upon Allah and kill him in any manner or way however it may be.”
Less than a week later, a Muslim convert beheaded a female coworker at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Oklahoma. Less than a month later, the two tragic attacks in Canada occurred.
Look folks, you know all of this stuff already. The HVE threat is real. It is insidious and very difficult to detect before the deployment phase.
Today’s tip is just a reminder that given the increased ISIS “chatter” out there in some of the darker corners of the Internet, we should all raise our situational awareness just a little bit more. I’ve embedded the entire leaked memo below for your review.
Stay safe out there my friends.
